tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54198001490903430012009-06-07T19:26:40.684-07:00handy stuff for digital photosStevenoreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-65832799473341888822008-12-29T10:27:00.001-08:002009-01-01T12:02:59.483-08:00

If you have picture frames and photo albums with oddly sized pages and you've been burning through your 4x6 photo paper trying to get it right, I have good news for you: The new version of PhotoSheet now supports custom layouts. There are a few other minor improvements - for instance, it's easier to rearrange the images on a sheet; just click the image in the preview picture and it'll be selected

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-28621285791028713312008-07-20T09:22:00.000-07:002008-07-20T09:40:13.847-07:00

Here's another cool Medley effect I came across on Antonio's site. He used Cinema4D to create this short animation that illustrates how Medley images assemble.

Stevenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-25082329599977775662008-07-19T15:41:00.001-07:002008-07-20T10:36:33.961-07:00

Antonio has pushed the envelope some more, using Picture Medley and PhotoShop and Ultra Fractal to create Droste-inspired images like this one. You can find more images like this one on his web site. Very cool!

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-68876892376212368522008-06-22T10:08:00.001-07:002008-06-22T10:09:43.289-07:00

I've had a few people ask how to know when I post updates to tools or post new tools. Someday I hope to have time to add an automatic mechanism to the programs so that they will upgrade themselves when new versions are posted. PictureMedley does this already. For now the rest are manual (you have to visit the web site and look for an update). But the good news is that you can use RSS to

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-35721606780569489532008-02-07T22:31:00.000-08:002008-07-20T09:44:05.829-07:00

In a piece of email today, Erica asked whether it was possible to include words in a Medley, perhaps one for a web site banner.Of course!I started with Paint, and quickly laid out the text and logo. I saved the banner image, then started Picture Medley. Checking the pixel dimensions of the Paint image (1025x296) I came up with an aspect ratio of 3.5 to 1. So I used the "Custom Print Size" option

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-1176697864802973672008-02-03T12:05:00.000-08:002008-02-03T21:43:08.173-08:00

I learned today that the folks over at Softpedia have discovered, tested, and indexed several of my apps in their database; which includes some amount of checking for utility and for viruses and security. You can check out their index of Photility apps here. Thanks Softpedia!This certification is consistent with my goal of building clean and useful software, but as usual you should not take

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-50135099303838611562007-12-04T23:52:00.000-08:002008-07-20T09:45:03.881-07:00

PictureMedley doesn't currently support multiple tile sizes, but that hasn't stopped Ant over at Village9991! He accomplished this feat using PhotoShop.First he generated 3 medleys using the same target and tile images.For each medley he varied the setting for "Tiles on Longest Side", using values of 12, 24, and 48.He then brought all 3 images into PhotoShop, placing them on separate layers. The

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-66876227232208055272007-11-24T00:00:00.000-08:002008-07-20T09:45:03.881-07:00

PictureMedley includes a number of effects. Some are useful to help the target image show through, others are purely for fun. Click each thumbnail to see a larger size. Each of these is built from the same set of flower photo tiles, using the application's icon as the target image. The "use target as tile" option was selected, and you should be able to find the icon in each of these medley

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-29638204755615142782007-11-22T13:07:00.000-08:002007-11-23T23:45:31.436-08:00

Want to add a little interest to your scrapbook page? Make it jump off the page with a DoublePhoto. This neat little accordion fold trick lets you squeeze two pictures into one, and whoever is looking at your page will pick up the scrapbook and hold it up in the air, just to see the picture from both angles.Start with the pictures you want to use. Let's say you're making a page about a child's

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-37618757447900566722007-11-16T21:33:00.000-08:002007-11-17T09:00:06.944-08:00

Are you into scrapbooking? You might find some of the tools here useful. I have a few friends who are into scrapbooking and a few of these tools are handy for getting photos to the right size for that album page project.Cropper is designed to do two things: 1) give you control over what part of a picture makes it into the print, and 2) allow you to whip through a folder full of photos in record

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-9403204764109313592007-10-30T23:42:00.000-07:002007-11-17T16:18:46.616-08:00

Responding to a couple of minor feature requests today.new option to allow the crop area to expand slightly outside the image. This allows you to squeeze more of an image into the crop as long as you're willing to live with the "letterbox" look (black or white bars on top/bottom or left/right). improved protection for your original images - you can choose to not apply rotation or tags to the

Stevenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-47265064367324775742007-10-18T00:02:00.000-07:002008-07-20T09:45:03.881-07:00

Antonio has built a number of medleys, even some large print ones. He has been really creative with the tile images; using abstract shapes and manipulating the contrast and brightness to allow them to fade away into the background.Here's one of Leonardo Davinci's Mona Lisa:Here's one of Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus:Lots more great examples on his site.

