Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Photoshop wizardry – create the Droste ‘frame in a frame’ effect

In previous posts I’ve introduced the Pixel Bender extension for Photoshop CS4 and CS5/5.5 and the Droste filter created by Tom Beddard. This post I’ll show you how to create the classic frame in a frame image effect using these tools.

The critical part of this effect is getting the image right before you start. You need a framed image so start by opening an image to use. Add some white canvas around the flattened image by first setting the background color to White. Select the Crop tool and drag over the image. Let go the mouse button and then hold the Shift + Alt (Option) key as you drag outwards on a corner handle to add an extra canvas around the image.

Convert the background layer to a regular layer.

Now add a frame border. I did this using a Layer Style to add a black Stroke to the inside of the image and then I used Bevel and Emboss and Contour to make the frame more dimensional.

Check the image dimensions – they must be below 4096 x 4096 – so size the image down if it is too big. Flatten the image and save it as a .jpg image. Close and reopen the image.

Now launch the Droste filter by choosing Filter > Pixel Bender > Pixel Bender Filter and select Droste.

Hold Alt (Option) as you click on the Reset button and then set these values:

Set Size [0] and Size [1] to the dimensions of your image – width and height.

Adjust the CenterShift [0] and [1] values so that the part of the image you are most interested in seeing in the frame is where you want it in the effect – in my case I wanted the mask on the left but you may want the image in the center or on the right.

Adjust the Rotate slider to rotate the image so the frame is aligned as you want it to be. If you want the ‘frame’ to start other than where it appears, use the Zoom slider to move into the image – I did this so the composition would look better.

Adjust the Center [0] and [1] values to adjust the positioning of the effect in the image area.

Adjust the RadiusInside and RadiusOutside values to adjust the size of the image frame effect – in this case I wanted to have the main mask well outside the frame so it would be a focal point.

Finish off by fine tuning the values you have already set to ensure the best result. Click Ok to finish.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 9:45 am2 Comments links to this post

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Dreamweaver – Properties inspector missing buttons

If you’re using Dreamweaver on a large monitor, you may encounter a difficulty with the Properties panel (Inspector) not showing all the icons you expect to see.

For example, in the image below the Quick Tag Editor, Help button and the Expand button are all missing from the Properties panel.

Only when the Dreamweaver window is expanded to a much larger size do these buttons appear.

So, unless you know what is happening you will find that key tools for working in Dreamweaver are missing. If you are creating an image map, for example, not being able to see to click the Expand button means all your Map tools are hidden.

So, if you find the Expand button is missing on your Dreamweaver Properties panel you can do one of three things. Either make the Dreamweaver window very large so that you can see the Expand/Collapse icon or drag the Properties panel free of the Dreamweaver screen so it is no longer docked. As soon as it’s undocked the buttons appear again. Or… and this is a cool trick, double click anywhere in an empty space in the Properties panel and the hidden buttons appear.

Hiding buttons is REALLY ANNOYING behavior particularly when you know there’s an icon or feature that’s supposed to be on the Properties panel and it’s simply not appearing when it should.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 1:15 pm2 Comments links to this post

Friday, July 1st, 2011

Outlook 2010: backup gets worse (if that’s possible)

If you thought Microsoft has, over the years, right royally messed up the process of backing up your Outlook PST files then the situation with Outlook 2010 has only got worse.

For Outlook 2002, 2003 and 2007 users Microsoft provided a Personal Folders Backup Tool that you could download from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=9003 which would install a backup routine into Outlook.

Having done this you could then select File > Backup to backup your PST file.

Over the years of course, this has prompted questions as to why the thing wasn’t built in to Outlook in the first place? It is a stupid and ill-considered omission in my book, but let’s put that aside for now because the problem only gets worse for Outlook 2010 users.

You see the Personal Folders Backup Add-In doesn’t work with Outlook 2010.

As I say repeatedly it’s Microsoft’s world and we just live in it. Microsoft knows that there’s a problem and explains that the failure of the add-in is due to the new fast shutdown functionality in Outlook. If you visit this website http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2030523 you can click the Fix It For Me link and Microsoft will fix the problem for you.

Don’t even bother asking why there is a problem in the first place. There should be (and it’s inexcusable that there is not)  a backup routine built in to Outlook to make it easy for you to backup your PST file.

Consider this – everything you receive or send via email is in that PST file – and that includes attachments! Lose it and you lose the lot. Worse still, there is a physical limit to its size – beyond around 2GB the thing can become horribly unstable. So you will need to back it up or risk losing it all if your computer crashes or the thing becomes corrupt.

So, if your using Outlook 2010, run (don’t walk) to this site: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=9003 and download and install the Personal Folders Back up tool for Outlook 2002, 2003 and 2007 (yep! I know you’re using Outlook 2010! Then go to this site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2030523 and run the Fix It Tool – you have to have the backup tool installed first.

If you don’t like clicking Fix It buttons then there’s a detailed explanation in that same Knowledge Base article explaining how to fix the problem manually – basically it’s a fairly simple registry fix.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 9:35 am9 Comments links to this post

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

DIY Color Changing Clip Art

Much of the illustration Clip Art in the Microsoft Clip Organizer can be edited by changing its colors. By doing this you can not only recolor the art to match the look of your document but, if you use Theme colors then the art will change color when the Theme or Color scheme changes.

Now you won’t need information technology degrees to learn this – but maybe you’ll be so good at it, you just might consider graphic design college.

So, let’s see how the recoloring is done. First select the Clip Art and from the Picture Tools -> Format tab click the Group > Ungroup button. Answer Yes if you are prompted to convert the image to a Microsoft Office Drawing Object. In some applications  such as Publisher you’ll need to repeat the process and select Ungroup again.

