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This week we are talking about computer specs., printers we like and use; cameras, lenses, memory cards, backing up, the 5 faces challenge, text boxes, and more as we read listener mail and answer your questions!
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Joining the Discussion:
Peppermint Granberg
Katie Nelson
Steph
From the Show:
- Peppermint’s computer specs HP e9220y
- Peppermint’s printer Canon PIXMA MG5200
- Finding your lens size
- Microsoft sync toy
- SD card classes
- Then & Now scrapbooking layouts by Katie – sleepy guy & basketball girls
Picks:
Peppermint: Embark Drawstring Bags (in Target Stores only)
Katie: The Photoshop Top 5 – a free class at Jessica Sprague
Steph: http://thismemorykeeperslife.com/
Sponsors:
For the best deal in digital scrapbooking, become a member at TheDailyDigi.com
Totally Rad
Use this discount code to get 15% off any Totally Rad products: 1252DIGI Check out Steph’s fave, the Rad Lab
So I admit a tinge of miffedness when I read the into: I immediately thought “Hey, I sent in the five faces thing a long time ago!” Then I calmed down and realized it probably was not a unique idea (after all, I got it from a newspaper insert). Then I felt guilty when I listened to the show and found out it WAS my comment you were referring to. I don’t know if I can take the emotional roller coaster that is the Digi Show!
Just a thought: Do you think I can get that plain icon that shows up by my comments to have blue feathers? How cool would that be?
If you register at Gravatar.com you can attach your email address to an avatar. WordPress will pull your Gravatar info to your posts on any WordPress (or Gravatar enabled) blog when you post using that email address.
Thanks Peppermint! Let’s try this . . .
And again.
I’m dying laughing and it is much needed therapy!!!! I ned to get your number do I can ca you once a day for some laugh therapy!!
thanks Joyce!!
I thought I’d chime in on printers. Since I started working from home, I had to give up the amazing Epsons we had at work and went with the HPs that got bundled with my Mac. Each time I get a new Mac, I’ve gotten a free HP printer thrown in. The HPs do not compare at all to the Epsons we had at work. I miss the Epson! We had the 6-color ones and the paper that they sell to work with their inks is just amazing. Unfortunately, they cost quite a bit more than I was willing to spend for the very little printing I do. Plus, my warehouse club carried HP ink so it just made more sense to go with the HP. But, with the price of ink going up, up, up, I don’t seem to be saving much at the warehouse club, so who knows, maybe I can justify an Epson with my next purchase. I still have the last HP I got unopened in the box because I’ve been trying to use up the ink on the one I had before that. Like I said, I don’t print much! But, if money were no object and the digiscrap fairy dropped by, I’d choose the latest and greatest Mac 15″ laptop maxed on ram (more portable for me than the 17″ so I’m willing to give up the screen real estate), a wireless Epson printer, a silouette cameo, and a 50mm lens for my Canon T1i. I’m still perfectly happy with the camera, but a new lens would be nice! And, my Lacie and Fantom EHDs are still chugging along nicely to complete the digiscrap hardware setup.
yeah! That was my question you read. I feel famous…
So I ended up getting an Epson Artisan 730.
I learned that oil based ink is best for those that don’t print often. The quality is okay – you can choose photoshop color or printer color. It’s small and wireless, so the best part is I keep it away in my guest room closet. Nothing beats Persnickety though! I learned so much on the episode re printers!
Just want to second the Epson Artisan 820 and love, love, love it. I too love Persnickety and print my 12×12 digi layouts there. But I loved being able to give our recent guests actual prints from their visit before they left. I can’t wait to do Project Life now that I have this home printing option!
Steph-I feel so bad that you don’t like your Mac. I LOVE mine. It was an adjustment-just keep trying. I don’t remember things being that horribly different, though.
