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How digital marketing impact websites

What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is a way of marketing products or services through various digital media including SEO, SMO, PPC, SEM, SMM and others allowing small businesses to compete with others. People assume that digital marketing means content marketing and social media marketing. But in fact, those are exists as types of digital marketing. I will go through different types of digital marketing in the following article.
Importance of digital marketing
To bring more traffic into websites or increase site ranks the importance of digital marketing cannot be described in few sentences. The amount of time spent sitting in the internet has been increasing over the decades as people spend most of the time surfing internet. Therefore, digital marketing is the best way to reach to the targeted customer.
Types of Digital marketing
Now, it is high time to explore different types of digital marketing. Eight types of digital marketing are as follows:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Social Media Marketing
3. Search Engine Marketing
4. Content Marketing
5. Affiliate Marketing
6. Email Marketing
7. Mobile Phone Advertising
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As part of any digital marketing strategy, SEO is a crucial part to moving customers into your website. SERPs or Search Engine Result Pages appears to users when they search through keywords using a search engine like Google, Yahoo, Bing and so on. Every user receives an individual result pages based on their keyword search, users location at time of searching and their browsing history. SEO is involved with different strategies which are as follows:
On page Optimization: On page optimization is a technique to collect and move traffic into the website by applying techniques. Web pages should have good quality contents and information should be accurate based on the products and services. In the website, however, there must have good density of keywords and Meta keywords to take the website above all of its competitors.
Off page optimization: You can take control of your website through on page optimization while off page SEO refers to the page ranking factors that occur off your website such as backlinks from another site. Backlink is a link on one website that, when clicked, it takes the users to other website. Backlink creates a huge impact on catching the targeted customers. Backlink should be built with trusted and well known site because article directories, paid links have negative impact on search engine.
2. Social media marketing
As more people are being engaged with social networking nowadays, it has been crucial to do social media marketing, allowing you to intimate with your customers in a more friendly way. By this interaction you can acquire more customers’ feedback. Keep an eye what customers look for and focus on it. Arrange conversation with customers. Whether you are on Facebook, twitter, Snapchat or LinkedIn these efforts all amount to social media marketing.
3. Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the process of acquiring market online by purchasing Ads on search engines, including Google, Yahoo, or Bing. SEM involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in Search Engine Result Page (SERP). There are two popular methods of Search Engine Marketing: 1. organic and 2. Non-organic search. It takes more time to create as more concentrated towards content creation, building hyperlinks, meta-tag optimization, keyword enhancement, keyword research etc while it focuses on long term results and inexpensive. On the other hand, Non-organic SEO is used for making immediate effect while it makes short term effort, it is very expensive process as well. General steps involved in search engine marketing which are as follows:
1.Define Effective Strategy
2.Choosing Right Keywords
3.Optimizing Website Content
4.Submitting website for Indexing
5.Add quality links in website
6.Create quality backlinks

4. Content Marketing
Content marketing refers to the creation and sharing of online material including videos, blogs and social media posts that do not explicitly promote a business but to make interest in its products and services. In details it is said for content marketing, instead of putting products or services directly, relevant and useful content are made for customers help them solve their issues. When you write content for your website do make sure your content is unique and people are interested to read it. Consider the language your audience uses when the seek information on online. Finally, share your content across your entire social media platforms for reaching targeted customer.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process by which you can get traffic into your website by paying commission to external called affiliates. It is a great marketing targeting tragedy where you would pay commissions for every conversion after it occurs. Some other things should consider for choosing affiliate marketing to reach targeted customer. The amount of buying product through affiliate marketing has been increasing these days and in future this number will increase. Besides, affiliate marketing can track your business by letting you know instantly when a link is clicked. Everything including impressions, sales tracks, and conversions are trackable by which you can have records of your progress.

6. Email Marketing
Email marketing allows you to update your email subscribers on a regular basis about your company. This makes a quality relation with customers unlike any other types of digital marketing. Your email provides value to your customers. As a result, you build brand trust and brand loyalty.
7. Mobile Phone Advertising
Each of the types of digital advertising can happen on a mobile device. Mobile marketing include SMS advertising which could prove an asset to local marketing efforts. You can message your customers and provide special offers, coupons, and updates about your company.
Offline Digital Marketing
Your digital marketing strategy is not complete with online digital marketing alone. You should consider some types of offline marketing to meet your goals which include radio and television marketing.
However, now you know the types of digital marketing. So, start working to promote your business and reach your targeted consumers.

