Politics & Current Events
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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Also, let's discuss photography
I've recently had to come to grips with the fact that I'm a godawful picture taker. I don't want to be a momtographer and I'm not trying to buy a new camera. I'd just like to take better pics.
Anyone have some pointers?
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Re: Also, let's discuss photography
I've learned to try to take my pictures during the day in a room that gets a lot of natural light, not photograph the subject with the light behind them and to use the little flower icon when I'm taking pictures of my knits. That's all I've got.
Pixy always says read the manual that came with the camera. I haven't been able to find mine IRL or on the web, though. lol
What kind of camera do you have?
I think this can be done even w/ a P&S and not a DSLR. My advice would be to do something like this and learn how your camera works... there are tons of online tutorials.
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&forum_id=21&thread_id=3053442
ITA with PP's, but I also want to add this: if you are taking pictures of kids, the vast majority of point and shoot cameras, and def all cell phone cameras, will result in serious blur all.the.time. Or, you'll get a picture a second after you hit the button.
There's tremendous shutter lag on most non-DSLR cameras, and they simply can't do what you want them to do... especially if the subject of your photos is in motion, as kids are kind of all.the.time.
We bought a DSLR and it totally changed my life. Pictures of the kids are now coming out non-blurry and I don't have to anticipate the "moment".
DSLR's have come way way down in price from the days when you had to come up with more than $1K to get anything decent. For under $400, you can get a Canon Rebel T3 (the bottom of the Canon line... kind of the Toyota Yaris of the camera world) with the kit lens. Later on, the $100 Canon 50mm f1.8 lens is a superdelicious add-on. There's also a great Canon long zoom, image stabilized, for like $250. Camera people will tell you that there are better cameras and lenses out there, and there are, but for perfectly serviceable stuff, these are great items at great prices.
Sure, it's not free... but remember the days when you had to buy film? $400 worth of film and processing would have been like a year's worth... plus the cost of the camera. So, $400 for a camera doesn't seem like that big a deal.
I am the 99%.
Have you seen my blog? The lighting is weird, the detail isn't there, and the colors are off.
Mominatrix, one day it will be in the budget to get a new camera but for now, meh, it ain't happening. I have a Sony Cybershot that should work well enough if I would just learn to use it. It has taken some really good pictures so I know it's capable of better than I'm managing. I just have no idea.
I would imagine certain angles are better than others, times of day, the direction of the light, etc. I should google, I'm just not sure where to start.
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-zoom in (or move in) close until it looks wrong, then back off a bit. Many people's bad pics are bad b/c they're too far away. Ex. People don't need to see the entire river and the shore, and thus the kid's entire (minuscule) body to know a kid is standing in front of a river.
-having your main subject centered in the pic vertically & horizontally generally doesn't look as good as off center. Google the Rule of Thirds in photography to see what I mean.
-Think of the background as well as your subject when setting up a shot. If there are lines (like a fence, or a sidewalk, or whatever) use them to lead your eye to the subject. (called Leading Lines if you wanna google that too) Lines also can make good pics themselves if they curve or do something different.
-Even more basic - just have a subject and a background. Example:
This is boring as sh!t, even though it was probably beautiful to see IRL, b/c there's no subject.
this is beautiful even though the main subject is just a rock. Plus the background with the sunset is a nice contrast. It would have looked pretty good for a regular amateur non-photographer even w/o that.
Oh, you have a blog. LOL that I just noticed.
First picture of you sitting on the ledge: the sun is coming in at an angle. When in doubt, shoot INTO the sun (the photographer / camera) should be facing the sun. Even lighting looks better than splotchy lighting.
Don't take pictures of yourself in the sun, period. It looks harsh and typically it's coming from straight down, so you get those great raccoon eyes. And if it's not, usually the sun makes people squint, which is not a good look.The only exceptions are sunrise and sunset.
Look for open shade. Meaning, a shaded area where you can still see the sky. This means you'll have some light in the eyes.
For indoors, window light is great, so long as the sun isn't coming directly in the window. Usually a north facing window is best.
Oh, I totally get the lack of budget. Believe me. Just wanted to say that they're nowhere near as spendy as they used to be.
Looked at your blog, and I get it.
