My name is Bellamy Hunt and I run the Japancamerahunter website, and I am an avid film shooter. Now, before we get started, this is not an argument about digital vs. film. Both have their merits and both have their flaws, and I shoot with both. This is primarily a piece for people who are considering shooting film for the first time, or perhaps getting back into film after a long absence.
Shooting film is not some deep dark mystery and it is not an outdated form either. It is still a perfectly valid form, which is actually not dying, contrary to popular belief. In fact film shooting is actually going through a renaissance at the moment with the resurgence of Polaroid through the impossible project and groups like Lomo.
This has bought film to the attention of people who may not be familiar with the medium and I hear about more and more people who would like to give it a try. But why? Why would you give film a try? Isn?t it terribly expensive?
Well, it doesn?t have to be.
There are a few ways to make it a cheap experience. You can buy generic non-branded films from bigger stores. The secret is that these films are actually reloaded film, minus the brand name. They are Kodak or Fuji in a different box. And they are often a lot cheaper. If you are feeling adventurous you can re-load film yourself. Kodak and Ilford still make bulk rolls of film, which you can put into a film loader and re-load your old cartridges. Doing this brings the price down massively, it is also a very relaxing way to spend an evening.
Developing also doesn?t have to be a killer. Doing it yourself is obviously the cheapest way, working out to be pennies per roll. It is also a lovely learning experience that can yield some really exciting results. But if you don?t have the space or time then you can still get the big supermarkets and drugstores to develop on the cheap.
Shooting film is not as expensive as you might think, and the rewards make the outlay worth it.
Shooting film makes you take your time, unless you are the reincarnation of Garry Winogrand. You have 36 shots to a roll and you want to make them count so you become much more aware of what is going on around you.
In my opinion it makes you a better photographer too. You will not be able to fire off a burst of 10 shots, just to get one image. You will have to be careful about your settings, your composition and content, it is a disciplined approach to photography.
It will also give you patience. Unless you are developing when you get home you are going to have to wait for a couple of days for your shots, and that gives you time to think about what you shot and how you might be able to do it better.
There is also the magic of getting those negatives back and seeing your pictures sealed on film, there is nothing like that feeling, especially when you see a picture that you are really proud of.
No they are not. There are many many different types of film camera out there, so I guarantee there is something for everyone. You want a rangefinder? No problem. An automatic compact? Got it. A 360 spinning camera? Yup.
On my site I have written extensively about different types of cameras and the cameras that are available for all different budgets. You don?t have to spend the earth to get into shooting film. Budget rangefinders and compact cameras can be bought for as little as $50. Compare that to your new Nikanontax D3600X4 and you are looking at a camera that can give you a lot of fun for the price of a nice meal.
Obviously you can spend a lot more, but that is up to you. Remember though, many of your modern DSLR and rangefinder cameras use the same lenses as your film camera, so you will be able to crossover with the minimum of fuss.
I mentioned before about the magic feeling of looking at your negatives. Well, this is real. There is something different about film and you can tell the difference between a film image and a digital image immediately. Film has a glow and tone that still cannot be obtained by digital. Digital images are almost too clean, too real. You never know quite what you are going to get with film. Each roll is different, each emulsion is different and that is the fun of it. Changes in temperature or the age of the film can have an effect on the way things turn out.
There are so many different types that you can endlessly experiment. I shoot digital for work and it is stable and fast. But it is the same, the same for each and every sensor. Which is why I shoot film for my personal work.
Film cameras are gorgeous. Really. I have a passion for film cameras and I love they way they look. Nowadays all of the cameras that come out are generic machines, they don?t have any flair or quirks, they are designed to be good at what they do, which is fine. But film cameras are quirky and different. Some of them are brilliant at what they do, some of them have little eccentricities that make them all the more interesting. But all of them come from a time when they really cared about making cameras not just a practical object, but a thing of beauty too.
So, why not give film a go, you might be pleasantly surprised with the results.
Do you need some more help? Need to find a camera? Then let me help you.
