When I was in tech school, my instructor shared this story with our class. He had been doing something on his computer, putting it together, I think. I don’t remember. Anyway, something on his CD-ROM drive wasn’t working. He tried all sorts of things but he was ready to pull his hair out so he had to call tech support. (There’s always someone out there that knows more than you!)

The tech support went over the usual basics, which he confirmed he had already tried. They had to send someone out to his home.

The tech person that answered the call came out, looked at a couple things, then checked a box.

Just like that – his problem was fixed. For $50.

The tech still had to charge the minimum fee for making a house visit. But my instructor could’ve saved the money had he just tried a few more things to fix his problem. It wasn’t that he didn’t know about the box to check – it was that he simply forgot to even take a look at it.

Back to my stupidity, mere moments ago. I was reading a Photoshop tutorial to try to learn how to do something. I tried it at least three times before I started searching for another set of instructions.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on! The instructions were written pretty clearly, and I was following along step by step. Yet I wasn’t getting the same results and wasn’t seeing what the example pictures showed.

I was convinced that the person who wrote the instructions had simply missed a step.

This was a tutorial involving layers and masks. If you aren’t familiar with them, think of using a stencil. Our stencil itself is the white mask (opaque), and the paper you are writing on is the black mask (transparent).

In short – you have to draw white on a black mask to get a part of the picture to show through. Despite having done this multiple times now, this is what I was having trouble with. I was coloring white all over my black mask and it wasn’t showing up at all!

I tried fooling around with a mask apart from going through all the steps and lo and behold, it didn’t work because I wasn’t on the paintbrush. DUH!

I went back through the steps one last time and whaddaya know – they worked perfectly.

The same instructor that made this $50 mistake also drilled it into our heads that the first course of action for a tech support is to ask “Is it plugged in?” This may sound overly simple, to the point of insulting. But much of a tech support person’s job isn’t fancy or high-tech. It’s knowing what sorts of things someone might be forgetting to do.

Even at work, we have contracted tech support personnel. They work somewhere else in the building and I have no idea where that is, but there are only a few people supporting our entire location (fairly large). That said, if there is a problem, they want to know how urgent it is.

One of them told me one day that he has received frantic and angry calls from people essentially saying their computer isn’t working because the screen is black. They need it fixed “NOW!”

In an effort to help the person more quickly as well as save time for themselves, they try to go over a few basics with the caller to see if they will really need live help. The caller will get frustrated at the implication that they may be able to (and should, if possible) fix their own problem. They staunchly refuse to go over the basic steps.

The tech comes out and what is the problem?

Take a guess: Fried computer? Needs a new monitor? Nope.

The monitor was off. A simple press of the power button and – problem solved.

The point in all this is that even for the best-paid, most knowledgeable tech support personnel, many problems have very simple solutions that someone has overlooked.

In the interest of this being a tech blog for beginners, let me assure you that I am not suggesting you should know these things if you do not. If you need help, then you absolutely should ask for it. And, you should never feel bad for asking.

But if you are comfortable with your computer enough to do a little bit of investigative work, make sure everything is plugged in securely and check any basics you do know about.

That way, hopefully you won’t end up paying $50 for someone to come check-mark a box for you.

If you aren’t familiar with the Orton Effect, which I only discovered while Picnik was around, it sort of gives a glamor shots appearance. I fell in love with this effect in Picnik so when their site shut down, I had to figure out how to do it myself. It’s actually very easy!

Here is the original picture:

This is a picture of my friend from New Zealand, used with permission.

Now, let’s see the same picture with the Orton Effect.

No other effects or adjustments used.

The Orton Effect gives her the appearance that she is glowing. I could have messed with the contrast to make it show even more, but this works.

Now it’s time for you to do the same! Very basic knowledge of Photoshop or GIMP is assumed.

IMPORTANT: My screenshots were taken in Photoshop but the steps in GIMP are exactly the same. The only difference you may notice is how the Gaussian Blur is handled in GIMP. Just make sure to click the chain link icon (so your blur numbers are equal to each other). Otherwise, it’s the same thing all the way.

1. Open a picture in Photoshop or GIMP.

This is our original photo, without the Orton Effect.

