Photography

Take photos of your home

sofatable, livingroom

Sofatable in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

There are several reasons that your should to take photos of your home.

1. For insurance reasons to have a picture-record of what you have in your home.

I originally started to take photos of my homes for this very reason. To be able to prove what I owed in case of burglary and theft in my homes. At the time I started doing it digital photography was not that widespread. Pictures were still mainly produced on paper and paper-copies were the ones you saved for insurance reasons.

Take photos of everything you would want to document that you own. Plants, books, decoration items, pictures on the walls, content of drawers and cupboards and closets. Be thorough and detailed. Photograph in good light, preferably day-light so the items get the right colors.

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In the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Don’t forget to take pictures of the titles of your CDs, DVDs, records, books etc. It is much faster than writing down all the titles…

The most important with those pictures taken for insurance reasons is to keep them in a safe place and not only in the computer itself. The computer can be stolen, then with all its content and then the pictures are gone too. Make backups and store backup in a safe place. Think thefts and fire (or any other natural disaster that can strike).

kitchentable

On the kitchentable. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

2. For styling of your home.

If you want to style your home, re-arrange your furniture, build a picture-wall, get an overview of a room, there is no better way than taking pictures of your interiors.

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My kitchenwindows. Photo. ©nini.tjader.2016

What you get is an overview and you can SEE the room (or the corner or the wall) in another way than you normally do by just living in the same interiors.

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On the kitchentable. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

If you have the possibility to, get up on a ladder or a pallet to get the extra overview of items you want to re-arrange. You might realize then that there are too many things in a certain spot, or that they are arranged in an awkward way.

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Picturewall in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

Take both close-ups and overviews of your interiors. In natural light preferably. Digital cameras are good at taking pictures in quite poor light conditions, but the best is to use the natural light in those hours when it is the best. When that is, depends on how your windows are placed and which direction your windows are turned. Never take photos in full sun-light. It is very difficult to get good pictures in full sunshine as the shadows become too sharp.

livingroom

In the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

You will be surprised how different your home looks on pictures compared to in real life.

3. For blogging about your home.

If you want to blog about your home and show pictures from your interiors, the rules are the same as for the styling and insurance photos. Shoot them in natural light. Zoom in or out on what is important for the blogpost. Get up high on ladder or a pallet if you want to get an overview.

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Pillows on the bed in the bedroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

One difference with blog-pictures is that you can arrange them to your liking. Remove items you don’t want to show. Move items around to get the effect you want.  Be personal. Don’t try to make your home look like in a magazine about interior design – that can be really boring. (Not the magazine the look like a magazine picture).

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My 2-seater sofa in the livingroom. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

4. Other reasons to take photos of your home.

Other reasons for taking pictures of your home is to make comparisons over the years of how your home has changed. Which furniture and/or solutions or decorative items survived over the years. Which disappeared. How did your taste and style change over the years.

Here are some fun pictures for comparison of my livingrooms and my bedroom.

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My livingroom in the seventies. Photo: ©nini.tjader

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My livingroom 2009-05-02. Photo: ©nini-tjader,2009

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Part of my livingroom 2016. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

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My bedroom, February 2011. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2011

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My bedroom, 2016. Photo: ©nini.tjader.2016

 

Posted by nini in bedroom, decoration, furniture, Furniture and Decoration, Interior Design, livingroom, Photography, 0 comments

To move images from computer to Instagram

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As you might know Instagram does not have a function to import images from a computer even though you can actually watch your Instagram flow on a computer. The Instagram application only accepts images from you smartphone or iPad. Which means that the images have to BE on the iPhone/iPad to be used in Instagram.

dropbox

Dropbox on Mac

When you have pictures on your computer that you want to publish on Instagram it isn’t all that simple, but it is possible.

You need Dropbox on your computer and your iPhone/iPad to make it possible. As I am a Mac-person, I can only describe how to do it on a Mac. I am sure there are similar procedures on a PC.

Dropbox on a Mac.

Dropbox on a Mac.

When you have set up your Dropbox account on both your computer and your iPhone/iPad, locate your Dropbox folder on your computer. Inside that folder I’ve created a subfolder called “toinsta” (it can be named anything you want). Into that folder you can copy/drag/move any image you want to import to Instagram to publish there.

