Friday, June 25, 2010

I Need a Tutor

All I wanted to do was make my pictures bigger.
That led to me trying to change the HTML code in my blog, which led to things getting lost and I couldn't find them, which led to me making a new page for my blog, which led to a header picture that didn't fit, which led me to resizing pictures on Photoshop, which led me to stay up trying to figure it out until 1:30 in the morning and I am still stuck with a header picture that does not fit!
ARGHHH!


The good news is that my desperation caused me to go into Photoshop and teach myself how to do something.  
I don't know Photoshop.
I don't know any photo editing software.
I take pictures, download them and them put them on  my blog or what have you.  I edit when I shoot.
Beyond the basics of typing, emails, searching the net, downloading photos and blogging, I am a complete novice.  Hey, I was a literature major, we read books!  We only typed papers on the computer because we had to. 


But Aaron keeps telling me I need to learn Photoshop.  That there are so many things I could do there beyond color correcting.  And that it isn't that hard, and that I could teach myself.
Well, I 'm not so sure about that cause you see that header picture is still the wrong size.  
But at least I tried.  That is a big step for me.  I am not intimidated by much, but some of this techy stuff intimidates me.  And, I have to admit, I am a bit lazy.  I have such a limited amount of time to spend working on the computer each day, that I'd like to spend it all writing, not learning Photoshop, or Illustrator or any other program that I need to know.


But I am getting the feeling that a whole new world might be opening up for me if I step outside my comfort zone.  It's like when I finally got my digital SLR camera.  All the pictures I had taken in my head for years, I could finally take in real life.  MY 35 mm point and shoot just wasn't able to do what I wanted to.  And now, well I can take almost any picture I have been imagining.
Now I need to learn all the designery stuff I have in my head so I can leave my husband alone and do it myself.
I'm tired of being a client who has lots of ideas but no know-how.


So. I think I ma going to be spending some time on the computer not writing, but fiddling around with some if these things.
And I am sure you've noticed there has been a serious shortage of posts around here.  My limited free time has been cut even shorter by later summer bedtimes and a little girl who is making the not so easy transition to a big girl bed.  
I am exhausted by 9:30--well, before that really, but so much so by then that it is all I can do to tidy up the house and go to bed.


But it is summer and I am cutting myself some slack.  I may not be here everyday, but check in a few times a week for something new.
Maybe one of these days that header will be fixed.
But I'm not making any promises.  At least not until I get a tutor.  
Any volunteers?


Happy weekend everyone!
Love from,
Greta

4 comments:

Betsi* said...

Greta! Love the new header image, even if you aren't happy with the picture size. ;)
I encourage you to dig in and learn Photoshop. I love it. I use it not only to edit photos but also to do graphic design work.
I'm afraid I'm in the same boat with you though when it comes to Illustrator. I know I need to learn it but...
Lightroom is a really excellent program too for photo editing. I actually prefer it. Photoshop is just my one stop shop for everything.
Wish I lived closer so I could share my limited knowledge with you!

Shannon said...

Sorry... I didn't mean to lead you to a headache! :) I was just now writing an explanation on how to fix it, and decided it would probably lead you even further into confusion. If you are able to go into the html and copy/paste the code into a message for me, I could try to help (your page source isn't listing a width for your header, just percentages, so I'm not sure if this is the same thing you are working with on your end.) But I guess you probably want to learn how to do it yourself anyway. Regarding Photoshop, dig into it! Cropping and re-sizing are easy tools, and it will help you immensely. Once you decide your header will be, say, 800px, you would just take your original photo into Photoshop and re-size the width to the same.

Naomi said...

I so know how you feel - one glitch could take all night. And it's hard to leave it when it just isn't right. You can change the size of an image really easily in Paint. Just go to Image - Attributes and mess with the height and width and see what it does. You can also use the Pick Color icon on the left side and click it on the background color you want, then click the fill color icon and click on the white space to fill it with that color. It's kind of handy if you need a quick fix, but limited in other ways.

The best thing is to have someone show you how to do it to start. But of course that's not always available at midnight when the kids are sleeping :)

valerie said...

Oh my goodness,this same thing happened to me...did you figure it out? Please please share when you do...I thought this only happened to me!:)