Get $90 off Your Purchase of PowerShot SD980 IS 12.1 Megapixel Digital Camera

You see your pictures quicker.  Most digital cameras allow you to view your photos immediately.  There is no waiting and worrying about whether or not that “perfect shot” turned out.  You can take a picture of that new baby and immediately download it to your computer to share your good good news with friends and relatives. There’s no need for anxious grandparents to wait days or even weeks for a picture.

Most digital cameras have built in editing features.   Cropping and re-centering the picture to make it look its best can be done easily.  You no longer have to worry about a stray hand distracting from the main subject of your photo.  Sharpening can be done immediately to bring out the details.  Within minutes you can have a print-perfect photo.

You avoid the frustration of running out of film and having to find a store that is open in the middle of an important event or on vacation.  Depending on the size of your memory card and the setting of file size and quality, which you often control, you can store a couple hundred pictures on one tiny card.  That is the equivalent of nine or ten rolls of film.

These are just a few of the advantages of digital photography.  It is definitely worth considering as you search for your next new camera.

It helps when learning to use your new digital camera to also know what some of the more common terms mean.  Below you will find many of these common terms defined..

Automatic Mode — A setting that sets the focus, exposure and white-balance automatically.

Burst Mode or Continuous Capture Mode — a series of pictures taken one after another at quickly timed intervals with one press of the shutter button.

Compression — The process of compacting digital data, images and text by deleting selected information.

Photo Taken with PowerShot SD980 IS 12.1 Megapixel Digital Camera

Digital Zoom — Cropping and magnifying the center part of an image.

JPEG — The predominant format used for image compression in digital cameras

Lag Time — The pause between the time the shutter button is pressed and when the camera actually captures the image

LCD — (Liquid-Crystal Display) is a small screen on a digital camera for viewing images.
Lens — A circular and transparent glass or plastic piece that has the function of collecting light and focusing it on the sensor to capture the image.

Megabyte — (MB) Measures 1024 Kilobytes, and refers to the amount of information in a file, or how much information can
be contained on a Memory Card, Hard Drive or Disk.

Pixels — Tiny units of color that make up digital pictures. Pixels also measure digital resolution. One million pixels
adds up to one mega-pixel.

RGB — Refers to Red, Green, Blue colors used on computers to create all other colors.

Resolution — Camera resolution describes the number of pixels used to create the image, which determines the amount of
detail a camera can capture. The more pixels a camera has, the more detail it can register and the larger the picture can be
printed.

Storage Card — The removable storage device which holds images taken with the camera, comparable to film, but much smaller. Also called a digital camera memory card…

Viewfinder — The optical “window” to look through to compose the scene.

White Balance — White balancing adjusts the camera to compensate for the type of light (daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, etc.,) or lighting conditions in the scene so it will look normal to the human eye.

The first and foremost, is to obtain a waterproofing housing for the camera, that is, the inexpensive small point and shoot camera. Why? Because under water SLR camera maybe more expensive than the camera with housing. Underwater cameras can fetch to around $150 and comes along with it some risks for you to take, hmmm, just like taking the bullets by your teeth. If you don’t want to be a risk taker why not settle for cheaper camera like the reliable Sony Powershot which is equipped with high end point and shoot and an underwater case to shield it.

Photo by by W J (Bill) Harrison

Indeed, this is a very practical yet efficient way whilst you save some of your precious and hard-earned money. Thus the good first step is to buy a camera that you can use housing for it and drop the idea of buying DSLR while you intend to take pictures under the sea, unless you have ample amount of money to shell out for the expensive underwater camera.

Taking pictures underwater may give you some challenges to hurdle and conquer:

First thing is avoid things under the water can pose any harm on you, like avoiding diving into the waters that is infested with sharks or deadly jellyfishes. Problems with lighting or even the lack of it also poses a major problem to you. To take pictures under water you are in dire need of light from the cameras flash or better perhaps from other source, to enable you to shoot for great photos

Whilst shooting near the surface you need to adjust your camera setting to a small ISO speed, as you get deeper at around 30 to 40 feet, keep an eye with the shutter speed. At this depth the bottom light will be low, and if you begin with shutter speeds of 1 / 30, 1 / 15, or lower, the pictures taken are blurred, which can be unfortunate since you can only know the outcome once you already have printed copies of your pictures. For this reason it is wise to purchase a point and shoot underwater camera that is equipped with a low-noise at high ISO, which must be low.

