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the button below to go to the main index of www.derbyphotos.co.uk
| How do I view a
large version of the thumbnail photographs? Just click (with the left mouse button) on any thumbnail image and this will make a new browser window open. This new window, known as the "photograph viewing window" will be used to display the full size image. If you want to look at another photo then close the photograph viewing window by either clicking on the photo or with the usual window close button (top right of photo viewing browser window). Or you can wait for 60 seconds and the window will automatically close by it's self. This method of displaying the photos works better than the 'usual' method, which involves clicking the browser back button after viewing a photo. |
| When I click on
a thumbnail it does not show the large version of the photograph, nothing
happens, why not? The most important thing is that Javascript is installed and enabled on your browser. I have tested the website using Microsoft Internet Explorer V5.0, 5.5, 6.0 and Netscape 6.2. 70% of people in the world use Microsoft Internet Explorer so obviously this is the main browser I have to comply with. Due to the large number of browsers available, versions and installation variations I can not guarantee that everything on the site will work on every system. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer V5 or greater and it is a normal or full install then everything should work flawlessly. N.B. If you use Netscape/Opera then you may need to install Javascript as it may not come installed by default. Simply visit HERE and select US English version of Java 2 Runtime Environment and install it, This will install the required components. If you are using a less common browser or a non Windows based system then please make sure you are using the latest version of the browser available to you, for instance the Fresco browser (Acorn machines) versions prior to 2.02 do not have Javascript capability. The following browsers have been tried (installed with Java) Tested and fully working with Microsoft Internet Explorer v6.0 Tested and fully working with Netscape v7.0 Tested and fully working with Mozilla v1.0 Tested and fully working with Opera v7.10 Tested and fully working with Internet Explorer v5.2 on a Apple MAC |
| You have not featured
my village yet, why not? It is my intention to feature every single village in Derbyshire how ever small they are, but obviously this will take a lifetime to achieve. I will be concentrating on the ones nearest to the city at first and then spreading out. You are welcome to leave your suggestions of areas to photograph in the Derbyforums. |
| How have you managed
to make the Photo viewing windows open without the normal navigation controls,
address bar etc on them? I have achieved this using Javascipt to launch new windows. Internet Explorer 4> and Netscape Navigator 4> will allow you to position a window and specify the attributes of the window such as Toolbar, location, directories, status, menu bar, scrollbars, resizable, width, height. If you would like to see how to use a script like this then visit Dynamic drive. Click HERE to visit the Dynamicdrive script site. |
| How have you managed
to make the Photo viewing windows close by just clicking on the photo? I have achieved this very simply by using the javascript command self.close To do this make a new page with your image on it and then create a href to the self.close command as in the example here : <a href="javascript:self.close()"><img src="myphoto.jpg" width="800" height="600" border="0"></a> |
| What camera do you
use to the take the photographs for this site? All of the photographs on this site have been taken using an Olympus C-2020 digital camera. Although this is quite an old camera by today's standards it gives excellent results under a wide range of lighting conditions. It is a 2.1 Mega pixel camera, which produces images of 1600 x 1200 pixels. Update : All photos which have a "date taken" date after 5th February 2003 were taken with an Olympus C-5050 digital camera. |
| How do you take
photographs at night, Can you give me some tips? In order to take a good photograph at night you need to be able to set your digital camera Manual mode so that you have control of the shutter speed. You MUST use a tripod or at least place the camera on a solid stable surface when taking the photo. You must force the flash to OFF. Try and use minimum compression in the camera, as this will reduce the noise on the image. If you use auto-focus at night you may find that there is quite a delay between pressing the shutter button and it actually taking the shot. This is because the AF sensor will have difficulties locking onto the subject matter, you will hear the camera 'hunt' when you press the button. It is very important that you do not knock the camera or tripod while the shutter is open. The shutter speed required will depend on the subject lighting and the effect you want to achieve. If you leave the shutter open too long then the bright parts of the composition will be burnt out. The great thing about digital photography is that you can experiment with the shutter speed and take several shots to see what is best for the situation. Remember that anything bright that moves across the view while the shutter is open will show up as lines. And what is more bizarre is anything dark which moves in front of the shot may not show up at all. You can try waving your arm in front of it and it will not be present on the image! |
| How do you take
the panoramic photographs, I would like to have a go myself? Goto a location and set-up the camera on a steady Tripod in the centre of an area. Set the camera to manual mode and set Exposure, Aperture and Shutter speed manually or you can leave it in auto mode but the results would be better in manual mode. Set the view point to mark number 1 Using the marked gradients on my tripod swivel base (marked every 10°, 36 marks for 360° rotation). Take a photograph, now swivel the camera 20 degrees clock-wise and take the next shot. Repeat this until you have captured 18 frames (a full rotational view). Now use some software, which will stitch the images together to create the panoramic photo. I use panoramic Factory but there are many programs available. Click HERE to visit the panoramic factory site. |
| I would like to
have a go at making a time-lapse movie, How do you create a Time-lapse movie
