It's More Fun in the Philippines

Taken at a resort in Zambales fronting Potipot Island.

Kerygma Conference pictures

Rounded corners with Photoshop

A month or so ago, I helped a friend set up a website for his debt collection agency at www.gccs.com.ph. As I am not a professional web designer, I had to use a free web template downloaded from the net. The design called for some pictures with rounded corners. Obviously, I didn't know how to make them.

Like in many other instances, I found the answer by searching for it on the net. I followed the steps enumerated at www.paininthetech.com and was satisfied by the result. Now, I can confidently say, I know how to make them rounded corners. The picture at the left is my proof.

Using Photoshop 7, the following are the steps:

(1) Open the image whose corners you want to change;

(2) Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Tools ( note that you will find this tool in the menu which will open when you point your mouse at the lower right corner of the Rectangle Tool);

(3) After selecting the Rounded Rectangle Tool, enter a value in the blank field after Radius on the Options menu (note that the higher the value the more defined are the rounded corners);

(4) Still on the Options menu, to the left, click on the "Shape layers" button;

(5) To get rid of the fill collor, go to the Layers palette and drag the "Fill" slider to 0%;

(6) After, go to the Paths palette and click on the arrow on the top-right corner to generate the drop-down menu;

(7) On the drop-down menu, select "Make Selection";

(8) On the "Make Selection" dialog box, leave the settings as is and click on OK;

(9) Then, click on "Edit" on the main menu and "Copy Merged" on the drop-down menu to copy the rounded rectangle;

(10) Open a new document and paste the copied rounded rectangle; and finally

(11) Extend the canvass size so as to reveal all the corners.

After following these steps, you should now have your picture with rounded corners.

How to reduce the size of digicam pictures

Have you tried uploading pictures to Friendster or Yahoo Photos and ended up with an error message saying the file size exceeded their limit? My guess is that the picture file you are uploading is a picture you took with your high mega-pixel camera which is more than 1 mb in size. You need to resize it first before you can upload them easily to sites on the net.

The question is how. I do it using Photoshop. You open the picture file. On the main menu, click on Image. Then, on the drop-down menu, click on Image Size. A dialog box will then open. First, make sure that the box before "Constrain Proportions" is checked. Then change the width in Pixel Dimensions to 640. Notice that the height also changes in proportion to the new width. Click on OK.

We're not finished yet. On the main menu again, click on file. On the sub-menu, click on "Save for Web". A dialog box will open with a view of your pic. On the right, choose "JPEG High" for Settings and check the box before "Optimized". Then, click on save. My suggestion is that you save the file with a new file name and on a different folder.

You now have a reduced version of your picture that you can upload easily to say Friendster or Yahoo Photos. Clue, if you're not a techie like me, just follow the steps blindly and ignore all the other options you see along the way. The important thing is that you get the task done. :)

By the way, take note that I am using Photoshop 7.0 with settings at default. There may be command variations for other versions of Photoshop.

Trial and error photography

I went home to the province last weekend to attend an important family event. I flew to Cebu on a Cebu Pacific flight, then rode a taxi to the Port of Cebu where I took a Supercat to Tagbilaran City, Bohol. At the Port of Tagbilaran, I contracted a good ol' tricycle to bring me home to our house in San Isidro, the second to the last barangay of the city going east.

As is always said, there is no place like home. Our place is a marriage of the urban and rural, a part of the city but which does not look anywhere like downtown. It is almost a kilometer away from the highway accessible only through a rough rocky road and with nearest neighbor maybe a hundred meters away. You can almost call the place a farm except that it is not. It is just our house.

Before we flew back to Manila, we took time to enjoy two of the popular tourist destinations in Bohol. First, we went to Loboc to take one more time the famed river cruise. At one point in the cruise, we were entertained by children singing and dancing in the tradition of the Loboc Children's Choir. Then, we spent a day at the Dumaluan Beach Resort in Panglao where the sand is white, the water calm, the beach perfect.

All in all, I would say it was a fun four-day break, fun which I tried to capture using my Sony DSC90 digital camera and my elementary, trial and error, photography skills. Well, at least I have already mastered the "half press" trick which I learned somewhere from the net and now am able to capture quick moments like the pool jump above. For those who want to see a bit of Bohol, check out my pics at Flickr and tell me what you think.

Corregidor photo shoot

I came across these photography seminars announced at Blogalicious. The topics include travel writing and photography on May 12 to 13, photographing architecture on May 19, and photographing animals on May 26.

The travel writing and photography session is entitled "Explore Corregidor" will actually include a photo trip to Corregidor with pre and post trip meeting with expert photographer Jay Alonzo and writing tips from noted writer Kristine Fonacier. The registration fee of P6000 includes the workshop kit, meals, transportation, hotel accommodation, and certificate.

The speaker for the photographing architecture will be Jojo Guingona while that of photographing animals, Kathy Chua. The registration fee for these sessions is P2500 and will include handouts, meals, transportation, permit to shoot (architecture), entrance fee (animals), and certificate. For details, you may call 8921801 or email AFIFHLEvents@ayalafoundation.org.ph.