Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Celebrity Big Brother Breakdowns

Celebrity Big Brother is upon us again. And allows face it we love it.

This old age Celebrity Big Brother will be the 4th after it was originally conceived as a monetary fund raiser for Amusing Relief in 2002. The show was won by a rather crabbed and abashed Jack Dee who actually staged a successful flight during the show. He still declines to be interviewed on the topic but it didn’t make his calling any harm! Anyway the existent play came from the bigger than life presenter, Genus Vanessa Feltz. Celebrity Big Brother proved very good at spotting attenuation celebs who are on the brink of imploding and to the eye-balls-glued-to-the-TV horror and delectation of the billions watching, Genus Vanessa allow cipher down and imploded with some style.

This kind of on-screen famous person unravelling was to put the criterion for the 2nd and 3rd Celebrity Big Brother series and male child they haven’t disappointed.

Series two proverb former Take That vocalist and all-round nice guy, Mark Owen, win it but the existent involvement was provided by the matrimonial Angst of not-so-funny-man, Les Dennis. Poor ol’ Les was Celebrity Big Brother Two’s imploding unravelling celebrity. It seemed like he was the lone 1 in the state who didn’t cognize Amanda was about to walk. Cringe!

Last twelvemonth we were coddled for spectacle. Celebrity Big Brother excelled themselves when they managed to acquire the monster show that was Toilet McCririck, Brigitte Nielsen and Jackie Stallone, in the same house. Volition we ever bury the horror of McCririck (in full frame) pulling a juicy bogy from his anterior naris and then greedily lapping it up or his monolithic Moody and being denied diet coke (of all things!) by Big Brother! Or the horror on Brigitte’s face, when ex-mother in-law Jackie Stallone was introduced into the Celebrity Big Brother pit. Fantastic. Baz from the Happy Mondays walked off with the prize, upsetting the bookies front-runner kid rapper, Blazin’ Squads’, Kenzie.

So on to this twelvemonth and Celebrity Big Brother Four and if Celebrity Big Brother were looking for a washed up delicate famous person who could spectacularly unravel, right down to his DNA, before a hungry public, they can only have got had one adult male at the top of their list. Measure forward Mister Michael Barrymore.

Yes folks the former multiple winner of the UK’s Entertainer Of The Year is rumoured to be going in to the Celebrity Big Brother House (for a fee of £150k). Already, the male parent of the male child who drowned in cryptic fortune in Mr. Barrymore’s pool, is asking for him to be broiled on the topic by his housemates. Ouch.

So who are the other housemates likely to be? The listing is eternal but the best supported rumors for Celebrity Big Brother Four are, girly Male Child George, saggy miss Lisa Nicole Smith, Dead or Alive presence girl-man, Pete Burns, male child who looks like a miss Thomas Babington Macaulay Culkin, amusing miss Liza Tarbuck, toothy miss Esther Rantzen, lovely miss Fern Cotton and … well I’m out of girlie prefixes so I’ll leave of absence it there. So that’s it. Thursday January the 5th on C4 will kick-off the madness. Can’t wait.


Monday, February 26, 2007

Getting The Right Digital Camera For You

There are really great advantages in digital photography:

You can shoot till you drop

Taking digital images on your camera has no implication other then you have captured the image. Then you can review each image on the small screen on the back of your camera. You can shoot as many pictures of the same scene as you like – store them in memory – delete the ones that you do not like and print the one(s) you like.

Each image is a winner

Alternatively you can put an image up on a computer screen or email it to all you friends – can black mail be this easy?

Print at home or in a lab

You can print your image at home on a photo printer – turn your image into a greeting card, calendar, or a whole other list of photo memorabilia. Or hand over the job to the professionals.

So what digital camera should I buy?

A question we are often asked is ’what sort of camera should I buy’? There are literally hundreds of different models available from a large number of well known manufacturers.

This is a difficult question, which might be answered in a complex way. Rather, here we have tried to emphasise the salient points and assist you in your decision.

Key components of the camera, which will influence your buying decision will include:
What do I want to use the camera for? How big an image can I print? Does the camera have a zoom? What size and weight is the camera?

How big an image can I print?

If your objective is to take a camera on holiday, take it onto the beach and up a mountain and to print memorable images of your time on 6 x 4 inch prints, then do not spend a lot of money on your camera. A small compact camera with an image resolution of 2 or 3 Mega Pixels will be adequate for your needs and should you drop the camera or get sand in its workings then you will be pleased that you did not spend too much money.
More serious photographers will want to make bigger pints or selectively enlarge. They will want a higher image resolution and will benefit from a zoom lens.
So – what is this MegaPixel thing? Well it is the image size – quality – taken by the camera. The higher the number – the better the quality and the larger the prints which can be made.