2. Make sure you have the “Layers” window open. If not, click “Window” and then “Layers” to open it.

3. Right-click your image layer (should be named Background by default) and choose “Duplicate Layer”.

4. A little window will appear asking what you want to name your duplicated layer. This will be quick so we’ll just leave it as the default name, “Background Copy“. Click “OK”. (This window does not appear in GIMP.)

5. Staying on the “Background copy” layer, change the layer blending properties to “Screen”.

6. Now duplicate the “Background copy” layer. Leave the name as “Background copy 2“. We’re close to done.

7. Change the layer blending properties on “Background copy 2” to “Multiply”.

8. Select your “Background copy 2” layer and go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur…

9. Change the radius to around 10-15, and click “OK”. Feel free to experiment, but too high or too low will make the effect unnoticeable.

I’d suggest no less than 5, no more than 20.

10. You should see the effect instantly. If you are satisfied, right-click one of your layers and choose “Flatten Image”.

Glamor Shots – Flower Edition

Voila! Glamorous appearance to an otherwise “OK” photo.

I’m sure most people know full well how to do this but I am a Techie Beginner myself when it comes to Apple, and I know I can’t be the only one! (Right? Right? Someone tell me I’m not the only one!)

As usual I scoured the web, albeit briefly, to figure out how to stop the screen from rotating. This is particularly annoying when trying to lay down with your iPod, or iPhone – whatever you are using.

Also as usual, I ran across some VERY complicated instructions – something to do with the home screen button and having it upside down, then turning it sideways… I don’t know. Made no sense AND is thankfully unnecessary.

I’m on the iPod Touch 4th Gen, iOS 5.1.1 but I assume it would be this way across the iPad and iPhone. I can’t confirm that though. (Anyone else know?)

To Lock Your Screen (Stop Screen Rotation):

1. Double-click the Home Screen button.
2. Swipe to the right in the toolbar until you see media player controls.
3. Look for the circular arrow icon on the far left and press it to lock the screen orientation.

SO EASY!! I was happy to find that. Definitely easier than the other method (frankly I still haven’t figured that one out).

Using your computer on a non-administrator level account can help keep you safe from malware infections and potentially keep you from changing important settings or deleting important files. Also if you got hacked on your guest account, the hackers wouldn’t have access to your important system files to do any real damage.

Note the key word: helps.

Like most everything in life, in theory this would be a wonderful solution to some of the most frightening technological threats. In theory, this would protect you not only from ill-intentioned people but also save you from yourself.

Everything is great, in theory.

In reality, guest-level user accounts (minimal access to important files and settings) and even power-user level accounts (moderate access permissions) can cause problems and frustrations for the average user. How? In the same way a seat belt would not be helpful if your car was sinking into a lake.

Having limited access to important files, folders, and settings CAN potentially save you from yourself by stopping you from changing something you shouldn’t.

But the computer doesn’t know when you know what you are doing and mean to do it versus when you think you are doing something safe but really shouldn’t.

The way Windows handles things from a non-administrator account is weird at times. By the way, a non-administrator account means any account without administrator-level/full access permissions to all files, folders, and settings. It doesn’t have to be the default “Administrator” account.

Sometimes using “Run As” is enough. When you download a program to install, you can right-click the program’s icon and choose “Run As…” to install the software program from an administrator level account (with the username and password). But I have even seen some software act difficult under those conditions. Furthermore, even if you install software as an administrator, that doesn’t mean it will then run fine under a non-administrator account.

I personally don’t automatically recommend everyone to use their computer under a guest account. I also don’t automatically advise everyone to get antivirus software. I am not some sort of technology hippie out to “stick it to the MAN” – but I believe a lot of general tech information passed on to the public uses too many scare tactics.

Using it as a general guideline to gain knowledge is good. Using it as life or death fact isn’t.

As with most situations, what works for one guy won’t necessarily work for the next. All software programs do not require the same access. Now that I think about it, explaining how software works would be a wonderful next-topic.

If you bought your computer from a big-box store, you likely went through a basic setup which involved making – or not making – an administrator password. I think most people tend to leave that blank and turn off the requirement to log on at all. (The alternative would be you turn on your computer, give it a couple minutes to boot up, and once it is up you can instantly use it.)

