Mine to Thine Tutorials

Using Facebook Lists to help with Privacy

2011-11-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

I've said this before, but on Facebook, it's all in the lists, people. They are your friends. Apparently, Facebook thinks so too, because they keep making changes to make lists the way to go. Now they have added smart lists. At the VERY least, CLOSE FRIENDS and RESTRICTED are two lists that you should get to know. When you add friends to the CLOSE FRIENDS list, FB notes this, and sends you more updates from those people, because by using that list, you're telling FB that you want to keep in closer contact with those friends. Your restricted list does the opposite. Friends on this list don't see anything on your profile unless you share it publically. In this process, there are less filters that you can use to keep friends from seeing certain parts of your page.

If you're ready to move beyond Facebook's smart lists, there are ways to use your lists on Facebook to help you control your privacy further. For example, I have kids as friends. I don't particularly want to share my everyday adult life and ideas with kids, so I have them sorted into a list. When I want to check in with the kids in my life, it's as easy as clicking that list, and suddenly all the updates from JUST those kids are on my screen. The other day, I got an idea that I could manage who sees my updates by creating a list of people that I don't mind seeing my updates, and posting so that only those people see my updates.
So to help you see what I'm talking about:
This is what my profile looks like to most of my friends.

This is what my profile looks like to friends on my restricted list.

And when I created a list for those I don't want to see EVERYTHING I'm doing, this is what they started to see. Notice my updates aren't here, but my photos are, because that's the setting my photos have, and I also have my profile set to share what others post on my wall with all my friends. (except the restricted list)

To post using your new lists as a buffer for what friends can see what, you need to first create a list. (I'll assume you know how to do that, or can figure that part out)
Then when you start your next status update, look for the posting setting logo at the left of your POST button. Hover over it, and it will show you what your settings are currently.

If you click on that drop down menu, you'll see the option to only post to specific lists, but I also want to be sure to exclude certain lists from reading, so I choose the CUSTOM option.

In that section, I choose first, the list I made specifically for status updates.
Then, I choose the restricted list to be excluded from reading my updates.

Lists are also handy for checking up on specific groups of friends, or posting only to one group of friends. I have a friend that has a list for each of her games she plays. Then when she needs to request something from those friends that play that game, she chooses to share with just that list. I have a group for my artist friends, so that when I have something to share that only they need to see, I'm not cluttering up other friend's profiles with my chatter specific to that group. So what are you waiting for? Start making those lists!! They are good for not only sharing, but for privacy as well. :)

Eliminating Background / Black&White photography w/color spot

2009-05-03T21:48:00.001-07:00

This tutorial covers two techniques I use to edit pictures using the free version of Picnik.com. We'll be starting with this photo:

and finishing with this:

To start off, open a new tab on your computer's browser so you can hop back and forth between here and there. In the new tab, visit Picnik.com and click the "GET STARTED NOW" button. In the new window that pops up, you'll see a tab at the right top side of the screen that says HOME and LIBRARY. Click on LIBRARY or UPLOAD PHOTOS NOW and choose the GET FROM COMPUTER option. (I've highlighted this feature in a grey circle.)

Once you have uploaded your photo, you will see a screen with your picture in it, and new tabs for you to choose from.

We want to go to the CREATE tab. In the CREATE area, you will scroll down your options in the EFFECTS tab. This tab can be found in a subcategory row of tabs just below the home, library, edit, create and save&share tabs. Scroll down until you see the DOODLE effect on the left side. Click on it, and the view highlighted in the grey circle below will show. Once you're there, change your brush color to the color you'd like your background to be. For this tutorial, I'm using black. Enlarge your brush size if you'd like to (i did) and start painting over the areas of your photo you don't want.

I use a large brush to start with, getting close, but not precisely close to the areas I'm going to leave alone. Use your mouse like a spray can of paint. Hold the mouse button down and move the mouse around to create a steady "flow" of paint, or use clicks to shoot bursts of color. For my large work especially, I hold down and spray away.

Once I've gotten all my large surface covered, I shrink my brush, and move to the more precise work of getting near the edge of the areas of image I am not going to cover over. Even though I call this work "precision" work, it's not so important that you have exact detail. Work your paint brush smaller, and fade the "hardness" of your brush as well to help you in getting as close to your edge as you can.