You might want to edit your image before you move it so it has the right dimensions and fileformat (jpg). Even though Instagram today accepts other dimensions than square, square is still what work best.

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Dropbox on iPhone

Locate and open Dropbox on your iPhone/iPad and locate and select the image you want to import to Instagram.

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Dropbox on iPhone

Image then opens in full size.

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Dropbox on iPhone

Click on the symbol that looks like a square with an arrow that goes up at the top of the screen.

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Dropbox on iPhone.

You then get the above choices. Either click on Spara bild/Save image or Kopiera bild/Copy image. Dropbox will then save the image to Pictures/Bilder where it becomes accessible from Instagram to use in Instagram.

Instagram

Apps on iPhone

Open Instagram on iPhone/iPad.

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Instagram on iPhone

Go to Library/Bibliotek and your images on the iPhone/iPad are there to use. Choose your image and do what you need to do in Instagram (set tags # and description and if needed, edit in Instagram with the options that are there).

You are now ready to publish your image on Instagram. My name on Instagram is ninitj if you want to follow me there.

instagram

Instagram on iPhone

Addition 2016-03-02
Got a tip for a photo-to-computer-to-Instagram uploader from reader Rose-Marie. It is called gramblr. You can find and download it here. Read the instructions carefully. I am not sure if it works in Mac OS X 10.11.3 or not (which is my OS-version).

Posted by nini in Instagram, Nerdish, Photography, 0 comments

Apple Photos, no thanks

Photos for Mac

Photos for Mac, screenshot from Apple.com

With the system update to Mac OS X 10.10.3 you also got the Apple application Photos installed, automatically. One thing it also did at installation was to remove the icon in the Dock for iPhotos. Thankfully it did NOT remove the iPhoto application, just the icon in the Dock. Which is bad enough. I, as a user, should control what I have in my Dock or what I don’t have.

The first time you start Pictures, it wants you to convert your iPhoto Library to Photos. It also wants you to place your images in the Cloud for access from all your different devices. Converting the Library takes for ever and a lot of harddisk space if you have a large iPhoto Library. If you don’t have enough space on your harddisk, Photos will tell you so.

Opening Photos is a disappointment. Both the way the images are organized there, and in particular how it manages imports from a camera. It has several controls to edit your photos and to upload them to various places (except to Instagram). It also has several controls for how ro create various outputs like calendars, photobooks etc. More information here.

First time I tried to import photos from my camera I got a big chock. I shoot in jpg and raw. What did it import? Only the jpgs! No raw files at all. Which is really odd as it imported all the raws from the iPhoto Library on conversion and correctly states that they are raw files. But not when it imports directly from the camera. No raw files.

When using iPhoto, I had no such problems. When using iPhoto I also could remove photos from camera from within iPhoto after done with the import. There is a control for this in Photos too, but it has problems and doesn’t do it as seamlessly and effortlessly as iPhoto does/did. It gets stuck and locks the entire machine (at least in my case).

My conclusion was: do not use Photos. It is only good for amateurs who shoot with their iPhones and do not have any particular demands on how to manage their photos. It might be a good companion to the iPhone, but not so good that I will use it. And it doesn’t do RAW.

So, today I deleted the image library created by Photos when converting from iPhoto. I opened iPhoto again and repaired its iPhoto Library. Then imported my latest photos (all taken after April 28th in my case and saved separately to another folder on the harddisk).

I then wanted to delete the Photos application… but no, Apple won’t let me do that! (It is just like they won’t let me remove certain application son my iPhone). Why??

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Screenshot. Removal of Photos? No, not allowed.

Many have had complaints on iPhoto over the years – particularly in the way it stores photos in various folders inside the application and library. But, compared to Photos, iPhoto was/is a wonder of a competent application in so many ways. I will miss it. Or does Apple allow me to keep it? Will forthcoming OS-updates allow it to exist and open? That we don’t know presently.

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge. Image from Adobe.com

I am aware that iPhoto probably will disappear one of these days as it is discontinued. So it is high time to change my workflow when it comes to managing my photos.