Photo by jayhem

If you encounter some problems with the color, blurriness or mist in your photos. No problem, since there is the Adobe Photoshop that permits you to make some corrections to the flaws in your taken photos right away to make them look really good. This is a great method as it is, but nothing beats the photos that is not unedited, you can do this by simply taking the best pictures to the best of your abilities at all times which is far more rewarding.

That’s what will  gave us soon a new twitter. In order not to become entangled in the news, we’ll talk about innovations in the order they appear in the official blog of the service.

Business Functions

In the end of March, the developers have activated the service under the name of Contributors. With the help of several users can write tweets on behalf of a single account. The work of this innovation could be a long time seen in the official account of service. Now this feature is enabled for all users and is free, at least for the time being.

Why “for the time being”? This function is the first in a set of similar corporate additions and it is possible that when their number is much larger pool of developers in charge package, as the result, we note that this innovation will be most interesting for various corporations, as well as for users who intend to lead a group microblogging.
Updated home page Announcement of the updated home page was a further 30 March, but the “full” power innovation has earned only a few days ago.

Page completely changed their usual appearance and became, in our opinion, more informative. Current trends show now in the form of scrolling text and near the top of the page. Added unit, which shows the accounts of celebrities, and slightly to the right is a dynamic block that displays the last tweets casual users.

The new design is perfectly suited for today’s Twitter, the meaning of which is reduced to a steady stream of news, opinions, thoughts, tips, and other, sometimes urgent, information.

Advanced Search

Many users find this innovation has been hidden, because As it SERPs. Now, thanks to new algorithm, the results of issuance, the user will see the 3 most popular tweets (their popularity is calculated quantity of re-tweets, so getting re-tweets is essential than ever). Other results, as before, sorted by date of their writing – from new to old.

The purpose of innovation, according to developers, to make searches more meaningful and relevant. As it is necessary to note the operational integration of the algorithm in the API service, enabling developers to third-party applications to include a new search feature in their programs.
Start advertising platform

This is probably the most important news, after updating the home page. Twitter has officially launched a way to monetize its service. And this, apparently, only the first step taken in this direction.

The first advertising feature called Promoted Tweets and, in terms of perception of information within the service is very simple and most convenient one available to date, types of advertising, and it’s going to make a decent competition to the Sponsored Tweets platform.. The result of the platform is to display advertisements tweets in the first lines of the SERP for certain search queries. This type of advertising is the best fit to the structure of Twitter and should not cause a specific criticism from users of service. Now a list of companies that cooperate with tweets is not too large, but there’s already a lot of major brands such as Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks and Virgin America. Undoubtedly, in future, will expand more than one dozen companies.

Also, in the official blog reports that Promoted Tweets will be actively explored and analyzed with a view to its further development. Depending on the effectiveness of this type of advertising, and reaction of users, the advertising function can be further disseminated. As an option – it is putting Twitter with advertising in the feed posts as in the web interface, and a twitter client.

Most interesting, in our view point, an innovation – an updated home page and the  start advertising platform. What do you think about these changes?

Since late 2007 however an increasing number of WordPress theme developers have been offering premium WordPress themes – themes which are offered for a fixed price. These premium WordPress themes are usually sold for between $50 to $250. Originally only a small number of talented and well-known WordPress theme designers created paid premium WordPress themes which were well designed, highly functional, top-quality themes that transformed a WordPress installation from a simple blog into a powerful content management system. However as the premium WordPress theme business concept spread, more and more WordPress theme designers have hopped on the bandwagon trying to cash on the new trend filling up their portfolio with premium (paid) wordpress themes. However with greater variety and numbers of paid premium WordPress themes also comes varying levels of quality. So what specifically makes a premium WordPress theme premium? Some characteristics that should set a premium wordpress theme apart from a free theme are listed below:

Quality and Unique Design
Premium WordPress themes should be just that – Premium. They should look better and be of a much higher quality and unique design than compared to those available for free.