Now click on individual parts of the object and either remove them or recolor them by selecting a Shape Fill Color from the Drawing Tools > Format tab. If you use Theme colors then the colors will change later on when the theme changes.

When you are done and you have recolored all the pieces you want to recolor, select all the pieces, right click and choose Group.

Change the document theme or Color Scheme to see the image change color to match the look of the theme.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 6:22 pm1 Comment links to this post

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Word – joining up short lines

One of my readers – Joe – recently asked for some help regarding removing spaces in Word. He thought that the problem with the text was additional spaces, but when I looked into it, it appears that something else is causing the issue.

Here is a piece of sample text and you can see that it is a series of short lines which my reader wants to make into one continuous paragraph.

To see what is causing him issues click the Show/Hide¶ button on the Home tab of the Word Ribbon.

At the end of each line you will find either a Paragraph Marker or a Manual Line Break – each is different and you need to work out which you have at the end of each line. Also determine if there is a space before each of the markers. If there is not a space you will need to add it yourself. Here is a mix of both markers but no spaces:

To make the lines flow into each other, from the Home tab on the Ribbon click the Replace option. If you need to replace Paragraph Markers, enter ^p into the Find What box. If you need to replace a Manual Line Break then enter ^l (lower case L) into the Find What box.

If you need to add a space, click in the Replace With box and press the Spacebar once – if you don’t need to add a space, then leave the Replace With box empty.

Click Find Next and then click Replace. Check to make sure the replacement is working as expected. If it is, click Replace All and lines will be joined together into a single paragraph of text.

Typically you only have to replace one type of marker and not both, but if you have both, then you will need to find and replace each individually.

When you’re done click Show/Hide¶ again to hide the extra characters from view.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 7:45 pm5 Comments links to this post

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Help! My Excel Chart Columns are too Skinny

It’s probably happened to you, you’ve created an Excel chart and the columns are so narrow they are almost unreadable. The chart is ugly and it appears as if there’s nothing that you can do because nothing that should work does work.

The problem typically happens when you have a chart with an X axis that is has date data and where you aren’t plotting every day but, instead, for example, one day a week.

The solution is to click the X axis of the chart so that you have it selected, right click and choose Format Axis. From the Axis Options panel, select Text Axis. This turns your skinny bars into something a lot more attractive.

If the bars still not thick enough – and typically, for me, they aren’t – click on one bar to select the series, right click and choose Format Data Series. From the  Series options, decrease the Gap Width value to around 35 percent. This option won’t work unless you first set the X axis to a Text axis although you and I both wish it would!

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 8:50 am86 Comments links to this post

Monday, June 13th, 2011

A tripod that works with you!


I want one of these tripods. No more bending down to look through the viewfinder because it never winds high enough. No more adjusting the camera to change from shooting landscape to portrait.

This tripod works with  you. It does just what you want it to when you want it. It’s on my list for Santa this year, for sure.

P.S. What the heck was this girl thinking? I never once saw the tripod touch the ground. It really was very funny to watch. Here she does another portrait orientation shot with it – notice how she’s rotated the camera to get the tripod in a more accommodating position.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 7:26 am2 Comments links to this post

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

Have Patience – it will be rewarded – guaranteed!

Something I’ve been thinking about lately is patience. The secret to this image isn’t the place although it was pretty cool or the weather – a hundred feet above the buildings are surrounded with grey fog. It isn’t my camera – it’s good but not great or my skills, anyone on Aperture priority sitting where I was would have got the same shot. No! the secret of this one is patience.

I spent about an hour shooting kids playing in 1 inch of water at this fountain. Waiting. Watching. Hoping for something to happen. I found a good location, got comfortable, and waited. I got a lot of good shots but when this kid opened the umbrella I knew I was onto something. I pressed the shutter and kept going – I didn’t stop when I thought I had the shot I just kept shooting. When I got home, the shots I thought were great were good.  This was the winner,this was the shot that keeps me going out every day… looking for magic.

Next time you’re out shooting – be patient. Find a good spot and wait until magic happens for you.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 12:42 pm1 Comment links to this post

Saturday, June 11th, 2011

When is the art yours and when is it not?


I’m not talking copyright here but rather, when is a photo about your vision and when it is just recording someone else’s. I think that when you take a photo of something someone else created it’s probably more about the recording process than that the result is truly art. Take this image below – it’s a piece of building art that I photographed but really, beyond placing myself in position to capture the image I didn’t contribute any of my vision to the result.

However, the image at the top of this post is something else indeed. Here the same piece of art appears but it looks very different. I had to find this image – it was a reflection in the windows of a building across the street. Here I made a creative choice about what I captured and what I left out, where the reflection appeared and how the result would look. I contributed my artist’s vision to the photograph.

Ask yourself next time you’re out photographing – are you recording someone else’s work or creating your own?

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 12:34 pm1 Comment links to this post

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Excel multi color column charts

When you have a great big Excel column chart with heaps of delicious data but all in one series, it makes sense for the chart to be plotted in wonderful technicolor. However that’s an option Excel 2010 doesn’t make it very easy to find. If you try the Chart Tools > Design tab you can choose a multi-color chart but that only colors each series a different color so it won’t work when all your data is in one series.

The solution is to click on one column to select it then right click and choose Format Data Series > Fill group. Locate and check the Vary Colors by Point option and you’ll have a wonderful multi-colored series – much more enlightening than a plain old single color chart don’t you think?

If the colors aren’t to your liking (you are getting just a little bit fussy but I do know exactly what you mean) select the Page Layout tab and check out the Themes – there’s sure to be one which will make your chart perfect.

Helen Bradley

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posted by Helen Bradley @ 8:40 am20 Comments links to this post

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