Create a Home Inventory

Creating a home inventory and storing it in a safe place will make it easier to work with the insurance company at a time of loss.

 

A home inventory can make dealing with an insurance company much easier. And your camera phone is a convenient way to create and store this inventory. With a little preparation, you can canvass your entire residence in just an hour or so.

 

You'll need a stack of 3" 5" cards and a bold-tip felt marker. Carry out your inventory one room at a time. Daytime hours are best, because you'll have enough ambient light to record the objects without using flash. Many camera phones don't have flash, and for this job, it's just as well. Photographing shiny objects with a flash is difficult at best; it's hard to record detail in the lighter tones. Ambient light is less contra sty, which makes it better for this project.

 

Start with your first item and write the following information on a 3" 5" card:

 

· Name of object

· Serial number

· Date purchased

· Purchase price

Make your letters big and bold, as shown in Figure. Put the card next to the item and snap a picture.

                          

                        A sample item in a home inventory

When you finish one room, move on to the next until you've completed the entire house.

Then, upload your images to the computer. You might want to give each image a filename that makes sense, such as bedroom_tv.jpg, bedroom_vase.jpg, bedroom_lamp.jpg, and so on.

 

A handy way to organize these images is to actually build a web photo gallery and burn it to three CDs: one to keep at home for reference, one for easy-access backup at your office, and a final copy in a safe-deposit box or another secure location.

 

When you need to refer to the cat log, simply load the CD into your computer, double click index.html, and a thumbnail cat log of your entire home inventory will appear in your web browser. You can click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge the image and read the details you wrote on the 3" 5" card.

1. Schedule time in your calendar. Block off 20 minutes at least once a week to get started.

 

2. Gather a home inventory “Tool Kit.” Grab a canvas tote bag or basket and add the items listed on the right.

 

3. Install Collectively Home Inventory (CHI) software onto your computer. Once it’s installed, type in the name of the owner of the inventory, and choose your currency. Finally, add any of these rooms or areas that apply to you and your home:

 

4. You do not have to inventory everything you own down to the last paperclip. The following will offer tips on what to focus on and where you can gloss over some things.

 

5.Although this is not the time to organize your belongings, as you come across items to donate, toss them in a bag to give to charity.

 

6. Since you’ll most likely have to move plugged-in items to get a shot of their serial/model numbers, this is the perfect time to label the cords so you know what belongs to what.

 

7. As you go make notes in your spiral notebook of identifying features, things you remember about the item, and so on. These notes will be

keyed into your inventory when you upload the picture.

 

8.This is not the time to do a professional cleaning. However, while you are behind objects it might make sense to dust off the back of items or use the hand-vac to gobble up any dust bunnies

 

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Communicate in a Foreign Country

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially if you don't speak the language.

 

A while back I ran a photo-tips contest via my weblog on the O'Reilly Network (

http://www.oreillynet.com), and one of the winning entries caught my eye as a creative hack for this book.

 

The entrant, Phil Calvert, submitted this tip:

 

While travelling in Japan, I found a novel use for a digital camera. Most of the restaurants there have lifelike plastic displays of the food they serve. Since I couldn't speak Japanese, I just took a picture of what I wanted to eat and showed it to the waiter. He thought it was very funny, but I did get what I ordered.

Phil got me thinking. While travelling in a country where you don't speak or read the language, or at least not very well, why not use your camera phone for a variety of communication needs? You could even store a few standard icons in your phone's memory for when the

occasion arises. For example, a picture of a taxicab, as shown in Figure , could be quite useful when you'd like the restaurant's maitre d' to call for one to get you back to your hotel.   

                              

                                 A handy photo of a taxi

Perhaps you could add a shot of money to ask "How much?" or an image of a plane to

communicate airport, and don't forget a picture of your hotel, just in case you forget how to find it after a day's touring. The possibilities are endless. The main thing to remember is that pointing to a picture on your phone is much easier than fumbling with a language you don't know at all

1· Use body language: Pointing, gesturing and pantomiming will all help you get your point across.

·  2Carry around a pad of paper on which you can write figures and draw pictures.

 

·  3Hand your pen and paper to the person across the counter when you don't understand how much something costs; most people will get the idea and write down the number.

 

·  4Go to travel stores and look for books or laminated cards with pictures of items related to food, lodging, transportation and entertainment; these are especially useful in restaurants and hotels.

·  5Be aware that many English words and name brands are understood almost universally: American, taxi, sexy, Coca-Cola, OK. String these together creatively and you'll be surprised how much you can accomplish.

