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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Digital Photography for Dummies

Digital photography for dummies

Category: Photography Tips
Written on Jan 31, 2008 by Sandro Dzneladze
Digital photography for dummies
Are you planning to buy a digital camera? Do you already have a digital camera? If both answers are yes then this basic tips and tricks are for you.
Digital photography seems easy to the amateur compared to analogue film cameras but taking really good photos requires knowledge and understanding of photography.
Here are the basics along with some tips and tricks to produce better digital photos. Here I will go through the following aspects:

- Storage and Image Quality
- Memory
- Battery Power
- Exposure
- Focus
- Depth of field
- Zooming
- Flash
- LCD View finder
 

Storage and image quality:

Digital photography for dummies: Image qualityMost digital cameras allow you to reduce their resolution or increase the compression to get more images on to the memory card. However, both these will reduce quality. Unless you have a very small memory card, select the highest resolution pictures and lowest Jpeg compression settings.
When it comes to how much resolution you need, it depends on how much detail you want to capture. More mega pixels means higher detail and bigger enlargements or crops before you the image starts to become pixelated.
For a 3R size photo 1024*786 resolution should be just fine.
 

Memory:

Digital photography for dummies: MemoryMemory is an important part of digital photography but will become less of an issue in the future as storage capacities become larger and larger. Storage capacity dictates how many pictures you can take and how high a resolution they can be.
There are several memory card formats available for different cameras.
· Smart Media
· Compact Flash
· xD
· MS
· SD
· MMC

I’d recommend buying a 1GB memory card.
Memory cards can be erased and reused but you’ll want to back up your images first. Most people copy their snaps on to a PC or laptop.

Battery:

Digital photography for dummies: BatteriesThe lifespan of digital camera batteries depending on the model and usage, but one to four hours of solid use is about standard. In practice you’ll power down the camera between pictures, allowing you to take around 50 photos over a period of several days.
 

Tips to save your battery:-
· Switch off the flash
· Do not use the LCD view finder.
· Switch off button beeps and other sound effects.
· Use high drain rechargeable batteries such as Ni-MH 2300mAh because disposable alkaline AA cells won’t last long in a digital camera
· Use a card reader to move pictures onto your PC instead of connecting the camera and using its batteries.
· If you own a SLR digital camera, purchase a spare battery and the battery grip attachment.
 

Exposure:
All digital cameras have an auto setting which calculates what it anticipates will be the most suitable exposure. Most devices get it about right, but mistakes happen. There will also be times when you want a darker or brighter result.
Digital photography for dummies: Exposure
Deliberately underexposing an image can be an affective way of cutting through haze or bringing out a colourful sunset. Overexposing is also handy if your subject is dark and you can’t or don’t want to use a fill-in flash. Remember to set the exposure compensation back to zero afterwards though. 

Focus:
Digital cameras have an auto focus mode but, as with auto exposure, this can go wrong. A common problem is where the subject in the foreground is out of focus, but the background is in sharp focus. It’s clear that the camera has focused on the background by mistake.
The first time you try this it’s easy to press the button all the way and accidentally take the photo early. It takes practice to learn the right pressure, but at least a digital camera lets you delete the pictures that went wrong.
Digital photography for dummies: Focus

Depth of field:

Depth of field is a technical term referring to how much of the picture is in focus. A large depth of field has lots in focus, while a shallow depth of field only has the main subject in focus.
The depth of field is controlled by the lens aperture, described by its f-number. Smaller f-numbers mean shallower depths of field; larger f.numbers mean larger depths of field. Digital cameras generally have a range of f-numbers between f2.8 and fl1. (You can read more about DOF here.)

 

Zooming:

Most digital cameras are fitted with optical and digital zoom facilities. It’s best to disable the digital zoom as it just crops the centre of the picture and enlarges it, thereby losing quality, The optical zoom uses lenses to get closer to a subject with no loss in quality, but zooming in and out also has other effects.

 

Camera Flash:

The key to using the flash is to understand its limitations. Built-in flashes are only effective over a distance of a few short metres and, beyond this, have no effect at all. Unless your subject is within a few metres, you might as well switch off the flash. It’s also a good idea to switch off the flash when shooting through windows to avoid reflection.

 

LCD View finder:

A big advantage of digital cameras is being able to use the LCD screens to check a photo immediately after taking it. This is invaluable for checking exposure, and composition, not to mention potentially blinked eyelids. Beware, though, as the screen resolution is too low to confirm whether a picture is definitely in focus. So if you’ve got a particularly important shot, play it back afterwards and zoom in closely to ensure everything’s fine.


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Digital Photography All-In-One For Dummies

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/digital-photography-allinone-for-dummies-cheat-she.html

Digital SLR Cameras & Photography For Dummies

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/digital-slr-cameras-photography-for-dummies-cheat-.html
=============================   ====================

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Les Moulins de Mon Cœur💔Windmills of Your Mind

Les Moulins de Mon Cœur
The Windmills of Your Mind
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4921320b75e842111793dc301adb1a61/ad66e62a5ae32edf-6d/s640x960/46638809782913b8aea17fb1952fabb93b2357ef.jpg
"The Windmills of Your Mind" is a song with music by French composer Michel Legrand and English lyrics written by Americans Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
The French lyrics, under the title "Les Moulins de Mon Cœur", were written by Eddy Marnay.

The song (with the English lyrics) was used as the theme for the 1968 film, The Thomas Crown Affair.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/f47449ced27318de896f2cf43867771f/ad66e62a5ae32edf-e8/s1280x1920/86a6db7238bd851767caeb4c09b7e93df771d536.jpg
The opening two melodic sentences were borrowed from Mozart's second movement from his Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, K. 364.