I’ve used several applications for managing photos over the years. My workflow, since Adobe Bridge appeared (2003), has been to upload jpgs and raws from camera via Adobe Photodownloader into Bridge and a dedicated folder on my harddisk. I then import (directly from camera) to Adobe Lightroom. I then import to iPhoto and empty the card in the camera when done and remove the camera from the iMac.

Why so many applications? To be sure to have an unedited version of my images somewhere. They also get backed up to an external harddisk every night. All of them. When I need more space on my main harddisk in the iMac I move the oldest photos to another external harddisk from the folder where they originally got uploaded to Bridge and delete them from the iMac. That also deletes them from the backupdisk the coming night. I also burn them to CDs/DVDs to get yet another backup copy.

When photos are imported to harddisk I then use Adobe Bridge in connection with Adobe Camera Raw for eventual editing of the photos and saving out a web-version (settings in Bridge) to a folder where I keep the photos I use in my two blogs.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

Screendump, saving out from ACR.

The images in iPhoto I hardly ever edit. And IF I did, it has an option to export original which does just that, exports the original photo without edits, to a folder of your choice.

I realize I will have to stop using iPhoto. Whatever is still in there will be exported to one of my external harddrives. I will then get rid of iPhoto (if Apple lets me…). I guess using Adobe Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom will be enough.

I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements, but I don’t like the way you have to have a separate datafile with the images for the storage. Takes up unnecessary space on the harddrive. It is also an odd application with features I really do not like and much too amateuristic for my taste. I’ll stick to Bridge, ACR, Photoshop and Lightroom as soon as I’ve emptied my iPhoto Library.

Photos I will not use. Even Googles Picasa is better than Photos. Wonder why Apple won’t let me delete it and what in the OS uses it? If you have Photoshop, you have Bridge. If you haven’t used Bridge since it was introduced, give it a new chance. It is really good.

Posted by nini in Nerdish, Photography, Thoughts, 0 comments

Desktop Pictures

tumbadalen, desktop,

Photo: ©nini.tjader.2014

Yesterday I shot this picture. Made me think of a certain desktop picture for Windows that is widely used. I am on a Mac so it has never been mine, but I’ve seen it. Similar to this. Blue sky, green fields…

I’ve always loved desktop pictures/desktop backgrounds. Have collected them for many years. It is one of the things that make looking at your screen a little bit more interesting than the work you are doing… Or to get a bit of a change of the view with the desktop picture.

I’ve my desktop pictures set at automatically changing every 30 minute randomly. And at restart (which nowadays doesn’t happen all that often).  System presently has 1.749 pictures to choose between… Yes I do delete pictures now and then and I could definitely reduce that number a bit… But, they are low-res images so do not take up all that much space on the harddisk (524MB as a matter of fact).

I’ve mainly collected my desktop pictures for the Mac at Macdesktops.com. They don’t add any new ones nowadays, but for many years you could participate and send in your pictures to share with the rest of the world as desktop pictures. The old pictures are still there, but they no longer accept any new ones. I have quite a few there myself. They are regular .jpg images so can be used on any computer, not just Macs.

Might be that Mac-users more frequently used desktop pictures as we normally do not cover the entire screen with the applications used. Macs can do that too nowadays, but most Mac-users who have never been Windows-users do not use that function.

I also had desktop pictures for download at my own old site. Those are still there but I have not added any new ones for a couple of years. I only provided them in one size – 1280×1024, which is a very odd size today. It wasn’t then… Macdesktops.com provides them in several sizes, so you can choose according to your screensize. Even if the picture is not in accordance with your screensize it can still be used as a desktop picture.

So what makes a good desktop picture? Depends on what kind of images you like. Personally I prefer landscapes, no people or animals. I find those restful to look at when thinking about something else.

People who work with images/photos normally do not want desktop pictures – they prefer a neutral grey screen background that will not interfere with the colors in the image they work with. For me personally, having a desktop picture has never disturbed me when working with images. But that’s me.

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This is one of my own desktop pictures at Macdesktop.com from 2002.

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Posted by nini in Nerdish, Photography, 0 comments