You can upgrade RAM, memory, etc. I added more ram last year to my iMac. I just want to make sure listeners realize it can be done. You need a dedicated Mac girl on the show
or have Izzy be a guest every once-in-a-while.–or better yet–you could become the Mac girl! I’ll cheer you on.
Thanks for another fun show.
There are things about it that I like, for sure, it’s just going to take more time and practice. I hope that by sharing my own migration experience, it will give others confidence as they go through similar things with new computers and programs! Learning new stuff can be intimidating and I would hate for people to think it’s easy and growing-pain-free for us!
Hi – Great show, as usual. If you have text highlighted and are scrolling through the fonts, use CMD-H to hide the selection so you can see what it looks like.
Get OUT! Thanks for answering that.
I have to admit that, at the time, I didn’t really know what the listener was asking because in Photoshop I can just select the text layer over in the layer palette and scroll through fonts without any sort of bounding box or marching ants or text highlighting – but I went in and monkeyed with it and saw what she meant. Then used the CTRL+H and it unhighlighted it in Photoshop, too. So that’s handy!
Wait a minute, that is cool!
Can anyone tell me how to always have a selection box without having to do CTRL+T every time you lay something down? All the sudden mine stopped highlighting and it’s annoying? Is that just normal?
Also, Peppermint, did you know that with a MAC you don’t have to push any buttons to scrap? It reads your mind.
Ok, I’m back to not knowing what you guys are talking about.Is this in PS or PSE?
And I’m laughing about the Mac comment. I would totally switch to Mac if that were the case.
In Photoshop it is Preferences->General
Make sure “Resize Image During Place” is checked.
Oh man – It doesn’t work in PSE and now I am super jealous. I still can’t justify the price of Photoshop and my kids aren’t in school to get the discount.
:-}
Ok just so you don’t think i am bonkers this is what I mean.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32320574@N02/7154464285/in/photostream
I would never call you bonkers. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
But I did load up PSE 10 (man, I don’t know how you guys sit through that long load time, is it just mine?) and tried the same tactic in there as I do in Photoshop and it works.
So say you type all your text and then get the heck out of the bounding box completely. Keep all the text deselected, but select the text layer over in your layers palette. Just the layer, not the text itself.
Once that layer is selected you can activate the Text Tool (T) so your font controls appear in the top toolbar and you can scroll down your fonts and it will change in your document without having anything highlighted or having the bounding box show. It’s going to change all the text in the layer, so if you want to use multiple fonts in one block of text then it won’t work. But if you’re just sampling your fonts you don’t have to have the large black highlight box over it.
Thanks Peppermint, When I scroll through the fonts the box stays there. I had to reinstall my OS because I lost my hard drive a year ago and they put 32 bit on it. So I reinstalled windows 7 with 64 bit and pse is still really slow and my computer isn’t that old.
Ok, I haven’t even listened to this episode yet, but based on the above comments I just had to chime in that I can’t even imagine someone not loving their Mac! Horrors! If it wasn’t for my iMac I wouldn’t be a digiscrapper. Steph, maybe it would help if you added a lower case i in front of your name. It worked for me! LOL! ;-D
Gosh guys! I TOTALLY agree with Laurel! I will cheer you ALL on with your MAC efforts. Once you use mac more and more you actually realize how brilliant the design is with the apps and the brains that pull everything together with the mac. (Shh…they are not paying me to say this, but I won’t refuse $ if they offer
I’m a media specialist (technology nerd) and very RELUCTANTLY made the switch because I had to manage a school full of them. UGH! I was cursing every night – cursing the computer and the know-it-all Genius’ at the store. But I have to tell you gals – I am one of THEM now! oh how embarrassing, but it’s true. The reason is because everything works together with a mac as a whole. Just take it from me – consider me a friend.
Also – get the most ram you can with your computer. Peppermint! You can replace hard drives yourself with a MAC – they make the slots at the bottom of your screen to pop in and out. No husband necessary
Plus with a MAC you can turn off and turn on if you run into a problem, and it fixes itself. No defragging, no cleaning – just internet cache/cookies.
