1. How to add splashes of colour to Black and White Images
And I found one. It's called GIMP which is free and safe to download.
Original photo of my niece Erin |
This is the image I converted to black and white with a splash of colour using GIMP (I need to work on the blue a little more to make it more realistic) |
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.
It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.
All I know is that it can do everything from the simplest task as above to the most complex image manipulation. I can envisage a dummies guide to How to look like Angelina Jolie in a few easy keystrokes - my book will be out soon.
This was made for me by Ugich at Gappa
Of course if you know of any better program please let us know. And thanks to beautiful Erin for allowing me to use her image for a good cause and Ugich for my new book cover.
2. How to find out how fast your blog takes to load
My daughter told me my blog takes forever to load so I thought I better try and fix it otherwise first time visitors will not be hanging around to read anything. I was completely unaware that it takes 12 seconds for my page to download the first time and 2 seconds thereafter for subsequent downloads. That is way too long for first time visitors.
There are various ways you can check how long your site takes to download. Google has some great tips here how to optimise download times.
However, there are two sites I found really useful because they diagnose the problems. Websiteoptimization.com and Google's page speed site. Both analyse your site and give you advice about which items need to be fixed as a priority.
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And finally, I hope all my blogging friends in the USA are safe and secure given the horrific impact of Hurricane Sandy. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Are you ok?