I actually go over the edge a little, because you can then switch your brush to ERASER and clean up the line more once you're done. As you can see, there are a few edges that I overlapped into the area I don't want covered. Erasing them is easy. Just click on the eraser button, and click on any areas you need to undo.

Once you're all cleaned up, you'll click APPLY and move up the effects list to TINT. Click into tint, and this is what you see. If you don't see the top right grey circle's information, click on the paintbrush in the larger circle in the lower left. You'll also want to move your tint OUT of the blue zone, and up to the white. This will make your photo look black and white. That's what we want.

NOW, you should take your brush, and start to "spray" over the areas you want to stay black and white in the end. For now, you're letting the color of your photo show, and eventually, we'll reverse the effect to make everything "right". You can switch back and forth between the "effect" and "original" buttons to get clean lines between your edges. Use your brush size to help you with precision areas. I don't worry about uncovering the black or white areas of photos, because they will not change when you click the REVERSE EFFECT button.

Go ahead and click. SEE?!? Isn't it cool? If you see areas that you missed, unselect reverse effect, and keep working at it! Click apply when you are done.

I love a feature called ORTONISH. I used it on the photo without edits to the effect on my photo.

THEN, I headed up the screen and into the TEXT effect. There are all sorts of fonts available for free as well as many more in the premium account features. I chose a free font for this project. To add text, enter your text into the box at the top left that says "type here to add text". Once you have the words you want, click ADD, and the words will come up in the middle of your picture. You can change color, size and some other things in the box to the right, (which sometimes shows up on the right depending on your font and it's placement) You can also click and drag your text around on your photo. When you are done, head to the SAVE AND SHARE tab, and choose where you would like to save your photo!! Happy editing!!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Placing a Custom Header on your Blog

2008-10-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

So you don't like the plain options that blogger offers for headers? Would you like to create your own? This is the post for you. Whether you choose to scrap a header, or make one digitally, this tutorial will walk you through the steps you need to create a header that looks crisp, and fun.
If you choose to physically create (scrap) a header, you will need to either scan your finished product, or photograph it. Either way, you should be sure to crop out any background showing behind your image. Nothing says homemade, and not so professional, more than carpet on your header. :)
When I scrap my header, I usually do it on a surface that's about 3-4 inches high, and 12 inches wide. Then I crop my photo in Picnik.com. I usually create headers digitally using Scrapblog.com.
First, you'll need to check to see how wide your blog is. Go into your CUSTOMIZE or LAYOUT section, and click on the EDIT button for your header in the PAGE ELEMENTS.

This window will tell you what size to make your header if you want it to fit inside your borders. If you don't want to worry about fitting inside your borders, you can usually go a bit wider, and simply eliminate the borders mis fit by making your border color the same as your background in EDIT FONTS AND COLORS. When you create your header, if you choose to write your title in the image you create, you need to choose the INSTEAD OF option when you load your header.

Here is the header I started on Scrapblog.com, and then saved to my computer. Then I took the image to Picnik.com, to finish editing it. While in Picnik, I cropped the header image to fit better into the spot I want it in. Scale the photo, and then put in your dimensions. I chose 900X200 for my header's size.

Then I took the cropped image, and played with a few features, added text, added a frame around it, and saved it to my computer. In Picasa3, I changed the image to black and white, and added a glow to it.

Now I'm ready to add it to my blog! I open the edit header section again, and find the image on my blog. Then I choose to use my image instead of title and description. This doesn't erase the information there, it just tells blogger that visually, I don't want to include Blogger's text. Because I've played with my template, and I have three columns, I know that my header can be wider than the template thinks it can be, so I don't choose to have blogger re size my photo. I don't personally think that blogger is very smart at resizing photos, so if I know that I need to fit my image into the area provided, rather than have blogger re size, I do the resizing myself, and I make my image 10 pixels smaller than the width blogger gives. That way, my image fits evenly inside the border. Save your changes when your photo is finished loading, and you are done!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Adding and Resizing Playlists

2008-10-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

One of the things I love about posting, is having music on my blog. A lot of people have them, and there are few things that I thought I would share about my thoughts on them.
I'll be using my playlist from playlist.com. First, you need an account there. Once you are logged in, click on MY ACCOUNT at the top of the screen. In your account, you'll see two choices for getting the code for your playlist.

