ABI!!!! BH says HALP!!

[Preacher]

Here is the problem......bought a new camera...apparently not much better than the one I had....I took this & converted it to B/W just playing around. Tha camera is a 3.1 Megapixel...which I know ain't great...but outside it takes great, clear pics. Is there a FREE enhancement program i can use to fix my indoor shots. I try all kinds of different lighting..no good,..yet anyways...and BH is tired of posing for me!!!! Don't blame her....but I swear I hear her snickering in her nest!!!

Ok..tryin to resize pic...

[Preacher]

Ran outta time...sorry....

[4skwerlz]

What kind of lighting are you using? Is there a flash?

[Preacher]

Yep...thats one reason I got it..has a flash...but it makes the pics WAY too brite...or is that easier to fix??

[skwerls_R_soft]

HI BH! You is sooo qute:wave123 .

I don't see Abi online so maybe I can offer some advice right now...

First, congrats on the new camera!

There is a free program you can use to do almost anything to your pictures. It's called "The Gimp" (http://www.gimp.org/) and it is full of features and FREE. I use it on my PC at work because they are too cheap to buy Photoshop (which I use at home). I'm happy with it.

As for the picture you posted, I don't think there is much you can do to it to make it look much better.A 3 megapixel should make images that look pretty good. Here are a few tips you can try to make better quality images.

1. Make sure your camera is set to take the highest quality JPEG images possible. While TIFF is very high quality, if you choose that format then it can slow the camera down quite a bit. There is usually a setting that you can choose the image quality in the camera menu.

2. Indoors, make sure you have as much light as possible.

3. Shoot in Auto mode and avoid in-camera editing (like special effects or color changes)

4. Don't use the digital or super-zoom feature. You can "blow up" images in Gimp after you upload them. Basically digital zoom does this inside the camera resulting in a poor quality image. (Optical zoom is different and gives a better quality image)

5. Pre-focus ! It takes a bit of time to learn, but once you've got the hang of it you'll get better images. Pre-focusing on a digital camera is essential to getting shots in-focus all of the time. Shutter-lag (the annoying delay between when you press the trigger and when the camera snaps the photo), camera movement, and low-light are 3 usual causes for images to be out-of-focus. To pre-focus you will point the camera toward the object you are trying to focus on. Press the trigger button only a bit...halfway...and hold...until you hear and see the camera focusing. Keep holding it in halfway....when the object (BH!) you want to shoot is in focus continue pressing the trigger all the way in to snap the shot.

Hopefully Abi and some others will have some other good advice for you.

[Preacher]

Thanks....
I used an older version of MS Picture It to make this copy.
The camera I bought to mostly use outside on some new work I hope to get involved with...but the problem with the old one WAS no flash. But it is a Dollar Store type.
This one doesn't have a viewfinder..but a screen to watch...then it displays what you actually took right afterwards. No onboard enhancing features. I use the highest "quaility" settings it has but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Not inside. This pic was taken with a 100 watt overhead bulb...no flash, in the daytime. Might work better at night?

Guess I just need to keep saving my money....& upgrade again. But I never was intrested in GOOD pics,...till BH got me!!!

Oh...I'll download GIMP & see what it'll do!!!

[TexanSquirrel]

:jump Good luck!

[skwerls_R_soft]

See how the pics look at night with just inside lights on and your flash. I'd think that daytime shots inside with your lights on would be better.
The pics on your blog look pretty good. (Love the blog, BTW! Gonna bookmark that one.)

Your shots don;t have to be professional...just as long as we can see BH's cute little mug , they'll be fine:Love_Icon

[Preacher]

OK ....Thanks Again....I guess BH see's ALL the better pics on here....& has give me what fer!!!! She does have a good argument tho....she's MY baby!!!
That pic was took in daytime...with brite overhead lite, no flash. But I'll figure it out as I go....I have a 512 Mgb chip...so I can take some good video of her too...if I can figure this out.

[Abi]

OOps.. then again, I've not exactly been too good today... had a bit of a stressy day yesterday and didn't wake up today until noon..... :nono

Yep.. 'the gimp' is what I'd suggest too.. also, in low light conditions you probably would be better from using more lighting rather than a flash (I took a pic of my daughter last night - and it came out oh-so-wrong because of the lighting.... I did try.....)
The thing about using the flash is, unless it's pitch black, don't use it! Also, be aware of reflective objects in the line of sight through the viewfinder...

While M$ products are 'ok'.. they're not brilliant for editing... (fine for cropping, but then I am using Vista :crazy ) and I have always tended to stay away from that area.

I've recently installed 'camtasia 3' on my vista machine and on our xp machine and I find that to be a suitably good program... it's a bit of a bugger to set up, but I can't complain!!