If you want to add a guest-level account that is fine and you can add one anytime.

But before you start solely using a guest-level account, ask yourself:

• How many people will use this computer?
• What sorts of things will I be using this computer for?
• How many programs will I want to install?
• Am I doing this to increase my safety against external threats (viruses, spyware, hackers) or to prevent myself from making a silly mistake?

If multiple people will use your computer, by all means – make a guest account (or multiple if many people will regularly use it). Make everyone else use the guest-level accounts to make less of a headache for you. (Depending how strict the account permissions are, they may be unable to install software or make changes to your settings, allowing you to monitor what happens on your computer.)

If you are the only one using your computer, what do you plan to or normally use it for? If you are only using your computer for creating Word documents, you really don’t need antivirus software and in the same way, you really wouldn’t need to use a guest account either. However, if you are the type to frequent questionable websites or download lots of software from untrustworthy websites or torrents, it couldn’t hurt to go under a guest account to help minimize any potential damage.

Maybe you are the only one using it and you mostly just play Mahjong and check your email, maybe browsing a few websites here and there (hi Mom!). At this point, it doesn’t even matter much what account you use, but what do you plan to do in the future? Do you plan to install more games? Or start a new hobby with some new software you bought? Plan to work from home with the company software?

If there is a high chance you will be installing a lot of software, or even just running some critical programs (such as ones used for work, for example) you may want to just be careful and stay under an administrator account. As I mentioned before, with the way that some programs work you may be able to install them easily using “Run As…” but that doesn’t mean you will be able to use the software as easily while under a limited-access account. For some software it won’t make much difference either way. Other software could be a problem.

OK, so you are the only person using your computer, for relatively plain reasons (checking email, playing Solitaire, etc), and don’t need to install software anytime too soon. But you really would just feel safer and more secure if you were under an account where you felt like you couldn’t accidentally make a silly mistake that might harm your computer in some way. Why not, right?

Go ahead if it makes you feel better, but don’t get lulled into believing that this will keep you completely safe. There are many malware programs that can override restricted access permissions. And even on your own, you can change some settings or delete some files that – even if they aren’t critical – can still change things about your computer that can be a headache to restore.

As with antivirus software, the bottom line isn’t to rely solely on the software. You shouldn’t drive 100mph down a seemingly empty highway because someone could pull out in front of you when you don’t expect it. In the same way, you can’t just use restricted permissions, a firewall, or antivirus software and believe you are safe to do anything with your computer. Something could sneak in when you least expect it.

Moral of the story? Don’t rely on computer-level security measures to take the place of good judgment.

I am behind the times.

I have been consistently behind trends for as long as I can remember. When everyone else was saying “that’s phat” I was saying “that’s the bomb!”. When everyone started holding their hair up with the claw, I was excited about having scrunchies. That is socially unacceptable enough but I am even behind the times in the tech world. Why, I am one of the few people left that doesn’t even have a smartphone!

Case in point I only just recently got an iPod Touch. Yes I know, I have joined the “sheeple”. I have my reasons!

Although I don’t love absolutely everything about it – especially since I am cheap and only bought the 8GB one – I am very satisfied with my purchase. This is partly due to the limitless number of apps available that transform the iPod into a number of other devices (alarm clock, journal, flashlight, game system and yes, even a phone).

But you can get that stuff on any smartphone or tablet PC, right?

Well, aside from not having to pay for a data plan, Apple has a few proprietary apps that are wonderful. FaceTime has amazing video quality, far superior to any other video calling all I have tried (if you know of any equal or close, be sure to share in the comments!).

Another wonderful thing I discovered is iMessage. IMessage allows you to message any other iDevice without use of another app. That means that through wifi I can send a text to a friend New Zealand as easy as I can send a text to a friend down the street.

Unless it doesn’t work.

Yesterday evening I tried sending a couple texts through iMessage. I set the iPod down after hitting “send” and went on with my day.

I came back to find “Message Not Delivered” staring at me in bright red lettering.

Ok, maybe it just lost signal for a moment. I thought. Tried sending again.

Same message.