Features
While all themes are different, in general premium WordPress themes should have more “Features” than their free counterparts. What that means depends on the theme in question. However some features may include: “Featured Posts” areas, Multiple layout options for the home page, drop down menus, multiple customs templates for pages, custom field options, print style sheets etc.

Customization Options and Flexibility
People want options, so Premium WordPress themes should be customizable. Buying a premium theme will set you apart from the crowd significantly, but since other people will still be using the same theme, premium themes should be able to be easily customized further, whether it be for the layout, colours, images, or all of the above.

Live Preview or Demo
There should be a live demo or preview of the theme so you can test it and check it out before buying. If there is no live preview or demo that should be a warning sign. You should ask why don’t they want you to test the theme first? All reputable premium theme sellers will have a live demo full of content for you to test. Explore the live demo thoroughly, testing all pages to see that the theme works properly and there are no errors or mistakes.

Full Support
If you’re buying a premium WordPress theme it should also come with a certain degree of support from the designer. The level of support can vary however and will range from personalized individual support from the designer, to the provision of forums or blog comment sections for asking questions and obtaining support from the designer and other people who have purchased the theme.

Supporting Documentation
Premium WordPress themes should come with an instruction manual or document. This should explain how to upload and install the theme and how to manage any of the options that are built into the theme.

Free Updates
Wordpress is continually being updated and improved and a premium WordPress theme developer should be offering you free updates of the theme when required.

Well Coded
There should be no coding errors, misspellings, X images, etc in a premium WordPress theme. The theme has cross browser compatible and been tested to work properly on all the major browsers, plus the theme should have clean and valid code and adhere to strict XHTML and CSS standards.

Guest post by Preecha Saisaard from www.free-templates-design.com and Kathleen Mulder from http://webhostingstar.us

By entering your email address, you’ll automatically be added to the newsletters from PrintPlace.com. (You can unsubscribe from this list at any time.) Once you have received your discount code, just place an order for business cards and use the code at checkout, that way you can get the business cards for the price of shipping only.

Click to avail of this offer

However, don’t limit yourself to the basic options, use the coupon code you’ll receive as a chance to try out some of their different stocks, coatings and finishes, such as 14pt Coated gloss two sides with High Gloss UV. Any options you choose are included in this FREE offer, including high gloss UV coating.

You can order now and upload your artwork whenever you’re ready, so enjoy this deal. This is a limited time offer, so don’t let it get away!

Also, if you need business cards design, please don’t go thinking you need to pay 100$+ for someone to do that. You can buy the one Rossi Business cards design created by the authors of toptut.com for only $3 dollars (yes, that is right), or chose any other design around that price at Graphicriver.

Catching lightning in a photo is difficult due to its unpredictability and trying to capture the split second on film. What we can do is let the lightning do the work for us. We do not need to catch every bolt of lightning, and using the proper techniques we will capture something beautifully unique. It just takes some practice and technical know how to get the results that you are looking for while taking lightning photographs.

By using a film at slow speed, or an ISO for digital cameras, long exposure time, and small aperture we can capture the lightning by using it as a source of light. You can set the exposure from many seconds to as little as 1 second; it all depends on the lightning and whether we are working in the dark or in the daylight.  The lighting conditions are still diminished during a storm in the daylight hours by at least 7 stops and sometimes more than sunny conditions.

The best thing is to have our spot all picked out before the storm happens. It can be any type of subject matter we desire… A good idea is to choose a spot before a storm so you already have plans on where to go and get set up. Finding the right spot to shoot is just as important as the subject you choose to shoot. Shooting lightning gives you a variety of choices and it is fun to try to shoot different subjects during a storm.

