Did you ever scan a photo or some film negatives on a flatbed or film scanner, only to realize that the image is covered in pieces of dust, pet hair, or lint?  Or maybe you photographed a closeup of an object only to find a bunch of obvious dust or scratches that were not very noticeable to the eye beforehand?  This Photoshop tutorial by the late Bob Mizerek will show you how to Photoshop out dust and scratches in a jiffy using this simple technique.

While the standard dust and scratches removal feature in Photoshop may be enough, you might find that many times that it takes away too much quality from the original image.  Using Bob’s method (as seen in the youtube video above) you will learn that dust removal can be a lot more selective using layers and masking; therefore preserving the important parts of the image, and all of its important details.

“There is a problem parsing the package” is the error message you might get when trying to sideload apps on your new, shiny Kindle Fire.  Here’s why I think it happened to us, and this is what we did to fix it.  This post is for Kindle Fire users; the rest of you can move along (unless you want to be bored, or if you enjoy absorbing useless tech knowledge).

First of all, for those that might not be aware, you can sideload apps from the Android Market on your Kindle Fire.  Just about every app will work, due to the fact that the Kindle Fire tablet runs on the Android OS.  The problem is, the Amazon Kindle Fire app store doesn’t support all of the Android apps found in the Android Market.  I don’t know why they do this.  Maybe it’s due to the fact that the Kindle Fire’s hardware is slightly different, but it’s pretty annoying.  We wanted to put dropbox on my wife’s Kindle, just like we can run the app on our Android phones.  Back to the story.

We backed up a copy of the apps we wanted to transfer over, by using Astro file manager (a free app in the Android Market).  This placed a copy of the .apk files (from the programs we wanted) on the SD card, in a folder named backup/apps.  That’s how to get the .apk files for your Android apps.  Don’t trust downloading them off some shifty website on the web.  Copy them from your Android phone using this method I just described.  So next, we just had to plug the phone into the computer with the cable, copy the files to the PC, and then over to the kindle (via data cable).  Another method, which is a bit easier, is simple emailing the files as attachments to an email account you can access on your Kindle.

The first .apk files we tried, we copied over from the Droid X.  No beans… it didn’t work at all.  We got the dreaded Parse error “There is a problem parsing the package”.  The first thing that popped in my head is, “I bet the Kindle runs on an older version of Android than the Droid X does.  Let me try copying the .apk files from my own phone, the LG Optimus V.”  So, I did exactly that, and the rest is history.

When you get the dreaded parse error on your kindle fire or nook, try copying .apk files from an older Android phone or device.  That’s what worked for us, so maybe it will also work for you.

My super brief mini review of The Kindle Fire:  It’s a pretty reasonably priced tablet, for all that you get.  Priced around $200 USD, it’s a little smaller than the iPads, and yet big enough to read on.  They made it to be book sized.  It’s reasonably fast, and the battery lasts a really long time.  Although you have to jump through a few hoops to get almost any Android app to run on it, it’s no more than a 5 minute process to do so. Don’t worry – you don’t have to root your Kindle Fire, to sideload apps. I’m not personally a tablet person (give me a solid laptop any day) but my wife really does enjoy the thing.  I’ve used it a handful of times, and can tell you it’s very user friendly, and easy to learn how to navigate.

Here is a new amazing photography website that helps anyone learn how to light.  Ever look at a photo and wonder, “I wonder what type of lighting setup they used?”.  Well, now there’s a website (and an app) for that.  Strobox is an entire website dedicated to the behind the scenes setups of each and ever image submitted.Here is a stock photo I had shot, along with the lighting diagram I just posted.  It took me a total of about 2 minutes to make the diagram and post.  I’m definitely going to be bookmarking this website for those days when I just feel dull, and need some strobist lighting inspiration.

Here Bob (“The Miz”) shows us how easy it is with just a few steps to remove color cast issues that might have happened in your images.  Make sure to subscribe to our youtube channel for more step-by-step, easy-to-follow Photoshop video tutorials!

Have you ever taken a photograph of someone near a brightly colored wall, object, or in a certain environment; only to realize there has been a terrible colorcast on the subject?  This happens a lot.  The white balance isn’t always the issue, but more so what the light is reflecting off of.  Taking photographs of someone in the grass on a sunny day can many times make them have a slight greenish hue in their skin tones. Using some simple color range selections, and curves adjustment techniques, you can easily remove color cast issues using this simple technique that Bob Mizerek demonstrates in this video tutorial.