Exploring the Picker’s Choice

“Exploring the Picker’s Choice 1118 words

Picks are very personal and worth taking a closer look at. What kind of picks do you use, and which electric guitars are most suitable for fingerpicking? The great majority of us use flatpicks. Some of us play Nashville-style with a flatpick plus our fingers, or a flatpick with one or two plastic or metal fingerpicks. Then there are those of us who use a thumbpick and our fingers, or thumbpick and fingerpicks. I’m one of the guys who uses a thumbpick and fingerpicks. I use a National or Dunlop white plastic thumbpick, filed down (but more on that later) and two Dunlop 020 gauge metal fingerpicks. There are many great models and styles available from National, Dunlop, Fred Kelly, D’Andrea, and other manufacturers.

Which electric guitars are easiest for us guys who use thumb- and fingerpicks? The question came about because, although I do use flatpicks with my Strats and Teles, I was having trouble striking the guitar tops when using a thumbpick. Besides the loud clacking, it messed up my playing. It was a song-stopper.

So, what are the variables that make it either harder or easier for us to use thumb- and fingerpicks on an electric guitar? The three most important things I learned from measuring are: the length of the thumbpick, the height of the strings above the guitar top, and the space between the pickups. String gauge is not a factor.

On an acoustic guitar, finger-style players are concerned with the width of the strings at the nut. Wider is better. A 1 ¾” or a 1 7/8” inch nut will be easier to pick and finger individual notes. Electric guitars vary very little at the nut. Most are either 1.650 or 1.687. As it turns out, there is also very little variation in the width of the strings between the first and second pickups. 50mm seems to be the magic number here. This also makes perfect sense, because if most electric guitars are the same width at the nut, most necks will be close in measurement, including string spacing at the pickups.

I decided to measure a cross-section of instruments to see which are easiest to play with fingerpicks. I measured 1 – width of strings between pickups one and two, 2 – Distance from the strings to the guitar top at the center of the first two pickups, 3 – Distance from the strings to the top of the first pickup, 4 – Distance from the strings to the top of the second pickup, 5 – Space between the first and second pickup. I didn’t measure the nut because they are mostly all the same, and are narrower than acoustic guitars. As it turns out, the distance between the strings and the pickups is not a number that impacts our playing. The pickups are way too high, and you really can’t pick over the top of them with a thumbpick. At least I couldn’t. So that makes the distance between pickups very important.
(PHOTO INSERTED HERE)
The Epiphone Emperor has considerably more space between the pickups than
the Fender Stratocaster.
(PHOTO INSERTED HERE)
Most archtop guitars like the EPI Emperor have more space from strings to
guitar top than solid bodies like the Fender Stratocaster

I also measured the length of the thumbpicks themselves. It turns out that the shorter picks do not come in contact with guitar tops as often as the longer picks, and of course that makes sense. Every millimeter that you remove from the thumbpick is like adding a millimeter to the space between the strings and the guitar top. I also find there is more control with a shorter pick. It’s less squirrely.
(PHOTO INSERTED HERE)
The photograph shows five thumbpicks, points ranging from 12 mm to 5 mm long. (10 millimeters equals .039 of an inch. 13 millimeters equals .51 of an inch.) The smaller the pick, the more freedom of movement. You have to decide what the optimum length is for your playing style. That should come first. It’s very easy to file down any plastic thumbpick using sandpaper, a small file, or even using metal cutting pliers first, and then sandpaper to remove rough edges.

But exactly what is the best distance from the strings to the top, or the space between pickups? Some of us play without any wasted movements. We put our picking hand in exactly the same position each time. I’m one of those guys. However, some of us are all over the place. We are highly animated, dance about having a grand old time, picking wherever our hand decides to go. So for lively pickers, you need more space.

It isn’t too hard to predict what the results would be. Before measuring I guessed that the higher the string from the guitar top, and the wider the distance was between the pickups, the better the instrument would be for picking. Yup, that was it.

The Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster that I love to flatpick, gave me some trouble fingerpicking. Robbie Robertson eliminated the middle pickup of his Strat because he was always hitting it with his picks. He usually played with a flat- and fingerpicks, and the middle pickup got in the way of his technique. Strats and Teles average about 10mm between strings and top of guitar. You can still use a thumbpick, but you have to file it down to a nubbin. A long thumbpick will constantly hit the top of the guitar between the strings.

I found that the point at which any thumbpick can be used successfully on any guitar is a 13mm distance between the strings and the top. All Les Pauls were fine. The easiest of all were the hollow-bodied archtops such as the Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor, the Gibson L5, or Gretsch guitars. The closer the pickups are to each other, the more restricted your picking movements will be. I found the distance of 50mm (there’s that magic number again) to be ideal. I put my hand in the same place each time, but your mileage may vary. The Emperor has a huge 83mm gap between pickups, and the strings are 21mm above the guitar top. This is actually greater than the distance from the strings to the top of my Martin acoustic, which is 12mm by the bridge. Naturally if you pick over the sound hole on an acoustic, there is no problem.

