Photo Editing Tip 1: Fill Light and Shadows

As a photography enthusiast, one of the things that I have to learn is the digital post-processing. Sure, all the magic is still in the eye of the photographer, but post-processing is very useful when you have to do edits to improve the picture. (It is not a good idea to completely alter elements of the picture though; ie 'photoshopping'.)

In this aspect, I personally recommend Picasa from Google for beginners. There's Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom for heavier and more professional edits, sure, but most of the time Picasa can do the editing that you need.

In this tutorial, I'll share an editing tip that I commonly use: Fill Light and Shadows.

You'll be able to turn this picture (you can click the photos for higher-res versions):

(That's me, in Batulao, Batangas.)

Into this:

Notice how the colors became more vivid? The contrast between the rolling greens and the sky became more apparent.

So how do you achieve this? Simple: Open up your image with Picasa (the main Picasa app, not the photo viewer; if the viewer shows up click Edit in Picasa). Click the Tuning tab on the left side, and drag the Fill Light slider to just about the middle. Then, drag the Shadows slider to about 1/4 to 1/5, or to your desired value. What this basically does is heighten the amount of light that the picture produces by making the colors brighter, and then darkening the shadows of the picture to greatly improve the picture's contrast. The end result would be much more vivid colors and sharper image.

If you want, you can also increase the saturation (Effects tab -> Saturation) to further improve the vividness of the picture, but don't overdo it: oversaturation can result to less-realistic looking pictures.

Some reminders:

• You don't always have to follow the values of the Fill Light and Shadows in this tutorial, as with any post-processing procedure, the adjustments values are always dependent on the kind and quality of picture. Always adjust to your liking.
• Don't overdo. A more subtle change is always more effective.
• The 'safe zone' for the Shadows would not exceed half of the slider, the Fill Light 3/4 of the slider.

So there you have it! Enjoy editing away.

How To Confirm Enrollment in UP

I am an incoming UP freshman myself, and confirming my enrollment in UP is probably the most important step to take as of yet. It's a pretty straightforward process, so here's how to do it.

First of all, you need to have received your congratulatory mail from the UP Office of the University Registrar (OUR). If you haven't yet, you should probably contact UP immediately (that is, if you're sure that you passed -- ie, if your name appears in the online UPCAT passers list). Attached in that mail would be your student information, a small sheet of paper stapled at the topmost at the stack of papers. There you will find your Student Number (begins with 2011- for batch 2011) and your 5-digit PIN number.

Once you have those ready, you should now proceed to http://freshman.up.edu.ph/. Sign-in at the right side of the page with your Student Number and 5-digit PIN.

You will now be presented with two options: first, to confirm your enrollment in your preferred academic program, and second, to cancel your slot and enroll elsewhere. Obviously, you'll want to click on the first option and hit the submission button at the lower part of the page. (Note: I've tried using Google Chrome on this page and it appears that the submission button is greyed out; works fine on Internet Explorer.) You will be taken to another page showing the brief summary of your choice and an option to confirm. Hit Confirm. Next, a page will be presented asking for your contact details (Telephone, Mobile, and E-mail address), fill it up and then submit.

Once you've finished confirming and filling up your contact info, you will be presented with a final page showing your final decision and most importantly, your confirmation tracking number. This number is useful in case you want to follow things up, or if you want to reconsider your decision.

That's it! You've confirmed your enrollment to the country's best university. See you all in three months, mga iskolar ng bayan!


(This guide was written in February 2011 for the incoming freshmen of the same year.)

Youth Conference in Information Technology at UP Diliman

Yesterday I visited UP Diliman to attend the Youth Conference in Information Technology (YCIT), a seminar sponsored by UP's Information Technology Training Center (ITTC). See, I am a passer of the UPCAT for UP Diliman's BS Computer Science program, and passers are invited to attend the said event.

The YCIT was held in UP Diliman's Cine Adarna, and was attended by an overwhelming amount of students, 95 percent of which were college students with the remaining 5 percent being high school students (according to the masters of ceremony during the event.) I was able to sit through the first three speakers, but had to leave after the third; I was a part of a school tour and we had other itineraries for the day.

My next stop was a tour at the UP Department of Computer Science building. We were guided by a team of undergraduates through the different laboratories, and I was personally amazed and impressed with the facilities and equipment, and the projects that they were undertaking inside the building. My personal favorite is the Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision Laboratory. In that lab was a demonstration of a work-in-progress computer model which translates sign language to readable text using ordinary video. Well of course, I was equally impressed with all the other labs.

Bottom line is that I can't wait for college! Being an aspiring member of the College of Engineering - Department of Computer Science, the seminar and the tour gave me an insight of my (hopefully) future life in UPD. Anyway, it's just three months away but still, I wanna be there already! To be an actual student in that building.

So Wordpress Just Suspended Me and I Don't Know Why

Yep, you've read that right.

Recently I started a new blog on Wordpress.com (read: new, as in totally clean slate) just for the sake of having one, and left it fresh out of the oven. Nope, I didn't publish anything, and nope, I didn't even tweak anything yet. It was like buying something new and putting it on the table without even touching the packaging.

So anyways today I logged on just to check on Wordpress, and probably blog there some random thoughts (after all, I did prefer Wordpress before) and was surprised to read this in a comfy red box: SITE SUSPENDED.

And I went like, what the f*ck? What did I do wrong?


So instead of contacting Wordpress Support to argue with the helpdesk agents (after all, it did indicate some ToS violations without me even doing anything), I simply went straight here and decided to blog on Blogger instead. Ironically, to blog about another blog where I should have been blogging.

So why did Wordpress suspend me in the first place? I honestly have no idea. I may find some time later to check with the support team, but that's until I rack up enough anti-lazy energies* in my body.

Hmm... interesting.

* If they even exist.

Awesomify

Hello guys, and welcome to Awesomify!

Awesomify started out as a an idea. "Hey," I told myself. "I have lots of things running through my mind right now, and it's a shame to throw them all away. So what do I do with them?" And voila -- Awesomify sprang out like an iconic hovering lightbulb. "I'll blog them."

Generally I'd be writing about things that interest me: and that would range from all sorts of crazy stuff like gadgets, tech, movies, music, and all that idontknowwhatelse.

I sure hope that you'll find some of my rants and rambles interesting and worth reading. Enjoy.