Maybe I accidentally tried sending it to the wrong number! (In iMessage via an iPod Touch you can only send messages to other people with an iDevice, limiting you to numbers registered to an iPhone or email addresses registered to an iPod or iPad)

Tried again… Still no luck.

So I started Googling it. Many suggestions had to do with trying to check messages on an iPhone while syncing with iMessage on a Mac. Not my case since I use Windows.

Then I found it.

Go to Settings – WiFi.
Tap the blue arrow next to the connection you are using.
This pulls up the connection properties and settings.
Tap the box next to “DNS”.
Delete everything from that box.
Type the following:
8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who knows that I am a “computer person” but has developed a few perceptions of their own. We were trying to play a game online together over a popular game website, and found ourselves unable to do so because he was unable to load the game.

Frustrated, he started complaining about the website. He’d told me the technical specifications (specs) on his laptop before, and while I couldn’t remember his RAM, I remembered his processor (CPU) being a little on the slow side. I asked him to jog my memory about the specs.

“Does your computer have a dual-core processor, or single?”

“Dual.”

“Hmm… But it’s only like 1.6GHz, right?”

“Yeah.”

As I had thought, he confirmed that his CPU wasn’t exactly running at the speed of light. I remarked, “Yeah, I forgot that your processor is relatively slow.”

He then admitted that it was and mentioned several of the programs he had running, including a popular antivirus. Antivirus programs can strain limited resources, especially when you have real-time scanning on. When you include that atop an already slower processor and a more resource-heavy operating system (Windows 7) – it’s understandable how a computer could have issues.

After talking about how these programs on an already taxed processor could be causing issues, he proclaimed that he needed more RAM.

And this is where I was blown away…

After reiterating that his processor was already being pushed, implying that the problem lies in the processor and not necessarily the RAM, he disagreed.

“Nah, it is the RAM. At least, that’s what I was told when I bought it.“

I couldn’t believe that he was disagreeing with me in favor of what he was informed by a salesman.

Further confirming my suspicions, he remarked that he “only had 4GB of RAM”. Instead of this supporting the idea that more RAM would make a whole world of difference, this confirmed that it was his processor.

Why?

My computer has the exact same amount of RAM and did not share the same problems he was describing – because my processor’s speed is much faster.

However, that brought to my attention just how common this misinformed logic really is. Many people get the processor mixed up with the RAM and the RAM mixed up with the hard drive.

It’s extremely common that people think that their computer runs slow because they need more space on their hard drive. Or that more RAM would fix everything on their computer.

The reality is that hard drives, CPUs, and RAM all have different functions and purposes. They all work together and share some similar characteristics, but like most things in life – you must have balance.

You could (hypothetically) have 100GB of RAM in your computer. If you had a slow processor, all that extra RAM would ultimately be wasted.

Likewise, you could have a lightning-fast CPU but with not enough RAM, the computer would still be held back significantly.

Let’s say you have a top of the line processor – it’s super fast, quad-core, one of the most modern models available. You also have 10GB of RAM. Just an absurd amount. You can do everything with this computer! But you only have a 20GB hard drive.

Windows 7  64-bit version takes up 20GB. If you had a 20GB hard drive, you could have the operating system – and absolutely nothing else. You’d have the most awesome PC and you couldn’t do anything with it.

The point is, computer specifications should be balanced. Sure, you can lean a little to this side or that, but overall the numbers should be within a certain range of each other. You may get a little more out of your computer with a higher number on either end (than having a equal keel) but it probably won’t be what you’re hoping for.

Think of this for a moment – a hard drive is a long drawer, RAM is the hanging folders to organize documents, and your CPU is a secretary trying to file 100 documents away. Your documents that needed to be grouped together alphabetically and kept in order.

• Your secretary is fast, but you only have 6 hanging folders, not clearly marked.
• Your secretary is slow, but you have 26 hanging folders clearly marked in alphabetical order.
• Your secretary is fast and you have 26 hanging folders clearly marked in alphabetical order.

OK, that’s a little goofy – I admit it. But out of that scenario, which would you envision working the best?

A fast secretary with an inept filing system couldn’t do her job to the best of her ability. Her speed would be hindered by the lack of folders. In the same way, a fast CPU would be relatively inefficient without enough RAM to support it.