Many thanks
Bellamy
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Want to see it made? Zeke makes a call for people to let them know if you want to see it made and then tested by photographers – it would certainly be pretty cool.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Spectral Instruments 112 Megapixel Digital Camera
There are many nuances to consider. First, what is the definition of Social ROI? We define Social ROI as the measure of efficacy of marketing on social media via paid, organic and earned media. The efficacy of the marketing campaign is measured by soft metrics pertaining to reach and engagement as well as hard metrics measuring the eventual impact on revenue, profit, margin, and offline store sales across all marketing and sales channels of a business.
While this definition of Social ROI typically sits well with a brand marketer, direct response marketers tend to be skeptical and find this definition hard to accept. Many marketers have traditionally been able to measure various metrics resulting from their digital marketing activities. Thus, they feel that social channels should be measured using the same measurement models and should be held to the same accountability as search marketing efforts.
Marketers who support this perspective and traditional measurement models for Social ROI, often find it?s often hard to prove (with notable exceptions such as shoes for women). Why? There are many possible reasons including the actual intent behind a consumer?s visit to a brand site. People in general are not spending time on social channels to immediately buy goods and services like they often are when engaging in online searches. Instead, people tend to use social platforms to connect with their friends, socialize, share content, and participate in dialogue around things that they are experiencing and thinking. Thus comparing Facebook advertising results to search results is inherently flawed. More importantly, advertising on Facebook is in many ways more like advertising on TV ? it increases the proclivity of a person to buy a product, but it often takes time.
Keeping this in mind, here are some common themes we have learned from some of our clients? successful Facebook campaigns.
1. Significant and sustained ad budgets
Successful Facebook campaigns must have meaningful ad budgets with significant reach. Like TV advertising, small budgets will rarely cause a major impact because small budgets mean a lesser reach and also a lower frequency of the ad per user. Typically, tip-toeing into the Facebook world will not be effective. Only when the ads reach a significant percentage of users with a good frequency does one see the desired effects. Search marketing which is really a ?demand collector? works differently and even small budgets can show a significant and more immediate ROI, as the schematic response curves below illustrate.
2. A strategic long term view
The best run social campaigns are well thought out with strategies designed to build audiences and engage with them in a meaningful way, so they: 1) grow a fan base, and 2) increase loyalty to the brand. For the marketer this means a strategy to create meaningful content that is relevant to the fan base at a given point of time, and constantly updating content so that the message remains fresh.
This is true for apps as well as advertising on Facebook. Some advertisers believe that they can build an app and expect high engagement numbers for long periods. We have not found this to be true. In fact, audiences get bored and engagement numbers fall rapidly over the first 1?2 months. The question remains, when done right do apps work? The evidence so far shows that they do have a positive influence on purchase behavior. We have data from our advertiser set as well as anecdotal evidence from others that users who engage with apps have a 25?35% higher average order size than non-app users in the same period. Thus a long term view is necessary.
The most efficient ad campaigns leverage sponsored stories. Sponsored stories are more effective because they can be targeted to audiences in a context that builds a trust with the brand and the consumer. e.g. (if your friend interacted with a brand and liked it, chances are you will be more likely to trust that brand too). However, for sponsored stories to work you need a certain threshold of fans for the inherent virality to have impact.
In above examples of ?Like? acquisition campaigns, clients were able to spend 50% of the budget for a campaign where the average fan base during the duration of the campaign was close to 1 million. The CPL was also significantly lower than the marketplace ads (40% lower). When the fan base was 500,000 clients could only spend about 17% of the Facebook ad budget economically. For the third campaign where the fan base was over 3 million clients could spend 80% of the total Facebook ad budget on sponsored stories with great efficiency.
A note: It might appear that the CPLs for the 3 MN fan case went up but in reality it was because we spent a very high fraction of budget on sponsored stories.
Facebook ad campaigns can be very effective with sponsored stories. But, the catch is that for sponsored stories to work you need fans and to build a significant fan base you need a marketing budget and patience.