 

·  6Let pictures tell the story. Take photos of your home, your family or whatever else is important to you to share with people you meet on the road.

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Send a Paper Text Message

Who says that technology has taken the personality out of our communication? Use your camera phone to send messages in your own handwriting.

 

Regular text messaging with Short Messaging Service (SMS) lacks an element of personality. ASCII letters just don't possess the individual flair that handwritten notes convey. That personality was certainly part of the charm of passing notes in class as a child, in addition to the element of risk.

 

Today's camera phones don't pose much risk, but they can help you recapture the charm of handwritten notes. Say you're waiting for a plane in an airport and want to let your girlfriend know that you're thinking about her. You could send the following SMS text message: "Wish you were in the next seat! Miss you..." She would certainly appreciate that.

 But if you used the camera phone to take a picture of a handwritten note, as shown in Figure , you'd put a big smile on her face

 

  A picture note in your own handwriting

 

The technique is quite easy. First, use your camera phone to take a picture of the

handwritten note. Most camera phones give you the option of saving or sending right there on the spot. Find and click the Send button. You'll be prompted to address and, optionally,

 

provide a subject for your note, as shown in Figure . Enter the destination phone number

or select your friend from your contacts, hit the Send button, and your "handwritten" note is on its way.

                                     

                               Sending the MMS  picture  note

Once you start thinking about the possibilities of paper text messaging, you might even go so far as to keep a little pad of Post-it notes in your briefcase just for this purpose.

 

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Send Snapshots to the Desktop

Your desktop is your camera phone's photo lab. But before you can do any processing, you need to get your pictures into the computer.

 

Most camera phones store digital-photo files in their internal memory. This internal memory is generally limited to two to four megabytes. Some of this memory is reserved by the phone's operating system, and some is used for applications (including games) you install on the phone.

 

This means that your images share internal storage space with telephone numbers, addresses, calendar events, user-installed applications, and other system information. With my phone, I've found that this configuration has left me with enough space for only about 15 to 20 photo files. This is not an issue, though, on camera phones that support the use of Multi-Media Cards (MMCs) or Secure Digital (SD) cards for additional data storage.

 

File-Transfer Options

At some point, you will want to copy the photo files from the camera phone to your computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) for safekeeping. This section shows five possible ways to achieve this task successfully. Note that most camera phones work with only a subset of these methods. Figure illustrates how these file-transfer options work with your phone, PDA, and computer.

                                     

                         File-transfer options from camera phone to computer and PDA

 

Email photo files yourself.

Check to see whether your mobile-phone service plan includes its own email account.

The feature you're looking for might be called something like Multimedia Mail or

Multimedia Send on the phone. After you send an email message (containing the JPEG image file) from your phone, the email server will store the message until you retrieve it on your personal computer. You should learn the file sizes of photos created by your camera and any storage limitations your email account might have. Also pay attention to any extra charges that might apply when you use this service. Be sure to test this

 

 

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Send Snapshots to the Desktop

Your desktop is your camera phone's photo lab. But before you can do any processing, you need to get your pictures into the computer.

 

Most camera phones store digital-photo files in their internal memory. This internal memory is generally limited to two to four megabytes. Some of this memory is reserved by the phone's operating system, and some is used for applications (including games) you install on the phone.

 

This means that your images share internal storage space with telephone numbers, addresses, calendar events, user-installed applications, and other system information. With my phone, I've found that this configuration has left me with enough space for only about 15 to 20 photo files. This is not an issue, though, on camera phones that support the use of Multi-Media Cards (MMCs) or Secure Digital (SD) cards for additional data storage.

 

File-Transfer Options

At some point, you will want to copy the photo files from the camera phone to your computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) for safekeeping. This section shows five possible ways to achieve this task successfully. Note that most camera phones work with only a subset of these methods. Figure illustrates how these file-transfer options work with your phone, PDA, and computer.

                                     

                         File-transfer options from camera phone to computer and PDA

 

Email photo files yourself.

Check to see whether your mobile-phone service plan includes its own email account.

The feature you're looking for might be called something like Multimedia Mail or

Multimedia Send on the phone. After you send an email message (containing the JPEG image file) from your phone, the email server will store the message until you retrieve it on your personal computer. You should learn the file sizes of photos created by your camera and any storage limitations your email account might have. Also pay attention to any extra charges that might apply when you use this service. Be sure to test this

 

 

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Send Snapshots to the Desktop

Your desktop is your camera phone's photo lab. But before you can do any processing, you need to get your pictures into the computer.