A slow secretary with a great filing system would be hindered by her own speed. She’d 27have the folders she needed to do the job well, she just couldn’t move fast enough. A slower CPU simply wouldn’t be as fast, even if supported by plenty of RAM

A fast secretary with a good filing system – would be fast and efficient. And there’s our answer:

A CPU can be fast, but only with enough RAM can it be efficient.

(And vice-versa.)

You simply can’t have one without the other.

We first discussed getting rid of unnecessary files. They are just clutter on your computer, similar to clutter in your house. Similar to clutter in your house, these files may be just a few things you don’t need, but they have the potential to pile up to problematic proportions.

We’ve now gotten rid of those unnecessary files, so let’s straighten things out a bit, shall we?

Fragmented Files

All your files and folders are stores in tiny fragments of data on your hard drive. When you have a fresh, clean hard drive with just the basic system files, everything is organized and tidy on the drive. The fragments are generally in consecutive order according to the files they create.

Let’s think of this like… a filing system. Technically, your hard drive actually does use a filing system already, but for the sake of understanding think of a filing cabinet full of folders and papers.

While we’re at it, let’s think about that cluttered house. We have a house (the hard drive) that was full of clutter. Maybe it was a little, maybe it was a lot, but now all that clutter has been cleaned out and we’re left with only stuff we need or want.

If you’ve ever done a massive “spring cleaning” project in your home (or in anyone else’s, for that matter), think about what was left when everything was sorted through and all the “junk” was gotten rid of. You knew that everything left was “a keeper” but it was still kind of strewn about. In all that “keeper” stuff there were some drawers and boxes where you’d shoved a bunch of paperwork.

While cleaning, you found all these papers that had been shoved in various places. Maybe there are some important documents that had been shoved in a drawer and forgotten about. Over on the shelf, some mail had been set down after a busy day at work. Someone threw some forms on the table that needed to be filled out.

You know all these documents are keepers, but everything is scattered. If you had to find anything, you certainly could but you’d have to flip through several papers to find any one document.

This is sort of how files get scattered in bits and pieces around the hard drive. The computer can find things and group them all together in order to present you with the finished file, but it might take a little extra effort since everything is scattered about.

Disk Defragmenter (aka “Disk Defrag”)

Once you rounded up all those important papers, you’d organize them all and then place them in corresponding folders and in some particular order in a filing cabinet – just like Disk Defrag.

Disk Defrag takes all those little fragments and puts them back in consecutive order on the drive, so everything runs a little more efficiently.

You don’t have to run Disk Defrag very often (maybe once a month or so) but it can help. You should run Disk Cleanup first so your computer has fewer files to sort through and piece together.

Disk Defrag is easy to find on Windows 7, but they sort of hid it on Windows XP.

Windows 7

1. Click the “Start” button (the orb in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, with the Windows flag icon on it).
2. Click “Accessories”.
3. Click “System Tools”.
4. Click on “Disk Defragmenter”.

Windows XP

1. Click the “Start” button (in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen).
2. Click “My Computer”.
3. Right-Click “C:” (it may have a name in front of it, but it will have a “C:” at the end).
4. Click “Properties”.
   

   My C Drive is named "Acer" but it also shows the "C:".

5. Click “Tools”.
6. Click “Defragment Now”.
   

Running Disk Defrag

The screenshots below are from Windows 7, but Disk Defrag in Windows XP looks fairly similar. The main difference is that Windows XP actually shows you visual representations (bar graphs) of the level of fragmentation, Windows 7 just gives you percentages.

Close all other programs before starting Disk Defragmenter.

I miss the bar graph.

1. With Disk Defrag open, click “Analyze Disk”.
2. When it’s finished, click “Defragment Disk”.
3. When defragmentation is complete, click “Close”.

That’s really all there is to it. Take note that this is definitely another process where you will want to just let it run and go do something else for awhile. Not just because it will take longer, but because the computer can’t defragment the hard drive very well if you’re still trying to write files to it.

This is Techie Beginners, so let’s take a moment to stop toying around with blogging and image editing; let’s get back to basics.