Click on either, and choose which player you'd like. I chose the the player for MYSPACE, and then the CLASSIC player for this, because you can make more customizations to this one.

Once you've made that choice, you will see some options for your player. You can have your songs shuffle or play in the order they are arranged (you can arrange them however you'd like). You can choose to have your songs play automatically, or not. If you choose to have your player start automatically, you should know three things.

Your player will not play until it's near the viewable area of a visitor's screen. So if you place your player at the bottom of your blog, it will not play unless visitors scroll to it.
It's MUCH nicer if your player is at or near the top of a sidebar, so that visitors who don't want music playing while they read, can turn it off without trouble.
Choosing a soft starting song to be the first thing that plays is nice. Visitors don't like jumping out of their skin with a loud song starts, and they aren't expecting it.

If you would like to create a custom background at this stage, this is also the place and player to do it in. First, select YES under the CUSTOM SKIN area.

You'll then see an area to put the URL of your photo. I use flickr for my photo, because I can chose a resized on line version of my photo easily. I also choose a photo that is horizontal in it's layout. While viewing my photo on flickr, I click on ALL SIZES.

Then I select SMALL, and take the URL that flickr gives me.

I paste the URL into the box I'm given on project playlist, and choose GENERATE PREVIEW. As you can see, my small photo has been multiplied. This is OK, because eventually, I will shrink my player, and only one photo will show, and it will be the right size.

Now click on GET CODE.

In the code that you will get, you'll need to make some changes for a few reasons.

The player is too large for a blogger sidebar, and that's where we want to place it so that our visitors can easily pause music and such.
Pasting the player as is, into the sidebar will cut off the option for visitors to add the songs you have in your playlist to their own players.
Pasting the player as is, with lots of songs in it, will cut off the option to scroll through your player for your visitors.

SO you need to take a moment and look at the code. Find all the areas where width and height are specified. Those areas are in the blue dots in the code above. Change your width to 200, in ALL the places it specifies a width #. You can leave the height, or reduce it also... My photo on flickr says that it's 180 high, so I'm changing my height to fit that. There are links at the bottom of the player that will continue to distort your player unless you remove them. I have marked the links that you should remove between the grey dots. Be sure to leave the </div> at the end of your code. This closes your player's code.

Here's what your player will look like when you are done!!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Multiple photos in a Blog Post

2008-10-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

You've probably noticed, that when you post photos to blogger, you can only load 5 at a time. I'll be showing you how to load more than that, and also, how to move those photos within your post when they have loaded.
To start, you should open up a NEW POST window. Then you'll select the photo button that looks like a mountain and sky scene.

In the new window that pops up, you'll see the screen for loading your photos.
In that window, there are several things you'll want to notice.
1. The ADD ANOTHER PHOTO button. Choosing this button will allow you to choose up to five photos to load at a time.
2. The BROWSE button lets you choose photos from your computer to be loaded to blogger. You'll need to know where your photos are stored on your computer to be able to find them.
3. The placement options NONE, LEFT, CENTER and RIGHT. This will create code in your HTML view of your blog post, telling computers where to place your photos within the screen. Choosing Left, Center or Right will create code that you will have to fight later, if you choose to move your photos. I find it easier to choose NONE, and then later, if I need to, choose the alignment by using the align options at the top of the post editing box.

4. The last place you need to pay attention to, is your photo's size, and whether or not you'd like blogger to remember your settings each time you post. I use large photos, and opt to have blogger remember my settings.

By default, all photos loaded to your post will automatically be put at the top of your post. You can move them easily, but right clicking on the photo you'd like to move, and choosing CUT.

Then, move your curser (the blinking line that shows you where your text will go next when you are in your post editing box) to the place you'd like your photo. Then paste your cut photo back into your post, by right clicking and choosing paste, OR hitting CTRL + V on your keyboard.

