One Tip A Day » Digital Photos

How To Unlock Useful Features In Canon Digital Cameras

mitchbuchannon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:08:58 +0000

In the world of digital photography, Canon holds a place of importance. In fact, a majority of professional photographers stick to Canon digital and SLR cameras for accurate color reproduction and sharp images. Particularly its iXus and PowerShot range of cameras have become very popular among photographers. However, there are some lesser known ways to extract maximum performance from a Canon digital and D-SLR camera.

There exists a simple and free software named CHDK that enables Canon camera owners to perform various advanced tasks with their shooters. CHDK or Canon Hacker’s Development Kit is basically a software framework that relies on open source standard. By using it, a Canon camera owner can add histograms, enable RAW image support and burst mode on his camera.

This software works only with Canon cameras. However, results depend on the model a person uses and its firmware version. The software should be used by people who have extensive knowledge in cameras and they should remember that using it can make the warranty provided by Canon void. It is not risky as the firmware of the camera is not affected by it and it is stored in memory card of the camera. A person needs to check the CHDK web site to know if his Canon model will support the software or not. He also needs to download a compatible version of the software.

To install CHDK on a SD card, a utility named Card Tricks is required. Using it the card can be formatted in FAT. Thereafter, the user needs to make it bootable using the same software. Next, he should proceed to the CHDK site and download a compatible version for his camera. The CHDK software is downloaded in zipped format. Using Card Tricks, the zip file needs to be extracted on the SD card. After locking the SD card, inserting in the camera and powering on the device, a splash screen will appear that will show that CHDK is in operation.

This software enables image saving in the RAW format. To enable Raw image saving the user needs to go to Alt mode by clicking ‘Direct Print’. Next, he needs to select Raw parameters and activate the menu ‘Save Raw’. To use the customized RAW images made by the software, a person can use a tool named Photoline. It is available for both Mac and Windows.

Many cameras show a histogram preview after a picture is shot. However, it would be better if the camera shows live histogram. CHDK makes it possible. When CHDK is activated, a person needs to select Alt mode and go to ‘Histogram parameters’ using the Menu button. From there, he can activate the sub menu ‘Show Live Histogram’. Some models support real time Live histogram toggle.

Sometimes outdoor shots and night scenes look nice when they are shot with long exposures. However, many entry level cameras do not support long exposure by default. With CHDK installed, they can override this limitation. However, to shot long exposure images with a point and shoot camera, using a tripod becomes mandatory. To enable this feature a person needs to select Alt mode in his camera. Thereafter, he needs to select ‘Extra Photo Operations’ and click on ‘Override shutter Speed’. The value factor should be set to 1. After this, the camera will allow the user to select a custom shutter length instead of using the inbuilt one.

More: CHDK

How To Take Better Camera Phone Pictures

Tony Williams — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:30:18 +0000

Switched have put together a great guide for people like me who suck at taking Camera Phone Pics. Just follow this guide and you’ll soon be taking pictures that you’ll want to print and hang on your wall!

1. Get A Little Bit Closer Now

Far off shots are one of the biggest faux pas in the camera phone world. Get as close to your subject as you possibly can without getting all up in his or her face, then take the picture. Avoid using the zoom at all costs. Most camera phones are still pretty low-res, so zooming in after the fact to crop your photos will reduce quality even more.

2. Lighting is Everything

Make sure there’s enough light. Shooting outside in daylight is ideal. Indoors, try turning a bunch of lights on, but be aware that they might eff up your color balance.

3. Play with White Balance

Many phones have adjustable white balance (a feature that allows you to mess around with color balance in accord with the shooting conditions). Experimenting with white balance can provide your shots with richer hues, improved contrast, etc. More will be revealed in your instruction manual, if you can be bothered to read it.

4. Clean Your Lens, Son!

From spending time in purses, bags, and pockets, camera phones’ lenses can get nasty. Sand, lipstick, lint, and fingerprints blight the lens from time to time. DPS suggests cleaning the lens with a sunglass cloth or something similar. We hear Oxypads are good for getting sand out of the phone and lens.

5. Go High-Res

Many phones allow you to change the resolution settings, much like a digital camera. If you can opt for better quality, your shots will be clearer, obvi. They will, however, take up more space on your phone and take longer to send.