That said, one of the most basic things that many people may not know is how to keep their computer clean and efficient, in general. Often people know how to get on the web and read/send emails – but not much else. As is the theme here, why pay someone to do it for you (or constantly hound friends and family) when you can easily do it yourself?

Many people catch me off guard because they’ll know their way around a computer decently well, but won’t know basic maintenance. It’s like knowing how to drive your car, but not knowing how to change your oil… that’s me, by the way. You can be the best driver on the planet, but if you don’t know how to maintain your car, it will eventually lead to problems.

Same goes for computers, although I must admit that computers nowadays need less maintenance than the ones several years ago. Back when we had very little space on our hard drives, we had to constantly clean them. Every other day you risked having a full disk drive.

These days, not so much. Disk drives are now regularly sold in unimaginable sizes. But – especially depending on what you do with your computer – maintenance never hurts. Especially if your computer is a little older – they do still exist!

We’ll start by cleaning off unnecessary files.

Temporary Files

Temporary files are often created when installing a new program, but programs create them for other reasons too. They may be removed when installation of the program has finished, but some programs don’t clean up after themselves very well.

Additionally, browsing the internet saves files to your computer that are called “temporary internet files” (ingenious, eh?). Temporary internet files allow your computer to load websites faster by loading the files that create the website from your computer, rather than having to download them from the internet. Depending on your settings, temporary internet files are likely downloaded every time you visit a new site, and held for a specified time period.

Temporary internet files were much more useful in the days of dial-up internet access (though a few still use it) because download speeds over dial-up were extremely slow compared to DSL, cable, and fiber optics. Temporary internet files were used so that a person could browse a website without having to re-download all the files from that website, unless he or she wanted to.

Unlike temporary internet files, temporary files may not be needed once a software program is finished installing, or even just closed out of. But all these files can take up space on your computer and sometimes you may need that extra space.

Disk Cleanup

The first, and most widely recognized method of cleaning off unnecessary files is to use Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup is a program built into Windows to clean up files that you don’t need. In Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7, it can also compress files and clean out other temporary files that may be lurking in unfamiliar areas.

Generally speaking, Disk Cleanup rounds up all the files that you can safely delete (or compress) and allows you to handle them as one task. Some files you could easily find and remove yourself (such as emptying the Recycle Bin), others not so much. It’s easiest and safest just to let Disk Cleanup handle it.

Disk Cleanup is easy to find on virtually any Windows Computer:

Windows 7 or Vista

1. Click the Start button – the glowing circular orb with the Windows flag icon in the bottom, left-hand corner of the screen. (See above.)
2. Click “All Programs”
3. Click “Acccessories”
4. Click “System Tools”
5. Click on “Disk Cleanup”

  Windows XP

1. Click the “Start” button in the bottom, left-hand corner of the screen. (See above.)
2. Click on “All Programs”
3. Click “Accessories”
4. Click “System Tools”
5. Click on “Disk Cleanup”

Running Disk Cleanup

Using Disk Cleanup is easy, but if you have a lot of files to be compressed/deleted it may take a little while to run. If looks like it’s taking awhile, feel free to walk away and check back on it later. (This is a good rule of thumb for most computer maintenance procedures – let it run and come back to it later.)

This is the Disk Cleanup window (shown from a Windows 7 computer):

As you can see in the image, this computer only has about 380MB of space that would be cleaned up if I ran Disk Cleanup with the current default settings.

By default, Disk Cleanup is currently set to remove the following: Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Internet Files, (empty the) Recycle Bin, and other Temporary Files.

There are many other choices that can be selected, or some of those could be deselected if I didn’t want to remove them (such as emptying the Recycle Bin).

If you open Disk Cleanup and see files listed that you don’t recognize you can click that line and a description will be displayed explaining those file types. In the example above, “Downloaded Program Files” is currently selected. As you can see, Disk Cleanup provides a description of what “Downloaded Program Files” includes, so you know what is being removed.

For the most part, all of these are safe to be checked and removed. However, before you press “OK”, be sure to either uncheck the “Recycle Bin” or click on “View Files”. Once you click “OK”, any files in the Recycle Bin will be permanently deleted (technically there are ways to get them back, but better to check first instead).