using your digital camera? Time-lapse consists of taking a series of images with a delay between each then joining them together to form a animation sequence. I have made an electronic shutter control circuit for my camera so that I can set it to automatically take a frame every 4 seconds to 4 minutes. If you are planning to just do a quick one like the narrow boat one on this site then you can simply press the shutter every few seconds. I set the camera to take images of 640 x 480 pixels at maximum compression, this will allow me to store 665 frames on a 64Mb Smartmedia card. Once you have enough frames for the movie I import them into Animation Shop and then perform a resize as 640x480 is too large for most PC's to be able to playback. Then simply save as a .AVI file. This can then be converted to mpeg/wmv file using a video editor program such as Videowave 5. |
| How do you create
the Then & Now photographs? This is quite a task to create these because I have to take the second photo in the exact same location as the first one. This means that if the first photo was taken 100 years ago then I have to print it out and goto the location and move my position around until the image in the viewfinder seems to match the printed original. This may sound easy but it is quite tricky. This is why sometimes the second image does not seem to quite line up with things in the first image. Then it's a case of cropping, rotating and finally resizing so the two images are the same size. Once the two images are ready I create a macromedia flash movie which I have designed that allows me to fade between the two images slowly. |
| How do you prepare
the photographs for the web site? I always take the photographs at the maximum resolution of the camera, which is 1600 x 1200 pixels. This is too large to use on a web page so first I decide if the image needs cropping to remove any unnecessary area. Then I reduce the size to 800x600 pixels or smaller if the image is not that interesting to warrant 800x600. Where possible I try and use untouched images for the site but sometimes if the lighting conditions were not very good then I will alter the brightness and 'curves' of an image to get it looking better. |
| How have you made
the popup information boxes (Like a tooltip) show when the mouse hovers
over the titles & map on the main index page? This is achieved using a great little javascript program called OverLIB. Visit the site for details of how to use it on your pages. This allows you to show useful information to the user without taking up valuable space on the page and it works in most browsers. |
| How have you created
the Derby movie on the main index page? This is what is know as a Flash movie. I created it using Swish, this software allows you to quickly create flash movies without the need to understand Macromedia Flash. |
| Why does the right
mouse click menu not work? I have disabled the mouse right-click menu to prevent people from taking my images without asking. I am a local photographer who pays for the hosting of this site myself and put a lot of work into this site so it's not very nice when people steal the images. |
| Why do you run this
website if you do not make any money from it? I originally started this site as a small collection of photographs which expanded greatly over time. After a while I started to get e-mails from people saying how much they enjoyed my photographs, so I kept adding more and more. So I guess the reason for running a non-profit making site is down to the fact that I like the nice comments I get from people from all around the world. If I did not get any feedback I probably would not bother running this site. |
| I notice the photographs
load in very quickly, how have you managed to achieve this? Most people do not seem to realize that the JPEG image format supports a variable compression factor which can be set from 0% (no compression) to 100% (maximum compression). Graphics programs normally default to a compression factor of around 5%-10%, So if you simply click save then this is the compression factor that will be used. If you want a different compression setting then look out in the save dialogue box for an area that allows you to adjust it. In Paint Shop Pro there is a "options.." button. This gives you access to the compression setting. All of the photographs on this site have been compressed at 40% compression. This gives very high quality images but also a very small file size which means that the images will download pretty fast even with a 56K modem. |
| Why have you not
used larger images than 800 x 600 pixels on the website? I have designed this site to allow for the most common PC setup. There seems little point in using images which are larger than the resolution of your monitor. I consider that most users will have the following system : A PC with a 500Mhz processor A screen resolution of 1024 x768 pixels at 24bit colour. A 56K modem Internet Explorer V5 It's likely that a
lot of people will have better systems than this, but I have to allow
for people that do not have the latest spec systems. If you have broadband
Internet (ADSL/Cable etc) then this will make viewing my site better. |
| How do I find out
what MY screen resolution is? This is quite easy to find out, Click Start button, Settings, Control Panel. Double click on the Display icon. This will show your display properties. Now click on the 'Settings' tab at the top. Your current screen resolution will be in the section called Screen Area. This will most likely be 1024 by 768 pixels but could be anything from 640x480 upwards. |
| I notice that there
is a mistake in the historical information on your site, Can I inform you
what I think is correct? Please do let me know if you think any information is incorrect. Also if you have any additional information about and area or a building featured then please let me know via the Feedback page. |
| I have found a dead
link (page not found) on your site, What should I do? Please let me know of any links on the site which do not work. I try and test every link but sometimes one will slip though the net. There's nothing worse than a dead link, so please report them to me using the feedback page. |
| Where do you get
your historical information from for the website? I use a combination of sources, these include my own personal knowledge, Books, Videos, the internet, Information plaques, Guides and leaflets from Tourist information centers. Information from people that live in the areas. |