 

Most camera phones store digital-photo files in their internal memory. This internal memory is generally limited to two to four megabytes. Some of this memory is reserved by the phone's operating system, and some is used for applications (including games) you install on the phone.

 

This means that your images share internal storage space with telephone numbers, addresses, calendar events, user-installed applications, and other system information. With my phone, I've found that this configuration has left me with enough space for only about 15 to 20 photo files. This is not an issue, though, on camera phones that support the use of Multi-Media Cards (MMCs) or Secure Digital (SD) cards for additional data storage.

 

File-Transfer Options

At some point, you will want to copy the photo files from the camera phone to your computer or personal digital assistant (PDA) for safekeeping. This section shows five possible ways to achieve this task successfully. Note that most camera phones work with only a subset of these methods. Figure illustrates how these file-transfer options work with your phone, PDA, and computer.

                                      

                         File-transfer options from camera phone to computer and PDA

 

Email photo files yourself.

Check to see whether your mobile-phone service plan includes its own email account.

The feature you're looking for might be called something like Multimedia Mail or

Multimedia Send on the phone. After you send an email message (containing the JPEG image file) from your phone, the email server will store the message until you retrieve it on your personal computer. You should learn the file sizes of photos created by your camera and any storage limitations your email account might have. Also pay attention to any extra charges that might apply when you use this service. Be sure to test this

 

 

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Transfer Images via Email

Wireless photo transfer is one of the great advantages of camera phones. These tips will have you filling up your friends' phone mailboxes in short order.

 

Email might be the simplest way to get a photograph from your phone to somewhere else. It doesn't require a special cable, computer peripheral, or additional software. Only a few camera phones (mostly in the Smartphone category) allow additional file storage using MMC or SD cards. This means that if your phone has limited storage space or if you have installed a number of aftermarket applications that have their own data requirements, you'll fill up the phone's internal storage with just a few photos. Emailing your photo might be the only way to free up storage space on your phone if you do not have ready access to a desktop, notebook, or PDA to which you can offload the phone's photo files.

 

To make sure you do not incur any unexpected extra cost, you should check your mobile phone's service plan before transferring photos via email. Most mobile-phone service providers have a set of email and data services to choose from. If you plan on emailing photo files frequently from your camera phone, I recommend choosing an unlimited email or data plan.

 

Generally, these plans are reasonably priced.

 

After you confirm that you can send photo files using email on your camera phone, the next step is to add email addresses to your phone's contacts list. You can create and edit contacts by using the phone's keypad. However, you might find it faster and easier to create the contact entries on your notebook or desktop PC and then synchronize the list with your camera phone.

 

Most camera phones come bundled with software to synchronize data with a Microsoft Windows system. If you use Mac OS X, check whether Apple isync (

http://www.apple.com/isync/) will allow you to synchronize your computer's address book with your camera phone. Linux users should investigate wammu -gammu GUI (Http://www.cihar.com/gammu/wammu/) to see if it meets their needs.

Once you have laid the groundwork, sending a photo in email from a camera phone is easy.

On my Nokia 3650, I start by choosing Send via Multimedia, as shown in Figure 7-7.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is an extension of the text-only Short Messaging Service (SMS), which allows text, sound, images, and video messages to be sent between MMS-capable phones. However, these messages can also be sent through conventional email if the operator of the mobile phone provides this service.

 

                                         

                                Sending a photo using Multimedia Messaging

The email address in Figure was selected from my phone's contacts list. As mentioned earlier, this process is much more fun if you have the addresses of friends and family in the phone. The text name associated with the email address is shown in the. To: field. The subject is out of view in this screen.

 

                                           Image ready to send

 

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Live with a Less-Than-Perfect Camera

Ansell Adams might not have used a camera phone to photograph "Moonrise, Hernandez," but I bet he would have loved to have one around when he was hanging out with Edward Weston.

 

The value of a photograph taken with a camera phone does not lie in its photographic quality.

The value lies in the sense of immediacy and the knowledge that you are able to capture? And, indeed, share? A moment in time that would have been lost had your camera phone not been with you.

Most of us who are not professional photographers do not carry cameras with us all the time.

 

Many of us, however, take our mobile phones everywhere we go. We take photographs for their personal value. Photographs can let us relive a special moment time again and again.