I’ve known of people to save files in the Recycle Bin – which isn’t safe. For the record, neither is saving your emails in your “Deleted Items” folder, which I’ve also seen done, but that’s another story.

Once you’re ready, click on “OK” and let it run. In the example image above, 380MB is all the space that the computer would be cleaning. This isn’t much, so it would only take a few minutes. If your computer shows a number of GB to be cleaned off (especially 5GB or more), you may want to walk away for a few minutes.

Now you’ve gotten rid of some extra files you don’t need and freed up a little bit of space on your computer. Purging your unnecessary files can sometimes help other issues too. If you have a weird problem with your computer (websites not loading right, maybe a program not running normally) – Disk Cleanup can sometimes be a surprising solution.

After reading many examples and explanations of layers and masks, they all struck me as confusing. Now, if you have read my blog before, you’ll probably know I do a lot of things while tired. I was reading tired too. But even when I haven’t been tired, for some reason it always goes over my head.

I’ve been looking for a VERY basic explanation, in simple terms. Perhaps I haven’t looked hard enough, but I hadn’t really found one. That is, until I found an article on recreating depth of field via Photoshop.

Suddenly, layers and masks sounded SO SIMPLE and super easy. But, since it referred to Photoshop, I couldn’t do it. However, the idea is mostly the same so I’m going to give you a run down in GIMP instead (technically, the instructions are pretty much the same for either).

These instructions assume a very basic knowledge of GIMP (or Photoshop) functions.

1. Open a picture in GIMP or Photoshop. For this example, we’ll use an easy pumpkin patch photo. You can download and use the same photo by clicking here. (Right-click the link, choose “Save Link As…” in Firefox or “Save Target As…” in Internet Explorer and make sure you know which folder you save it to.)

This will be our base photo. I took it so don’t worry about licensing.

2. Make sure that you have the Layers dialog open. If not, go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Layers.

3. Right-click your base image (titled “Background”) in the Layers dialog and click “Duplicate Layer”.

This new one will be our Black and White layer.

4. You should now have two layers, “Background Copy” and then “Background”.

5. Double-click the “Background Copy” text and rename it to “Black and White”. This isn’t necessary, but it’ll make it easier to distinguish between the two.

5. Click on the “Black and White” layer to select it.

6. Click on the “Color” menu at the top and choose “Desaturate”.

The Lightness option will probably produce the best results for our purposes. You won’t see this box if using Photoshop.

7. Click “OK”.

8. Right-click the “Black and White” layer and choose “Add Layer Mask…”

9. Choose “White (full opacity)” and click “Add”. Notice a little white box show up next to the “Black and White” layer. This is your mask.

For this demonstration, we’ll use white instead.

10. Now we’re going to use the paintbrush tool on the “Black and White” layer. Make sure you’re painting in black. Paint over the foremost pumpkin. As you paint on it, you should see orange show through. In the Layers dialog, you should see black show up on the little white mask image.

The orange on the image is depicted in black on the white mask image.

11. Finish coloring in the pumpkin using whatever brush makes it easiest on you. You may want to increase the brush size for the main part of the pumpkin then use a smaller brush for the edges.

12. If you make a mistake and paint into the other pumpkins, change your brush color to white. It will act as an eraser for your mistakes.

Notice the pumpkin shape on the mask in the Layers dialog.

13. If you want to see the mask at full size, right-click it and choose “Show Mask”. If you ever run into a problem with editing the mask, right-click it first and make sure “Edit Mask” is still checked. (It will un-check if you switch layers. These two options are only available in GIMP.)

This is the mask at full size.

14. When you are satisfied, right-click the mask and choose “Apply Layer Mask”. This will remove the mask image and you will see where you have created transparency in the “Black and White” layer.

This would be easier to see if I’d done it against the color pumpkin. Sorry.

15. Last but not least, right-click the “Black and White” layer and choose “Flatten Image”.

Notice before we flatten the image, we have 2 layers still. One is our black and white layer with transparency added. The next is our base image and colorful layer. After we flatten the image, we are left with only one image layer and it is a colorful pumpkin against a field of gray.

This pumpkin was a rebel.