Remember to give your photos their own lines in your posts, but hitting ENTER before and AFTER you place them in your post, so that your text doesn't wrap strangly around them. To add more than five photos, simply repeat the process of adding the first five, as many times as it takes for you to have added all the photos you need in your post!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Branding

2008-10-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

What exactly IS branding? Branding is a marketing tool, that when used properly, can help you create a "brand" for your blog.
It's really pretty simple when it comes to blogging and your "brand". Things like color, things like a tag line, things like profile photos... all those things create a BRAND.
Even here, on this blog, I've chosen colors and a scheme that is more simple than, but mimics the colors I have on my main blog. So that when people click to view my tutorials, they know they are still in MY world.
According to Wikipedia, A good brand name should:

be easy to pronounce
be easy to remember
be easy to recognize
be easy to translate into all languages in the markets where the brand will be used
attract attention
be attractive
stand out among a group of other brands

Some of these things are applicable, even if just as a suggestion in your personal branding on line.
Some areas that you might brand yourself on line.

Your Blog's Title Try making it catchy, a play on words, or simply easy to remember. Some blogger's use their names. The key is, you want people to be able to TALK about you easily. The easier it is for them to mention you to a friend, and give your blog title without a pen and paper, the better. The same applies to your Blog's URL.
Your Signature line This can be a saying or line that you always have at the end of your posts... maybe your signature. I have both.
Colors on your blog. Use the same colors, in your fonts, and banners... even if the banner changes, keep the colors similar, or have the same photo on it.
Profile photos. USE YOUR FACE. People want to know YOU. Using your face on your blog profile photo, on message boards, on forums, will all work to help you gain a recognizable face. Even better if you use the SAME photo in all those places.
Picking a "theme" for all your blog sections. (on mine, I liked the idea of having peeps cheep, when they left a comment, so I ran with the chicken/farm/coop theme.

Think about what makes your blog YOURS. Think about what makes bloggers like Ali Edwards so easy to recognize. It's the branding. It's something you need, no matter how small you are. It's something that lends credibility to you. It's something that draws new readers, and new traffic to your blog. If you look put together, people will come.
Think about things before they go on your blog.
Some things that distract from a good brand, and leave people feeling like you may be "just a stay at home mom"

Dated or FAD templates. Stay away from dated or "fad" looking elements unless that date is one that is part of your branding strategy. Blogger isn't MySpace. Having a blog that looks like that's where it belongs may turn readers away.
Too many blinkies and buttons and THINGS going on. That's not to say you can't have great links, and other things on your blog, BUT think about what brands from OTHER people you want to allow to take up visual space. If it's just an idea you love, or another's blog that you like, you may be better off to simply place a LINK rather than an image link (or blog button) The fact is, that sites with blinkies available to you, are really more interested in the LINK from your blog to their area of the web that they are about the fact that you didn't use the image they provided.
Un organized sidebars. It's very distracting when a reader comes to read your blog, if your sidebar isn't organized. If you have your profile in an "odd" area, or if you have no rhyme or reason to how things are listed in your link lists. Take advantage of blogger's options to edit your gadgets in your sidebar. Use the SORT ALPHABETICALLY option, or organize by importance to YOU by using the up/down arrows in the edit mode to move newly added items to their place in your lists. Make your lists in an organized fashion. Simply listing EVERYTHING on the web that you love isn't a great way to get other's to look where you'd like them to. Create SECTIONS of links... blogs I read, sites I get inspiration from, sites I'm a member of, shops I shop at. That sort of thing.
Headers that are poorly photographed. EDIT EDIT EDIT, folks!! It's very easy to crop the edges of a header, so that your carpet doesn't show around the edges. It's very easy to wait until day time, and take a clear, crisp photo in the natural light. Not taking the time to do so, tells your reader that you might take the same haphazard approach to other things. Like blogging.

No matter how much or how little you decide to take branding seriously, it's something to think about, and apply. It's easy and free, and all it takes is a little thought.