| I would like a map
of the area, which I can e-mail to someone. Can you help? There are several web mapping sites, which you can use. Please note that the map images are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission but hypertext links to mapping sites can be used. Click HERE to visit the Streetmap site. |
|
Which maps would
you recommend for exploring the villages in Derbyshire? |
| Where would I find
an aerial photo of a location featured on your site? The best website is Multimap as this allows you to find a map for the area you want and then you simply click on the Aerial photo button. This will show the same area covered by the map but as seen from the air. It also has the added feature of being able to overlay the map onto the aerial photo as you move the mouse over the image. This is a very clever little feature! The aerial photos are supplied by getmapping.com who also offer aerial photos on their site, but their website is very poor when compared to multimap. Click HERE for the Multimap site. Click HERE for the Getmapping site. |
| I am considering
moving to Derbyshire and was wondering how to find out more about environmental
problems such as pollution problems in an area, Any ideas? There is a very good website which displays all issues relating to flooding, subsidence, pollution, landfill sites, schools, property prices and crime rates etc Click HERE for the homecheck website. |
| I would like to
design a website about MY local area, can you give me any advise? You need to make a plan of what it is you intend to put on your site. Be prepared for a lot of work in creating and updating the site. I am a self-taught web designer, there are many books on the subject and also many on-line guides. You can even go to college and take a course in web design. There are numerous software packages available, which you can use to design the HTML pages (web pages). Over the last four years I have used Netscape Navigator Gold, Microsoft Frontpage 98 & 2000 but I now exclusively use Dreamweaver. |
| I have a website,
but it does not show up in search engines, why not? In order to get your website listed in search engines there are a number of things you need to do. The most important thing is to make sure that the title of the page relates to what the site is about. Quite often people seem to leave the page title as "untitled" or they call it "Home page", This will not help you get listed in search engines. Don't expect results overnight, It can take many months for your site to get listed, so don't worry if you still can't find it after a month. Do not underestimate the importance of the words on your site, You may have very nice photos but at the end of the day, search engines look for words. Rank position is also important, Your site may be listed but it may be number 157 in down the list, If this is the case then people may never get to visit your site. Get people to link to your site, This is known as "link popularity". The sites that link to your site must themselves be linked to by others, If you get big name sites to link to yours then this will really help boost your ranking position. Metatag keywords,
These are invisible words on html pages which some search engines use.
If you have not put them onto your page then certain search engines may
not list your site. |
|
How do I find out
if my site is listed in a search engine? |
| I have book marked
your website in my favorites and I notice it has an icon next to it, in
the drop down menu. How did you do this? Microsoft Internet Explorer V5 and greater supports icons for website urls when they show in your favorites. If you would like to achieve this with your website then you need to create a 16x16 16 colour standard windows ico file using an icon creation program (e.g. Microangelo). Then save it as "favicon.ico" and place it in the same directory as the "index.html" page you want it to be assigned with. Click HERE to visit the Microangelo site. |
| I have photographs
on my website and I use the GIF image format instead of JPEG, should I use
the JPEG image format? Jpeg is the most suitable format for displaying photographs on a web page. The Gif format should be used for logos and maps that have continuous limited colours. JPEG's should be used for photos only, it is a lossy compression method, but on photos the human eye cannot really see this. GIF's should be used for images, which have contiguous limited colours (upto 256 colours). This is a lossless compression method so is good for logos and maps. A common error people make when they are showing a logo or map on a web page is to use JPEG with the compression set to 0%, if you do this then the images end up very large and slow to download. If the logo has lots of contrasting vertical lines then jpeg compression will not cope with them very well. Also text will tend to look 'fluffy' and difficult to read. By the way if you have already converted the image to a JPEG then simply converting it to a GIF will not solve the problem as the damage will aready be done. You must get the original image and save it as say a BMP file, then reduce the colour depth to 16 or 256 (do not use dithering) then save as a GIF. |
| I have some old
photographs of Derby, which you are welcome to use on your site. How do
I get them to you? If you have a flatbed scanner then you can scan them in and e-mail me them in JPEG format. Please contact me first to let me know you are sending them to me so I can advise you on dpi settings etc. If you do not have any way of scanning them in then please get in touch to arrange something using the feedback page. |
| I would like to
ask a question which has not been addressed in this FAQ, how do I ask it? If you cannot find an answer to your question on this page then please contact me by using the Feedback page. |
| I am trying to locate
some friends who used to live in Derby, can you help? You are welcome to use the Derbyforums to trace lost friends and ex patriots to track them down. This service is completely free. Click HERE to visit the Derbyforums site. |
| Terms |
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Thumbnail The term thumbnail is used to describe a small image, which loads in very quickly. If the user should want to view a larger version of the photograph then they click on the thumbnail. Browser Flash Movie |
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