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October, 2009:

Different Hobbies and How To Turn The Love For That Hobby A Business

Oct 29th, 2009
by John K .
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A lot of people have activities or hobbies that they like doing in their spare time. Whether it is a sport , an artistic outlet or some other way that they like spending their time, hobbies have resulted in a special niche business too . Some of these specific businesses focus on people’s hobbies that are shown in home based parties. People today that love custom scrapbooking, for example, may now be a consultant for Creative Memories franchise where they host home parties and sell all of the various scrapbooking supplies. Other examples of this that will be explained in this article will be cooking home based businesses and ones for those that enjoy shopping too.

The first hobby that a lot of people enjoy participating in is scrapbooking. Having family photo albums and scrapbooks has always been something that people have done but an enormous wave of popularity in the 1990′s made doing that a lot more easy and fun for people with the explosion of special scrapbooking stores, specific internet sites focused towards scrapbooking and home based businesses thatteach people how to scrapbook . The home based business began by a woman that simply enjoyed scrapbooking as a hobby and was able to turn that into a business too .

The second kind of hobby is cooking that has always been something that some men or women have a passion for. Obviously, there are a lot of people that like cooking by the explosion of cooking TV programs and the Food network channel that shows nothing but cooking segments for the foodies that adore this hobby . This also, has been turned into a niche business market of home based parties with the best known one being The Pampered Chef. Itbegan in the 1980′s by a lady that wanted to spread her passion for cooking and to encourage having the family meal around the table each and every night.

The final hobby that several people love doing is shopping. This hobby has been promoted by stores that sell various goods. Now with the internet, a lot of people can shop while at home or they may also attend a fun party at a friend’s house where a particular home party will be selling their things . Some of the home based businesses that sell things at home parties are children’s clothing, purses and accessories , candles and household goods and even intimate things . This is also a wonderful way to blend socializing and shopping all in one. If you have a passion for shopping, maybe you could be a consultant and combine your hobby with a new career .

Most successful people in this world say they are successful because they love what they do for a career . Having a passion for something that you may be able to do to make a living is the optimal way to be successful. If you have a hobby that you love , there are several ways to make the hobby into a business whether it is by having a website , or your own company .

Low Cost Lighting For Portrait Photography

Oct 28th, 2009
by John K .
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Most think you must have a massive investment in lighting to do a good job. Portrait photography is the same as any other area of photography. You must know how to use your equipment and understand light and angles. The light can be man make from strobes or a continous source. It can also be from windows or open doorways. The source of the light does not matter. What counts is how you control or modify the light. I learned light control when doing jewelry photography. I photographed both jewelry , wedding bands and diamond engagement rings. They required total light control or the reflections would ruin your shot.

What you need for portrait photography

  • Colored Matte Boards-Optional
  • White Sheet – Optional
  • Arm-less Chair
  • White Foam Core Board-Optional
  • DSLR Camera

One of the first things you need to understand is what good light looks like. Walk outside at 12:00 noon on a bright hot day. Where I live that means clear skies and at least 100 degrees. Try to open your eyes and even the reflection from the sidewalk is blinding. This is not good light. Go back inside the air conditioned house and cool down. Now when the sun moves to the back side of your home go to the opposide side. Open the front door and let the soft even light flow in. Notice how it lights a path about 3 feet into the room. This is what I would call nice soft light. Hold up a black poster board and see how it blocks sections of the light. This can be done to increase slight shadows and add depth to your portrait. You can also increase the light by bouncing off a white poster board. This will fill shadows or add light on one side to produce slight shadows on the opposite side. Watch for reflections from cars, sidewalks and buildings. What you see is what you get so play around with it and watch for changes. Go slow and watch for tiny changes, slight lighting variations are the difference between a common snapshot and a portrait.

The next step would be positioning the model. I would bring an armless chair or stool to sit on. For most portrait photography you want to hide the problem areas and bring out the eyes. Shooting down at a slight angle will do this most of the time. With the model in the chair place a solid color backing behind her. I prefer brown or other earth tones. Black is OK but a bit harsh and can mix with dark colored hair since we are not using an above the head hair light for seperation. The low position of the model does provide a touch of a natural hair light but not enough to define dark black hair against a dark black background.

Pick one of your better quality, longer lenses for the photo. I like 100-200mm range but from 85mm -300 will give tou a nice look. 24mm and even 50mm can make the subject look wider or a little distorted plus it does not work well with the angel you will be shooting at. Adjust your ISO and shutter speed. I like my portraits taken at around F4.5.-F5 This gives a sharp face with a very slight softness starting at the ears and back. Under this you may have sharp eyes but the nose may look soft which is not good for portraits. If using a lower cost lens you may need to start at F5.6 which will work fine.

Accurate color reprodustion can be easy if you custom white balance before every session. This way I get much better skin tones and can go a touch warmer or cooler in post processing while still knowing what my neutral ( balanced ) shot looks like. Most of the time I leave it as shoot. During processing I may give my background a slight burn at low opacity to increase the depth. Same with the hair or clothing. I may also give the face a tiny bit more depth or contrast depending on how close I got my lighting during the shoot. Using this style of shooting you should have a very nice portrait.

Always make sure you do your photo processing on a color corected monitor. My main screen is corerected and looks 99% the same as my lab prints. My not so costly laptop does not have the adjustments and the photos never look correct. If you are serious about doing portraits invest in a good monitor and color correction softwear.

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