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Setting up your Settings

2008-10-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

Once you have your blog created, and you're ready to get down to business, there are some things in your settings you may or may not want to change.
At this time, you should open your SETTINGS page. It's the center "tab" of the three brown tabs at the top of the page. From here on out, I'll refer to them as tabs. Just below the tabs, are links written in blue. They break down into what I will call "sub" tabs from here on out.
FIRST, you'll want to put a description into your blog. This can be your tag line, or a desscription of what's on your blog... whatever it is, will usually show in feeds and feed readers like Bloglines.
SECOND, you need to think about whether you want your blog to be public or private. Public blogs are blogs that anyone who knows your blog address can find. Private blogs allow you to have all your readers come to view your blog by invite only. You can change either setting at either time, so it's not life or death, whichever you choose! lol One thing that you can do, while keeping your blog "public" but at the same time discouraging "strangers" from your blog, is to choose to keep your blog from certain areas of the web. You do this in the BASIC sub tab in your SETTINGS area.

By default, most of the settings on the BASIC sub tab are set where you'll want them.
Still in SETTINGS, on your PUBLISHING sub tab, you'll see the option to purchase your own domain. If you already OWN a domain, you can host a blogger blog on your website here. I purchased my domain name through blogger, and from behind the scenes, it's no different from the way it was before. The transformation was pretty seamless, and totally simple on my end.
THIRD, you will go to the sub tab in SETTINGS: FORMATTING.

In Formatting, you can choose how many posts show on your home page, choose the way your date stamps look on posts, how your posts are archived. These are all things that you can come back at any time and change. Choose what you like now, and if you change your mind, they will change without any trouble! For the most part, in this area also, the default settings are pretty often just fine. FOURTH on our stop, is COMMENTS.

Let's look at things a little closer. Top of the page, is

This SHOW/HIDE feature lets you decide if you want people to be able to comment on your posts. This area is what I would call your default area. If you want to change individual posts ability to accept comments, you can do that when you are posting. Choosing hide will make it so that your readers cannot leave a comment.

The next section of COMMENTS gives you choices for who is allowed to comment on your blog. In my experience, those who might choose to either spam your comments section (leave comments with links, and adds, with no interest in your blog) or flame your blog (leave bullying comments, or speak in inflamatory tones.) will find ways around the registered users and users with google accounts. They will create dead end ID's and leave what they want. It's also my experience, that these people are few and far enough in between, that I can easily keep tabs on my comments, and delete anyone I decide is spam or flaming.
On down the page, you can choose how comments will display on your blog. It's up to you, what you'd like.

I have my comments saved as a pop up window, because I like my readers to be able to leave a comment without leaving my blog.
Backlinks. I actually have mine listed as show. This will list blogs that have linked to specific posts on my blog, and in the blogging world. Such linking encourages traffic, as well as cross promotion of people who are posting about you!
Further on down the page, is the rest of your comment settings.

You can put a custom greeting in your comment box, that will show when people click to leave a comment. You can select whether you'd like comment moderation, (to approve comments on your blog before they show) require word verification or show profile images on your comments. My personal preference for these, is to have no moderation. I get an email every time someone comments on my blog, and I'm happy to delete any comments that I don't want on there. Since I started my blog, I've probably had less than ten such comments. They are easy to get rid of, and moderation, for me, is more of a hassle than a help. I also choose not to have word verification on my blog. I don't like having to enter all those letters myself, so I don't ask my readers to. I choose to take care of automated or bot comments after they are posted, and delete them. As for showing photos in comments, I do. I like having a face to go with a name with I read my comments.
Lastly in the comment area, I like to get emails when I get comments, so I don't have to check my blog like a crazy woman, because let's face it. I totally would. So I put the email address I'd like to get emails at in the box, and they magically come to my inbox!!
FIFTH tab, is Archiving. This is the area where you'll decided how often you want your blog to store old posts. That's entirely up to you, and can be changed anytime you want.
SIXTH sub tab, is your FEED. A feed is the method that feed readers find your blog. It's how your viewers can get updates when you post, without visiting your blog. They can chose to use readers like Bloglines, or get emails through services like Feedburner.
SEVENTH, if you'd like to get an email with the content you posted, you can have an email sent when you post in the EMAIL sub tab. You can also set up an email "address" to send emails from your email box to your blog.
EIGHT sub tab is OPEN ID. Open Id allows users with typepad, wordpress, livejournal, and other blogging platforms to use their ID, and information to leave you a comment! I use it. It's up to you if you like that or not. It's really just a way to encourage users to leave a trackable way for you to visit them in return for their comment, and that sort of thing.
NINTH and last. PERMISSIONS. This is the area you let blogger know who can view your blog. You can invite people to contribute to your blog without giving them your log in information here also. It's not a place you'll most likely be in a lot, but it's handy to know about it! :)
So that's where I'll leave you today. Play with your settings and figure out what you'd like for YOU.

