Lenz Photo Shop

To learn more about Lenz Photo Shop check the website at www.lenzphotoshop.com to view and purchase fantastic art work! >>>>>> Bookmark it for future reference.

Christmas is not far off, and if you'd like a family shot for your Christmas card LPS can do that. For $25 I'll come to you, take the shots and send them to you to have printed. Call us to schedule a photo shoot 480-363-5939. (local customers only).

I want to be your go to photographer for all your events, including family portraits and weddings. Portrait service includes a photo shoot at a local location of your choice for $100.00, processing the images. CDs are also available of all your images.

Wedding photography services are available. Simply call for more details and to set up an appointment. Lenz Photo Shop has teamed up with local professional wedding photographer Teddy Wilder of Dream Giver Photos. Check her website http://www.dreamgiverphotography.com/.

What's Happening:
My new website was recently launch and hopefully you've had a chance to visit and sign the guest book. If not you can do so now. Your support is greatly appreciated. The art show season should be in full swing in a few weeks so I'm looking forward to that.

Scheduled Shows:
September 17th, 6pm to 10pm, Chandler Art Walk, Downtown Chandler
October 7th, 3pm to 7pm, Chandler Farmers Market (scheduled every Thursday until May 2011)

Mention that you saw this in my blog and I'll give you a 20% discount on your purchase at the event.

Exhibits for George Lenz:
* Rhino Cafe at 22721 S. Ellsworth Rd. Queen Creek
* Sunrise Bagel Cafe 1752 E. Signal Butte Rd. Mesa. Just South of US-60 on Signal Butte.

Advertisers:
* Kally Reynolds of Renaissance Journeys, LLC. Kally is the author of Of Frogs and Princes; Reflections on Relating, Dating and Mating For Women Who Have Been There Before. Check http://www.datingmiracle.com/dating-for-women/of-frogs-and-princes-reflections-on-relating-dating-and-8954.html to purchase the book. Kally's mission is to help people succeed in relationships. A worthy cause in today's world. So, I highly recommend that you check her site, and especially her book.

Arizona Bubble People promotes child safety for our precious young ones. The images are colorful, and attractive to display on walls in schools or simply use small prints to teach young ones. Call 480-363-5939 to purchase images.

The images are the creation of George Lenz, award winning digital photographic artist. George has a passion for this subject, particularly the pool safety image. He lives in Arizona, and after seeing so many child drownings on the news each day he decided to come up with an idea that may help save lives. So, please help George in his efforts towards this cause by visiting Lenz Photo Shop for more information. How important is child safety to you?

Arizona Bubble People is a trade name and you may not use, replicate, manipulate, redistribute, or modify the images without written permission from Lenz Photo Shop.

1. Digital cameras use their sensors to see the images we see with our eyes. Sometimes images captured with our cameras aren't as we remembered them. That's because no matter how sensitive the sensor, they're still no match for our own eyes. To try and replicate the image we saw with our own eye, we need to tweak the levels (intensity levels of image shadows, mid-tones, and highlights), the contrast and the color. When you're just starting out, simply select IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS from the toolbar, then select auto levels, auto contrast, and auto color. You can always undo these steps in the history panel. And when you get more comfortable with PS, you'll be able to adjust the levels, contrast and color yourself from that same ADJUSTMENTS menu.

2. When you open up an image for the first time, make a copy of that image and give it a name. Then promptly close the original image so that you have a record of it. To do this, simply go to the "layers" panel, right click on the background image and then select "duplicate layer" and select "new" in the destination bar. It's good practice to do this each and every time, so that you maintain a record of the images in their original format, to those that have been edited. Close the original image.

3. Curves helps with the tonal range of your image. If your image is lacking contrast, it could be that the curve is a little flat. To remedy this go to IMAGE/ADJUSTMENTS/CURVES, and a graph will display. Hold the left mouse button down on the line and as you're moving it around watch the changes to your image, then simply select ok when you're done.

Let's try these values to add some punch. At the bottom you should see input and output. In the input type 158. Now in the output type 168. You will notice how the line moves when you type in these numbers. Now take your cursor and click on the diagonal line below the last point that you set. Go to your Input and output and type. Input 100 and 83 for output. Note these numbers are only for a good starting point. You may increase or decrease these values as you see fit. At the bottom you should see input and output. In the input type 158. Now in the output type 168. You will notice how the line moves when you type in these numbers. Now take your cursor and click on the diagonal line below the last point that you set. Go to your Input and output and type. Input 100 and 83 for output. Note these numbers are only for a good starting point. You may increase or decrease these values as you see fit.

More next month. If you get stuck, send me an email at gemlenz@gmail.com for help.

Had a crash of sorts last night on my Vista system. Although I have fairly current back ups, I was not relishing the thought of restoring everything. I ran the HP diagnostics and it said my hard drive had a problem. When I tried to restart it went into windows starup failed recovery mode and said my registry was corrupted. None of these are good things.

Next, I tried HP systems recovery utility and was able to recover back to my last good registry backup which was yesterday morning. Disaster diverted for now. As a precaution I am backing again, including my browser and mail program. If you did not know Mozilla has a backup program called MozBackup that you can download. It's very simple and it allows you to restore. So, after a crash you may want to restore your mail and browser. I use those programs for mail and browser.

I must have caught a virus or some sort of intrusion. My Norton security found, and fixed, a glitch when I started back up. For the moment things seem to be working. I have not re-booted - yet. Once I get everything backed up the way I want it I'll re-boot in Safe Mode and do a CHKDSK (old DOS program you do at the DOS prompt). If there are hard drive sector issues, that should clean them up. Then I'll run the HP diagnostics again to see if the original problem went away. If it's still bad I'll need to re-format and start from scratch, but at least I'll have current backups to restore from. Oh, and by the way, I also keep a backup of my current documents folder. That way I can restore my current docs, and not every doc I created since doing backups.

All this to say, my best advise is to stay current with your backups, and have a planned schedule. Think about how you would restore everything and do you have the means to do that. Do you have all you disks to re-install software, along with registration information? Do you have all your passwords backed up? I use a IPhone app called Keeper from Callpod. It lets me backup my passwords (or other information I choose) on my IPhone, and computer (It's not free).

Well, some wonderful things to ponder while you have your coffee today - or not.

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