Don’t hate me! I love you girls! I promise you I never wanted to become one of “them” but I am soo soo glad I made the switch. I still get kind of annoyed with the happy mac people at the stores.
ps
I don’t think your pinterest buttons are working on the website.
Haha, it’s not a mission of mine to avoid all things Mac or anything. I just haven’t hit a point where the pros of switching outweigh the cons, is all. I’m not anti-Mac or Pro-PC. I just want everyone using a computer. And the Internet. LOL I don’t care what OS they use to do it!
I think to make a show to talk about Mac and do not have people that truly know what is to use a Mac and some people that don’t like macs is unfair to the mac users. I was a pc user for my whole life, but after getting frustrated with blue screens, dll erros , virus and reboot every freaking single moment , wait a eternity for windows to start and lost 3 laptops that died after no apparent use and made me lost tons of pictures I decided to try Mac, and I don’t get why people think is so hard is actually quite simple but when you’re used to the complexity of the pc maybe that can be frustrating. So far I’m on my 3rd Macbook and I’m still have 2 old ones working. Yeah os problems can happened but nothing is perfect but are the possibilities and headaches less. YES for sure.
I think people can like pc of course that’s the right of each person, but people can’t talk bad about macs when they never used a mac .
And yes as you can see I’m hard core Mac fan because my life was never the same in technology after I gave up pc life.
Oh my… After listening to the first part of the show (Mac ‘non-usage), I knew you would get a ton of Mac lovers respond (me included):) I agree with the comment about needing a Mac user on your show. I’m not that techie so really appreciate the ease of Mac ( and yes, I did curse it out when I made the switch 5 yrs ago).
Advice for computer shopping from a non- techie… a desktop iMac (24″), 1Tb hard drive, 8gb Ram. I also just got the Epson Artisan 730. I like the option of printing good quality photos at home & the printing on CD/DVDs as gifts (& for those non-digi friends/relatives.
Question for Peppermint… I too still have the Nikon D50, and want to upgrade. What is your ‘wish-list’ camera?
Thanks ladies for another entertaining & enlightening show.
Thanksnladies
I really want the Nikon D7000.
Want it in a bad, baaaaaad way.
Prior to its release I was lusting after the D90.
I LOVE the DIGI SHOW! I feel like I am having a fun visit with great and brilliant friends. Thank you for all you do to keep the fun going.
I have to add my Pick for the Best Printer. I have had experiences with every brand of printer on the market as I have been a computer user since 1978. I LOVE my KODAK Easy Share 5300 All in One! I have had it for 7 years and would never think of going with any other printer. They are available in many of the big box stores or on line. Price— $100 or less! The ink is super easy to find and the best! It is pigment based not dye based so the prints come out completely dry! You can put them in direct sunlight and they will not fade! The ink is the cheapest cost wise because the electronics is not part of the ink cartridge! Prints made on photo paper look identical to commercially printed photos! And the bonus is that when you are scanning things you can put a full album page on to scan and the machine will seperate each image into a seperate image for you! You seldom have to crop out individual photo images when scanning the old photo albums! My version of this printer has a little tray specifically for 4X6 photo paper that you slide in when that is what you want to print on. It has all the SD card slots so you can download photos. And you can edit photos directly on the printer with the built in display screen. Once a month you have to remember to run the “Clean Printhead” and about every 18 months you will have to call Kodak’s wonderful staff to have them send a replacement Printhead… But they are FREE for the life! The only thing I wish they would do is make a version of this printer for 12X12 pages!
I forgot to tell you that when you do the New Printhead thing you do not have to pay anything for postage and Kodak sends you a new full sized black ink cartridge and a new full sized color ink cartridge! And this printer does not let you make mistakes. It will tell you when your ink is low and if you have the wrong sized paper tray engaged for the print you want to make. What’s not to love!