If you are setting up your camera outdoors it is best to use your tripod with something extra to help hold it in place in the instance there is high winds that we can’t control. You will want a cover for your camera that is also waterproof to protect it from the elements. You should employ the use of an air bulb release for the camera because there is no metal in the tubing; this will protect you in case of a lightning strike to the camera, you must always think of your own safety when setting up for this type of photo. Set your camera at f/16 and the (B) setting for the shutter. Set your lens to infinity or a focal point off in the distance. Now that the camera is set up you should take cover in a place where you plan on tripping the shutter to shoot your photos.

Camera: Sony DSLR-A200 Exposure: 10 sec (10) Aperture: f/4 Focal Length: 20 mm ISO Speed: 100 Exposure Bias: 0/10 EV. Photo by stevoarnold, Flickr

If you do not choose to set up outside you can use the assistance of a window-pod and attach it to your car window or even take the pictures from an indoor location. If you choose to take a picture from indoors, you will want to make sure all of your interior lights are off. If your taking the photo from inside your car, be sure to keep the windows up so the camera is protected at all times from the elements.

Taking the photo is merely keeping the shutter open long enough to catch a few bolts of lightning. To manage this the right way, we should be taking several shots because we can’t measure the exposure caused by lightning. This will easily take a full roll of film, but if you are in luck and have a digital camera you are ahead of the game. You will find that you have many great pictures and some awesome effects from the lightning. We can not finish a section about filming lightning without mentioning that it is very dangerous. There are thousands of volts in a single bolt that would make our electric companies green with envy. Even those that are electrocuted as a form of punishment do not receive the same voltage as 1 bolt of lightning.

You should always protect yourself when out in a storm and you should seek the shelter of a building or inside your vehicle. The task is to be sure you are grounded and not touching the ground yourself. The lightning is attracted to tall objects and it is not always safe to stand under a tree. You may want to take a great picture, but safety comes first.

A precursor to the eminent strike of lightning is if you suddenly feel the hair on your neck stand up on ends. Get away from that area immediately if you begin to feel this and you are outdoors. Always wear protective clothes like rubber boots, coat and hat, it is not a guarantee to your safety but it does help.  Always stay away from tall objects outdoors as they are a conduit to the electrical charge and you can be zapped just for being near the object, not to forget, you do not need a tree falling on top of you!

• Selecting a camera – with lightning photography it is recommended you use a digital camera to cut the cost of film, but any camera that has a bulb will do fine. The digital camera will save you money in the long run because you can expect to have many photos on a roll that you will see are not useable.
• Selecting the Lens - Usually the wide angle lens is a better choice when catching lightning. You can get much more sky into the photo and that offers a better chance of catching lightning. The lens choice depends on what you’re shooting so be prepared.
• Tripod - You should get a tripod that can stand up to the weather conditions. It is a good investment if you plan on doing this type of photography. It does not have to be the most expensive on the market, just a good tripod that can stand up to the conditions is enough.
• Noise reduction - If you are the owner of a Canon EOS 400D or the EOS 30D you should keep the noise reduction turned off. If you leave it on and you increased the exposure time, you will have to wait longer to take the next picture and that could mean a loss of great photo ops.
• Settings of ISO – You should set to the lowest speed. This will give you a clear picture and you are using the tripod anyhow.
• Timer and Mirror Lockup - You should enable the timer on your camera if you’re using the cable release. If you want to minimize movement you should enable your mirror lockup.
• RAW - Use this setting because the editing is much easier so you can develop your photo with different balances of white. Capturing the different balances of white can really change the look of your photos.
• Aperture - You should keep the aperture value between f/5.6 and f/8 this will allow you to capture more than one bolt at a time due to the longer exposure time of your camera. An aperture that is faster than f/5.6 may be over done and an aperture of f/11 or smaller might not get you the result you’re looking for.
• Exposure - If shooting during the daylight hours let the cameras inner light meter fix the right exposure, if at night use the tips to find the right exposure.
]]> http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/04/03/the-full-guide-on-capturing-lightning-on-camera/feed/ 0 http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/03/09/polished-professional-and-unique-wordpress-theme-for-business-blogs/ http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/03/09/polished-professional-and-unique-wordpress-theme-for-business-blogs/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:10:10 +0000 Lorelei http://loreleiwebdesign.com/?p=2479 New WordPress theme has been released today and I am sure you are going to fall in love with it. Polish up your blog with this silky-smooth design. Nick, the designer behind Elegant themes, said that with this  his aim was to create something simple, refined, and well, polished!