3. Data is used as an asset
The remarkable thing about Facebook advertising is both the targeting and data that the advertiser can obtain with appropriate permissions from the user. A good example of how this can be done is to build apps where the user voluntarily agrees to provide information and then launch and market to them with the support of Facebook ad buys. The ad buys drive audiences to the app and the data from the app can be leveraged to make the app experience more interesting and the whole process more efficient. For instance, if the app data shows that the majority of app users are women, then the app can be tweaked to appeal more to a female demographic. Further, ad buying can be done with the insights gleaned from app usage. For one advertiser, such an approach resulted in a 41% increase of fans at a 43% lower cost per fan.
4. Virality is not assumed
Many advertisers expect their Facebook campaigns to become viral. However, there is no guarantee that every campaign will go viral. While very high virality is a matter of serendipity, there are several best practices that can enable a campaign to go viral. Virality has to be achieved, it cannot be assumed. There are many best practices that encourage virality but they all center the idea that the campaign has to be inherently social and encourage collaboration and sharing. Many marketers miss this simple yet powerful truth.
5. The Facebook ad buys are synchronous
Facebook advertising works best when the media buys and app launches are synchronized with TV ad buys. We have seen several instances of this. TV drives awareness and Facebook drives meaningful engagement. If the engagement is meaningful enough, it will drive virality.
6. Good content is key
Advertising will have minimal impact if you don?t have meaningful content. You need a good community manager and moderator to understand when to place content, what content to place and how to measure the efficacy of content. The golden rule here is that people have become fans of your brand to engage with you in a meaningful way. If you fail to develop good content, your fans and the Facebook platform will ignore your message. Your fans will not engage and Facebook will give you a lower Edgerank, hence lesser reach.
In closing, Facebook is constantly experimenting with new ad formats that enable advertisers to reach fans more efficiently and effectively. Facebook is really at the beginning of their plan to innovate in this area. We believe that they will strike a balance between advertisers who want to show targeted and relevant ads in every possible context and users who want to see very few ads. Personally, we think it?s going to be fun to watch.
The good news is that it usually only happens once or twice before the business starts including the analytics team. The even better news is that with a process in place, this situation is completely avoidable.
The web analytics team should be involved from the get-go when the business is defining and designing new functionality for the website. Creating a clear measurement plan up front will save time and energy. The measurement plan should:
1. Document the project objective(s) and the measurement(s) of success. Documenting the project objectives will give the analytics team clear understanding as to what the new functionality should do. The team will know exactly what to focus post launch analysis on.
By documenting the measurements of success, the analytics team will have a clear understanding of what needles the business is trying to move. This will ultimately aid in determining success of a project. Ideally, the measurement(s) of success should be quantifiable. For example, the new widget should increase conversion by X%. Or the rebranded site should increase the number of repeat visits by X%.
2. Document the business questions. It is important that the business owner documents the questions they want answered about the new functionality. This allows the analytics team to understand what they need to implement from a tagging perspective in order to meet the reporting needs of the business. Examples include:
Taking the time to document the business questions limits and defines the scope for reporting. The business knows the data that they?ll get and the analytics team knows the data they need to deliver.
3. Determine the reporting method and frequency. As a web analyst, what you don?t want is a bunch of people coming up to your desk several times a day, asking you how the new site is performing. As part of the measurement plan, outline the report delivery expectations:
Tip: To ease reporting needs, create an automated report in Excel using ExcelClient or Report Builder. Ideally, this can be created before the new functionality goes live by using a development report suite. The report suite can be easily changed to production once the widget is live. Your reporting is ready on day one.
Working with the business owners to create a sound, comprehensive measurement plan, will ensure both the web analytics team and the business owners are fully aligned. The business questions documented in the measurement plan will feed directly into the business requirements document. The business requirements document will be used to define the tagging solution. And the post launch reporting will be possible because of the tagging solution put in place. The measurement strategy is the key first step in the implementation process and one you don?t want to skip.