Thanks for answering my computer question ladies – even if the Apple gods did try to shut the program down. For now I still have the family laptop, but I am saving my nickles and dimes in hopes of something fancier.
Love the show. Keep up the good work.
Love your show! This was a great episode, as usual
I’m a paper scrapper just getting into digi. I just bought PSE and am enrolled in one of Jessica Sprague’s classes. (Since I’m a teacher, I’m waiting for school to finish in 2 weeks to get going on it!) But I have a question that I think of every time I listen, and then forget to ask it until the next episode: Why do you use Lightroom to edit/sort photos and not PS or PSE? I’ve been using Picasa for a while, and thought I’d check out some of the features of PSE. I really have no clue, so maybe for the digi folks it’s obvious, but any info you can offer is appreciated! Thank you so much for doing the show, I love it!!
For me personally, I don’t use PSE and Photoshop doesn’t have a built-in organization module like PSE does. Also I’ve become entirely too dependent on Lightroom to do my post processing, so it’s a one-stop shop for me to use it to organize the photos, make them pretty, then send them over to Photoshop.
It took me a while to wrap my brain around Lightroom as far as editing photos goes, though, so prior to that Lightroom really was just collecting virtual dust in my start menu. But now I have so much of my photo organization and processing set up to run automatically on import so Lightroom saves me boatloads of time. I would say it took me a good 2 years to get there, though. Lightroom did not make sense to me for a really long time.
*someday* I’d love to hear your upload/auto system with Lightroom and how you set it up. I bought it ( right before LR4 came out—urr!) but it is just collecting dust. I know it will save me time, if I could just find the time to get past the original learning curve.
Seeing if I set up gravatar right:)
Another benefit of Lightroom is that it is not destructive, meaning that if you apply a filter or correction to it in Lightroom, you are really just saving a setting along side it. When you export that image to Photoshop, at that point it is applied, but only to the copy that is exported.
If you apply a filter or correction in Photoshop, it’s either applied immediately, or you have to add an adjustments layer and then save a separate layered file if you want to adjust those settings later.
The main reason I like Lightroom, though, is because I shoot in RAW and it’s so time consuming to open and view RAW images in Photoshop. I found it frustrating to the point that I wanted to start shooting in JPG. But, we did a test and for our camera, there was a huge difference in the RAW file over the JPG file so we decided to stick with the RAW. Now, I can just pull my images into Lightroom and look through them really easily. Then, I just export them to JPG for my scrapping and/or printing. If I didn’t shoot in RAW, I may not have made the move. I have yet to play with any post production really. Most of the time it’s a straight-up export, but I do want to get into trying out some presets and see what more I can do with Lightroom.
Thank you Wendy and Peppermint, that helps!
I’m trying! (yes, you are . . . )
Did it work this time?
Works on my end!
Not finished listening, but I had to stop & tell you my experience buying my new Mac. I LOVED my old Mac, but I was getting frustrated trying to run Photoshop, Illustrator, & Camtasia (video software) all simultaneously. Yet I’d seen it done seamlessly on a friend’s computer.
My first trip into the Mac store the person helping me looked at my old Mac, showed me my THREE choices & assured me that any of the newer (3 years newer) Macs would indeed be faster. But I went out to the car to call my husband and make sure that’s really what I wanted to do.
When I returned to the store, I got a different sales person. At first he was just helping me get what I thought I wanted. It took a few minutes and again I explained how I was envious of my friend’s super-fast computer at which point he said “Oh, these are just the 3 options that come standard. We can make whatever you want.”
Ultimately I got the largest screen (I do design on a laptop, but I hook it up to an additional screen when I’m at my desk at home) with TONS of Ram. And yes, it’s super easy to install yourself. I’m so glad I learned that there are options even when buying a Mac.
Catching up on some shows and unzipping and organizing my digi files! Thanks for the company!!