For all you thumbpicking shredders out there, don’t despair. In general, archtop, hollow-bodied guitars have more space, but not all solid bodies are created equal. The Ibanez RG6003FM has a string height of 13mm and the pickups are 54mm apart. The Schecter Demon 6 has a generous height of 16mm, and the pickups are 53mm apart. Both these guitars were great to fingerpick. There are many other solid-bodied guitars with similar spacing. By modifying the picks we use, we can make our playing easier regardless of the instrument we choose.
(PHOTOS UPON REQUEST)
(THE CHART BELOW SHOWS ALL THE MEASUREMENTS DISCUSSED IN THE ARTICLE)

GUITARWIDTH OF STRINGSDISTANCE OF STRINGS DISTANCE OFDISTANCE OFSPACE
E TO E AT CENTERPOINTTO GUITAR TOPSTRINGS TO STRINGS TOBETWEEN
OF PICKUPSAT CENTERPOINTTOP OF 1ST P.U.TOP OF 2ND P.U.1ST & 2ND P.U.

Epiphone Les Paul50mm13mm4mm3mm60mm
100th Anniversary

Fender Deluxe54mm10mm6mm5mm42mm
Player’s Strat

Fender Deluxe50mm9mm3mm4mm95mm
Tele W/Bigsby

Epiphone Joe50mm21mm5mm4mm83mm
Pass Emperor

Hagstrom Viking50mm19mm5mm4mm63mm
6 string W/Bigsby

Hagstrom Viking53mm14mm5mm3mm62mm
12 string

Martin RG16CE55mm12mm (by bridge)
Acoustic 6 string

Epiphone50mm14mm4mm3mm70mm
Sheraton Pro II

Epiphone Les Paul50mm14mm5mm4mm67mm
Plus Top

Gretsch G5622T48mm17mm6mm4mm58mm
Double Cut-A-Way

Ibanez RG6003FM52mm13mm5mm4mm54mm
Solid Body

Schecter Demon 650mm16mm5mm3mm53mm
Solid Body

Fender Tele53mm8mm3mm3mm95mm
FSR

Fender Player’s50mm10mm7mm6mm42mm
Strat

Gretsch G5420T50mm22mm6mm5mm58mm
Hollow Body
(NOTE: OF COURSE THE FORMAT COMPLETELY BLEW OUT WHEN I TRIED TO COPY IT INTO THIS SPACE. IT REALLY IS A GREAT LOOKING CHART)

Many thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

All the best,

Joe Randazzo
8 Woosdide Drive
South Burlington, VT 05403
Tel. 802-864-6662
e-mail: wordsmiths_communications@msn.com

Understanding Image Resolution

Resolution is a term used a lot in photography these days – regardless of which type of photography you do, or which type of camera you use, understanding image resolution, pixels and the different properties attributed to them is so important.

Whether you are printing, scanning, or sending an image by e-mail, you need to understand and know how to keep your images sharp and preserve as much detail as possible in your final print.

This topic does cause some confusion, so I hope the following will help.

Image resolution explained: Photography resolution is a measurement of image quality, so you may define resolution by how much detail is in your print. If your print has sharp detail you may consider your image to be of good resolution. If the detail is a blur in your image you may consider your image to have poor resolution. Good resolution is a direct result of having a large number of pixels in an image.

Pixels explained: Digital images are made up of millions of small dots – each dot is called a pixel. Each dot contains a small piece of image information, and when added together with the other pixels you’ll get your final image.

Print resolution is measured in pixel per inch (PPI) or in dots per inch (dpi) – both hold the same value. 300ppi means that there are 300 pixels per inch or 90,000 pixels per square inch.

What size can I print my images?

A digital image that’s 1500ppi wide will print a 15-inch wide print if the print resolution is 100ppi.
If you change the same image to a print resolution to 300ppi your final print size will become a
5-inch wide print.

If your image file is 3000ppi wide x 2400ppi high with a print resolution 300ppi, your final print size will be 10 x 8 inches. The same file with a print resolution of 150ppi will give you a final print of 20 x 16 inch.
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photography

Divide the print resolution into the pixel width or height of your image.

Higher-resolution should not be taken to mean that your images would be of higher quality – your images would only be of high quality if you print to the correct format.

For example – if you print a 3000ppi x 2400ppi size file to a print size of 20 x 16 inches at 300ppi, the pixels may be visible resulting in a blurred image. You need to print it at 600ppi to attain good quality.

What size resolution should I use?