Had we done the same thing with a black mask, we would have painted over the pumpkin with white. The end result would have been one black and white pumpkin surrounded by lovely orange ones.

There are a variety of different mask types. White makes the masked layer fully opaque and black changes parts of the mask to transparent. Black does the exact opposite, making the masked layer fully transparent. Coloring white over it reveals that part of the white layer, making it fully opaque.

Likewise, you can use grayscale masks and paint over a mask in shades of gray for other effects. If I were to have colored over the white mask in gray, instead of black, the pumpkin would have been only orange-ish instead of bright orange.

Layers and masks are used for many things beyond color changes. You can recreate the depth of field photography effect with the same process. Instead of desaturating our “Black and White” layer, we would have blurred it instead (using Gaussian Blur, or Focus Blur to mimic Photoshop’s “Lens Blur”). Then we would have colored over the front pumpkin to reveal a sharp, clear pumpkin that would appear far away from the others.

Layers and masks can also be used to merge images together. If you had an image of a person bent over, you could arrange the two images to make it appear as though a person were bent down next to the pumpkin.

These are very basic uses, and there are many more fancy uses for these features. But hopefully this helps you gain a better understanding of how layers and masks work as well.

They aren’t, and don’t have to be, as complicated as I once thought.

Almost any and every blogging tip talks about subscribers. Everyone wants you to subscribe. They want thousands of people to subscribe to their blog. Living in an ideal world, any worthwhile content would get millions of views and every one of them would want to subscribe to that person’s blog. Obviously, this isn’t Planet Euphoria. This is the real world.

In the real world, anyone can write the most profound thing ever written. Until and unless someone finds it, it will just sit in cyberspace doing absolutely nothing. To avoid that, people market their blog, comment on other blogs, and follow hundreds of other tips on how to make their blog more popular.

One of the highest achievements, if you will, is for the reader to subscribe. All the work that goes into this process!

• First the person has to find your blog.
• Then you have to get them interested enough to read through the article that they happened upon rather than just turn around and leave.
• Once they are finished with that article, you want to keep them there. So you have to have plenty of other interesting content at their fingertips, staring them in the face.
• If they find enough interesting and valuable content on your blog, they might just subscribe.

Whew!! Is that all?!

In a peer-pressured fashion, I subscribed to several blogs that I found and enjoyed. There are different ways to subscribe, as well. Subscriptions can be made via feeds or via email. I don’t really use feeds, so I go with email.

Initially I wanted to just get all the content. But then I also used it as a little experiment to see how often these pro-blog-types actually wrote new content:

Some write every day or every few days, others write once every week or two. Others write every once in a blue moon in a seemingly inconsistent manner.

So, I now have all these new blog subscriptions pouring in to my email. I read a couple. Then I just watched the headlines to see what might be of interest, that I could read when I had nothing else.

Then I stopped altogether.

Subscribing to even one blog, that updates frequently, is like signing up to get spam. It’s spam you presumably want, thus it’s not technically considered spam. But in terms of quantity and value, it winds up having the same (lack of) appeal. And since I don’t care to use feeds, changing my subscriptions to that option is pointless.

If I really like a site, I will simply go back to it.

I’ll go back to it every week, every day, however often I feel like it.

Bookmarking is another coveted “achievement” for a website or blog. I may or may not even bother to bookmark a site I really like.

To me, the real earmark of how much a reader enjoys your website is how often s/he visits and how long they stay.

If I go to a blog and view it less than 10 seconds, even if I do that daily, I really don’t find much value there. That would indicate I didn’t find it worth my investment of time. Sure, I would be a frequent, repeat visitor. But what would I be contributing to you by my visits?

On the other hand, if I go even once a month and spend a couple hours reading different articles, clicking through pages, checking out everything available – I genuinely love that website. I find plenty of value in the content available on that site. Enough to not only return, but also to stay a while each time.

Although subscribers are definitely not a bad thing, I don’t consider them a be-all-end-all meaning of the popularity of your blog. I don’t think that low subscriber numbers mean you’re less of a person (or, a blogger).

Rather than viewing subscribers as an ultimate sign of popularity, view them as a cause and effect. They liked your blog, and because of that they subscribed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just remember – it’s whether or not they’re reading your content that really counts.