Urban Code Magazine

Archive for March, 2010

1) Focus your camera
In order to ensure your images are sharp, make sure you know how to focus your camera. Digital cameras with auto focus are often difficult to focus precisely, especially when shooting small objects. Make sure your read your owner’s manual and understand how your camera’s auto focus operates. Most digital cameras are designed to easily focus on large objects but have difficulty on small objects. It is often useful to put your camera in spot focus mode. Spot focus will give you more control over what part of a scene the camera is actually focusing on.

2) Use a tripod
Even the slightest movement while taking a picture will cause motion blur. The closer you get to an object the more obvious the motion blur becomes. Using an inexpensive tripod will make a big difference in the sharpness of your images. For really sharp images it makes sense to invest in a good, sturdy tripod. If your camera has a remote shutter release then use it, if not then use the camera’s built-in timer to minimize camera shake.

3) Put your camera in aperture priority mode
To get the largest area of your subject in focus, it is good to set your camera in aperture priority mode and set the aperture to the highest number possible. The closer you get to your subject, the more important this becomes.

4) Use soft lighting
Your camera’s built-in flash will rarely give good results for product photography. For soft lighting either shoot outside on an overcase day or use a light tent like the EZcube, Cubelite, or use a soft box.

5) Use image editing software
Even inexpensive software like Photoshop Elements or ACDSee can make your product photography much easier. It may seem like it’s faster to use an image exactly as it was shot. But in reality, it is difficult to shoot an image precisely how you would like to appear in its final form. Image editing software allows you to crop an image, adjust it’s exposure, sharpen the image and then resize it, often in less than 60 seconds.

The biggest difference between an amateur’s product snapshot and a professional’s product image are sharpness and lighting. Steps 1,2, and 3 will improve the sharpness of your images while Step 4 will improve your lighting. A minute spent editing an image will improve it further. Because these few steps seem so basic, it’s tempting to ignore them. However, if you take time to follow them, you will see a huge improvement in the quality of your photos.

Are you the parent of a teenager? If you are, you likely already know that many teens want to look their best, at least fashion wise. For that reason, many teens keep up on the latest fashion tends and use them. While this is okay in some aspects, it can result in your teenager wearing baggy pants showing their boxers or revealing shirts that show off too much cleavage. While these do seem to be popular fashion trends, do you really want your child displaying them? If not, you may be wondering what you should do.

When it comes to your teenager and fashion trends that you may not necessarily approve of, your first thought may be to lay down the law. As a parent, this is your right to do, but did you know that you may actually end up causing more damage? Do you remember what it was like being a teenager? If you were like most teenagers, there was a good chance that the last thing you wanted was to be told how to dress by your parents and the same is likely so for your own teen. That is why you may want to think about taking a different approach.

One of the many instances where you should speak to your child about their fashions is if it may end up causing them some harm. As previously mentioned, many of the latest fashion trends for women and for girls are low cut shirts and low rise pants. This often ends up leaving a good portion of the body exposed. In today’s society, you always need to be on the lookout for sexual predators. While your teenager may not necessarily be interested in someone, someone may actually end up getting that type feeling from them. This could put your teenager in a weird and possibly dangerous situation. If that is the case, you may want to take the time to explain that, as it may sink in better than if you were just to say “change your clothes; you can’t wear that.”

It is also important that both you and your teenager remember that fashion trends regularly change. It is not uncommon for a fashion trend to only last a few months. If you are not happy with the current fashion trends, but your teenagers are, you may want to encourage them to explore other options. There are a number of fashion magazines and online fashion websites that have a large number of fashion trends and information on those trends. Not all fashion trends require the wearing of “skimpy,” clothing. For that reason, you may want to explore other options. If your teenager is a girl, it could actually turn into a neat mother daughter bonding experience between the two of you.

Something else that you may not necessarily think about, but should, is if your child goes to high school. Many high schools have dress codes and these dress codes often prohibit the wearing of revealing clothing. While not all schools actively enforce their dress codes, many out there do. Like with being told not wear certain clothes by their parents, many teenagers may feel angered being told by school officials. For that reason, you may want to take action before anything serious happens that could seriously jeopardize your child and their school records. It is not uncommon to hear of instances where children are suspended from school due to not following the school’s dress code.

In short, teenagers and fashion are something that just seems to click together. While it is important for your teenager to fit in with others and be popular at school, they do not necessarily have to be wearing the “hottest,” clothes or fashion accessories to do so. They may not necessarily understand it at the time, but as a parent it is your job to help them and keep them safe.

Wedding is a very special affair and even in few years ago, people used to plan and prepare its dresses taking months together. Those were the days when wearing formal traditional wedding dresses was almost mandatory. But, with change in lifestyle and people’s attitude towards social ethos, formal bridal dresses are gradually receding giving way to the next generation casual wedding dresses.

Shifting of marriage venues from churchyards to backyards has also contributed greatly in encouraging using casual wedding dresses. If you are planning to solemnize your much awaited marriage ceremony secretly in an isolated island, will you bother to go for the minute details of a formal nuptial? Collecting short informal dresses will certainly be your first preference then. Such informal dresses have their inherent advantages over their counterparts. Opportunity of creating one’s own personalized wedding dresses also exists with the casual wedding attires. Seeing great potential, designers and manufacturers are also now days busy developing exotic and relaxing casual marriage dresses.

Depending upon the place of celebration, nature and design of your casual wedding dresses should be decided. Marriage at one’s own backyard with complete family gathering requires sober and decent dresses. If it is a hot summer evening, you must not choose something that may help you sweat further. A nice designer strapless may fulfill your requirement. You may also go for sleeves, if you feel uncomfortable with the strapless exposures. A square or v-shaped neckline may be chosen to suit your taste. With casual bridal dresses, there exist actually unlimited options to choose ideal marriage attires. Few very common examples of informal marriage outfits are halter neckline, designer silhouettes, sleeves, waistlines, skirts with matching jackets, bridal trains, etc.

Casual wedding dresses provide an excellent opportunity to stay in touch with the latest fashion trends. Splendid embroidery works and fabrics generally form part of such informal nuptial attires. Design of these works may be ordered or can be best chosen to suit one’s own personality and budget. If you are searching for a perfect beach wedding dress, you may go for white colored short skirt. In such cases, you must not forget to collect appropriate veils, sunglasses, hair bands, and footwear, etc. In other locations, your wedding accessories may differ, but they must not be ignored. Else, your informal wedding attire alone will not be able to prepare you exotically for your partner.

Casual wedding dresses are very common for the people who always want to establish uniqueness in their every sphere of activities, or in the case of second or third marriage ceremonies. Though white and ivory are the two prominent colors for most of the informal wedding dresses, but you have the full liberty to choose pink, yellow, green, red, etc. as favorite colors for your dream wedding attires. As these dresses have very limited after use, you most not go for costly deals. After a littler search at your local boutique shops, departmental stores, or in various online virtual stores, you will be able to locate fabulous casual bridal dresses within reasonable prices. If you have enough times on hand, you may search for discounted dresses. On the other hand, if you have little time, patience, creativity and intention, you yourself can design marvelous personalized casual bridal dresses.