At 600ppi (which is an extremely large resolution) your image will be supreme sharp. You will be restricted with print size.

Printing your images at 300ppi is the standard quality. Image sharpness doesn’t get much better. The only setback is that the maximum print size will be restricted – you might need to drop the resolution to get a larger image.

If you need a large print from a small file print your file at 150ppi – your print will lack detail and the pixels may be visible. You should not print an image any smaller than 150ppi.

72ppi is standard with your computer screen. Don’t print your images at this size – the pixels will be visible.

Resolution tips: Scan your images as large as possible; it’s easy to resize them later. If you scan an image too small you may have to re-scan at a later date to get a larger print.

If you need a print that’s twice the size of the original – scan it at 600ppi and print it at 300ppi.

Try to print your image at 300ppi.

If you use a tripod when taking an image you may be able to push the print resolution lower than the recommended 300ppi – this will enable you to get a larger print.

Other Tips: Be very careful when cropping an image, if you crop it too much you will reduce the print size.

Be careful not to confuse print resolution with printer resolution; printer resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi), but these values are a great deal higher- common printer resolutions are 2400dpi and 5760dpi – this is a measure of the amount of ink dropped onto your paper per inch.

Heath Jordan

Tweets by HeathAJordan

My Mistakes as a Web Design Newbie – Learn from them

Approaching retirement age I was made redundant last year and decided to create my first web site, initially knowing little about it. I hope that, by reading about my experiences, I may save you both time and money if you ever find yourself in the position of wanting to build a site with little initial knowledge.

eBooks
I bought five or six ebooks on how to make my web fortune from the one-page web-sites that you see on the web. The prices ranged from $9.95 to $29.95. It would be unfair of me to say that they were of no use, as you can always pick up the odd pointer, or contact. However, with the benefit of hindsight, I would not have purchased any of them. Instead, there are free, better-written books which give you at least the same pointers, and often have more substance. You can download from my web site, for free, two excellent books by Ken Evoy, which will provide you with good basic knowledge to move forward. Don’t get carried away with the sales hype contained in some of these “get rich quick” single page sales letters that offer huge free bonuses and an imminent price increase.

Universities and colleges
There are various colleges and universities on the web which promise you the ultimate in web creation, site marketing, search engine optimization and much more, “all under one roof” They usually have libraries of “how-to” books and membership is by monthly subscription with some offering a lower fee for the first month. Have a look, by all means, I looked at three and claimed my refund within the stated period. I found that I could obtain similar information offered for free with a little searching and that what they really offered was convenient.

Web Design software
I initially purchased a web site building package for $69.95 and was soon disappointed by its lack of functionality. I then looked over the shoulder of a friend whilst they showed me the workings of a top-end product costing nearly $400.00 but I found it to be too complicated with too steep a learning curve to be quickly productive. I posted a request for help on the Warriors forum and there were more recommendations for a particular product than any other. So I decided that my first web site would be a review of that product, which I would create as a trial before I went on to build a site that would aim at generating income.

What should the web site be about?
Several of the books that I read suggested that the subject matter should be about something that you enjoy doing and therefore you will create your site with more passion and enthusiasm. Whilst this is sound advice I found that the need to create a trial site, which would force me to learn the basics, was more than a sufficient driving force.

Domain name & Web hosting
Go for a dot com registration and pay no more than $10 per annum. Don’t go for free hosting, you get what you pay for. I looked at hosting sites that offered a complete package with hosting, autoresponders, SEO and linking software and much more. Whilst everything was conveniently in one place they failed to convince me that each product would stack up well if they were competing in each niche market. I, therefore, opted for the best of breed approach and a little less convenience.

Search Engine Optimization
This was probably the subject that I was most worried about as I knew that it referred to making a web site as easy as possible for the search engines to find, but I had no clue as to how to go about it. I have a free ebook that you can download entitled “Search Engine Optimization Made Easy” which will give you the basics to carry out this process. The book is really a plug by the author of SEO software for his excellent product. I was fortunate in that the web design software I selected also, somewhat unusually, held my hand through this process, carefully pointing out page, by page, what I needed to do.

Article Distribution
I was aware that, in order to succeed, I should submit articles to the numerous Article Directories present on the Internet. There are two ways to do this. By purchasing one of the two major pieces of software to assist me in doing it myself, or to use a company to do it for me. I looked at each way and found that, whilst both software solutions cut out some of the tedious manuals tasks of submitting to over 150 directories, it was still time-consuming. Having examined the market place carefully, discounting any company that charged for a fixed number of submissions, I opted for one who for a fixed quarterly fee would submit any number of articles.