A critical step in the testing and optimization process is filtering your reports by customer characteristics, uncovering how your tests perform in smaller groupings or segments of your visitors. A testing tool that does not provide this feature does not allow you to interpret your test results or target fully and accurately. You will not clearly see how your content is performing in different sub-sections of your customers. You are also completely incapable of qualifying your test results based on other influencing factors within your test group, making it impossible to target relevant content. It is surprising to hear that there are testing tools out there, right now, that do not provide this option; be sure to inquire and evaluate these capabilities before choosing to implement a new product. Let me share the impact of not having this capability.Here?s a simple A/B test example that clearly underlines the issues: I?m an online clothing retailer. Let?s say I?m testing my home page masthead banner ad. One option has a ?buy one, get one free? offer on shirts, and the other offers ?free shipping on orders over $50?. Let?s take it one step further and say that I only want to test these offers within the customer segment of California residents. I target the test to California residents. After reaching significance, I find that 85% of Californians prefer the ?buy one get one free? offer. It might seem logical to then target the ?buy one, get one free? offer to Californians, and call it a day.
BUT???..what if we filter these test results by the segment of gender. Or age. Or category affinity. We just might find that California women in their 30s actually prefer the ?free shipping on orders over $50?. If we had targeted the ?Buy one, get one free? ad to all Californians based upon the unfiltered results, California women would not be receiving their preferred, most relevant ad!!! Even if I ran an additional test targeted to California women, I could not fully evaluate my original test results based on these new findings.
I can?t stress enough how important it is to evaluate your results completely, based on the critical segments or subdivisions of your digital population. There is no other way to interpret your results fully, from every angle and every influencing factor, without this capability. When shopping for an effective testing and targeting tool that will be an integral, long-term investment for the growth of your optimization program, a tool that does not provide segment filtering in their results is not worth your time or evaluation. You need a tool that will adapt and grow with the changing needs and influences of your customers over the long-term, not a tool that gives you misleading results.
Adobe Test&Target has segment filtering capabilities in its reports, with built-in segments right out of the box. Segment filters can also be customized based upon any influencing factor that defines a segment in your population. New segments and segment filters can also be generated based upon any customer data or attribute captured in mboxes, as well as from 3rd party data integration. In addition, being an open platform, with SiteCatalyst integrations and built in 3rd party data aggregation, user profiles can undergo an enrichment process, bringing a sophistication to the segmentation and targeting process. With all of this at your fingertips, no influencing factor will be overlooked, and you can feel secure that there won?t be substantial portions of your visitors who are left receiving the wrong content at the wrong time.
A Guest Post by Darlene Hildebrandt.
In classical portraiture there are several things you need to control and think about to make a flattering portrait of your subjects, including: lighting ratio, lighting pattern, facial view, and angle of view. I suggest you get to know these basics inside out, and as with most things, then you can break the rules. But if you can nail this one thing you’ll be well on your way to great people photos. In this article we’re going to look at lighting pattern: what is it, why it’s important, and how to use it. Perhaps in another future article, if you enjoy this one, I’ll talk about the other aspects of good portraiture.
Lighting pattern I’d define as, how light and shadow play across the face to create different shapes. What shape is the shadow on the face, in simple terms. There are four common portrait lighting patterns, they are:
There are also Broad and Short lighting which are more of a style, and can be used with most of the patterns above. Let?s look at each of them individually.
Split lighting is exactly as the name implies ? it splits the face exactly into equal halves with one side being in the light, and the other in shadow. It is often used to create dramatic images for things such as a portrait of a musician or an artist. Split lighting tends to be a more masculine pattern and as such is usually more appropriate or applicable on men than it is for women. Keep in mind however, there are no hard and fast rules, so I suggest you use the information I provide here as a starting point or guideline. Until you learn this and can do it in your sleep, default to the guideline whenever you’re not sure.
To achieve split lighting simply put the light source 90 degrees to the left or right of the subject, and possibly even slightly behind their head. Where you place the light in relation to the subject will depend on the person’s face. Watch how the light falls on them and adjust accordingly. In true split lighting, the eye on the shadow side of the face does pick up light in the eye only. If by rotating their face a bit more light falls on their cheek, it’s possible their face just isn’t ideal for split lighting.