Does the camera have a zoom?

In past times zoom lenses were regarded as second best because of their distortion and fogging. This is no longer the case – zoom lenses are truly brilliant. 3 x zooms are common and 6 x zooms feature on the more expensive cameras. So you can have a single lens which covers both wide angle views and provides a short telephoto. All very usefully packaged in a lightweight camera.

Beware of Digital Zoom. This is a technique, which zooms in on a portion of the image by processing the picture and interpolating the image between pixels – a technique which always produces inferior results.

What is the size and weight of the camera?

Digital cameras do not have to be bulky or heavy. Indeed there are some very small models available, which will fit inside a handbag. However the more sophisticated gear tends to be bulkier – and heavier. Professional models with interchangeable lenses and external flash guns will require their own hold all.

Making the Right Selection

There is a fantastic range of digital cameras available on the market. Nonetheless manufacturers focus on their customers and target specific models at certain sectors of the market. The table below summarises the information, which we have discussed.

Basic camera

A fixed lens camera priced at less than £50 [Or $90 USD] which takes digital images of up to 1 MegaPixel - will be adequate for computer or television screen display.

Party Camera

A compact design camera with a fixed lens – cost up to £150 [Or $280 USD] - taking images of up to 2 MegaPixel - will generate good quality images suitable for printing up to 4 x 5 inches

Holiday Camera

Another compact design but with a 2 – 1 zoom lens and costing between £200 and £400 [$350 - $800 USD] taking images or between 3 and 5 MegaPixel which will be suitable for printing up to 10 x 8 inches

Serious Camera

A SLR style camera with a 5 – 1 zoom lens costing between £600 and £1000 [$1000 - $2000 USD] and producing images of up to 6 MegaPixel which will produce prints of up to 12 x 16 inches

Professional Camera

An SLR camera with interchangeable lenses and costing upwards of £1,500 [Or around $3000 USD], which will take images of up to 8 MegaPixel, which will print to poster size.

SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex. These are cameras, which do not have a separate viewfinder. Rather the operator looks through the lens of the camera. Momentarily before the shutter is opened a mirror flicks up and the light passing through the lens is allowed to hit the sensitive surface of the camera. In many cases the lens at the front of the camera can be changed for another type. A variation on this presents the image as seen by the camera in a digital liquid crystal display either on the back of the camera or through a viewfinder.

Flash. Many of the inexpensive cameras will have on board flash – remember that these will only work up to about 10 feet, and they might produce red eye. More expensive cameras will expect the user to use an independent external flashgun.

Camera Accessories

Most digital cameras come with interface cables and PC software bundled. So if you have a PC at home or work you can ‘download’ images from your camera to your PC, do basic editing such as removing red eye and delete the images you do not want! Your valued images you can store for future generations on CD Rom or another recording medium.

Digital Memory Media

Sometimes known as Smart Card, Compact Flash, Multi Media Card, Memory Stick. These are the memory chips on which your images are stored – some people refer to them as digital film. The larger the capacity of the media, the more images it can store. So buy one larger then you need – for now. Images can be deleted from the media – but back them up on a CD Rom or DVD before you erase the card.

Final Hint – Keep lots of batteries handy. Digital cameras use a lot of power!


Saturday, February 24, 2007

9 Tips For Taking Great Digital Photos

Introduction

Modern photographic cameras are highly automatic in operation. They have got car focusing and car exposure. The photographic camera will concentrate on the topic - often identified by a little circle or square at the Centre of the view finder - and cipher an appropriate exposure by detecting the degree of reflected visible light - usually from the same spot. A flimsy pressure on the shutter release will trip those two functions, without taking a picture. Further pressure on the shutter release will result in a photograph being taken.

1 Take attention to Concentrate and Expose on the Subject of the Image

Imagine you are taking a image of your miss friend against the background of an interesting harbour. Your miss friend is six feet away while the seaport is around 50 feet away. You place your miss friend carefully - she is of import to you - at one side of the image with an interesting position of the seaport in the distance. Now make you desire to concentrate on the seaport - or your miss friend? Position the square or circle at the Centre of the view finder over the topographic point that you desire to concentrate on and correctly expose - take a flimsy pressure on the shutter release - and maintain that pressure while you travel the photographic camera to frame in the mental image you desire to take - then, and only then, pushing the shutter release fully down and take the photo. If you desire to have got everything in focusing - then see 7 Depth of Field.

