Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Thanks Craig and Kathy -

Craig, the first picture was taken with a simple Kodak DX4530. It`s a 5mp digital camera. I bought it on the cheap because it was an "open box value" at Circuit city. Very few manual controls, but it did take nice pictures.

The picture of Kira was actually taken with a Minolta DiMageZ6. I REALLY wish I had a DSLR! It`s on my to-buy-when-I-have-money list :-) The Z6 is surprisingly powerful with lots of manual control (in fact, you can go completely manual, and I do most of the time.)  I recommend it for someone who is wanting to get into photography but doesn`t have the money to do DSLR yet. It can point and shoot just fine, of course, but what I really like is the manual controls that allow you to play and learn.

Thanks for the comments guys!


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<sigh> I wish I had the money now, not when I have it later! ;-) How awesome what you`re doing with digital cameras! I`m still kind of stuck back in the film days, using a very simple point-n-shoot. But I did learn a boatload about Paint Shop Pro, and how much can be done in a digital darkroom! Now it comes down to having some manual control of the digital camera. That`ll be next...after I have the money! :-)

Film is something I`ve always been afraid of because I despise "wasting" stuff. I feel like experimental shots on film are just wasting resources. Whereas, on the digicam, I can experiment for hours and not waste a thing. That`s not to say that I don`t like film. On the contrary, I do like film. I guess I just don`t feel it`s the right medium for me, since I enjoy experimenting so much.

PSP is a lot of fun, isn`t it? I first came across it when I was in version 5. Bought it for 99 bucks and started playing. It wasn`t long before I was designing graphics for my own websites and other people`s websites that I did for free. It is a great learning tool and nowadays is much more powerful and useful than before. For most people, I`d say they don`t ever actually *need* photoshop. I`m sure there are plenty of folks who`d argue with me, but I`m sticking to my guns for now. Paint shop pro can do tons of cool stuff. More than what most people ever need.


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I`ve seen an awful lot about Photoshop, and I see nothing I can`t do in PSP and vice versa. In fact, if you open a .PSD file in Paint shop, it opens just fine, except for the layer info. As one reviewer said (to paraphrase);

You can have the whole kitchen sink at once, with Paint Shop Pro, or you can have only the tool you need when you need it, with Adobe Photoshop.

It`s just the style of the interface. But both programs do just about everything, since PSP was originally intended as a clone of Photoshop. I started with version 3.x, just so I could open many formats of graphics. But I didn`t actually learn it until v. 8.1. I`m debating on upgrading to 9.0.

What`s funny is that I originally agreed that digital gave you time to play, without wasting film. But now, I see that with battery life issues, it`s just as easy to shoot film and know the camera will work for days at a time. With a scanner, you also get pretty significant resolution with film, not always the case with digital formats until you get up into the more expensive cameras.

It`d be nice to have a thread for discussing the ins and outs of graphic art, though. I`m glad you showed some pics. Feel free to put up some more. I used to love reading Modern Photography, and getting all into trick photography, settings, and learning about f-stops, shutter speeds, and so forth. Don`t know if there`s that same interest these days.

You`re right on about the battery life issues. I always carry at least two sets of backup batteries, plus a battery charger if I`m going on a shoot. I guess for me, wasting = throwing stuff away. So digital is perfect for me because I don`t throw away any film and I don`t throw away any batteries (I use rechargeables). So for my purposes, it doesn`t get any better than DSLR :-) I do want a really nice film SLR in the future though. My dad has one and I borrow it sometimes.

On the topic of PSP vs Photoshop, there are some really hot debates. It`s so funny to watch people get all up in arms because they think PSP is better or Photoshop is better, and everybody jumps on one bandwagon or the other! Lol I`m not one of those people. I think it`s whatever allows you to create the piece of art you want to create. I began my career in web design with PaintShopPro. I designed websites and other graphics for years with PSP - no problem. I only switched to photoshop because I felt like it was the industry standard and I ought to learn it. Now that I`ve used both programs pretty extensively, I can say that I really like both and each has their strength, so there`s no sense arguing about what`s better for everybody. It always comes down to what`s better for the individual.

Here`s a cute pic I took of Kira. (you guessed it, another dog photo).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v520/doberfanatic/PICT27 38.jpg

I had to sneak up and not wake her. I turned off all of the sounds on my camera so I could take stealth pictures :-) After a while of using digital, you don`t really need to hear the beeping or clicking sounds anymore. You just get used to the silence and the mild whirrs it produces. This was taken in low light. I don`t recall the exact settings, but I think it was ISO 320, f2.8, shutter speed 1/20 or something along those lines.

I DO have other pictures besides dog pictures, but unfortunately, they`re all on my other computer. So I`ll have to try to remember to post some later.


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No bout a`doubt it...next camera`s gonna have some control over the shutter and aperture speeds! I remember with a film camera being able to get pictures like Kira on the couch, in low light. Can`t do it with the simple point-and-shoot I started with in digital film.

Here`s a picture of a glass paperweight. It presented a huge problem, not only of getting the sparkle of glass, but also to maintain the transparency. I wanted to be able to layer it, then have whatever was under it show through. In this one, you can see that the purple velvet pattern is visible. In other examples, I wanted either patterns or actual objects to show.

I went everywhere searching for examples of good glass pictures, and found nothing. It turned out I had to use a completely black background, contrary to intuition. A sort of anti-light-box. :-) Then, using masks and a couple of other tricks, I was able to capture all the glass, the transparent areas, the border of the glass, and the varying opacity of its parts. Now I`m wondering if there`s an eBook in a tutorial or something.

Cool picture. I like the transparency of the glass :-) Shooting shiny objects is tough enough - but then make them transparent! I think a tutorial on how you did it might be cool. I`m sure there are lots of people looking to photograph glass objects for ebay and other types of websites.

I sometimes run into similar challenges when photographing jewelery. I want to get one of those `sparkle lights` that helps to add shine to the gem. Have you ever used one of those? Know if it`s actually any good? I`ve been shooting just using a spotlight, plus general soft light. Here`s a ring.


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I actually did a lot of research, talking with photo people, and reading about commercial advertising with photography. What it all came down to is using a star filter. So that led to the next humongous problem: Where can I get a star filter for PSP?

Turns out I had to make one. Turns out, further, it was incredibly easy to accomplish, but nobody was explaining how. I stumbled on the answer. If you look very closely at the glass paperweight, you`ll also see a very subtle 8-point star "gleam," and that helps with the sparkle. It`s right in the center.

I think you`ll find that no external lighting source, or other device will give the illusion of a gleam. Only the star, whatever number of points, translates in 2 dimensions as that gleam. It`s one of those tricks of the mind. You`d have to play with it, to get what you like, but here`s the ring with the star filter added.

We could go further into this, perhaps. But maybe better done in direct email?

Interesting... I know how to make a star filter, but I`d be interested in hearing your method. Also, I can`t see the picture. It says I need some sort of password.

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Hmm...I dunno why the Ripway image didn`t work, but here`s the ring again with the start filter, on Photobucket. This should hopefully be viewable without an error message?

I did it using a custom brush head. I set it up with a 400x400 pixel white background, then set a narrow brush in black, oval, fading at the ends. I rotated the brush, reduced it and made however many "points" I wanted, then saved the brush.

Using it only required changing the fill color to white. In PSP, brush-heads show in the dropdown as black on white, but you can change the color of the "ink" easily, as you know. I set the original to 100% opaque, knowing I could either reduce the opacity when I painted, along with the size, or I could just increase the layer transparency.

Is that how you`re doing it?