6. Don’t Perv on Your Neighbors

DPS reminds us that camera phones should be used responsibly. Secret crotch shots are frowned upon. If you’re in high school, it’s probably a bad idea to take compromising pictures of yourself, or let your boyfriend take them. They could easily end up forwarded to everyone on the phone book. Or, they could end up on eBay….

Download Images Quickly From Flickr With Flickr Downloader

Tony Williams — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:08:42 +0000

My girlfriend recently went on holiday to Thailand for 6 weeks. She wanted to keep a blog so all of her friends (and me!) could keep tabs on her, but I didn’t have time to set her up with a blog so I gave her the details to my Flickr account as it had a quicker learning curve. The photos that she loaded up were so fantastic that I wanted to download most of them to my PC, but Flickr doesn’t have an easy way to download lots of pictures quickly.

Flickr Downloader

Luckily I found the amazing free Flickr Downloader service that allows you to download series of photos from Flickr easily. You can download photos by Flickr username, group name or tags. It even lets you create your own slideshows from the images that can be used on a website or as a screensaver.

More: Flickr Downloader

Remove Backgrounds From Photos For Free With Fotoflexer

Tony Williams — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:32:57 +0000

Photoshop is an amazing picture/photo editing program, but it costs an arm and a leg to buy. One of Photoshop’s many neat tools is a photo background eraser, and now you can do this for free online with Fotoflexer.

To sharpen up your portrait pictures:

Upload your picture to FotoFlexer and click on the ‘Geek’ tab. Then select ‘Smart Scissors’
Using your mouse draw around the part of your picture you want to cut out
Then when you are happy with the preview, click ‘Create Cutout’ and then save your new picture

More: Fotoflexer

Using Flickr To Help Choose A Digital Camera

Tony Williams — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:36:13 +0000

Regardless of your budget, if you’re looking to buy a new Digital Camera then you really should check out Flickr’s Camera Finder service, which shows the cameras used most often to take photos that have been uploaded to Flickr. All types of cameras are listed and there are even separate lists for point & shoot cameras and cameraphones. Digital Cameras are also listed by brand.

Cameras can even be purchased via the Yahoo Shopping Service.

More: Flickr Camera Guide

everystockphoto: One Million Free Photos

Tony Williams — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:54:34 +0000

I have to admit that I’m pretty lazy about checking whether I have the rights to use particular photos on my site. I really need to use services like everystockphoto.com more, which is a search engine for creative commons photos, which can be used freely.

The service now includes over one million photos, which are all available for free. Sifting through these photos can is made easier through a decent search engine.

To check out everystockphoto click here.

Photo-Freeware.net – Free Photo Software

Tony Williams — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:25:42 +0000

As you’ve gathered by now I love anything that is free. Photo-Freeware.net is one of my favourite sites. It has a huge directory of free image editing, photo albums, image viewers, and transferring software.

One free app that you should definitely check out is Corel SnapFire which lets you add professional looking effects to your photos.

More: Photo-Freeware.net

Give Your Digital Photos Sensible Filenames Automatically In Windows XP

Tony Williams — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:59:37 +0000

Uploading Digital photos can be a pain, as most cameras give photos useless filenames that have to be changed manually if you want them to mean anything.

Well, help is at hand and there is a quick solution (XP only):

Open your photos folder and select “View > Thumbnails”
Then select all the photos you want to rename. If it’s all photos then just press “Ctrl+A” at the same time
Right-click the first photo, and select ‘Rename’
XP then will highlight the first photo which you can then give a sensible name
Click the white space outside of the photo and Windows will add the same name with a sequential number to each picture in the folder

Repeat the steps above for all your albums and pretty soon you’ll have a collection that is easier to manage.

How To Capture Screenshots From Windows Media Player

Tony Williams — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 14:35:02 +0000

Whatever you may think about Microsoft, they do make some good software. One of their best is Windows Media Player which is free and is installed on all Windows PCs. Capturing screenshots from your favorite videos can be difficult, but here’s a quick way to do it:

Open Window Media Player
Then go to ‘Tools | Options’
In Options, select the Performance Tab
Click the Advanced Button
Untick ‘Use Overlays’
Click ‘Ok’

Once you’ve finished these steps all you have to do to capture a screenshot is to pause your video, and press the ‘Print Screen’ key on your keyboard. Then go to your favorite image program and paste the image or press ‘Ctrl’ and ‘V’ together.