2 Carefully Compose Your Shot

Before taking the image take a careful last expression through the viewfinder. Check the composition, and particularly that caputs neodymium feet are included, and that all faces are seeable in anything other the least of groups. With the photographic camera taking attention of focusing and exposure - you have got the time to concentrate on getting the composition perfect. Photographic amputation of limbs is unforgivable!

3 Set the Coloring Material Balance Correctly on the Camera

Digital photographic cameras have got controls that let the operator to put the nature of the lighting illuminating the subject. In general they will default on to daylight, since shots are likely to be taken outdoors. On this setting, images taken indoors under unreal wolfram lighting will look yellowish - they will have got a yellowish cast. Pictures taken under strip lighting will look green. Setting the photographic camera appropriately will bring forth consistent balanced photographs. Look in the photographic camera manual to see how to put the control - it is very easy. Flash guns bring forth a light, which is very similar in coloring material 'temperature' to that of daylight.

4 Don't Expect Too Much from the On Camera Flash

The on photographic camera flash is designed for convenience when shot a little grouping of people. It will not light a hall. When
watching public events on the telecasting it is somewhat surprising to see members of the audience in the Prince Albert hallway take a pocket photographic camera out and shoot a image with their flash. This is improbable to be successful. Better to turn the sensitiveness of the photographic camera up - state to 800ASA - the 'film speed', or sensitivity. This mightiness green goods a better result. Bash not mistake sensitiveness of the photographic camera with shutter speed. They are different. An on photographic camera flash will light only a short distance - as a guide choice up your true cat firmly with two hands by the tail and swing it around at weaponry length - that is the kind of distance the flash will illuminate!

5 A Tripod is Essential for Long Distance Shots

Most modern digital photographic cameras come up with a zoom along lens system that tin take both broad angle and telephotograph shots. This is extremely useful. However retrieve that when the photographic photographic camera is on its furthest telephotograph setting, camera shingle will go a problem. If you are taking a telephotograph shot and the photographic camera takes a slow to medium shutter speed, the result might be blurred owed to the motion of your hands while taking the exposure. Use a tripod - all wildlife photographers utilize them. They are a hurting to transport but improve quality by orders of magnitude.

6 Fast Moving Subject Necessitate a Fast Shutter Speed

The shutter is that portion of the photographic camera which open ups briefly to let light to hit the sensitive surface of the sensor to
bring forth an image. Fast moving physical object necessitate extremely short shutter velocities in order to capture a crisp sharp image. Slower
shutter velocities will bring forth a film over as the physical object moves. In general out-of-door picture taking a shutter velocity of 1/60th or 1/125th 2nd volition be acceptable. In contrast, shooting a formula 1 auto in movement will necessitate shutter velocity of say 1/1000th of a second.

7 A small About Depth of Field

In years past, a photographer would mensurate the degree of visible visible light at a location with a light metre and then cipher the best
combination of shutter velocity and aperture to correctly expose the film. This is now done automatically by the camera. Aperture is the measurement of how much visible light is passing through the lens. The lens system system have an iris, which can be 'stopped down' to cut down the amount of visible light passing play through the lens. A fully unfastened lens system will go through the top amount of visible light - full aperture - but this also cut downs the 'depth of field'. The depth of field is the set of distance over which the topic is in focus. In 1 above, with full aperture either your miss friend or the seaport is in
focusing - but not both. By 'stopping down' the lens system - reducing the aperture - both tin be brought into focus. But as a effect the amount of visible light passing play through the lens system is reduced. The length of time which the shutter is unfastened volition have got to be increased to compensate.

8 When taking Landscapes Avoid Putting the Horizon Across the Centre of the Image

Drawing the mental image apparent horizon in the center of the image simply looks naff. It splits the image in to two and neglects to prosecute the viewer. Best to concentrate on the sky or the foreground. Photograph a scene sun with reddish sky, or a rainbow with the apparent horizon low pressure in the picture. Or concentrate on the landscape and place the apparent horizon high in the picture.

9 Be Aware of the Effects of Back Lighting

Let us travel back to the illustration given in Hint 1. Imagine that in the image of your miss friend in presence of the harbour, the sun is setting, casting its aureate beams across the sea and reflecting on the masts and other metallic element physical objects of the seaport
with achromatic clouds illuminated reddish in the dying beams of the sun. An redolent and romanticist shot. Taking the shot with the photographic camera will result in a beautiful background but a black shadow of a miss friend! Now that mightiness be appropriate should you have got had a particularly bad twenty-four hours with her and it might correctly reflect the mood. However using the on photographic camera flash to fill up in the darkness - to light her face and show her have might be more than appropriate on a better day!