Link software
Again, so that I would get more site traffic, I knew that I should get other sites to link to mine and that I would have to manage those links and the emails back and forth, etc. I initially started to design an Excel spreadsheet linked to Microsoft Word but decided that I would still have to create the links pages by hand. My advice is to obtain software that houses all your links in a searchable database, handles all of the emails, including template housing, and that automatically creates the HTML link pages for you.

A Sarasota SEO company

Why Fair Trade Organic Coffee?

Written By: Amy Dayton

Coffee is the worlds second largest traded food commodity. However, because of the demand, traditional coffee is sprayed with DDT, as well as pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides which we know to be hazardous to our health and the environment. So the folks that demand organic coffee are in fact, health-conscious consumers.

Now as I said above, coffee is a high demand product, number two on the food commodity list tells the huge demand. However, the people that produce our coffee have been abused for years. We have been paying tiny amounts of money for their labors. Realize that most of the coffee you drink is HAND PICKED by poor coffee farmers in distant lands. These folks until now had little or no health care, and most of them weren’t even able to send their children to school. So the coffee trade had been a repetitive cycle in their lives since they were able to do little or nothing else. Times have changed, with the Fair Trade movement these folks are getting their Fair Share of payment. However, you have to purchase Fair Trade certified coffee products in order to ensure that a fair price was paid for the coffee beans we all love so much.

In essence, what more could you ask a for…a healthy cup of coffee for you to enjoy, and knowing you made the world a better place by purchasing coffee that was paid for in a fair and just manner. Good for you, now go enjoy that steaming cup of coffee with a smile on your face and warmth in your heart for making such a difference!

Obtain Sports Autographs Without Breaking A Sweat

Autograph collecting has become an extremely popular pastime among sports fans. Whether it be baseball, basketball, racing, football or hockey, obtaining your favorite athlete’s autograph can be both a fun and rewarding hobby. And, surprisingly enough, it’s not as difficult as you may think.

If you have the opportunity to visit a training camp for your favorite sports team, a race shop for your favorite race car driver or a special autograph signing event, this will be a great way to obtain an in-person autograph. Bring your own items to be signed and make sure to bring along a sharpie, or other permanent, marker! Almost every training camp offers autograph possibilities for fans. Location information, along with times and policies, are available from every major sports organization. For more information, fans may call the following numbers and ask about their favorite teams training dates and locations:
MLB – 1-212-931-7800
NBA – 1-212-655-0880
NFL – 1-800-372-2000
NHL – 1-212-789-2000

When collecting autographs, the most common items to have signed include photos and index cards. But, there are many other options for collectors who wish to build a truly unique collection of memorabilia. Some alternate items to consider would be a hockey puck, a basketball, baseball, tennis or golf ball, a football, a sports jersey, racing flag or a helmet. Always be polite when asking for an autograph and never ask for more than two items to be signed at any one given time.

If your geographical location, or schedule, doesn’t permit you the opportunity to get an in-person autograph, don’t give up. Many fans enjoy collecting autographs through the mail and do so with great success. Before you do anything, you will need an accurate address. A complete list of team addresses, rosters and official team websites can be found at the following locations:
MLB – http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/team/mlb_team_index.jsp
NBA – http://www.nba.com
NFL – http://www.playfootball.com/footballfacts/addresses.html
NHL – http://www.nhl.com/teams/index.html
NASCAR – http://www.raceshops.com

Now that you have an address, you’re ready to begin by simply writing a polite letter to your favorite athlete. Be sure to let him/her know how much you enjoy their involvement in their chosen sport and kindly request an autograph. Most importantly, remember to keep it short but also personable. If possible, always handwrite you letter – avoid typing because it may resemble a ‘form’ letter. You will want to make sure that your favorite athlete knows that you are sincere in your quest for his/her autograph. If you’re asking for him/her to provide the photo, always remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ When your letter is ready for mailing, fold it to fit inside the #10 envelope. You will also need to affix $0.60 postage on a 9×12 envelope, fold it 3 ways and place it inside with your letter. This will serve as your self-addressed stamped envelope, so don’t forget to write your address on the envelope so that your photo will find it’s way back to you. It’s also a good idea to write “Photo – Please Do Not Bend” in the bottom left corner of your 9×12 SASE.

If you are requesting a signed index card, you should provide your own. The most popular choice are the un-ruled 3×5 plain white index cards. For this request, use a regular size envelope as your SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) and affix $0.37 for return postage. If you live outside the USA, please check with your postmaster for the correct amount of postage needed.
If you decide to send larger items to be autographed, such as a baseball, helmet or jersey, you can choose to either send loose return postage inside the box with your request, which will allow the athlete to sign your item and simply affix the postage on your box for return shipping. Otherwise, you can simply send a few dollars and let them know that the funds are being sent to cover the cost of return postage.

