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7 Essential multimedia tools and their free alternatives

7 Essential multimedia tools and their free alternatives
Why spend money on expensive multimedia tools when you can use comparable alternatives for free? They may not be an exact replacement, but how can you argue with the price? PHOTO EDITING: PhotoshopFree: Splashup Photoshop may be the industry leader when it comes to photo editing and graphic design, but Splashup, a free online tool, has many of the same capabilities at a much cheaper price. WEB DESIGN: DreamweaverFree: KompoZer Looking to create your next web site without paying big money for programs like Dreamweaver? VIDEO: Final Cut, Adobe PremiereFree: iMovie, JayCut Many video editors, both novice and professional, use iMovie to create professional-looking videos and an amateur price. AUDIO: ProTools, Adobe AuditionFree: Audacity, GarageBand Audacity is a comprehensive audio editor with many of the capabilities of its costly competitors. SLIDESHOWS: SoundslidesFree: PhotoPeach INTERACTIVE MEDIA: FlashFree: Effect Generator

Digital Portfolios Note to all visitors to this page: This wiki is a collaborative learning space. If you want to contribute to this e-portfolio or digital portfolio page, please join the wiki and then add your thoughts, your notes or describe how you created digital portfolios for your students. Please say which programs the students used, or whether they utilized Web2 tools like blogs or Wikis. General information about Electronic or Digital Portfolios Check out this great slide presentation about . What is a digital portfolio? Lots of resources to create electronic portfolios Scoop.it Great "How to" tutorial to start blogging with Wordpress Diplomas Don't Prepare Students for the World. ePortfolios Do. 35 Professionally Designed Personal Portfolio Websites Why do people create digital portfolios?

60 Photoshop Actions for Photo Touch-Ups and Enhancements - Web Design Blog – DesignM.ag Get the FlatPix UI Kit for only $7 - Learn More or Buy Now In the past we have written on Photoshop actions for touchups related to photography enhancements. But it is common for designers to release their actions for free attribution on certain projects. And many of these newer releases are difficult to track down without scouring the Internet for links! Thus I have put together this collection of 55 fantastic new Adobe Photoshop actions for photo enthusiasts. Idiot Actions Faded Sunlight Nothing but Memories Retro Touch Polaroid Generator Cookie Dough Effect Kream Action Vintage II Cool Vintage Nature Summer & Winter Old Series Vintage Actions AFW’s Bluezy Swagger Jagger Color Action Caramel Haze Vintage Pack of 50 Actions Simple Vintage Pink Action Variety Pack Neon Vintage PS Actions Pack AFW’s Vintage Color Colors Five Vintage Pack Spring Mini Actions Vintage Breeze Colored Highlights Vintage Colours in Photoshop Actions Vintage Actions JJ’s Vintage Set Retro Actions Set Bright Vintage Action HDR Tools More PS Vintage

Potion Factory The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011 — So Far | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... I usually just do a year-end list on Web 2.0 Applications For Education and many other topics, but it gets a little crazy having to review all of my zillion posts at once. So, to make it easier for me — and perhaps, to make it a little more useful to readers — I’m going to start publishing mid-year lists, too. These won’t be ranked, unlike my year-end “The Best…” lists, and just because a site appears on a mid-year list doesn’t guarantee it will be included in an end-of-the-year one. But, at least, I won’t have to review all my year’s posts in December… As usual, in order to make this list, a site had to be: * accessible to English Language Learners and non-tech savvy users. * free-of-charge. * appropriate for classroom use. * completely browser-based with no download required. It’s possible that a few of these sites began in 2010, but, if so, I’m including them in this list because they were “new to me” in 2011. You might want to visit previous editions: Feedback is welcome.

22 Professional Photoshop Image Enhancing Tutorials Adobe Photoshop is the premier tool for digital artists when it comes to professionally enhancing images. Whether you’re a beginner just learning the ropes or an advanced user looking for unique techniques to add to your Photoshop arsenal, you’ll find some tutorials here that you’ll surely want to bookmark. In this article, you’ll discover plenty of tutorials that deal with enhancing images, adding unique and impressive effects, and recreating digital replications of popular traditional photography techniques. 1. You can learn how to apply the Cross Processing film-developing technique digitally to your images by reading through this quick and educational tutorial that leverages the powers of the Curves tool in Photoshop. 2. Take your ordinary digital photos and simulate the Lomo Photography effect (also known as Lomography) that will apply a dreamy and surreal effect onto your images in this tutorial that uses a Levels Adjustment layer among other Photoshop techniques. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

6 Ways to Correctly Delete Applications Have you ever deleted an application from your Mac by simply dragging it to the trash? It turns out there’s more to most applications than what you see in the “Applications” folder. Many apps spread system files all over your hard drive that can be a pain to track down. This means when you simply throw an app in the trash, you’re leaving behind associated content that unnecessarily eats up space on your Mac. Fortunately, there are several third party solutions that save you the work of hunting down and deleting all these stranded files. Here’s a quick rundown of six of them, let us know which ones you use! Amnesia Amnesia Amnesia is a feature rich solution that uninstalls applications, screen savers, dashboard widgets and preferences panes and their associated system files. Amnesia features a drag and drop interface as well as the option to view all installed applications, widgets, etc. in a list within the application. Price: $9.95 Developer: Koingosw Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later AppTrap

