Tag: advice

Categories
advice opinion

Lessons in Photography and Cookery, or “keep it light on the salt”

I was having a discussion a few weeks ago, and the subject of photography came up. The conversation was about image quality, and how sometimes photos on a smartphone can surpass those from a more professional setup.

Now, frankly, three are probably a myriad of reasons why that can happen.

Rather, what came up during the course of the conversation were my lighting preferences, especially where product photography is concerned. See, when shooting, I prefer to slightly under light objects (not too much, mind you). That way, I feel I have better control in my retouching when I bring the images into Photoshop. Now, I won’t fault anyone if they prefer to light objects more accurately. I’m just saying this is my preference.

And it got me to thinking of “why”. And this thinking led me to the subject of cooking (somehow all roads lead back to food in my world). In short, you can always under season a dish. You can add more salt or pepper until things are seasoned right. But once something gets too salty, it’s hard to “take it back”.

Same thing in photography. You can start with an underlit image and you can adjust it in Photoshop until you feel it’s right, but if you start with a shot that is overexposed or otherwise has too much light… Well, there’s not much you can do to remedy the situation at that point.

I’m not sure where I was going with this, but I guess that’s my advice. Be mindful when lighting, and find what works for you.

Now, could you pass the pepper, please?

 

Categories
life randomness

The New Testament and Social Media

I’m writing this as I’m about to post, and not really editing (other than for typos), so please bear with me.

Lately I’ve been listening to Joel Osteen on Sunday mornings as I’m getting ready for church, and the last couple of weeks in particular have hit home with me, for one reason or another. Yesterday’s message boiled down to how we need to have in our “inner circle” (his phrase, not mine) people that will encourage us and who will be supportive in chasing and reaching our goal.  Those “toxic” relationships (as he described them) should be ones that we re-examine and possibly even eliminate from our lives.

Also, this past Sunday our church was visited by one of the pastors from a nearby church. The message he prepared and delivered was all about sharing. I believe some of the phrasing he used– to me– echoed in a weird reversed way Gordon Gecko’s speech about greed in Wall Street.

But I digress.

See, you can take out all the Biblical bibliography, and both messages remain extremely relevant. And, the way I see it, as designers/developers/artists– whatever, the idea of having people that are supportive of our goals and the idea of sharing what we have (knowledge, experience) are both things that are important to our growth, and are an integral part of living and interacting in the realm of social media. After all, isn’t that at least part of the reason we involved ourselves initially, and continue to do so day after day?

Categories
daily365

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for April 14

My piece for 4/14 centers around Remo Williams,  one of my guilty pleasure 80s movies (MegaForce is another, but we’ll leave that for another day) . Joel Grey’s character, “Chiun”, a Korean master of Sinanju, has some of the best lines (two of my favorites are “you move like a pregnant Yak” and “you drive like a monkey in heat!”). This one, on the nature of fear, has stuck with me for years.

Enjoy!

Categories
design freelancing life tips & tricks

Gibbs’ Rules For Freelancers– rule #9

If, like me, you are a fan of NCIS, then no doubt you are aware that there is a set of rules (50, to be precise, although as of January 2010, we have only been given less than half, and not in any particular order) that Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs lives by. Periodically they’re mentioned or referenced, and, thanks to the wonders of the internet, folks far more obsessive and anal-retentive about these things than I have collected them. Well, it occurred to me one night that some of these “rules” can be adapted and applied to the lives and work of designers, and freelancers in particular. In the spirit of the show, I will also discuss these from time to time in a random manner.

Without further ado, the first installment of what I’d like to call “Gibbs’ Rules For Freelancers.”

Gibbs' rules for design

Rule #9. Never go anywhere without a knife (from episode 1.13, “One Shot, One Kill”)

A knife, in this case, may not be necessary (although a lot of folks, myself included, occasionally carry a Swiss Army knife or Leatherman-type tool). However, designers– and freelancers in particular– would do well to carry a USB flash drive.
It’s simple, really. There may be times when you’re working on-site and have to take files with you. Maybe you go to an initial meeting with a potential new client and end up picking up some business before leaving their office. They want you to take their logo, maybe some documents you’ll need as part of the brief. Having a flash drive with you would certainly make things easier. There wouldn’t be the need to have anything emailed (which, considering the recent rash of issues some designers and bloggers have experienced, could be a hazard). There would be less of a need to commit another password to memory because files need to be FTP’d. The client wouldn’t have to burn a disk for you to take.

You could also look at it as “being green”. You wouldn’t necessarily need to burn disks to take files to a local printer or copy center. Just dupe them to your thumb drive and have them copy it off to their machines.

My flash drives


Personally, I have 3 that I’ve picked up over the last 5 years– a 256MB that I rarely use, and my two workhorses: A 1GB and a 2GB drive– and I rarely leave the house to go anywhere without at least one of these. On them I carry PDFs of my resumé and a one-sheet of work samples.

These days flash drives have become so inexpensive that it’s almost silly for designers or other creative professionals to not have one. If you have one and haven’t really put them to use, maybe it’s time to reconsider. If you don’t have one, you’d do well to invest in one.