NOTE: any lighting pattern can be created on any facial view (frontal view showing both ears, or ¾ face, or even profile). Just keep in mind that your light source must follow the face to maintain the lighting pattern. If they turn their head the pattern will change. So you can use that to your advantage to easily adjust the patten just by them rotating their head a little.
What the heck is a ?catchlight??
Notice in this photo above that the baby?s eyes have a reflection of the actual light source in them. It shows up as a little white spot, but if we look closer we can actually see the shape of the light I used in this portrait.
See how the bright spot is actually hexagon with a dark centre? That?s the light I used which was a small hexagon shaped soft box on my Canon speedlight.
This is what is known as the ?catchlight?. Without the eye of the subject catching this light, the eyes will appear dark, dead and lifeless. You need to ensure that at least one eye has a catchlight to give the subject life. Notice it also lightens the iris and brightens the eye overall. This also adds to the feeling of life and gives them a sparkle.
Loop lighting is made by creating a small shadow of the subjects noses on their cheeks. To create loop lighting, the light source must be slightly higher than eye level and about 30-45 degrees from the camera (depends on the person, you have to learn how to read people’s faces).
Look at this image to see where the shadows fall, and on their left sides you can see a small shadow of their noses. In loop lighting the shadow of the nose and that of the cheek do NOT touch. Keep the shadow small and slightly downward pointing, but be aware of having your light source too high which will create odd shadows and cause loss of the catchlights. Loop light is probably the most common or popular lighting pattern as it is easy to create and flatters most people.
In this diagram the black backdrop represents the bank of trees behind them. The sun is coming over the trees but they are completely in the shade. A white reflector is used at camera left to bounce light back into the subjects’ faces. The reflector may or may not be in the sun but you can still pick up light even if it?s not. Just play with the angles, by changing the placement of the reflector you can change the lighting pattern. For Loop lighting it will need to be somewhere around 30-45 degrees from the camera. It also needs to be slightly above their eye level so the shadow or loop of their nose angles down towards the corner of the mouth. That is one mistake I often see beginners make with reflectors is to place them down low and angle it up. That lights up the bottom of your subject’s nose and does not create a flattering pattern.
Rembrandt lighting is so named because the Rembrandt the painter often used this pattern of light in his paintings, as you can see in his self portrait here. Rembrandt lighting is identified by the triangle of light on the cheek. Unlike loop lighting where the shadow of the nose and cheek do not touch, in Rembrandt lighting they do meet which, creates that trapped little triangle of light in the middle. To create proper Rembrandt lighting make sure the eye on the shadow side of the face has light in it and has a catch light, otherwise the eye will be ?dead? and not have a nice sparkle. Rembrandt lighting is more dramatic, so like split lighting it creates more mood and a darker feel to your image. Use it appropriately.
To create Rembrandt lighting the subject must turn slightly away from the light. The light must be above the top of their head so that the shadow from their nose falls down towards the cheek. Not every person?s face is ideal for creating Rembrandt lighting. If they have high or prominent cheek bones it will probably work. If they have a small nose or flat bridge of the nose, it may be difficult to achieve. Again, keep in mind you don’t have to make exactly this pattern or another, just so long as the person is flattered, and the mood you want is created – then the lighting is working. If you are using window light and the window goes down to the floor, you may have to block off the bottom portion with a gobo or card, to achieve this type of lighting.
Butterfly lighting is aptly named for the butterfly shaped shadow that is created under the nose by placing the main light source above and directly behind the camera. The photographer is basically shooting underneath the light source for this pattern. It is most often used for glamour style shots and to create shadows under the cheeks and chin. It is also flattering for older subjects as it emphasizes wrinkles less than side lighting.
Butterfly lighting is created by having the light source directly behind the camera and slightly above eye or head level of the subject (depends on the person). It is sometimes supplemented by placing a reflector directly under their chin, with the subject themselves even holding it! This pattern flatters subjects with defined or prominent cheek bones and a slim face. Someone with a round, wide face would look better with loop or even split to slim their face. This pattern is tougher to create using windowlight or a reflector alone. Often a harder light source like the sun or a flash is needed to produce the more defined shadow under the nose.