Now that you’ve started your new collection, be aware that you may also purchase autographs from a dealer if you are unable to acquire them yourself. The industry has taken a hard hit with forgery and false certificates of authenticity, so research any dealer before you buy from them. Take into account how many years they have been in business, whether or not they are a member of the Better Business Bureau in their area and, if they are, check to see if they’ve had any complaints filed against them through the BBB by visiting www.BBB.org. When all is said and done, a certificate of authenticity is only as good as the person who stands behind the guarantee. The bottom line is to know who you are buying from, research other examples of authentic signatures and consider every factor before making a final decision to purchase. Equipped with plenty of knowledge, every fan can make the hobby of collecting autographs a fun and rewarding pastime.

Treasures galore for the movie buff!

Movies have a life all their own. Besides the entertainment value they provide, there are also the lasting material things that remain as reminders of these wonderful (and not so wonderful) films. These things serve as reminders to the movie going public and may have some intrinsic value as well. Examples of the above are the movie posters, collectibles, props and other miscellaneous items that are produced by the ad agencies, special effects artists, hobby enthusiasts, toy manufacturers, and even movie enthusiasts.

One of the most familiar movie items is the advertising posters one sees outside the theater. These can be quite colorful and are designed to stimulate one’s imagination and lure the potential viewer into the theater. These posters have been divided into the particular genre such as: Westerns, Horror, Sci-Fi, and War. Some of these divisions can have special groups of movies all unto themselves. For instance: Star Wars or James Bond. One poster for the 1967 James Bond spoof, “Casino Royale” is presently selling for $300 USD and a poster for the first James Bond movie, “Dr. No” (1962) is selling for $3,000 USD. Posters have become such big business that there is a company that specializes in restoring them using a linen background. Their value just increases with time.

Another group of movie items that is much sought after are the props used in making the movies. Today with computer graphics some of the characters, creatures, or other items may be totally fabricated in a computer generated model. There are still many props used on the big and little screens that are much in demand. Miniatures of much larger items such as space ships, landscapes, cities, or creatures are very detailed and amazingly real in appearance. The problem with props is that they are very limited and often times kept by the studio for further possible movies or they are dismantled. In this category there are also the replicas made by model companies and toy manufacturers. After all, if you can’t have the real thing you can also get (and afford) a replica.

Still another group of movie/TV related items that might be related to props are the statues and action figures. The statues are in a single pose and are usually sold by model companies. The action figures are designed to be handled and are made to be more durable. There is a growing market for these action figures. Their value is much higher if they are not removed from the box. These are essentially toys that are collected in the hopes that in the future they will have accrued in value a great deal.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Interested in this subject? Try this link for more of the same

5 Tips For Shooting Winter Landscapes.

Winter brings out the toughest elements in our climate, with many people putting away their camera bags ‘till early spring. But, if you do put away your camera you are missing out on the raw beauty that this magical season brings.

Here are a few tips to make the trip more enjoyable.

1. Wear the right clothes: It’s very important to wrap up warm when out shooting winter images. The winter season brings the toughest elements, so if you are planning to spend a few days out and about always be well prepared.

2. Watch the weather: It’s very important to know what the weather is going to be like. You don’t want to travel for a couple of hours and then hear a weather report that tells you that: the weather is wet for the next few days. During the winter months the weather can dramatically change in a matter of hours.

It’s always advisable to let someone know where you are going and which route you’re planning to take. If you do get injured or ever caught in a storm someone may be able to help.

3. Carry only what you need: Carry only the essentials. You don’t need to upload your camera bag with every piece of equipment you own. If you are going to be out taking pictures all day you are much better off going as light as possible. Carrying a light load will also help preserve energy. You could be climbing icy rocks or crossing snow filled hills; a warm flask would serve you a lot better than a third camera.

4. Look for detail: Snow, ice and frost bring out texture and atmosphere in most subjects. The early frosty morning is an ideal time for close-up photography. The frosty morning also brings out patterns in our landscapes.

Take care where you place your camera: if you are taking pictures early in the morning try placing it at oblique angles to the sun – this will give your images strong shadows. This will also add mood to your landscape images. Once you have found the perfect spot pay extra attention to foreground interest as this will add depth to your image.

5. Expose carefully: Snow and ice are extremely difficult to expose properly. Snow usually confuses your cameras metering system or your hand held light meter. When you take a light reading from snow you will automatically get an underexposed image. The meter will record the snow as grey.

Now is the time to start bracketing your shots. If you bracket your shots add 1 – 2 stops of light to compensate for your light meter reading. Using an 18% grey card, which I described in a previous article, should also give you a perfect light reading.