Friday, February 23, 2007

Upcoming Band! 'Snish' The Best in South London!

Rather than the atmosphere created when a dodgy couple under the corporate statute title Jim and British Shilling play keyboard covers at your local, here there was an air of professionalism. Maybe it was the Mean Fiddler, an irrefutably esteemed locale for unsigned sets to play, or maybe the figure of AnR milling aroundthe bar. The Fresh Sounds show window have go a regular matter at the Mean Fiddler, offering unsigned people the chance to turn out their worth on a nice stage.

First to make so were Bromley four Snish. With this beingness their greatest gig to date, it’s unsurprising that the set looks somewhat nervous, however frontman Josh exudes a assurance which have been a changeless focal point in earlier shows. Their blend of poundingly outstanding bass lines with an extremely talented guitar player in Saint Andrew Matthews gave them a promising edge. Compared with their confusingly diverse earlier shows, a much more than honed style was displayed, finally giving manner to where the band’s strengths lie.

The better named Honeycube should've felt quite at place on phase given their seven twelvemonth path record of gigging, yet singer and guitar player Joe endearingly declared his jitteriness from the outset. A faster paced and all unit of ammunition heavier set almost hinting at a Hardcore style ensued to a rapturous reception, despite occasional rickety short letters and mis-harmonisation between Honeycube’s vocal duo. Their extended time period together certainly shone through and alludes to something quite special.

The members of Chapter were bouncing around amongst the audience all evening, and looked only too pleased to finally springtime on stage. A acerb opener sets the band’s musical endowments in context, complemented by their not unreasonable confidence. George C. Scott (drums) looks rather affectionate of his bass bicycle which do a royal visual aspect during a solo, yet the fact stays that Chapter is an extremely tight quartet where all things rhythmical are concerned. Just as the mundanity started to weirdo into their rather generic style of Metal, the set launched into ‘Remember’, which bears a singular resemblance to the seasonally-apt ‘Simply Having A Fantastic Christmastide Time’ by Alice Paul McCartney. A particularly receptive
audience was impressed by tonight’s show window - and not irrationally either - there really is an intimation of endowment across South London.


Thursday, February 01, 2007

Make More of Your Photos

We all want to make the most of our wedding photos and a new service from totalPIX makes it very easy with their beautifully bound photobooks.

Like all the best ideas, the idea of a photobook is very simple. Until now if you wanted to compile your own wedding album you first needed to get your photos printed. Unless you have a very expensive photo-quality printer, this meant getting them printed professionally either online or at a local photography outlet. Then they had to be put in the album and any captions you wanted either hand written or printed out and then added to the pages.

With a totalPIX photobook, you simply download the totalPIX software which includes several wedding templates, drag and drop your photos onto the template, add your captions and then upload everything to totalPIX.

A couple of days later, so long as you are in the UK, your photobook will arrive through the post, carefully packaged in perfect condition.

As commercial litho and digital printers, totalPIX have the latest Kodak digital presses so that every single photo, however small, is printed as though it were part of a half million run mail order catalogue. In fact the look and quality of the internal pages of a photobook is quite similar to the best catalogues although of course the binding is attractive and durable as befits a wedding book that will last a lifetime.

Very often we have different types of wedding photos, there are the formal ones, with everyone demur and poised at the church or registry office and these make a wonderful souvenir of the day. But often there are more informal images we want to keep, perhaps of the party afterwards or just simply wonderful photos that capture a special moment or expression. With totalPIX photobooks, there’s no problem. Create a formal photobook of the day for that special momento and another more informal one that perhaps gives more of the atmosphere of the occasion. And what about a record of the stag and hen nights, or perhaps not!

The ability to add captions makes a photobook very personal. Add the names of guests, the date and venue, whatever is important to you.

Photobooks can be ordered in any quantity from one upwards, and once you have the finished photobook on your computer, so long as you do not delete it, you can re-send it to totalPIX at any time for extra copies for friends and relations.

A major feature of the totalPIX photobook service is its ease of use. If you can use a digital camera, you will find creating a photobook a doddle. The software includes a basic image cropping and manipulation tool if you do not have one already installed. As a precaution against a poor outcome, the software will only accept photos that have the quality and resolution to print well, after all the best press in the world cannot create an award winning image from a poor quality one.

For full details of totalPIX wedding photobooks, please visit us at www.totalpix.co.uk


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