Ideas to Inspire Tipps und Trends: Tiefenwirkung 02/2010 · Viel Wind wurde in der letzten Zeit um die 3D-Kamera Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 gemacht. Da die meisten unter uns aber weiterhin bei zweidimensionalen Fotos bleiben werden, werden hier aus Anlass des 3D-Wahns jene "Regeln" aufgelistet, aus denen unser Gehirn Tiefeninformationen bezieht, wenn es monokular, also mit nur einem Auge arbeitet. Denn der gleiche Mechanismus macht es uns möglich, auch in Fotos mehr als nur eine zweidimensionale Fläche zu sehen. mehr Viel Wind wurde in der letzten Zeit um die 3D-Kamera Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W1 gemacht. Da die meisten unter uns aber weiterhin bei zweidimensionalen Fotos bleiben werden, werden hier aus Anlass des 3D-Wahns jene "Regeln" aufgelistet, aus denen unser Gehirn Tiefeninformationen bezieht, wenn es monokular, also mit nur einem Auge arbeitet. Denn der gleiche Mechanismus macht es uns möglich, auch in Fotos mehr als nur eine zweidimensionale Fläche zu sehen. Alle Abbildungen können durch Anklicken vergrößert werden. Perspektive

12 Incredibly Useful Lil’ Utilities for your Mac We come across a lot of apps in our trials for finding new goodies, but many of them are too limited in function to write a whole post about. We usually tweet them @smokingapples, but for those of you who despise twitter, and for the sake of posterity, here’s a collection of must-have apps (depending on your tasks) you can use with your Mac. Caffeine Ever watched a YouTube video and have to shake the mouse every few minutes to prevent that annoying screen dimming? ScreenShade You’re doing some late night surfing on the bed, lights out, but the screen is just too bright for your own good. LargeType The Mac has a feature for displaying text in large type across your screen. FlexCal Now that MobileMe is improving all over the place, iCal is becoming more and more irrestible to use. Smart Scroll X Ever wanted that smooth scrolling of the iPhone lists, which feels like real physics are in use? iStat Menus Desktoptopia xScope If you’re designing something on your Mac (who isn’t!) F.lux Ejector MacLoc

100+ Google Tricks for Teachers It's Google's world, we're just teaching in it. Now, we can use it a little more easily. With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for all teachers, so why not take advantage of the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google tools specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time. Search Tricks These search tricks can save you time when researching online for your next project or just to find out what time it is across the world, so start using these right away. Convert units. Google Specifically for Education From Google Scholar that returns only results from scholarly literature to learning more about computer science, these Google items will help you at school. Google Scholar. Google Docs 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Gmail 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. Google Calendar 44.

How To Give Your Photos a Dark Processed Lomo Effect This post was originally published in 2010 The tips and techniques explained may be outdated. Follow this step by step post processing guide to give your photos a dark lomo style effect with high contrast, blue tones and vignette burns. The effect is based on the popular lomographic technique and is similar to the processing effect used in many fashion shots and advertisement designs. View full size photo effect Begin by opening your photograph of choice into Adobe Photoshop. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and tweak the tones of the image. At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Adjustment Layer icon and select Curves. Change the drop down menu to Green and tweak the graph for the green channel to further alter the tones of the image. Finally alter the Blue channel, creating an inverted ‘S’ shape to enhance the blues to give a cool colour cast. Go to Edit > Select All, then Edit > Copy Merged. Paste another duplicate of the image on a new layer. Download this file

50 Mac Apps With Well Designed & Sexy Interfaces « SUBERAPPS November 19th, 2009 50 Mac Apps With Well Designed & Sexy Interfaces Ever since the roundup of 21+ essential iPhone apps with sexy interfaces crashed my hosting server (!), I understand how much people love roundups of well designed apps. This post is a round up of 50 handpicked Mac apps that have either well designed or have really sexy interfaces or both! They’re not arranged in any order, just random. I know it’s a giant list to digest, so bookmark this for future reference! Pixelmator [$59 | Website] Pixelmator is a great alternative to Photoshop, low memory footprint and extremely beautiful. Tapedeck [$25 | Website] TapeDeck is a powerful and fun new audio recorder for Mac OS X Leopard. Snowtape [$29 | Website] Snowtape lets you listen to radio stations and record them live. Delibar [$18 | Website] I have a review for Delibar coming up next week, so stay tuned! CleanMyMac [$29.95 lifetime or $14.95 6 month license | Website] Swatch [$4.95 | Website] Snippet [$12.95 | Website] Anxiety Capo Bodega Blogo

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