AA Alkaline cells are 1.5V when fully charged. 2700mAh. Carbon zinc are 1100mAh

AA NiMH cells are 1.2V (though fully topped up may be slightly higher). Capacity varies.

AFAIK, the internal resistance of NiMh and NiCad is lower than alkaline - so you can draw larger currents (e.g. for motors etc).

More info on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes
and some interesting stuff here:
http://www.greenbatteries.com/batterymyths.html


HTH!
Matt

I can't decide where to put myself... there's always more to learn


Matt

Just saw the "Friends dont' let friends pixel peep"
http://lightenupandshoot.blogspot.com/2009/11/pixel-peepers-episode-2.html

LOL!

AFAIK, You can also achieve such a DoF by using tilt/shift
(And putting the heads all in the same plane)
Matt

All cutting out can be extremely painstaking and timeconsuming
My latest favourite plugin is the Topaz Labs Remask 2. Works in Elements too!

However, if you want to have a go at it, I'd advise learning to use masks in Elements. Check out some of my (old) tutorials on my website: www.photon.me.uk - that'll get you started at least!

Matt

AFAIK, the slider on the SD card is a physical electronic write-protect.
There's nothing the host system can do to override the selection

So, if you write protect the card you will never get anything modified on it
Matt

Don't bother with Adobe Gamma
You need to get yourself Argyll CMS and dispcalGui - both free
Preferably get a Pantone Huey (cheapest one) as well - it'll work a treat with Argyll.
AFAIK, there are options though for visual calibration which will be better than nothing, and a lot better than Adobe Gamma.

HTH!
Matt

Huh!
Their instructions don't make sense!!!

Yes, you should edit in AdobeRGB or sRGB (personally, I'd use AdobeRGB) - maybe even in 16-bit. It's up to you. Save your file in your working space, and do all your editing in that colour space.

When you are happy with the image (on your calibrated screen!) then flatten, and use Image / Mode / Convert to Profile.

You should NOT use "Assign Profile"!!!!


Let me explain:
* Convert to profile will take the current working colour space and perform a transformation into the new colour space. It will use the "Intent" that you choose (there are four). Most likely you should use "Relative Colormetric". It will take the pixel 'numbers' and calculate where they should be in the new colour space.

(The Intent is useful where you may need to preserve a specific colour - e.g. for a company logo using Pantone colours. Alternatively, you may want to retain the overall 'feel' of the image, even though some colours may not be able to be reproduced in the new colour space. Relative Colormetric will give you that. 'Perceptual' may also be used - but will give a different rendering for some images. That's partly where the 'Soft Proof' option comes in Photoshop CSx )

* Assign profile on the other hand will just keep the pixel 'numbers' and do no transformation over to the new colour space. You'll get dud colours - how much depends on the difference between the working space and their printer profile.

To illustrate - "Convert to Profile" is like taking pounds sterling and applying a currency conversion to get to US dollars.
"Assign Profile" is just changing the currency character without changing the numbers!! (So £10 will become $10).

If DS don't know that, then I wouldn't expect my prints to be accurate

Try Pro AM Imaging for instructions and an excellent service


EDIT: Regarding the NA or Europe defaults... Photoshop doesn't just cover photography It deals with printing as well - such as colour separations and CMYK conversions etc. Don't worry so much about the choice of NA or Europe for photography (it's mainly a CMYK difference). The main thing you want to concentrate on is the working RGB space - choose either sRGB or AdobeRGB. It is helpful for PS to warn you when you are loading an image that isn't in that space (so you can have the choice of converting, or editing as-is). That's pretty much all you need to worry about

(You'll find my sticky note on Colour Management useful... if you can wade through it all )

HTH!
Matt

The lens ID in the EXIF is a 2-byte identifier. The PC software has to use the ID to give it a name

Matt

Do you mean accurate, or consistent?

If you mean consistent, then a sheet of A4 paper will do the job nicely. Just hold the paper where the subject would be and take a white balance reading. If you shoot RAW, then just take the image - you can pick a white balance off that and apply to all shots from the same session.

If you mean accurate, then a colour chart is the way to go. A GM chart is fine, but I've used the QPcard 201 (which is much cheaper, and smaller) and had very good results too. www.qpcard.com
(They are helpful as you can carry them around with you!)

HTH!
Matt