Tag: Macintosh

Rubber Duck Quick Tip: Macintosh Photos

Posted on by paultmorrison

Now that even PCMag has selected the Apple Macintosh Operating System as Editor’s Choice, best OS for desktop and laptop the questions about how I do stuff on the Mac is increasing. But I am the worst person to ask. I’ve been using Macs since 1984 so my brain is stuck using methods from all the older programs with all the glitches and work arounds that I keep on using because my brain can’t handle new.

So when someone asks me how to manipulate a photo, I run through my list. iPhoto to resize, change color, Pixelmator to erase background, Photoshop when I want to tilt or animate. But then a Mac Group I belong to points out that most all of that can be done using “Preview”.

Is this how you find out what makes me tick Homie?
Rubber Duck and Homie on their Honeymoon. It went downhill after that.

What? Preview, the tiny built in Mac program that fires up when you double-click on a photo? I thought you could only … Preview a photo. But no, with MacOS X 10.9.2 Mavericks, Preview has added even more easy tricks. 99% of what I want to do with a photo can be done in Preview. I just need to fire it up and look at the menu, “Tools” especially.

Look at all the stuff you can do without actually running a big photo program! Adjust the color and tint, get Info on size, crop to your hearts content and it even tells you while doing so how many pixels so cropping to that 81×81 sized avatar is now simple. “Export” to any file format and done. This touches on only a few tools and tricks inside Preview. Go double-click on a photo and check out every menu item. You might find like I did that you are wasting time using humongous programs and complicated tricks when the Newbie who just bought their first Mac yesterday is way ahead of you.

ps. The text bubbles I did in Preview too! I created the set-up seen here and used “Grab” in timed screen mode so that my crop was visible. Grab is another program that comes with your Mac. What an easy way to grab a Rubber Duck’s head and stick it on a squirrel’s body but that is another post entirely.

pps. One actual photo tip (if you’re still reading this) from an actual photographer That would not be me): when adjusting contrast, shadow, highlights, you can really mess a photo up. The trick to make it simple:

1) Turn saturation to zero, leftmost. That turns off color.

2) Now go ahead with contrast, exposure, shadow, highlights to get the photo to pop in Black and White.

3) Now go back to saturation and bring color back up, then check the tint.  Works for me because otherwise I have no idea what I’m doing and my duck ends up orange with red lipstick applied by Picasso.

can you see her?
Still Life With Rubber Duck

Odds and Ends: Rudder, Taxes, Mac

Posted on by paultmorrison

April 15, this Thursday, The Rudder opens for the season. I’ve been Jonesin’ for some pan seared monkfish with lemon butter and capers since last fall. Tax Relief Specials. Spring Hours: Open Thursdays to Saturday 5PM.

April 15, this Thursday, is not tax day if you live in Essex county. That rain in March made us a “disaster recovery zone” so taxes are not due until May 11. Woot, off to the Rudder even if the IRS is getting a big check. Mañana.

What if you get a tax refund and you’re thinking maybe you should get something slick to load GMG onto. Don’t you want to see Homie’s tail feathers in glossy high resolution with a high refresh rate? (Really, it wiggles.) Since some people know me as a Mac fanboy I always get the question, “What Mac should I buy?” and my answer is always the same. Go to MacRumors Buyer’s Guide and find out when the new model is coming out. This page will tell you whether to buy now or wait. Say you wanted a MacBook Pro last week. Boy would you have buyer’s remorse if you had not gone to the page. They would have told you “New Models Soon DO NOT BUY!!”

New models for the MacBook Pro came out today. The 13 inch is nice.