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Starting a Blog

2008-10-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome!! I thought I'd start at the beginning. The VERY beginning. I use blogger, so my tutorials will all be based on that. I'm not in any way shape or form a representative for Google or Blogger. I'm just sharing what I know about blogger with you! I like blogger, because it's free to use, and you do not have to have a gmail email address to have a google account. To get started, go to Blogger's Home page. http://blogger.com (or click on the link I provided you)

You'll want to click on the big orange button that says CREATE YOUR BLOG NOW...

OR if you already have a google account, OR gmail, you can just sign in with that email and password once you click the orange button.

If you already have a google account, or a gmail email address (as in youremail@gmail.com) then you click on the blue SIGN IN FIRST button at the top right of the page. Once you've signed in, the first option you have is to create a blog title. Your blog title is NOT your blog's address on line, (URL) so you can put whatever you'd like here. People usually try to out cute eachother here... :)

Be sure you put something better than * or ~ as your title. Whatever you have in this spot, is what will show up in the TAB of browsers. * or ~ doesn't say a lot. Here's a view of what I'm talking about. Once upon a time, before headers were simple, these titles helped users when they added custom headers, but not any more. I'll explain more later.

Once you have a title, you need to choose the address for your blog. If your title is long, you might want to choose something more simple. For example, My blog's TITLE is Memories of Mine to Thine. My Blog URL only has MinetoThine in it. In my opinion, a nice short title, that's easy to remember is good. I chose mine to thine, because it echoed my blog's title, and made it easier for my family and readers to remember. Some people use their names. It's nice to remember too, that your title and your URL don't HAVE to match. If you think you'll be changing your TITLE, around a lot, you may want to choose your name as your URL. That way, people will be able to find you easily. I never planned to change mine, so I made them similar. This is also the first step to something called BRANDING, but we'll talk about that more at a later time.
The next step you'll take, is choosing your template.

By default, blogger chooses Minima. This is the best template for making changes to your blog when you want to create things like two sidebars... you have freedom to change colors and fonts in ALL blogger templates. Minima is also a good template for blogs if you choose to use a template for blogger made by someone else. Be CAREFUL when you are using templates NOT provided by blogger. Most of them use code that you paste into the EDIT HTML option of your management area, and most of them will wipe out your widgets. (all those neat little spots that you can create link lists, and blog buttons) IF you want to play with templates outside blogger, the only place I recomend, is The Cutest Blog on the Block. Their templates are placed into a widget, through your page elements area, and you will NEVER lose any widgets using their templates. Well, this wraps up my first tutorial!! Your blog is created!! We'll get into some more basics in a bit.

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Fighting Spam

2008-10-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

Tired of getting those emails from places you've never heard of? One reason you may be getting these emails, AKA spam, is because you may have written your ACTUAL email address in a comment somewhere on line, or even on your own blog. Thing is, that there are computers that "crawl" the internet looking for the @ symbol and a .com or .net and when they find them, they know that they have found an email address to spam.
SO
if you need to leave your email address in written form on a web page, then simply type it out in long form!! Like this: rachelzinbox-mail at yahoo dot com. Most people will know that the at and dot should be changed to actual punctuation. IF you want to have an easy access button for people email you easily with, you might try http://konactr.com and create a free web based email form. Your email stays hidden from on line bots, and you use your regular email address to create your account. All mail is forwarded to that email by kontactr, and you are even given a nifty little button to put in place of an email link!! Good stuff, I'm telling you.

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Enable EMAILS, People!!