Broad lighting is not so much a particular pattern, but a style of lighting. Any of the following patterns of light can be either broad or short: loop, Rembrandt, split.
Broad lighting is when the subject?s face is slightly turned away from centre, and the side of the face which is toward the camera (is broader) is in the light. This produces a larger area of light on the face, and a shadow side which appears smaller. Broad lighting is sometimes used for ?high key? portraits. This type of lighting makes a person?s face look broader or wider (hence the name) and can be used on someone with a very slim face to widen it. Most people however want to look slimmer, not wider so this type of lighting would not be appropriate for someone who is heavier or round faced.
To create broad lighting the face is turned away from the light source. Notice how the side of the face that is towards the camera has the most light on it and the shadows are falling on the far side of the face, furthest from the camera. Simply put broad lighting illuminates the largest part of the face showing.
Short lighting is the opposite of broad lighting. As you can see by the example here, short lighting puts the side turned towards the camera (that which appears larger) in more shadow. It is often used for low key, or darker portraits. It puts more of the face in shadow, is more sculpting, add 3D qualities, and is slimming and flattering for most people.
In short lighting, the face is turned towards the light source this time. Notice how the part of the face that is turned away from the camera has the most light on it and the shadows are falling on the near side of the face, closet to the camera. Simply put short lighting has shadows on the largest part of the face showing.
Once you learn how to recognize and create each of the different lighting patterns you can then start to learn how and when to apply them. By studying your subject?s face you will learn which lighting pattern will be best for them, and for the type of portrait and mood desired. Someone with a very round face that wants to appear slimmer in a grad portrait, will be lit very differently than someone that wants a promo shot for their band that makes them appear mean or angry. Once you know all the patterns, how to recognize and master quality of light, direction of light and ratio (we?ll discuss that in a future article) then you will be well equipped to handle the challenge.
Of course it is much easier to change the lighting pattern if you can move the light source. However if the main light source is the sun, or a window ? it’s a bit tougher to do that. So what you will need to do instead of moving the light, is to have the subject rotate in respect to the light to change the direction it falls on them. Or change your camera position. Or change their position. So basically move the things you can move in relation to the light, if you cannot move the light source itself.
Corral yourself a subject (as in a real live person, not your dog) and practice creating each of the lighting patterns we just discussed including:
Remember to show both broad lighting and short lighting ? for each of the different patterns, where applicable. Don?t worry about any other aspect (ratio, fill light, etc) for now, just concentrate getting the patterns down pat first. Use light from a window, a floor lamp with a bare bulb (take the shade off) or the sun ? but try and use a light source that you can see what?s happening (I?d suggest that you do not try using flash until you?ve got more experience, it?s harder to learn with because you can’t see it until after the photo is taken) This also works best to start out with the subject facing the camera directly, no turning except to create the broad and short.
Show us your results please and share any challenges or problems you encountered. I’ll try and help you solve them so you and others can learn from it, and get better for next time.
Darlene Hildebrandt is a professional photographer and educator who teaches aspiring amateurs, hobbyists and pros how to improve their photography skills through private tutoring, photo tours and photography classes. She?s the author of 10 Challenges To Improve Your Photography which you can find as a resource on her website and she can also be found on Twitter at @ProPhotoTutor.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
6 Portrait Lighting Patterns Every Photographer Should Know
Okay, so what exactly does that mean? It means that you can analyze (and then potentially optimize) based on how visitors are interacting ?socially? on your site.
Let?s look at one brief example ? Gigya?s Share Bar.
You may have a bar like this embedded within your content or product pages in hopes that visitors will use it to share your content with their social circles ? giving you some additional ?earned? exposure and traffic. A ?Gigya Share? occurs when a visitor uses the Gigya Share Bar to share your content.
