Category: ifttt

By Adam Dachis, Lifehacker – November 25, 2010 at 10:00AM

As we prepare to give thanks for our delicious Thanksgiving meals (and impending food comas), let’s not forget to pay tribute to the wonderful developers who bring us our favorite free apps.

By Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker – November 24, 2010 at 08:00PM

Drop your bags, fix a drink, and grab the Windows CD—it’s time for the holiday ritual of fixing up your relatives’ computer. Here are some tips and downloads to keep handy while you’re cursing all the auto-starting crapware.

Photo by Justin Marty.

Note: We originally posted this guide around Thanksgiving of 2009; we’ve updated everything for your 2010 needs, considering that slow, malware-prone, never-backed-up computers are as timeless as turkey.

For this guide, we’re going to do a bit of assuming. We’re assuming the relative with the busted computer is running a Windows system, and has an internet connection that works when the computer does. We’re assuming all the physical pieces of the computer work—hard drive, memory, disc drives, and anything else that’s crucial. We’ll also assume the computer’s in one of two states: Failing to boot and needing an OS re-installation, laden with unnecessary system tray/startup applications and/or spy/mal/ad-ware, or just needing a little optimization.

Computer won’t boot, needs a re-install

The problem: Turning on the computer results in a message that states Windows can’t boot because something is missing (a boot loader, an important file, etc.) or something is wrong. There are many variations on this message, but they all say basically the same thing: You will not be getting into Windows.

If this is happening on an XP computer, consider this a great opportunity to talk with your relatives or family friends about upgrading to Windows 7. Seriously. Read up on what you’ll need, learn how you can transfer settings from XP to Windows 7, and dig around for any discounts they might have coming—particularly if there’s a student of any strip in the house.

Quick-fix triage (for non-booting systems you might be able to restore): Load an XP, Vista (if you must), or Windows 7 (Really? Broken already?) CD or DVD in the system and boot the system from there, which might require hitting a key to bring up “boot options” or pressing a key when asked to “Press any key to boot from CD.” Wait for the CD to load—it may seem like it’s installing, but it’s just loading a mini-system for installation and, in this case, repair. Follow the prompts to repair an existing installation, or, in the case of Vista or 7, ask it to repair the startup process.

What you’ll need:

• XP, Vista, or Windows 7 installation CD/DVD: It may be from a computer manufacturer and not look like a Microsoft-obtained, holograph-packed disc, so look around a bit. If it’s a “System Restoration” disc, be sure that you can boot from it and install a full copy of Windows from it.
• USB thumb drive: At least 1GB in size.
• External USB drive or blank DVDs: For backing up important files.
• Ubuntu Live CD or Knoppix Live CD: Both are Linux distributions, but we’re just using them because they run on most kinds of hardware without installing, and can transfer the files you need to your backup media. Ubuntu should work; if it doesn’t, give Knoppix a go. You can use the free tool UNetBootin to transfer the ISO you downloaded to a thumb drive, which is necessary if you’re backing up to DVDs, and recommended in any case to speed things up.

Note: Since first posting this guide, we’ve since covered saving files, fixing boot-up problems, and purging viruses using an Ubuntu-powered thumb drive in a bit more depth. This basic guide still applies in any case.

If that doesn’t work, and you really feel this system can boot again except for some silly error, try creating an Ultimate Recovery CD, as detailed at the How-To Geek’s home away from Lifehacker.

If that worked, hooray! If not, soldier on to the next step.

Back up the files: Have your USB hard drive or blank DVDs handy, and remove the Windows CD/DVD from the computer if you tried to use that for a fix. Stick your thumb drive with the Ubuntu (or Knoppix) image into a USB slot, then boot up the computer. You may have to hit F12 or another key to boot from USB, or change a setting in the BIOS (which you can access by hitting a key—written in that fast-disappearing text—at boot-up). You’ll be asked to choose a language, then hit the option to “Try Ubuntu without any changes.” After some loading, you’ll arrive at an Ubuntu desktop.

Move your cursor to the “Places” menu, and check to see that your USB drive (MyBook, in my case) or blank DVD is showing up. You should also see the hard drive Windows is running from. On an XP or Vista system, there’s usually just one, but on Windows 7, there are two—a “System Reserved” (fairly small) and a larger, main drive. Check to see that you can open and access those files as well.

Ask your relatives which files and documents are important to them. When doing my own tech support work, I usually back up the entire “My Documents” folder (with “My Music” and “My Pictures” included), their Outlook or (yes, sometimes) Outlook Express email data (explained here), and their Firefox profile or, more likely, their “Favorites” folder for Internet Explorer (C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Favorites in XP, or C:\Users\Username\Favorites in Vista or 7). In any case, always ask, and make sure there isn’t any software they can’t locate a license for.

When you’re ready to back up, simply open your USB drive from the Places menu, then open your main Windows drive, and drag files to copy from your Windows system onto the backup medium.

If you’re burning to DVD, head to the Applications menu in your temporary Ubuntu system, mouse over the Accessories sub-menu, and select “CD/DVD Creator” when it pops up. You’ll get a folder you can drag files you want to burn into, then hit “Write to Disc” to burn them.