In the original 1968 film the song was performed by Noel Harrison who took the song to #8 in the UK Singles Chart. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1968.
A version by Sting was used in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

Dusty Springfield's version of the song from her album Dusty in Memphis is also well known; this version reached #31 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and #3 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart in 1969.  This recording also appeared on the soundtrack to Breakfast on Pluto (2006).
The song has been interpreted by a large number of singers, instrumentalists, and orchestras.
👇 ♪  📽️ ♪ 👇

Michel Legrand 
The Thomas Crown Affair(1968) 

  • Dusty Springfield  1969 HD
  • Barbra Streisand   2011
  • Mireille Mathieu &  Michel Legrand - Duo
  • Amaury Vassili  
  • Michel Legrand
  • Tina Arena -  (Live)
  • Frida Boccara - 
  • Nana Mouskouri - 
  • Claude François   + Paroles
  • Patricia Kaas 
  • Barbra Streisand   2011
  • Sting 
  • Vicky Leandros
  • Sharleen Spiteri  + Lyrics
  • Noel Harrison
  • The Windmills Of Your Mind
  • Les Moulins de Mon Coeur 
  • Dusty In Memphis
Noel Harrison
👇 ♪  📽️ ♪ 👇

https://64.media.tumblr.com/40a6ebf61f6304034e4423edf731561b/ad66e62a5ae32edf-ac/s640x960/8269383bfb966e723e8224efce87a8d517e176de.jpg
Is there a definitive meaning to this song?
The most revealing line is:  "When you knew that it was over, you were suddenly aware that the autumn leaves were turning to the color of her hair"

Is it about the emotional turmoil caused by a relationship ending (abruptly?); endlessly re-winding to when you were so in love that everything else in life was a blur, and going round & round in circles over what went wrong and what you might have done differently?
Something we can all relate to.

One of the song's writers, Marilyn Bergman, said: "The lyric we wrote was stream-of-consciousness. "We felt that the song had to be a mind-trip of some kind.  "I think we were thinking… you know when you try to fall asleep at night and you can't turn your brain off and thoughts and memories tumble."

Life in the 60's was a constant whirl

Les Moulins de Mon Cœur
Les Moulins de Mon Coeur
The Windmills Of Your Mind
Michel Legrand - Musique
Michel Legrand - Music
Paroles: Eddy Marnay
Lyrics: Bergman, Marilyn / Bergman, Alan
Comme une pierre que l'on jette
Round,
Dans l'eau vive d'un ruisseau
Like a circle in a spiral
Et qui laisse derrière elle
Like a wheel within a wheel
Des milliers de ronds dans l'eau
Never ending or beginning
Comme un manège de lune
On an ever-spinning reel
Avec ses chevaux d'étoiles
Like a snowball down a mountain


Or a carnival balloon
Comme un anneau de Saturne

Un ballon de carnaval
Like a carousel that’s turning
Comme le chemin de ronde
Running rings around the moon
Que font sans cesse les heures
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Le voyage autour du monde
Past the minutes on it’s face
D'un tournesol dans sa fleur
And the world is like an apple
Tu fais tourner de ton nom
Whirling silently in space
Tous les moulins de mon cœur
Like the circles that you find


In the windmills of your mind
Comme un écheveau de laine

Entre les mains d'un enfant
Like a tunnel that you follow
Ou les mots d'une rengaine
To a tunnel of it’s own
Pris dans les harpes du vent
Down a hollow to a cavern
Comme un tourbillon de neige
Where the sun has never shone
Comme un vol de goélands
Like a door that keeps revolving
Sur des forêts de Norvège
In a half-forgotten dream
Sur des moutons d'océan
Like the ripples from a pebble


Someone tosses in a stream
Comme le chemin de ronde

Que font sans cesse les heures
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Le voyage autour du monde
Past the minutes on it’s face
D'un tournesol dans sa fleur
And the world is like an apple
Tu fais tourner de ton nom
Whirling silently in space
Tous les moulins de mon cœur
Like the circles that you find


In the windmills of your mind
Ce jour-là près de la source

Dieu sait ce que tu m'as dit
Keys that jingle in your pocket
Mais l'été finit sa course
Words that jangle in your head
L'oiseau tomba de son nid
Why did summer go so quickly?
Et voila que sur le sable
Was it something that I said?
Nos pas s'effacent déjà
Lovers walk along a shore
Et je suis seul à la table
And leave their footprints in the sand
Qui résonne sous mes doigts



Was the sound of distant drumming
Comme un tambourin qui pleure
Just the fingers of your hand?
Sous les gouttes de la pluie
Pictures hanging in a hallway
Comme les chansons qui meurent
Or the fragment of a song
Aussitôt qu'on les oublie
Half-remembered names and faces
Et les feuilles de l'automne
But to whom do they belong?
Rencontre des ciels moins bleus
When you knew that it was over
Et ton absence leur donne
Were you suddenly aware
La couleur de tes cheveux
That the autumn leaves were turning


To the colour of her hair?
Une pierre que l'on jette

Dans l'eau vive d'un ruisseau
Like a circle in a spiral
Et qui laisse derrière elle
Like a wheel within a wheel
Des milliers de ronds dans l'eau
Never ending or beginning
Au vent des quatre saisons
On an ever-spinning reel
Tu fais tourner de ton nom
As the images unwind
Tous les moulins de mon cœur
Like the circles that you find


In the windmills of your mind