So, for many of us, the choice between nonexistent six-megapixel images (because the digital SLR is home, safe and sound, in the file cabinet) and a small, slightly blurry picture from the camera phone is clear: pull out the camera phone! For example, I can show you the rainbow in Figure only because I had a camera phone with me to capture it.                                            

                                                         

                                                           Camera-phone picture of a rainbow

 How Photos from Camera Phones Are Different

Anyone who has played with taking pictures on a camera phone knows that it's not the same as regular digital photography, at least not yet. We're already seeing impressive improvements in camera-phone technology in Japan, and those improvements will soon spread across the globe. Until then, here are some of the main reasons why photographs taken with camera phones don't look quite as good as those taken with regular digital cameras.

 

Pixel resolution

 

Many camera phones still take pictures at 640 480 pixel resolution (0.33 megapixels).

In printing terms, these dimensions translate to output that is 3" 4", before cropping.

We're starting to see more camera phones with higher megapixel resolution, so if making prints is important to you, look for that specification in your next phone.

 

Optical properties of the lens

 

The camera lens used in camera phones cannot be expected to compete with hobbyist, semiprofessional or professional camera lenses. Moreover, if you look at a camera phone's lens, you will notice that it has some kind of plastic or other clear material to protect the lens. Although this protective covering generally appears transparent to your eye, it probably does not allow the perfect, unimpeded transmission of light through it to the camera lens. It is also susceptible to tiny scratches (or worse) that might contribute to image blurring and chromatic (i.e., color) aberration.

 

Image sensor properties

 

Instead of film, digital cameras have an image sensor. As you might imagine, the image sensors in camera phones generally do not have the same image-capturing quality found in conventional digital cameras, especially compared to new digital image-processing technologies such as Canon's Digit, Kyocera's RTUNE, and Olympus'

Tropics, which are all sophisticated and greatly enhance signal

              

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Hand-Color with the History Brush

 Combining the richness of color and the mood of B&W photography, you can create eye-catching artistic effects. And with the History Brush in Photoshop CS, it's easy.

 

I always shoot my original images in color, even if the sole purpose of the assignment is to deliver B&W prints. Why? Because when you shoot in high-resolution color, you have a full complement of options available later in Photoshop. For example, you can always convert a copy of the photo to B&W, keeping the color original intact. Or, as in this hack, you can mix the two formats.

 

For this assignment, I want the image to have the artistic feel of B&W photography. I'm also interested in playing with hand-coloring to produce an unusual effect. By shooting the original photo in full color, I can use a little Photoshop magic to combine these looks.

For my source image, I selected a night picture of the Port of San Francisco, as shown in Figure.

 

 The clock tower dominates the foreground, and you can see the Bay Bridge off in the distance. Even though I like this photo in full color, I see some creative possibilities that might emerge by playing with it a bit.

    

                       

                     Full-color night shot of the Port of San Francisco

 

What I have in mind here is to desaturate the entire image, essentially converting it to a B&W photo. I chose to desaturate it instead of converting it to grayscale, because that way, I can retain all the RGB information. That information will provide me access to those channels later, when I'll be ready to return some color to the picture.

 

First, you convert the image to B&W by applying Image Adjustments Desaturated. In effect, you now have a B&W photo. Make whatever level adjustments you like to make the tones pleasing to your eye. Now, you're ready to start hand-coloring.

 

Choose History from the Window drop-down menu. This opens the History palette, which enables you to keep track of what's going on. Next, from the Tools palette, select the 

History Brush, as shown in Figure.

                           

          Use the History Brush to restore color to specific areas of the picture

 

 

 

 

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Fix Flash Falloff

Built-in flashes on digital point and shoots sure are handy? that is, up to about eight feet. Here's how to brighten those dark areas when your flash runs out of juice before your subject does.

 

During the holidays and other social events, the setting is usually larger than our little flashes can cover. So, the people in the front of the scene get overexposed and the folks in the back fade to black. Thanks to a nifty tool in Photoshop called an overlay mask, you can correct this uneven treatment of your guests.

 

You can use Photoshop Elements or CS for this hack. I'll work in

Elements this time around, just to show how powerful this entry-level image editor really is.

 

After opening your picture, open the Layers floating palette, found in the Window drop-down menu. Select Layer New Layer. Choose Overlay from the Mode pop-up menu and set the opacity to 50%, as shown in Figure.

 

                                      

                                  Adding an Overlay layer

Check your Tools palette to ensure that your foreground color is white and the background black. Then, click on the Gradient tool, as shown in Figure.