All of my recent themes have been page-based, so I thought it was time I release a more traditional blog template. I hope this dark and “interfacey” design will be a welcomed addition the the ElegantThemes collection.

For more information be sure to check out the Live Demo, as well as the Features Page in the gallery.



Perfect for portfolios as well as business websites and personal blogs.

Download Polished Theme

]]> http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/03/09/polished-professional-and-unique-wordpress-theme-for-business-blogs/feed/ 8 http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/28/12-hdr-professional-actions-for-photoshop-cs2/ http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/28/12-hdr-professional-actions-for-photoshop-cs2/#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:11:40 +0000 Lorelei http://loreleiwebdesign.com/?p=2387 12 Incredibly useful and handy HDR ready-to-use Photoshop actions for instantly improved photo effects. Fix dull, lifeless and dark photos in seconds! As you can see from the preview file, some actions give higher contrast HDR effect (designed for particularly dark photos), others add an artistic touch such as outline, noise here is a brief overview of what’s included in your download:



• Action 1 – Mild HDR effect, fix shadows and dark areas, enhances colors
• Action 2 – Classical, intense HDR effect
• Action 3 – Moderately mild HDR effect with sepia colors scheme.
• Action 4 – Very mild HDR effect, fixes shadows and unlit areas, adds artistic light noise.
• Action 5 – Very intense HDR with extreme colors enhancement, designed to fix extremely dark and colorless shots.
• Action 6 – High contrast B/W HDR with mild glow / blur effect
• Action 7 – Colorful HDR with semi-visible noise (less visible noice and more colors, compared to action 4)
• Action 8 – Highly artistic HDR with dark outline and vertical strokes.
• Action 9 – Highly artistic HDR with overall dark blue scheme and emphasis on light areas. Fixes shadows enhances colors.
• Action 10 – Vintage-HDR. Add stains and spots to your HDR effect, get artistic and very beautiful result.
• Action 11 – Intense HDR , and very visible glow / blur effect
• Action 12 – HDR + Noise + light sepia + even shadows, last action is once again classed as a more of an art-HDR, makes the tones even adds a vintage-style color

After you have successfully loaded the actions, just play around and enjoy! All the 12 actions are stored in 1 folder called “HDR pro”, click the arrow to collapse the menu with all the actions.

I am also enclosing 2 sets of examples, based on photos I took myself, together with the original images (unprocessed). Feel free to use them as a base or use them anywhere else, crediting me is You will notice that, just like any HDR photo effect, it works best for dark, dull and lifeless photos, particularly – landscapes, however, I tried them out also on portraits and other photos – in any way the result is incredibly impressive.

If you have any questions, please drop me a line.

Download Now!

]]> http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/28/12-hdr-professional-actions-for-photoshop-cs2/feed/ 3 http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/25/vibrant-metal-text-effect-with-glowing-radiation-circles/ http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/25/vibrant-metal-text-effect-with-glowing-radiation-circles/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:58:00 +0000 Lorelei http://loreleiwebdesign.com/?p=2365 This tutorial inspired by all the sci-fi movies where radiation glowing circles are pictured in great details; so we are going to make very vibrant, glossy and realistically curved text effect with extremely beautiful and original glow circles, that no other text effect has. We will be working with a lot of Contour settings, so this tutorial is for more advanced users.

So, let’s get started. Create a new canvas, we are using 600 x 370 pixels here.



Fill it with any background color and for best effect, fill it with background texture. Simply double click the background in Layers Panel, and Layer Style’s menu will pop up. Go to Pattern Overlay mode and fill with, preferably floral, pattern. Here we used Damask pattern which unfortunately isn’t available for a download by the author anymore, but you can get more free textures here.