Get the perfect exposure… every time!

Did you ever get back a fresh batch of film, only to be disappointed in finding out that you got back wash-out boring images.

The problem is that you didn’t expose your film properly.

Whether we use a digital or film camera, we need to be able to calculate exposure properly. But first, we need to understand how the aperture and the shutter work together. We also need to know how film handles light, and the relationship between film light sensitivity and f/stops.

Lets take a quick look at the main elements.

Aperture and f/stops: the aperture is an opening in the centre of the lens through which light passes. The amount of light which passes through an aperture is indicated by f/stops. The lower the f/stop the more light that passes through the aperture. Opening up one full f/stop doubles the amount of light entering the camera. F/4 admits twice the light of f5.6.

Shutter: the shutter is a mechanical device that controls the length of time that light is allowed to act on the film. Each time you open the shutter by one, we double the light, when we close down the light by one we half the light. Opening the shutter at 1 second allows twice the light as that of a ½ second.

ISO (ASA): stands for International Standards Organisation. The initials are used for film speed which rates light sensitivity. A film with an ISO number 100 is twice as light sensitive as a film with an ISO of 50. The faster the film, the more sensitive it is to light.

Most digital SLR have ISO settings built in to them. If you are taking a low light image with a digital camera use a slow ISO rating of 200 or upwards.

Getting the perfect exposure isn’t easy, but there are several different ways of making it easier.

Using a light meter: there are two types of light meters,

1. Reflected-light meter (the same that is built into your camera) works by pointing the meter at your subject.

2. Incident-light meter: instead of pointing the meter at your subject, you stand beside the subject and point the meter at the camera. The light that falls on your subject will also fall on your meter.

The most common way is to use the meter built into your camera. All modern day cameras have a reflected-light meter built in to them. But don’t point the camera directly at your subject from 10 meters. This will more than likely underexpose your image. Take the exposure reading up-close, then return to the starting position and take your image.

It doesn’t matter which metering system we use, if we don’t point them in the right direction our images will return too dark or too bright. The key is to know where to point the meter.

When I take a landscape image I normally take five or six different readings. I take an incident-light reading with my light meter to record the foreground and a reflected-light reading of the sky.

If you are unsure take three or four images at different exposure settings. Don’t let a perfect picture moment pass by without recording it flawlessly.

Music Production and Mixing Tips & Tricks

What makes a pro recording pro? What is the “sound” that the pros get and how can you make your recordings sound more professional?

The simple answer is – there’s no simple answer. But with careful listening and a little experience you can create excellent results with modest equipment.

Good mixing starts ear

The first and most important item of equipment is – who knows? Anyone? It’s your ears! Sorry to tell you this, but listening to ten hours of Rave at 110dB will do nothing for them and you might as well give your mix to a turtle as try to mix with misused ears.

Listen to commercial recordings of mixes you like, analyse them, listen for the effects and get to know what constitutes the sort of sound you’re after.

Mixing secrets

There’s no hidden secret to getting a good sound, but if we had to sum up the secret of mixing in two words it would be this – EQ and compression. Okay that’s three words.

These are probably the two most important tools used by professional producers. However, like any tools, if you don’t know how to use them you’ll be carving Habitat tables instead of Chippendale chairs.

That’s where your ears and experience come in. Here we have assembled some production ideas, suggestions, tips and tricks but they can only be guidelines and need to be adapted to suit your material. There are no presets you can switch in to make a bad recording sound good. And if your original material has been poorly recorded not even Abbey Road could salvage your mix. But follow these suggestions and see how much your mixes improve.

Get the level right

You can’t push the levels when recording digitally as you can when recording to tape but you still want to get as much signal into the system as possible. This means watching the levels very carefully for clipping, and recording at an even and constant level.

Some recording software lets you monitor and set the input level from within. Some expect you to use the soundcard’s mixer while others have no facility for internally adjusting the input level and expect you to set this at source.

Monitors

Your ears are only as good as the monitors they listen to. DO NOT expect to produce a good, pro mix on tiny computer speakers. It may sound fine on a computer system, but try it on a hi fi, in a disco and through a car stereo.

Oddly enough, you don’t necessarily need the most expensive Mic. Many top artists use what some might call “average” Mics because they work well and get the job done. You can spend a wad on a large diaphragm capacitor Mic (yes, they’re good for vocals) if you have the lolly but check out dynamic Mics which are much more affordable and can be turned to several tasks.

Mixing MIDI and audio

One of the great things about computer-based recording is that the parts can so easily be changed, edited and processed. It’s also so easy to combine MIDI and audio tracks and many musicians use a combination of sample loops, MIDI parts and audio recording.

