Random Stuff

You all know how I’m such a big Lady Gaga fan (and Lia too)… so I was just rolling over with laughter when I saw this one on my as-of-the-moment-favorite site.

This is also for my friend Roma on Twitter.

The past two days has been really busy but exceptionally productive days. In fact, it can be easily said as the most productive days I have had in the past two years! Of course, if you consider having a baby as a very productive, or reproductive, activity, then that one tops the list. I have not done anything else. I gave up my studies, my work, my travels and even my friends to have the baby.

Ryan was in Phuket for a conference and I had to go to a little job interview for a part-time writer job, we asked the in-laws to baby-sit for us. Instead of spending an afternoon to look after Lia, the in-laws thought of getting her to stay with them for a few days – leaving me alone at home to do my own things. I wallowed for an entire day before deciding that that was the best time to do all my pending tasks. Some of them pending for the last two years!

So yesterday I went to my job interview. I was early and they were running late so I did a little banking first because there was a BPI two blocks away from the office. I deposited the downpayment for the Travel Factor Calaguas trip slated for April 17 and 18.

I dropped by my friends’ apartment to leave copies of the “Like Water for Chocolate” film and picked up a few things too, like Lia’s Speedo life jacket.

From there on I went to Columbia Photo in Megamall to leave my Nikon D80 for check-up and cleaning, and from Megamall, I went to the Travel Factor Headquarters in Bloomingdale Plaza in Shaw Boulevard to pick up Leia’s Christmas presents for Lia. What a day!

Oh, more importantly, I got me a Macbook Pro. Yes, I am now officially a Mac user. Hoorah! Hoorah!

I posted here a few months ago about my desire to buy a new laptop. Back then, this HP Touchsmart was the choice. I ended up getting a 13″ Macbook Pro instead! I am ecstatic!

I have cleaned up my IBM Lenovo laptop of all files, transferred it to my Western Digital portable hard disk and is so ready to sell my old laptop. I have installed my Bamboo pen tablet and Canon printer on the new Mac. I am all set!

Ryan was supposed to arrive at seven in the evening (although I thought it was five in the afternoon) from Bangkok but his plane had to turn around thirty minutes into the flight because of engine problem and he was back in Bangkok airport at six in the evening waiting for a replacement flight. He arrived at about eleven in the evening in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and was home after thirty minutes. We had a lot of stories to tell to each other!

Today, I decided that instead of wallowing in my longing for my baby to arrive from her grandparents excursion, I went to my old workplace, St. Paul College Pasig, to work on my clearance. It was due two years ago!

As a side note, I found this while googling for images. An interesting aerial view of the campus, with all of its pre-school, grade school and high school buildings. No, the campus has no college students despite its name.

From St. Paul, I went to the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to inquire about getting a student driver’s license.

Lia arrived with her grandparents at about six in the evening and the first thing I said was, “Lia! You lost weight!” I suppose she didn’t get to eat or sleep much or she did a lot of going out.

The past two days has been quite productive and very rewarding over-all. A sense of accomplishment is always a wonderful feeling. I hope to have more of that this year.

I recently needed to adjust a particular photo of Urbiztondo for printing and was at first at a loss on how to do it. I have never submitted any of my photos to any publication, out of pure laziness; and have never attempted to submit or sell my photos to any stock photo agency either, out of perhaps 80% insecurity and 20% laziness, even if I have been told by friends and family to do so for maybe, like fifty times. But out of nowhere, I get a message about one of my photos and I thought, uh, yes, okay. I even responded late because I almost never check my messages on that site nowadays. And perhaps, maybe the image will be too late too and may not even be published. But so what, what the heck!

So well anyway, I thought it would be useful for me or to anyone else in the future to have some knowledge on how to adjust photos for newsprint. Even if my photo does not get published, I am happy for the opportunity of learning how to do something I have previously never attempted to do. Hep hep for new experiences! Hooray for new knowledge!

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How to Adjust Photos for Newsprint:

Formatting photographs for newsprint requires very different considerations than formatting photographs for digital or other print uses. While digital photos are formatted to look proper on computer screens and print photos tend to have more forgiveness in color profiles, newsprint photographs often have very specific formatting requirements that must be met in order for the photo to look appropriate. In addition to the CMYK color profile, newsprint photos must conform to specific contrast, brightness, and quality specifications. Photographers who typically shoot with digital cameras can adjust their photos for newsprint with digital photo editing software.

Step 1:

Open your image in your preferred digital photo editing software, such as Adobe’s Photoshop, Corel’s Paint Shop Pro, Google’s Picasa, or the open-source GIMP.

Step 2:

Resize your photo to the newsprint specifications – determined by the amount of physical space your photo will take up on the page. When resizing, set your image to 170 DPI (dots per inch). For example, an image that will be printed in a rectangle 4 inches wide and 3 inches tall should be 680 pixels wide (170 times 4) and 510 pixels tall (170 times 3). If the particular agency requires a photo to be printed at a different DPI, multiply the desired DPI by the dimensions of the printed photo (in inches) to determine the correct resolution.

Step 3:

Adjust the image’s brightness and contrast until it appears correct on the screen. The degree of change in the brightness and contrast depends on the subject of the image and the exposure of the photograph.

Step 4:

Adjust the image’s brightness and contrast approximately 20 percent higher than looked appropriate for digital use. This will provide a crisper and clearer photo for newsprint use.

Step 5:

Sharpen the photograph using your digital software’s unsharp mask. The settings will depend on the level of sharpness that is automatically applied by your digital camera. Settings of approximately 180% sharpness with a radius of 2 pixels and a threshold of 2 levels will often work best. A sharpness setting that looks good on your screen will probably be appropriate for newsprint as well.

Step 6:

Convert your image’s color space from RGB (Red Green Blue, which is the most common digital color setting) to CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black, which is the most common print color setting). The location of this setting differs based on your choice of digital photo editing software, but will usually be under a menu option named “colorspace,” “color mode,” or “image mode.”

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To view the original article, click here.

For a more detailed (and more technical that I got confused because I am just stupid like that but maybe you will get it) article, click here. This one is from Adobe itself and even has a demo video with audio. Thank you Adobe.