 

                                         

                                    Choose the Gradient tool from the Tools palette

 

Use your Gradient tool to draw a black-and-white linear (rather than, say, radial) gradient straight up the image, from the brighter guys to the darker ones. Try to follow the flash falloff itself. You can begin your gradient off the image or in the

 

 

   

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Fix Flash Falloff

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: D K SINGHANIA <singhania19492@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 25, 2011 at 1:01 PM
Subject: Fix Flash Falloff
To: photographywebsite@posterous.com, D k Sir <dharmendra19492@gmail.com>

Built-in flashes on digital point and shoots sure are handy? that is, up to about eight feet. Here's how to brighten those dark areas when your flash runs out of juice before your subject does.

 

During the holidays and other social events, the setting is usually larger than our little flashes can cover. So, the people in the front of the scene get overexposed and the folks in the back fade to black. Thanks to a nifty tool in Photoshop called an overlay mask, you can correct this uneven treatment of your guests.

 

You can use Photoshop Elements or CS for this hack. I'll work in

Elements this time around, just to show how powerful this entry-level image editor really is.

 

After opening your picture, open the Layers floating palette, found in the Window drop-down menu. Select Layer New Layer. Choose Overlay from the Mode pop-up menu and set the opacity to 50%, as shown in Figure.

                                  Adding an Overlay layer

Check your Tools palette to ensure that your foreground color is white and the background black. Then, click on the Gradient tool, as shown in Figure.

                                    Choose the Gradient tool from the Tools palette

 

Use your Gradient tool to draw a black-and-white linear (rather than, say, radial) gradient straight up the image, from the brighter guys to the darker ones. Try to follow the flash falloff itself. You can begin your gradient off the image or in the

 

 

   

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Fix Flash Falloff

Built-in flashes on digital point and shoots sure are handy? that is, up to about eight feet. Here's how to brighten those dark areas when your flash runs out of juice before your subject does.

 

During the holidays and other social events, the setting is usually larger than our little flashes can cover. So, the people in the front of the scene get overexposed and the folks in the back fade to black. Thanks to a nifty tool in Photoshop called an overlay mask, you can correct this uneven treatment of your guests.

 

You can use Photoshop Elements or CS for this hack. I'll work in

Elements this time around, just to show how powerful this entry-level image editor really is.

 

After opening your picture, open the Layers floating palette, found in the Window drop-down menu. Select Layer New Layer. Choose Overlay from the Mode pop-up menu and set the opacity to 50%, as shown in Figure.

                                  Adding an Overlay layer

Check your Tools palette to ensure that your foreground color is white and the background black. Then, click on the Gradient tool, as shown in Figure.

                                    Choose the Gradient tool from the Tools palette

 

Use your Gradient tool to draw a black-and-white linear (rather than, say, radial) gradient straight up the image, from the brighter guys to the darker ones. Try to follow the flash falloff itself. You can begin your gradient off the image or in the

 

 

   

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Soften Facial Lines

You've taken great care to capture your subjects in the best light. But sometimes, artistic lighting accentuates facial lines. Here's how to soften them for a more natural look.

 

I know from experience that the best light for photographing people comes from the front.

discussed this technique in detail, and it's a lighting rule I follow most of the time? but not always.

 

Sometimes, I like the effect of illuminating from the side. Certain models have a personality that is better expressed by more dynamic lighting. The downside is that illumination from a side angle enhances texture. This byproduct doesn't thrill models when facial lines that weren't there before now appear.

 

So, how do I get my dynamic lighting and satisfy the model too? I could spend more time and money on equipment to produce just the right effect. But I'm cheap and like to work quickly. So I go with my instincts while shooting and use a little Photoshop magic afterward.

 

For example, I used only two lights to shoot the portrait in Figure one from the front and a hair light from the top. We worked quickly and finished the entire session in less than 45 minutes. By shooting at this pace, the model stayed fresh and brought plenty of energy to the camera. If I had spent a lot of time fiddling with the equipment, I might have lost her interest.

                                                          

I really like this shot, but the side lighting does the model injustice by accentuating facial lines. She doesn't look like that in real life. Normally, you don't see the smile lines on both sides of her mouth, but my lighting has created that effect.

 

Fortunately, this is an easy fix in Photoshop CS. I can use the Healing Brush to eliminate the lines and then apply the Fade control to make my fix look natural. Here's how it works:

 

Open the image in Photoshop CS and use the Zoom control to magnify it to 100%.

 

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