2008-10-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

If you use blogger, you need to read this. If you've ever commented, and wondered why people who use blogger don't reply to you... it's not because we are snobs. It's because we CAN'T. In blogger, when you want to be informed of comments made on your blog, there is a spot in your manage settings section to do that. If you need to view any of these photo closer, just click on them.
Go to SETTINGS, and then COMMENTS:

Then scroll down to the bottom of that page and put the email that you would like to receive emails at. Save.

So now, you've enabled emails when folks comment...
BUT
Blogger doesn't have that handy dandy email feature that just about every other blog host has. When you recieve those emails, you'll get them via NOREPLY. You won't be able to reply to them unless you can figure out where they blog, and sometimes, it's a bit awkward to reply to a comment WITHIN a comment!!
BUT
There is a solution to this!! IF you have blogger... go to your dashboard.
Click on EDIT PROFILE

When you are in your profile, select the SHOW EMAIL option. This doensn't actually SHOW your email address on line. If you'd rather not have your primary email address be shared as a reply email when you leave a comment, you can change the address in the EMAIL ADDRESS box. This will make the address that "shows" (in other words is listed in your reply email and is inserted if people want to email you through your profile) the email of your choice. Save your changes.

NOW when you or anyone else views your profile, they will see a link to email you, and when you leave a comment, NO REPLY will be replaced with an email address!! This way the blogger whose blog you left that comment on will be able to REPLY to you!! No more blog tag back and forth!!

SEE???

So YOU don't use blogger? YOU have a different platform for blogging!?!?
Then be sure to tell Blogger that when you leave your comment!! Choose OPEN ID and put your information into blogger's comment box. I won't be able to email you a reply, but I WILL be able to find your blog.

Your blog platform isn't listed in OPEN ID? Maybe you have your own website? Maybe...
:::gasp:::
You don't have ANYTHING...
Then choose NAME/URL.
Type in your website or blog address. If you don't have a blog or web site, leave that spot blank!!

Hope that you learned something, and that you are able to try making the changes you can to help other bloggers talk back when you talk to THEM! If you'd like to help spread the word about this, feel free to blog about what I have written, and link back to my post!! Here is a direct link back to this post for you. http://minetothine.blogspot.com/2008/05/public-service-announcement.html

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.

Photographing Layouts

2008-10-05T21:50:00.001-07:00

*Also published on TallyScrapper.com.

A long time ago, Minda posted about how to take good photos of your layouts... with the idea that the better you can show off those pages in a photo, the better WE could see that tallent, and not be distracted by the little things.

I thought I would revisit this, and give you a little tour of the do's and don'ts of taking photos of your layouts. I also wanted to show you that even a VERY nice camera can take a picture that's not so pretty... so I will walk you through some things to think about while taking pictures of those layouts you want everyone to love like you do!

I started with a layout I did years ago, of Ian and his first (and last) time pitching. He loved pitching, and hated baseball, so he didn't do it again...

There are few things that leave the viewer wanting in the photo above. First, I have not cleared any space for my layout. The blanket at the bottom is very distracting, and I have left the page in it's book, in the page protector. Let's try again.

As you can also see, I still have not taken my page out of my book, and the crooked page next to the one I am photographing is taking attention from my layout. The blanket is gone, but the page protector and the flash on my camera are at war. I need to turn flash off, but I'm taking photos inside, and that's just not an option. Here are a few ways to take away flash glare when turning off the flash is not an option.

Stand back, WAY back, and zoom in, so the flash can disperse through the air before it reaches the layout.
Take off the page protector!!
Stand back, and if your zoom is not high, make sure your camera is set to take the highest quality photo it is capable of, and crop in later.

I'll try another shot. I take some steps back, adjust my zoom in as close as I can, and shoot.

Better! I've taken care of my glare, and flash distractions, along with that of the second page beside my focal one. Still... this photo has a lot of background in it, and all the layers and bunching in my couch take away from my shot. So I have a few options.

Crop the photo.
Place a uniform background behind my photo.

I also need to lower my angle. I'm taking my shot from too high above my photo, and this distorts the way the page looks, so I'll crouch down next time, and try to take my shot from a straight on angle. Since I'm exploring all avenues with you, I'll choose 2 for my first experiment.

