Digital Photography

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How to attach, send, and save pictures in Outlook Express

First, resize your photo where the longest side (height or width) is 840 pixels.

The best part about sending e-mail is that you can send your favorite picture along with it. Gone are the good old days of having to get your photos developed so you can share them. Now all you have to do is attach it to an email and send.

An e-mail attachment is a file you include with an e-mail. For example, you can attach a text document, a small file, or a picture to share with someone.

To insert a picture you should know where the file is located on your computer. Most people store their pictures in the My picture folder which is located in My Documents. You must also consider the size of the file before you send it. A large picture can take along time to download and the person you are sending it to may not happy about that. For example pictures taken from a 7 mega pixel digital camera can be huge and must be resized. Sometimes your email program will ask you if you would like to make your picture smaller to send.

How to place a picture with your email

1. In the email open a new message box.

2. Choose insert from the top menu, then choose Picture.

3. The box below appears. Press on Browse to find the picture you want to insert.

4. Add some Alternate Text. This shows up when the user places their mouse over the picture. Then Press ok.

5. The screen shot below shows that I have inserted a picture into my email. If someone sent you an email with a picture in it and you want to save it to your computer, right click your mouse on the picture. A menu will appear. Then choose save picture as.

As an attachment

1. Open a New Message box.

2. Choose insert from the top menu, then choose File Attachment.

3. Now you can find the picture you want, click on it and the filename box will be filled in for you. Then Press Attach.

4. Now all you have to do it write your message and send.

Submitted by Berl Meyer

How to Handle High Contrast Images

In doing landscapes that includes the sky, early or late in the day, the contrast range exceeds what film or imaging chips can handle. Its therefore necessary to find a way to reduce the contrast range to something that the camera can handle so that the highlights don't burn out and the shadow areas don't turn black.

The traditional method of dealing with this is to use split neutral density filters. While this method works most of the time it takes time and fiddling around with the right filter. Now that we are using digital cameras there is a better way.

Shooting Technique (This technique is for photoshop users)

What you're going to do is take at least two images of the scene. One will be exposed for the highlights and one shadows.

Put your camera on a tripod. You don't want the camera to move. Set your meter compensation to -1.5 or -2 and take your first image. Now set your meter compensation to +1.5 or +2 and take the second image. You can also use auto-bracketing with about 1.5 stops apart from normal. The normally exposed image is redundant, but maybe worth having as a backup.

If you have imported your images in 16 bit mode you will need to convert them to 8 bit mode. Put both images on the screen at the same time. Select the dark image and press CTRL-A to select the whole thing. Press CTRL-C to copy it. You can close that image you will no longer need it. Select the lighter image and press CTRL-V to paste the dark image to it. In photoshop CS3 you would use the place command instead of copy and paste.

You now can blend the two images together and make a overall well exposed image. There different methods of doing this and it mainly depends on the software you have. If you have Photoshop CS3 you can use Merge to HDR. This is a simple automated function. If you have an older version of photoshop (CS or CS2) Fred Miranda's DRI Pro Plugin is worth buying and downloading. It cost $19.90 and is completely automated. There are manual techniques using layer mask, but I am not going into that because they are a little involved and I recommend one of the automated approaches.

Submitted by Dave Luzader

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How to attach, send, and save pictures in Outlook Express First, resize your photo where the longest side (height or width) is 840 pixels. The best part about sending e-mail is that you can send your favorite picture along with it. Gone are the good old days of having to get your photos developed so you can share them. Now all you have to do is attach it to an email and send. An e-mail attachment is a file you include with an e-mail. For example, you can attach a text document, a small file, or a picture to share with someone. To insert a picture you should know where the file is located on your computer. Most people store their pictures in the My picture folder which is located in My Documents. You must also consider the size of the file before you send it. A large picture can take along time to download and the person you are sending it to may not happy about that. For example pictures taken from a 7 mega pixel digital camera can be huge and must be resized. Sometimes your email program will ask you if you would like to make your picture smaller to send. How to place a picture with your email 1. In the email open a new message box. 2. Choose insert from the top menu, then choose Picture. 3. The box below appears. Press on Browse to find the picture you want to insert. 4. Add some Alternate Text. This shows up when the user places their mouse over the picture. Then Press ok. 5. The screen shot below shows that I have inserted a picture into my email. If someone sent you an email with a picture in it and you want to save it to your computer, right click your mouse on the picture. A menu will appear. Then choose save picture as. As an attachment 1. Open a New Message box. 2. Choose insert from the top menu, then choose File Attachment. 3. Now you can find the picture you want, click on it and the filename box will be filled in for you. Then Press Attach. 4. Now all you have to do it write your message and send. Submitted by Berl Meyer

How to Handle High Contrast Images In doing landscapes that includes the sky, early or late in the day, the contrast range exceeds what film or imaging chips can handle. Its therefore necessary to find a way to reduce the contrast range to something that the camera can handle so that the highlights don't burn out and the shadow areas don't turn black. The traditional method of dealing with this is to use split neutral density filters. While this method works most of the time it takes time and fiddling around with the right filter. Now that we are using digital cameras there is a better way. Shooting Technique (This technique is for photoshop users) What you're going to do is take at least two images of the scene. One will be exposed for the highlights and one shadows. Put your camera on a tripod. You don't want the camera to move. Set your meter compensation to -1.5 or -2 and take your first image. Now set your meter compensation to +1.5 or +2 and take the second image. You can also use auto-bracketing with about 1.5 stops apart from normal. The normally exposed image is redundant, but maybe worth having as a backup. If you have imported your images in 16 bit mode you will need to convert them to 8 bit mode. Put both images on the screen at the same time. Select the dark image and press CTRL-A to select the whole thing. Press CTRL-C to copy it. You can close that image you will no longer need it. Select the lighter image and press CTRL-V to paste the dark image to it. In photoshop CS3 you would use the place command instead of copy and paste. You now can blend the two images together and make a overall well exposed image. There different methods of doing this and it mainly depends on the software you have. If you have Photoshop CS3 you can use Merge to HDR. This is a simple automated function. If you have an older version of photoshop (CS or CS2) Fred Miranda's DRI Pro Plugin is worth buying and downloading. It cost $19.90 and is completely automated. There are manual techniques using layer mask, but I am not going into that because they are a little involved and I recommend one of the automated approaches. Submitted by Dave Luzader