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-45359638649533335372007-10-13T21:34:00.000-07:002008-07-20T09:45:03.882-07:00

Gerardo built this a while ago using the PictureMedley software and Sony Vegas Video 5.0. He said the hardest part was lining up all of the "in" and "out" video frames.Very cool!Links: Veoh YouTube Stage6

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-44782179547980684542007-10-12T07:18:00.000-07:002007-11-17T16:17:15.077-08:00

In musical terms, a medley combines a variety of melodies to form a new composition. When you listen to a musical medley, you hear and can recognize the individual melodies; and the overall composition has its own overall theme and presence.In photographic terms, then, a medley combines a variety of photographs to form a new composite image. As with the musical medley, you can see and recognize

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-80332905491634353072007-10-11T00:50:00.000-07:002007-11-17T16:19:40.095-08:00

Just added a quick update to Cropper to be aware of the Exif Rotation Tag.Many digital cameras these days include a little gravity sensor that allows the camera to know which way was up at the time the picture was taken, and this information is written to a tag in the photo file.Cropper is now aware of this tag, and automatically adjusts the image when loading it. The original image no longer

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-48847296525518038722007-09-06T21:52:00.000-07:002007-11-23T23:40:30.231-08:00

Interesting title, you're thinking. Really those are just random passphrases from the updated password generator. (I think you'll agree they're a little easier to remember than MYHXBEYK and acjsze. Technically they're not as secure since they're not as random, but that small sacrifice might be worthwhile if you need to remember the word.)The password generator is a simple online tool which

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-91820267646323856992007-07-21T09:22:00.001-07:002007-11-17T16:27:56.811-08:00

Another Cropper update! I started playing with Adobe LightRoom this week, and discovered that it was a little overwhelming having all of the cropped images mixed with the original images. So I've added a new setting to put crops into a separate folder. There are a couple tricks you can use with this new setting: Enter just a name (e.g. the default is "Crops") and the folder will be created

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-53710352207049569202007-07-15T10:58:00.001-07:002007-11-17T16:28:47.557-08:00

This morning I made a couple of minor updates to Cropper.Changes:Added a Delete button to the bottom toolbar. I found in my photo processing I had several photos that weren't worth keeping, and it was becoming tedious switching back and forth between Cropper and Explorer. The Delete button removes the current image file (it goes into the Windows Recycle Bin if you should hit it by mistake).

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-58794134839517734652007-07-03T12:27:00.001-07:002007-11-17T23:29:10.278-08:00

Time for a name change - the ol' Wallet Generator does a bit more than just make wallet photos.I have a 4x6 photo printer and several photo collage picture frames in the house that hold 4x6 photos. Sometimes there are more photos than can fit in the frame, and the MakeWallets software came in handy for fitting multiple pictures into a single 4x6 slot in the frame.The problem was that the wallet

Stevenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-53799945920489171482007-06-26T00:27:00.001-07:002007-11-17T23:28:15.967-08:00

 I've always wanted to build my own multiple image prints using lenticular overlays, so when I saw this post on "do-it-yourself lenticular prints" I finally had a good reason to go ahead and write this software. If I eventually find a good cheap source for the lenticular overlays I'll be all set. :-) How to use Install and run the program. You'll need two images. Drag them into the "Left

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-18825058295928149892007-06-20T11:54:00.000-07:002008-07-20T12:16:51.373-07:00

Here's an animation that shows how to assemble a MiniAlbum.

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-20129069957852978982007-06-03T23:14:00.001-07:002008-06-02T07:25:00.738-07:00

When filtering my digital photos to select individual pics I would like to upload for printing or sharing, I typically pull files from multiple directories. To batch the files together for a single upload, I used to copy the files to a temporary directory, and then delete the temporary directory when I was finished with the upload. There were two major downsides to this approach: I was eating

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-52791094186880128022007-05-15T01:03:00.001-07:002007-12-10T22:17:47.194-08:00

A friend pointed me at this really cool ZoomAlbum system. First you load and arrange your pictures in their software, then use their software to print to their special paper (which has a self-adhesive on the backside, and is also pre-cut), and finally expose the adhesive on the back of their paper and after a little bit of paper folding you end up with a really professional looking bound book.

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-27305584055064680822007-02-11T22:48:00.000-08:002008-07-20T09:54:17.051-07:00

This page helps you come up with a secure password. Not really photo editing, but still useful, especially when you need a new user ID or password for that photo sharing web site.

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5419800149090343001.post-90258940350806291382006-09-29T23:26:00.000-07:002007-11-18T08:25:08.626-08:00

This application lets you easily crop photos for use as tiles in PictureMedley or for printing. Quickly prepare a group of images for printingWhether you have a 4x6 or 5x7 photo printer or you upload images to a photo printer (either web site or local printing service), take control of the parts of the image that get trimmed away by cropping the image yourself before printing.Quickly process

Stevenoreply@blogger.com0