Turned out better.... I lined up the side of my photo with the edge of the camera's viewfinder... that will help me get a good straight shot of the photo. I got down at the same level as my layout, and took the shot as straight on as I could. That will help with page curves and things of that nature If I choose to crop.

BUT

I didn't make sure that the bottom of my layout was unobstructed... so that might come back to bite my butt. Let's experiment with that other option up above... cropping.

Using Picasa, a FREE photo editing program that I highly recommend, I used the "I'm Feeling LUCKY" setting, and then cropped the picture in MANUAL mode, so that I could cut out the background. As you can see, cropping that blanket at the bottom of the layout forced me to cut a pretty large section of the layout out of the final draft photograph. Still, it's pretty decent for a photo taken inside. I could use this one if I needed to!

Let's try some OTHER choices. Like, taking a picture outside.

This photo was taken outside, on my deck, in full sunlight. It turned out pretty good! Now to fiddle with it a little, and get a final draft that I would like to share.

First, I'll straighten the picture, to make the most of my crop when the time comes for that.

There is a grid on Picasa when you select the straighten tool, and I use one side of my layout to line up with the grid, so that I can get the most of of the feature. Be sure to save if you use the straighten tool. Not saving between straighten and crop can create problems, and you don't want those. Save by right clicking on your photo in Picasa, and selecting SAVE.

I wonder if I can get this page to look even more true to life? The photo looks pretty good... but it's a little more washed out than I think it looks in real life I'm going to use the SHADOW tool... and then crop.

When I crop, I use the MANUAL setting of the crop tool, so that I can get a free form shape. I crop just inside the page lines, so that there is no background showing when I'm finished. That's pretty good!! I could definitely use this in a gallery, but I think we should explore another option.

So what about taking photos in the shade? Or photos with a backdrop? I think I'll try that... using my white backdrop fabric to lay my photo on, in the shade.

Pretty nice, but one thing I've noticed when I take photos of things in the shade, is that they often have a blue hue to them... so I think I'll take this photo to Picasa again, and see if I can't get that taken care of. First, I use the WARMIFY tool. This will help any other tools I use to fix my photo. It will help them to fix things in the right tint. While I'm at it, I'll straighten, and save.

Next, I'll use that lovely tool... "I'm Feeling Lucky". It seems to know just what to do without a lot of fiddling. If it doesn't work, I can always undo that treatment. So here I go.

I really like the way the lucky tool took my photo, but it seems to have tried a little too hard to cool my photo down, and it was looking a little blue again. So I used the COLOR TEMP tool to adjust and bring the blues down on the layout. I don't pay much attention to the white background still looking a little blue. I think I plan to crop that out later anyway. This is pretty much the way my layout looks in real life! I think I'll crop now.

One more thing that's nice to show off... the layering of photos, embellishments and titles... the way things are matted and other details like that. It's hard to show those things off with a straight on shot. I recomend taking a photo at an angle, and off to the side. A good way to get clear up close shots, is to use your MACRO setting on your camera. Be sure, when you are taking photos of ANYTHING, to use the focus feature of your camera. Most all cameras will show you where the focus of your photo will be if you hold your trigger button (the botton that makes the camera take the picture) "halfway" down. Just lightly press it, not hard enough to take the shot, but enough to get it halfway there. My camer beeps at me to let me know it's adjusted, and in my viewfinder, I can see where the little rectangle is setting on my screen. Where it rests, is where the focus of my photo is at. If the photo isn't clear at this stage, it's not going to be if I press the trigger the rest of the way down. So I either need to re press the button and try again, or adjust my position from farther to nearer or visa versa and try the focus again until I get it right. Then I take the shot.

Once I have the shot, I play with warmify, and lucky settings like I did with the other outdoor shot... and then, I crop to help my viewer see the things I wanted to show off.

Here they are. My final shots!! First, the Indoor shot. Then Outdoors, in full sunlight, and finally, the shot in the shade outdoors.

Any Questions, just ask here in the comments section!

© Rachel Whetzel Please do not use content or images without written permissions.