Audio recordings are generally guitar and acoustic instruments such as the sax and vocals. Incidentally, the best way to record guitars is by sticking a Mic in front of its speakers. You can DI them and process them later and this may be cleaner but for a natural guitar sound a Miced amp is hard to beat.

It’s not necessary to record drums live and, in fact, it’s difficult to do and retain a modern sound. You can buy off-the-shelf MIDI drum riffs and audio drum loops, or program your own. The quality of the gear which makes drum noises these days is such that anyone with a good riff can sound like a pro.

Mixing MIDI

As MIDI and audio parts appear on the same screen in modern sequencers, it’s very easy to arrange them into a song. However, when you come to mix everything down there’s another consideration. If you are recording to DAT you can simply route the audio and MIDI outputs through a mixer and into the DAT machine.

However, if you want to create a CD you must first convert the MIDI parts to audio data. The entire song can then be mixed to hard disk and burned to CD. Converting MIDI to audio can have another benefit and that’s the ability to process the MIDI tracks using digital effects.

Effects

There are three positions for effects known as Master, Send and Insert. Use the Master for effects you want to apply to the entire mix. These will often be EQ, compression and reverb.

Although giving each channel its own Insert effects is kinda neat, each one uses a corresponding amount of CPU power. So if your computer is struggling and if you’re using the same effect on more than one channel, make the effect a Send effect and route those channels to it.

Many pieces of software let you apply an effect Pre or Post fader. With Post fader, the amount of sound sent to the effect is controlled by the fader. With Pre fader, the total volume level of the signal is sent. Post fader is the usual default and the one you’ll use the most.

EQ is the most popular and the most over-used effect. Yes, it can be used to try to “fix a mix” but you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear as me Gran used to say and what she didn’t know about mixing could be written in the margin of the book of honest politicians.

But before you start messing with EQ – or any other effect for that matter – make sure you have a decent set of speakers. Have we said that already? Oh, must be important, then.

There are plug-in effects such as MaxxBass which can psychoacoustically enhance the bass frequencies to make it sound better on smaller speakers. However, this is by no means the same as getting a good bass sound in the first place by observing good recording principles.

EQ can enhance a mix to add gloss, fairy dust, shimmer, sheen, a sweetener or whatever you want to call it to the final production. It can be done with enhancers and spectralisers, too, although these tend to mess with the harmonics which some producers don’t like. However, don’t dismiss them out of hand.

General EQ lore says that you should cut rather than boost. If a sound is top-heavy, the temptation is to boost the mid and bass ranges. But then what usually happens is you start boosting the upper range to compensate and you simply end up boosting everything and you’re back where you started – only louder!

The reason why cutting is preferred is that boosting also boosts the noise in the signal which is not what you want. Try it. Boost every frequency and listen to the result. If you think it sounds okay, fine. What do we know?

But when you’re fiddling, do keep an eye on the output meter. Boosting EQ inevitably means increasing the gain and it’s so-o-o-o easy to clip the output causing distortion which does not sound good.

Finally, check EQ changes to single tracks while playing back the entire piece. In other words, listen to the tracks in context with all the other tracks. It may sound fine in isolation but some frequencies may overlap onto other tracks making the piece frequency rich in some places and frequency poor in others.

Reverb

Reverb creates space. It gives the impression that a sound was recorded in a hall or canyon instead of the broom cupboard. Recording lore suggests that you record everything dry, with no reverb, so you can experiment with a choice later on. You can’t un-reverb a track once it’s been recorded.

The more reverb you apply, the further away sound will seem. To make a vocal up-front, use only enough reverb to take away the dryness. Vocals don’t want to be mushy (lyrics can be mushy) so use a bright reverb.

A common novice error is to swamp everything with different types of reverb. Don’t – it sounds horrible!

Mixing down

You’ve done all the recordings, done the edits, applied the effects and now it’s time to mix everything into a Big Number One Hit! Before you do, go home and have a good night’s sleep. Have two. In fact, sleep for a week.

Yes, we know you’re hot and raring to go but your ears are tired. They’re falling asleep. Listen carefully and you might hear then snore!

There is a phenomenon known as ear fatigue and consistent exposure to sound, especially the same frequencies, makes our ears less responsive to them. Goes back to the bit about spending your life in a Rave club – you’ll never be a master producer. If you try to mix after spending a day arranging, your ears will not be as responsive, so do them and your mix a favour by waiting at least a day.

Now, go forth and mix! And don’t forget – you get better with practice. For more information about mixing, pick up a FREE copy of Creating The Perfect Mix at www.making-music.com

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