Part of the issue is that it looks like you have really dramatic light and shadows. Those are hard to photograph and have it look good. I think you'd be better off moving your subjects somewhere where there aren't those slivers of really bright light. Contrary to popular belief, too much light in photographs is just as bad as not enough light.
So, for example the picture in your sig is made distracting by the bright light coming from the right. If you were entirely in shade, it would work better.
You might want to see what you can do in "post" with pictures like this. There are some (apparently, I haven't used them) really good FREE photo editing software bits out there. I hear good things about Gimp.
I am the 99%.
And when I started taking pictures a lot, I took a bunch of photography books out of the library, just to get inspiration and ideas about how to compose, how to set up shots, etc. There are some really good books about photographing people, photographing stuff for blogs, etc.
Depending on how much manual control you have on your camera, Understanding Exposure is really the book to have.
I am the 99%.
Thank you, pantsparty. I am not trying to highlight my fat belly lol And yet there it constantly is. And it's not even that fat. I know they look bad, I just don't know where to start to make them look better but this thread is definately helping.
It sounds like I need to change what time of day I'm taking photos. My neighborhood sucks and my backyard is teensy so unless I want to plan a field trip for the rest of me made may, I think adjusting the time of day is my best option for now, right?
Also, I'm planning to open an etsy shop next month and I'm sure one of the biggest keys to selling is going to be getting good photos of my work. I'm considering renting a DSLR from rent a center or something for a weekend to shoot my stock. But I do want to know a little better about what I'm doing or it would be a waste of money I think.
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absolutely.
The #1 thing I've found about photographing stuff like food and objects, especially in close up: make sure your flash is turned OFF. No matter what you're photographing, flash will mess it up.
I am the 99%.
I tend to get pics I like best around 5-6pm. Also overcast days are best for lighting, IME (outdoors).
I also think using some type of editing software can help with little mistakes in lighting/exposure. I always make sure my flash is off when I'm taking pics and if I need more light, I mess w/ it when editing. Usually, I don't need more light. Flash is the devil.
Whatcha gonna sell?
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No etsy shop talk allowed.
Also, for serious, read your manual. Even point and shoots have little tips and tricks in there that will help you get the most from your camera.
I told you she'd say that! (love you pixy!)
Are you serious? I can't even discuss an etsy shop I don't even fuuking have, don't have links to, haven't provided links to, and haven't asked anyone to look at??
I'm sorry but the nest fuuking nonsensically BLOWS CHUNKS!
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Sorry ma'am, you can't discuss anything business related.
At the risk of damaging my apparently uncalm tits, this is stupid. YWIA!
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LOL. Since when does no soliciting mean you can't even talk about a shop you don't even have?
Since a while ago. You can't even ask theoretical business questions. Absolutely no business talk in relation to what business you run, what business you might run, what items you might stock, etc. Specifically pertaining to etsy and (since I'm also the photography board mod) photography business. It's one of the arenas where they really crack down.
Now, you can say that editing HAB was unfair, but it's consistent with what I do across my boards. Seeing how this is the only post I've ever edited outside of obvious spam on this board, I don't think I'm being unfair.
However, HAB if you want to continue to discuss this, I'm more than willing to. You can PM me here or on FB if you prefer.
It's really unfair, considering I've posted quite a bit about freelance business I run all on my own all the time across the nest.
I don't get how people get to make all the posts they want about their job, the field they work in, what they did for college, but someone posts, "Oh yeah I think I may open an etsy business" and that's grounds for post removal? I'd love to see where in the TOS that's a violation.
Nope, just another sign of abject nest fuukery. It may be consistant for you but it's certainly not consistant for mods or consistant for the nest. Even the crafts board has generic discussions without the mod getting fiesty.
By this token, self employment should never be discussed.
Not to be a diik but you're one of many moderators using your own discretion. If I thought this matter was worth discussing further, I'd take it up with the nest directly not with a mod. I wouldn't get a reply but that's neither here nor there.
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Does this apply to only etsy shops? I looked through the terms and I don't see anything that states this. Would you mind showing me? I'm actually curious.
So if you own, say a restaurant, you can talk about it, but not etsy shops?
ding ding ding!
If you work for XCorp, and you're having issues at work, talk about it all you want, NBD... but you daren't even breathe that you have an etsy shop!
I am the 99%.