When you are done, select the typing tool and type your word in the middle, with very big and gold letters. Should you decide to use a narrow or small font, the effect simple won’t be visible. We used the GEronto Bis font, 236 pt size, exactly as you see on the canvas below:



Now the magic will begin. Double click the layer with the letters, and start applying the layer styles as you see below. First, make a small shadow with Gaussian Contour.



Add inner shadow with dark gray hue (we used #4f4f4f) and for contour we available of another pre-installed curve called “Half Rounded”. If you are using Photoshop CS2 + version, you should find it among your default curves.





Add outer glow with a color that will complement your background, in our case we had blue damask texture as our background and chose the #3c447a blue hue as Outer Color.

For the Contour here, we used Ring – Double. This will also come pre-installed to your Photoshop. Please note that every setting in this tutorial makes use of different Contour curve, which makes our effect particular interesting and the effect stands out. This Double Ring is exactly what gives the nice radiation / explosion glowing rounds wrapping the text.







Inner glow with #ffffff white color, and once again Gaussian Contour.



Bevel and Emboss will give our text the depth it needs. Use the default Ring contour to get the best metallic / plastic look effect.



For contour, use the “Wow-sharp highlight” Contour element.



We also want to give more deep and extreme Satin effect but this time, since we found no contour that suited our needs, we created our own curve…



To get exactly the same results as we have here, please copy our mapping to your Contour Editor.





Finally add stroke to your text, with a lighter hue of blue that will complement your background. Please do not use white or black as these colors will look too contrasted with background.



This is what you have got so far:





white to transperant gradient

Finally, load a selection of for the upper part of the text . If you do not know how to do it, read on:

• Create a new layer on top of the text, and then hold down Ctrl and click on the layer in the layer’s panel, in order  to select it.
• Using the Gradient Tool Now that goes from #ffffff to transparency.
• draw a gradient from the beginning of the selection on top, down to it’s bottom.
• Using the Elliptical Tool, draw a selection from the middle of the text to the bottom, and press Delete, to leave just the little gradient on top of the letters.
• This will do the gradually-glossy topping effect.



Done! Hope you enjoyed the tutorial and please feel free to download the PSD file of this effect, the file is of 600*370 size, same as you see here.



]]> http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/25/vibrant-metal-text-effect-with-glowing-radiation-circles/feed/ 3 http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/22/design-a-3d-newspaper-cropped-text-effect/ http://loreleiwebdesign.com/2010/02/22/design-a-3d-newspaper-cropped-text-effect/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:08:35 +0000 Lorelei http://loreleiwebdesign.com/?p=2355 When the older generation were young, and needed to create a school design or anything that involved cropping letters, we often cropped them first from an old newsprint, before proceeding to work with a colored paper. So this is pretty much what I wanted to create here — a newspapers cropped draft!

Let’s begin with making a new canvas and fill it with any solid color, our choice was #2b362b:



To give it a bit of depth, while the background is still selected, go to Layer Styles (Layer >> Layer Style >> Gradient Overlay) and apply the following settings.. This will give a lighter spot in the middle of the canvas that normally gives nice depth.



Now, find online or scan any newspaper pager. We couldn’t find one big sheet so we combined ours from a several ads in the local newspaper. Place the newspaper on the canvas.



Using a huge Cooper Black font, type your word on top of the newspapers layer. If you are using a different font, however, be sure to work with BOLD letters because the whole effect is based on the boldness of the typography.



Now it’s a little bit tricky for those of you who are still beginners, so please pay attention..

1. While the typed letters are still selected, hold the CTRL key and press on the layer with the word “News” in the layers panel, this will load a selection around your letters.
2. Go to Selection >> Modify >> Expand, and expand the selection by about 3-4 pixels. If your font is too narrow, you might want to use a bigger number.
3. Press Shift + Ctrl + I, to reverse the selection.
4. Press Delete.

You are now left with 2 layers, cropped from newspapers letters and the typed letters layer, which you can now delete. (or hide, but you certainly not going to need it anymore!).

This is what you have left:



Using the Lasso Marquee Tool, crop each letter individually, and once selected, press Ctrl + T to start transforming. Align them in any fashion you want, but do not overdo this effect if you don’t want to end up with  a messed up canvas..

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