Arlen Nagata . com

The iOS 5 Camera Trick No One Knows About… Until Now

webmaster — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:48:00 +0000

image from flickr, Nico Kaiser

Learn my secret iPhone Camera tip that I have not seen published anywhere else…

For many of us, the iPhone camera has become our “go to” camera of choice. It’s on our cell phone so we always have it with us. And if you have an iPhone 4 (or the latest iPhone 4s) then your phone takes amazingly beautiful pictures. I must admit that the iPhone pictures come out better than my point and shoot camera which I purchased a few short years ago.

Now with the recent introduction of iOS 5, a few really cool and powerful enhancements have been given to the phone. When the iPhone is locked or “sleeping” a quick double press of the “Home Button” will bring up a quick launch button for the camera. You don’t even have to type in your passcode to use it.

Then to help you compose better pictures you can turn on optional grid lines so we can use the “rule of thirds” to capture more interesting photos.

You can even tap and hold to auto focus and lock the exposure.

And of course, one final addition is the ability to use the phone’s “Volume Up” button to take the picture. Now we can finally hold our phone like a camera and take the picture as if it were a normal point-and-shoot camera. This is a feature I absolutely love!

But did you know that if you have headphones with volume control buttons connected to your iPhone while you take pictures… you know what’s coming. Yes, you can use the volume up on your headphone remote to take the picture. (I’ve also tried it with bluetooth, but I could not replicate the picture taking function. Perhaps your Bluetooth Headset will also take pictures.)

You may ask, why would you want to do take pictures with your headphones? Sharper, pictures, especially if you use your iPhone with a tripod. Or maybe just because you can. Using a remote to take pictures is generally an optional feature on DSLR cameras. But isn’t it good to know your iPhone can do it too?

So that’s it! Yes, it won’t change the world, but it’s something cool. And I love it when I put my iPhone on my tripod and take a few awesome and crystal clear pictures. I know this tip is useful for the most amazing iPhones ever.

Aloha!

Batch Processing in Photoshop Elements 9

webmaster — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:34:59 +0000

Can Photoshop Elements 9 work with and convert many photos at once or do I have to manually convert each picture? In other words, can Photoshop Elements 9 do Batch Processing?

At last week’s Photoshop Elements Group, I was asked how to optimize a photo to be uploaded to an online service and then printed as a 4″ x 6″ Photo. So we talked about some good settings in the Save For Web command. The next question was, can I do this on all my photos at once?

My first response was “No, I don’t think so. Batch processing is something reserved for the full version of Photoshop.” Boy was I wrong. Find out what I learned by the end of the night…

Download a PDF of this lesson

Click here to download my PDF- Batch Processing in Photoshop Elements 9

Watch My Tutorial Video:

Changing Facebook Privacy Sharing, A Little Discretion Please

webmaster — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:53:29 +0000

We all love to use Facebook to share with our friends and family what we’re doing and to capture memories. But we need to be careful not to share too much when discretion and privacy are called for. That’s where Facebook privacy settings comes in.

Click here for my PDF on setting Facebook Privacy Settings

WordPress Tips & Videos Moved…

webmaster — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:17:39 +0000

Hi Gang,

I decided to move my WordPress Tips, Videos and other stuff to another site. It’s more of my Web Design Portfolio site. Drop by and tell me what you think.

arlen

www.hawaiiwp.com

Photoshop Elements- Professional Photo Sharpening

arlen — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:00:15 +0000

All digital photos need to be sharpened. Whether you take pictures with a high end DSLR camera or a Point and Shoot camera.

Therefore you need to know how to sharpen images in Photoshop Elements.

I’ll show you one technique today that works wonders.

PSE Tip-Professional Photo Sharpening- High Pass Filter from Arlen Nagata on Vimeo.

An Overview of Working with WordPress’ Back End

arlen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:05:18 +0000

Now that your website is up and running, let me take you on a tour of the features you’ll be using to update your own website.

Introduction to the WordPress Dashboard

Introduction to the WordPress Admin Bar

Working with Quick Press

Adding Posts and Pages to Your Website

arlen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:00:17 +0000

When we want to add content to our website, we generally want to add one of two things. A Post or Article for a blog, or a Page which we want to remain visible on our site.

An example of Pages are “Contact Me”, “About Us”, “Location Map”. These are basically static pages that won’t change much, but we want them to be always visible on our website.

Posts on the other hand are articles of content that we want to add to a blog or have a running list of new articles.

Here’s a couple of videos on how to add Posts and Pages.

Add New Post

Add New Page

Adding Images To Your Posts

arlen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:55:11 +0000

WordPress allows you to add images in a number of ways. Here are two ways to easily upload images and insert them into your Posts and Articles.

Add an image from your Computer

Add Image from URL

Using the Media Library

arlen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:50:21 +0000

The Media Library is the place where WordPress stores all of the images that you have uploaded. It’s also a great way to upload many images at once. Here’s a couple of videos to show you how the Media Library works.

Upload Media to the Media Library

Add an image from Media Library

Formatting Your Posts and Pages

arlen — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 05:45:18 +0000

This series of videos will help you format your Posts and Pages.

The following topics are covered below:

Introduction to the Visual Editor Toolbar
Add Headings
Add Paragraphs
Create Hyperlinks
Creating Lists
Embed videos and other media