PhotoHow2 On Hiatus

I just wanted to let everyone know that development of PhotoHow2 has stopped for now. I’m not sure if I will continue writing tutorials and reviews in the future, but I’m planning on leaving everything online for the time being.

Please feel free to leave comments if you need help with an issue. This website’s most popular post, the Unofficial Minimatica Users Guide, still gets quite a bit of traffic. I haven’t been working on my Minimatica themed photography website so I’m getting pretty rusty and most likely won’t be fielding comments from contributors. I’m hoping, however, that readers will.

Thanks for all of your support and interest over the years — it’s been great fun.

Organize Your Lightroom Library–Convert to DNG and Delete Duplicates

I just upgraded to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 and the program’s new polished look gave me the nudge I needed to take on a library clean-up project. Namely, I wanted to convert all of my photos stored in various raw formats to DNG (if you haven’t jumped on the DNG bandwagon yet, it might be time to reconsider as Adobe has added some impressive new features) and I wanted to forever rid my library of duplicate images.

Convert to DNG

It’s easy to convert images to DNG in Lightroom 4. Start in Library mode and click on your main storage folder (I keep all of my year folders in my main “Shoots” folder). Then initiate Lightroom’s “find” function or Library Filter by hitting “Cmd + f” (I’m using a mac — hit “Ctrl + f” for PC). When the find bar opens filter by Text and choose the options “Filename” and “Contains.” I wanted to convert my Olympus ORF files and my leftover NEF files, so I conducted two separate searches with those terms in the search bar. Continue reading →

Nikon D3100–Latest Impressions Of This Photographer’s Main Camera

Nikon D3100, an reliable camera that takes great photos and provides an alternative to more expensive cameras like the D4 and the D800

The Venerable Nikon D3100

With all the buzz about Nikon’s latest FX offerings, the D4 and the almost affordable D800, and rumors flying about the D3200, I thought it might be a good time to review my old standby, the Nikon D3100, which I’ve been using for almost two years. I’m a firm believer in doing the research, making good decisions about gear buys, and then getting the most out of my purchases, so you can bet that this photographer won’t denigrate himself by drooling over Nikon’s latest and greatest releases.

OK, I’m lying. I fawn just like every other camera junky when a new model like the D800 comes out, especially when and it has features like a 36.3MP FX-format CMOS sensor, full HD 1080p video at 30/25/24p with stereo sound, an ISO range from 100-6400, a 4 fps burst rate and the Advanced Scene Recognition System with a 91,000-pixel RGB sensor. But the realities of my income keep to keep my desires in check. Continue reading →

CSS Style–Skip The Header Image & Create A Text Logo For Your WordPress Site

My WordPress Website Needs A New Logo

CSS 3 Makes Everything Possible

I’ve written a fair amount about developing my Minimatica themed WordPress website, GregAitkenheadPhotography (if you’re building your own website, don’t forget to check out the Unofficial Users Guide). Like many photographers, I find that the Minimatica theme works great for my portfolio–its easy to set up (once you get used to a few quirks), it has a great slider for showcasing photography, and its minimal style keeps visitors focused on the art work, not on ads.

One of the issues I wanted to fix, but didn’t feel like I had the tools to tackle, was the website’s flat header title. I didn’t want to clutter up the front page with an image or a banner, but I also wasn’t happy with the ultra minimal logo or the default font. Luckily, I found a free Tuts+ Premium video tutorial called 30 Days To Learn HTML and CSS by Jeffrey Way. Day 19′s episode, The Basics of Typography, gave me all of the information I needed to add flare to my website’s text logo in the form of a new open source Google web font and a drop shadow effect. Continue reading →

Online HTML School–The Best HTML and CSS Tutorials For Beginners

Learn HTML and CSS: A Review of Four Free Online Courses

And The Winner Is...Tuts+ Premium: 30 Days To Learn HTML and CSS

Everything Just Seemed To Click

My path to HTML CSS proficiency probably mirrors the path taken by the majority of PhotoHow2′s visitors. I’m a photographer, and I wanted to find an inexpensive way to represent my photography online. Basically, I needed a virtual business card, I was interested in developing websites, and I figured the time was right to jump in.

Finding an online HTML school and learning HTML code wasn’t my first priority–my journey started with a Blogger/Blogspot website–Google’s free content management system (if you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between the two, check Isasc Yassar’s blogpost). I wanted my introduction to website development to run as smoothly as possible, but what I found was that Blogger, as the name implies, isn’t really set up for photographers looking to post photos online. Continue reading →