Tracking these ?shares? within SiteCatalyst can provide you with some very valuable reporting. For example, a media site might get the following report?
The ?Gigya Shares? metric is pulled in automatically through the Genesis integration. The resulting report provides great new insight into the value and untapped potential of these articles. By just looking at the top 5 here we can see that one of our most viewed articles ?How to Upload Keyword?? doesn?t really get shared a high percentage of the time. In contrast, the ?Tim Tebow?? article has a very high share rate despite the significantly fewer page views ? telling us that it might be an ?earned? media superstar waiting to happen IF it was given the right spotlight.
This is just one use case featuring one of the many new metrics available through the Genesis integration with Gigya. For information on this integration and Gigya?s social infrastructure technology, please log in and click over to the Genesis area of the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite.
Worth noting: 1) The ?Shares per View? metrics is ?Gigya Shares / Page Views? ? which helps us see the rate of sharing by normalizing to Page Views. 2) These article names are real posts on this blog, but the numbers are completely fabricated.
?Sean (@seangubler)
Sean is a Senior Partner Integration Manager focusing on integrations with the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite. This includes Adobe Genesis integrations and custom integrations using Adobe?s Web Services.
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This is the first step for me. Using a wordpress plugin called Google+Blog created by Daniel Treadwell, I can create a post on Google+ (be sure to follow me there!) and have it automatically export that post over to the pending section of my blog. There is a free version of this plugin but I was more than happy to pay $10 for the paid version. It supports the hard work Daniel put into this plugin and it gives you more features and options.
Google+ is the best for step 1 because you can create titles and headers using bold font and there’s (virtually) no limit to how long your post can be. Google+Blog even imports comments from G+ to your blog so that’s a plus (pun intended) as well!
Setting up the plugin is quite easy. The way I do it is to only have the plugin export posts to my blog if I include the hashtag #photography in the post. That way I can post all kinds of stuff to G+ but only the images I share (along with accompanying stories) will get thrown over to the blog and only when I include that hashtag somewhere in the post.
Once the post goes live on G+ I go over to my blog. The post only shows up on my website when G+ makes an API call at certain times throughout the day, but you can speed this up by going to the Google+Blog option in wordpress. There’s a checkbox next to the “Update Options” button that says “Import Posts On Options Update.” So I just check that box and update the options, then the post shows up in Pending Status immediately. Now, it should be noted that I had to set it up that way. Under the options I chose to have all posts start out as pending. That way I can do some slight tweaking before it goes live.
Now that my post is imported to my blog (which you can check out at james-brandon.com) and in the pending section, all I have to do now is make some final tweaks to make it ready for my readers. When I create the post on G+ and it exports to my blog, the image that comes over is a bit too small for my blog. But the title, the words and all the links are imported over perfectly. So all I do here is quickly delete the small image and upload the full blog sized image from my desktop. I then make a few final tweaks (like creating the image thumbnail, adding categories, adding post tags and a ‘read more’ section) to make the post look right on my blog and then I hit “Publish.”
As soon as the post goes live on my blog, it’s then automagically sent out to my personal Facebook page, my business Facebook page and Twitter all at once. This is done through a site called Networked Blogs. Networked Blogs takes my RSS feed on my website and syndicates it to Facebook and Twitter so I don’t have to! This couldn’t be easier. You simply sign up for an account, add your blogs RSS feed address, then log into Facebook and Twitter to allow access, click a few boxes and done.
So this isn’t really a step anymore once it’s set up, it just happens in the background without you lifting even a finger. No tweaks to make or anything like that.
So that’s it. Post to Google+, make a few quick tweaks in wordpress, publish and done. You’ve just killed 4 birds with like…1 and 1/4 stones . There are a couple of downsides to this method. If you have the time to post to each individual social media outlet, then by all means do. Having Networked Blogs do it means that the post is really just a link to my blog, instead of posting the image to Facebook and including the story there. But you have to decide what you’re after. I would rather have people jump over to my blog and read something there instead of having them read it and leave comments on Facebook. Twitter is the same way and with there character limit and no images a link is a must anyways. Once this process was set up, it easily shaved my time by more than half. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Short On Time? Learn To Post To Google+, Your Blog, Facebook, and Twitter Simultaneously
London is an incredible city: vibrant, modern and fizzing with life. But at every turn, London?s past is also very much in evidence, from the glorious historic architecture of its heritage sites to tiny details like a stretch of cobbled road, place names like Pudding Lane or Eel Pie Island and, of course, the ubiquitous blue plaques that commemorate notable people and events all over the city.