I still have my old 1.3 camera - but I've retired it to purely webcam purposes as the battery case is kaput and yeah, after going through miles of sticky tape to keep it shut, well... ;)

Now, for webcam purposes, I'm kinda spoilt... I can either use camtasia or stoik (both progs are free...).
Depending on which prog I use depends on what sort of additional lighting I need for what I'm doing.... some progs are GRRRR and others are nice, good, and do what you want it to do...... :D

But sure, digital zoom is the absolute nono... optical zoom is the 'yay!' :D
Why? digital zoom goes into the image rather than focusing and tends to display a rather blocky and pixelated unsharp image.

Digital zoom, however, is the acceptable norm.. if there's digital zoom, then it's going to be good :D

But using a combination of more than one prog is the way to do things... sometimes, I'll use my webcam and view it through stoik and then I'll screengrab what I'm viewing through camtasia.. I know thats a freakish kind of set-up, but.. for some things, that tends to work better than just using one prog...

But sure.. the gimp is your friend for editing pics... and it's what I get others to get too... :D

Also, every so often, 'Project Dogwaffle' releases a free picture editing software prog.... worth a look at least :D

[Preacher]

Thanks Abi....I finally got a good copy of Gimp,(kept cuttin me off in download)...& it does work pretty good...but I guess it's mainly the camera & the lighting.
I have Camtasia 3 on the puter...just haven't had time to play with it...I tried to get some video of BH earlier...she knew what I was up to...just kept runnin circles around me!!! Course i don't like my pic being took either!!!. I'll work on these ideas & see if things get better!!!

[Abi]

If there's a way around stuff, I usually find it... and I'm using VISTA.....!
(which is the mummy and daddy of inducing swearing fits! :rotfl )

Seriously, however, I've started a facebook group on Vista and all that.. it was to help a friend out.. was only supposed to be a small little project and now my head hurts from putting almost 30 Vista related items on it.... and yeah, I am only scratching the surface there... only been using it for 104 days and I'm compiling a comprehensive 'how to' guide?!

If any of you are interested, it's a private hidden group, but... if there becomes a real need and you have a facebook account... I can link you to add you :D

Sure, Vista is a real NIGHTMARE at times, but hey, if there's a need, I can help y'all make an easy transition from whatever to Vista :D

[Preacher]

Think you got it rough..now my 2000 pro disk says my product code is invalid....now how do I get around that one?? Yes it is the right code for that disk. Had it since 2003.

[Preacher]

Oh Jeez....I keep coming here, HOPING I might learn something :tilt, but this is like reading a foreign language to me. :crazy :osnap

Heys!!!! BH heres!!!
Gammys Babys....yoos lernd mys langwege...soos yoos kin lern dis wun toos!!!!
Duns givs up yets!!!! eben preacher ans mees is still lernin!!! Git Babys toos halp ya!!!

Oh oh...yoos tink dis is hurd....preacher says tris uh...whut it is???.....oh..otay....h t m l....I's thout it stoodys fer Hes Tall..Mees Littles!!!

[Crazymunk]

fidget say...Me fort it stoody for Hungree tum Mums layt :thumbsup

[TexanSquirrel]

:Love_Icon :rotfl :Love_Icon

[Abi]

Ok, this is gonna beat some of you up silly... but here goes...

I have all the stuff for my radio show on my old XP computer. Its all contained on its second harddisk under the unassuming name of 'media'. Now, we have a wireless router here keeping us all connected... so, I start up the XP machine so I can access 'media' through the laptop on the network so I don't have to be back and forth all the time.... well.. there's a neat feature on Vista that allows you to 'stack' stuff... it's a bit like an automated sorting out application... a bit like when you come home from shopping and you know where everything goes in what cupboard and so on - Vista does something similar... :)
The thing is, I accidentally went and stacked all the music on 'media' and XP didn't like it - at all! This eventually made the XP computer restart - with a boot sector error - please insert boot disk.............
It's a jolly good thing I'm as smart as I am and I knew what the error was. It was a false boot error (sometimes, bar from it being slow, thats the only error I get from XP) and the only way to cure it was to do a hard shutdown.

The hard shutdown is when you press and hold the on/off button on the front of your computer....

I gave it a couple of minutes to settle down (a bit like trying to calm a frightened animal) and then started it back up again... it was like nothing had ever happened!!

Meanwhile, Vista is being a cocky smugface git in the corner... totally unaffected.... which told me that XP is great, but it isn't brilliant... same as Vista...

This morning, I got everything all set up for my show... and everything went perfectly and without one single technical hitch from my side... (the problems that happened were not of my control, but where I was broadcasting to)

So, lesson 1: don't stack anything in vista that runs on an xp machine.... ;)

Lost? I know what all that means :D

And no - there's no harm in having a wireless router and half a dozen different computers running... although, some of them will dislike something every now and then :)

As for technology? WIMAX!! it's the future of communication :D