March 8th, hear first hand reports of Macworld Expo 2010 adventure from club members that attended the event. Pictures, videos, swag and tall tales.

Also start thinking of members you would like to nominate for club officer positions. Nominations will be taken during the March General Meeting.

“Man in harmony with Nature” vs. “man and what he has done to Nature”

by Gary Pool

I used an original blue & white G3 Macintosh running Photoshop 5.0 to create these digital compositions. This work, which ultimately became two individual images by printing at various stages of creation, began as many images scanned into Photoshop at 300 ppi and then inserted into individual layers. Then the images were cleaned up and strategically placed for best visual effect. Next, I used Photoshop Layer Blending Options to compose the “Man in harmony with Nature” image.

Using the “Man in harmony with Nature” image I added a black color over-lay, once again using Layer Blending Options. Next I applied the Twirl and Spherize filters (both resident in Photoshop) to specific layers, creating “man and what he has done to Nature.”

This is a good illustration how one idea can become two entirely different compositions.

Welcome to the new PMUG.org website!

Thanks to the hard work of members such as Marty Crouch, Connie Wynn, Joan Pinkert, Allen Watson, Peren Bjork and others, we now have a brand new WordPress based home.

The new site affords features such as:

1. Information about PMUG will be updated more often
2. You can track PMUG information via popular RSS feeds (That little RSS icon in your Safari address bar)
3. Better organization of website content

and much more coming in the future, such as connecting PMUG.org to social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

Not all of the information on the old PMUG.org site is available yet, so if you’re looking for something that you can’t find here, try this link to the old site.

Please let us know what you think!

– Steve

Our January 11th, 2010 General Meeting will feature guest speakers will be Bob Heinson and Gabe Salo from Adeline Music and Sound!

Making a QTVR Object

by Jon Sanbo

QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) allows pictures to be interactive. There are two different styles. One style is where it seems you are pivoting around for a 360° panorama. You can look from side to side, up and down, and zoom in or out of the picture. The other style lets you rotate or “walk around” the object. You can view it from all angles and zoom in and out.

Drag your mouse horizontally on the QTVR movie at left to see that it gives much more information than a still picture from one viewpoint. You can turn the object around and see all of the sides; this adds depth to the item.

One digital camera website provides a virtual tour of many cameras they review using QTVR. You can see where all the buttons, doors, ports, and knobs are located.

[singlepic id=1 w=320 h=240 float=right]

The four basic steps to creating a QTVR are: (1) plan what you are going to do; (2) take pictures; (3) make your still pictures into a movie; (4) convert the movie to QTVR. I use iPhoto, iMovie, and QTVR Edit Object.

Editor’s Note: For current information on creating your own QTVRs, start by reviewing the information at the Apple website. Continue by googling “How to create QTVR Panorana Mac OS X”.

Picture Taking Hints

Use light, neutral colored backgrounds to reduce the harshness of the shadows. The background will also get rid of distractions behind the object. Mount the camera on a tripod.