Posts by Thomas Houston at Switched

Tips and Tricks for Using Your New Digital Camera

by Thomas Houston, posted Jan 1st 2009 at 3:01PM

Did you wake up Christmas morning to find a brand new point-and-shoot or dSLR camera sitting under the tree but not quite sure how to use it (or at least all those features)? Got the camera mode permanently set on 'auto?' Not quite sure what to do with white balance, ISO, and aperture? The folks over at digital Photography School have got you covered -- they've gathered together several easy-to-use tips and tutorials for getting the most out of your camera, whether you're a seasoned vet or new to all things photography.

There are 21 tips in all, and they range from camera care and photo composition to understanding that always tricky concept of exposure. Been taking photos by looking into the preview screen with your arms extended? You might want to check out their quick and easy tutorial on how to best hold a digital camera. Pressing the camera to your face and stabilizing the body with your hands is a sure-fire way to cut down on blurry shots without having to lug around a tripod. Pictures still a bit blurry? Jabbing away at the shutter button often shakes the camera, so practice softly pressing and releasing the shutter while you're snapping.

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Dell Debuts Design-Your-Own-Laptop Studio

by Thomas Houston, posted Dec 2nd 2008 at 5:25PM

It was HP who made the PC "personal again," but don't think Dell isn't doing its darnedest to make it ultra-personal... again. After seeing a number of Dell laptops get unorthodox paint jobs and hearing that it would make Art House machines CTO in 2009, we've now learned that Dell has swung open the doors to its all new Design Studio. Naturally, said studio was built to customize the outfit's Studio 15 and Studio 17 lappies, and it features an interactive gallery of original artwork commissioned exclusively for this initiative. Available for browsing right now, each unique image costs $75 to have "permanently tattooed into the laptop lid," meaning that you better heart that design a whole lot before pulling the final trigger.

Google Brings LIFE Magazine Photo Archives to the Web

by Thomas Houston, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 11:01AM

Google continues its march towards organizing all the world's information. Just what has it done this time? Google worked with LIFE magazine to digitize and distribute LIFE's enormous archive of photographs, which span over a century and countless cultural, political, scientific sporting, and other historical moments.

Since this was released, we've spent far too much time browsing the archives, and we've found everything from Hitchcock to Billie Holiday, from 'The Third Man' to '2001,' and the historic Lindbergh flight to the Apollo 11 launch. The majority of the photos have titles, descriptions, photographer information, and dates, which makes searching for photos from "World War 2" and "New York," for example, surprisingly easy. You can search by decade, by year, and by pretty much any other search term you can think of. Paul Newman? Check. Dresden, Germany? Got it. Picasso wearing a cow's head mask? Of course!

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