YesBut keep it in good order

Two weeks ago in my blog “YesBut copy first”, I gave suggestions to follow when editing digital photos. The product of editing is the production of more images, with the inevitable increase in files and computer storage used. Its supprising how quickly storage space can be taken up - I have just checked, last month I stored 593 photographs using 413 MB of storage (those are just the originals, excluding edited copies). Unless you have an ordered approach, searching for photos can become like looking for a needle in a hay stack, and your computer chocked up with un-required data.

So some suggestions:

Have a logical filing system. I file my photos by month, with sub-folders for subjects (visits, special occasions and events) i.e. (the photos I took during my visit to Holland in May are filled in a sub-folder in my “May File”). I also have a file for photos posted or to be posted on YesBut’s Images.

One of the advantages of storing your files on a computer is the ability to “name” each photo. Looking at a photo recently taken, you can recall all the details; where it was taken and when. But with time the information will fade from your memory. So take sometime to record when and where a photo was taken - PIC 00034(London 29.6.7).

I readily admit I have a weakness; I am reluctant to throw anything away. I’m unwilling even to delete an out-of-focus underexposed photo, (you never know when it might be useful). But the time will come when you have to do some housekeeping or your computer will come to a grinding halt. Before that happens, get into the habit of backing up your files every month. Copy your files to DVD or CD. This is a prudent thing to do - you do not want to risk losing all your photos and correspondence when your computer’s hard disc self-destructs.

After you have downloaded the files to disc, check the disc has been successfully copied, and all the files can be accessed. Label the disc and store it in a safe place. If you want to take a belt and braces approach you can duplicate the disc.

Then you can clean up your files. Only keep on your computer files you think you will have to access. The rest? Delete them. If in the future you want to look at other files, you will be able to download them from the disc.

Keep it clean mean and orderly. Sorry if I sounded “preachy”.

Click here to post your entry in YesBut's Images Caption of the Week competition

YesBut copy first

In my blog two weeks ago YesBut its a new world, I touched upon the use of photo editing programs.I apologies, I omitted a word of caution, which I should have included in the blog.

Make a copy before you start manipulating any image. And only edit the copy never the original. Even if you have an idea in your mind of the final image you are striving for, make a copy of the original before you start and work on the copy.

There are two reasons for the golden rule.

• Sods law "if things can go wrong, they will go wrong". Unfortunatly things do go wrong when editing a photograph. If you have copy of the original you can start again (not forgetting to work on a new copy).
• There are many many images within a photograph. The joy of photo editing is bring-out hidden images. You can use copies of the original to make different images.

The photo in today’s YesBut’s Image is a cropped version of the photograph on the left.
The photographs below show a few images that can be obtained by cropping the same original photograph.













Cropping is just one of many tools available to you when using a photo editing program. The photoes below illustrates just three:

1. Cropping the original photo
2. Adjusting the cropped photos saturation (making colours more brilliant)
3. And applying one of many filters giving the saturated cropped photo a twirl.

Go on have a go. But first click here and add your suggested caption to today’s YesBut’ Image

YesBut its a new world

About a month ago I started posting a new blog YesBut’s Images. Why did I start a new blog? Mainly as the result of David McMahon, who posts authorblog, suggesting I should show more of my photographs. But I could have done that on this blog. By starting a new blog, I could post a selection of photos independent of the content of this blog. But the driving reason for starting the blog was, because I had to! Just like mountaineers need to climb Everest, so too I have a creative desire that I must satisfy - I know, I confess, unashamed egotism!!!

About a year ago I bought a very cheap digital camera. Which I carry about everywhere I go. My life has changed since acquiring it. I no longer go for walks, shop or go to meetings. It’s not that I’ve stopped going out, the opposite I go out more, but now going shopping is a secondary activity, I am primarily looking for things to photograph - much to Mrs YesBut’s annoyance.

There she is walking down the street talking to me, but I’ve stopped 200 metres behind to take a photo of a reflection in a window. She doesn’t stop, and I have to trot to catch up, I get a scowl as a reward. I hear mutterings about toys for small boys. “Yes dear“.

Looking through a 3x4cm LCD camera screen, has changed my perspective of the world. It’s true, when you really get into looking, as opposed to just seeing, things around you, everything changes. Colours become more vivid. Shop widows reflect a distorted world. Paving stones form patterns. There are straight lines, angles, curves, shapes, solids, translucent reflections, so much more to see that previously went unnoticed. So much I never noticed before. "That’s beautiful". "Look how the light strikes the water". It’s a new world.

How things have changed with the development of computers and digital cameras. Before, people had cameras, photographs taken, films processed and photos put in albums or left forgotten in draws. Taking a photograph is now only the start of the creative process. Photo editing programs allow pictures to be cropped, colours changed, images distorted. Now every photograph taken has the potential of being a good picture, irrespective if it is out of focus, or whether the camera was held at an angle. More mumbles from Mrs YesBut about spending too much time in front of my computer. “Yes dear“.

Enough typing lets create an image.


Click here to see image of the day.