So, faced with the challenge of taking a series of pictures that sum up London, where do you start? Covering 600 square miles and with a population of 7.8 million, there?s an awful lot to choose from. Add to that that 2012 is the year of the Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics…
Although a city may be characterised by the people who live in it, visually it is the cityscape that is most instantly recognisable ? whether that?s because of the presence of a famous landmark or due simply to characteristic architecture, street styling or the presence of, say, a London bus, taxi cab or policeman. But, of course, we?ve all seen a thousand pictures of the Houses of Parliament and just as many of the London Eye, the Beefeaters and red telephone boxes. How is your work going to stand out from the crowd?
Taking a photograph of a cityscape or building might seem straightforward ? stand in front of the building, square it up in your viewfinder and click ? but in fact, to a achieve an image with real impact and interest is anything but. Unless you?re taking the picture for an estate agent?s details, you?ll need to put a bit more thought into what you?re doing. After all, you?re be converting a three-dimensional space into two dimensions. From a physical point of view, you want to capture a sense of size, space, texture, contrast, light and shadows… But are you looking to say a bit more? Something about the building?s function, context, history; the juxtaposition of old with new. Will your picture encompass a whole skyline or will one small detail of one building ? a gargoyle, a doorway, a chimney pot ? suffice?
Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, St Paul?s, Tower Bridge ? London has plenty of iconic landmarks that everyone knows. But if you want to take a photograph of a building or site that?s very familiar, try to shoot it from a different angle or pick out an unexpected detail. It may not be easy to achieve, but what about a shot from above? Or from behind? Reflected in a nearby window, at dusk or during a storm? Would your picture be better with or without people ? a deserted building, cold and empty, like Battersea Power Station, or a busy skyscraper, like the Gherkin, with people streaming in and out like ants…
But buildings are not the only landmarks that make London special. The River Thames will afford plenty of wonderful, if perhaps a little obvious, photo opportunities. Other waterways are less well known ? the surviving dock bowls in east London or Victorian leftovers such as the Regents Canal. London?s open spaces also lend themselves to spectacular photography, from the horticultural brilliance of the Chelsea Physic Garden or Kew to herds of deer roaming wild in Richmond Park.
Whether you?re a Londoner born-and-bred or a first-time visitor to the capital, what will make your pictures most interesting is your interpretation of the city. Steer clear of the obvious tourist shots that grace a million postcards and show people what you really feel about this great metropolis.
If you live in London, think about the area in which you live. How would you sum it up? What can you see here that the tourists or casual visitor might miss? How can you bring out London?s character in your pictures? Do you want to highlight the architectural patterns in a row of Victorian terraces houses or is your style gritty reportage shining a light on poverty and deprivation in one of the world?s wealthiest cities?
If you?re visiting London for the first time, what do you see? Look beyond the clichés and take a picture of something you weren?t expecting to see, something maybe that surprised you, shocked you or made you laugh. Explore a little off the beaten track and be ready with your camera to capture every arresting image that confronts you.
London is so much more than the sum of all her buildings. London is about people, history, commerce, art, politics, fashion, music, food, culture and much more ? all of it waiting to be captured on film. Ultimately, you need to think about what London means to you. A scattergun approach will never result in a coherent portrait of the capital, so choose favourite part of London to focus on, pick a theme to explore in depth or a strand that can unify diverse images of the city.
Show people the London that belongs to you.
Headshot London Photography ? is one of the leading London photography studios specialising in Portraits, Corporate, Fashion, Family and Advertising Photography. For more information please visit the website.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
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