When you’re all done backing up files, head to the menu with the power icon next to it (labeled “Live user,” most likely) and select “Shut Down.” You’ll eventually be prompted to remove your live CD or USB stick—do so, and swap in the Windows installation CD or DVD. Turn off the system, then turn it back on. Follow the instructions to install Windows on the system, erasing whatever partitions or data exist on there at the moment (assuming you’re sure the important stuff is backed up).

Clogged with crapware

The problem: The computer boots up … eventually. Programs open very slowly, the hard drive seems to click and whir endlessly, and messages, reminders, and pop-up windows jump onto the screen every few minutes.

Quick-fix triage: If you don’t suspect there’s anything actually malicious and infectious on the system—that is, you’re fairly sure they’ve been running and updating an anti-virus and anti-malware client—grab a copy of Revo Uninstaller Portable (direct ZIP file link), and run it off the USB stick you brought with you.

Click the “Tools” button, choose the Autorun menu on the left, and look through the items on the right. Uncheck the stuff that’s really unnecessary—most of it, really, unless they constantly use a printer/scanner or run an antivirus app—and remind your host to un-check the toolbars and “helper” apps offered when installing things.

If things are much better now, and you don’t imagine that malware is an issue, you’re all done. Otherwise …

What you’ll need: Mostly a small batch of software, recommended by this author and the How-To Geek. You can run these once and remove them, or run them off a thumb drive, in some cases. The last download is one you’ll keep installed on the system.

• Revo Uninstaller Portable: Completely, utterly removes the programs, toolbars, and other junk apps that aren’t needed.
• SuperAntiSpyware: For cleaning (you guessed it) spyware.
• Malwarebytes (or its portable version): For the clingy cookies, add-ons, and apps that try and do unauthorized stuff.
• CCleaner Portable: For freeing up hard drive space and clearing out temp/cache files that bog down the system index.
• Microsoft Security Essentials or Panda Cloud Antivirus: The former for a system that’s got enough horsepower to be adequate, the latter for a system that’s light on resources.

The fixing process? It’s nothing special, actually—just run the quick-fix triage in any case, removing the auto-run apps that bog down system resources, and then run these secondary apps, generally in the order they’re listed. Keep Security Essentials or Panda Cloud Antivirus installed (not both!), and, while you’re being helpful, back up this computer’s pictures, music, and important documents.

Tuning up and bomb-proofing

Maybe everything technically “works,” but watching your relatives open emails in Outlook Express and browse on Internet Explorer 6 is just, well, painful. Here’s how to get things moving.

If you’re pretty sure of the software you want to set up, why not automate the process through our Lifehacker Pack? It’s a single download that downloads and installs everything else you want, with no click-to-agree screens and very few prompts.

Beyond software choices, here are some steps any concerned computer fixer should consider:

• Run the basics of the “clogged with crapware” section: The one involving Revo Uninstaller and startup programs, under the “quick-fix triage” sub-section, and installing either Microsoft Security Essentials or Panda Cloud Antivirus.
• Install Firefox and make it the default: Be sure to use the bookmark and setting import from Internet Explorer. You could even go with Google Chrome for even tighter security and speed, if your relatives wouldn’t mind the abrupt shift in look and feel.
• Set up their email in Gmail: Gmail has made it much easier to import email accounts, whether they’re AOL, cable company, or other defaults that just stuck around. You can make a simple switch in the settings to keep your relatives receiving and sending email from their same address (or multiple addresses). Save their Gmail password in Firefox, but make sure they know it, and they’ll even get some new-fangled email portability.
• Physically clean the beast: Stop by the local office store, grab a can of compressed air, and clean out the “dust bunnies”, especially if you can hear the exhaust fans over the mid-day football.

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That is, at least, how one Lifehacker editor is fixing at least one relative’s computer this long holiday weekend. What’s your own 1-2-3 process for being the holiday software savior? Share your success stories in the comments.

Unless you’re writing “Buy them a Mac.” In which case, take your truly helpful comments elsewhere, and prepare to get banned.

By Ryan Dube, MakeUseOf – November 24, 2010 at 04:31PM

Starting your own website or blog is not necessarily a complicated or difficult process. These days, registering a domain and hosting a site is fast, easy and relatively inexpensive. For a new website or blog, you can be up and running in a matter of a couple of days, assuming you’ve already designed and written your website.

For a new website, that’s great. You might have a few visitors trickling in at first. Maybe you went for the economical approach and opted for the cheapest hosting plan you could find. During those early days, you can withstand an occasional hour or two of downtime when other users consume all of the bandwidth – no one will scream at you.

However, once your traffic starts taking off and you establish a certain level of readership and a regular following – you’ll find that people depend on you for regular content. They depend on your uptime. You’ll also find that you’re more likely to get attacked by hackers looking to either sabotage your site or, even worse, hijack your domain – you need secure web hosting and to protect your domain.

If you haven’t seen Aibek’s interview on Foundora, check it out. He describes how the MUO domain was once hijacked and held hostage for $2000. Seriously. So here at MUO, we are now really big into security. You can check out Saikat’s list of browser security checks or Damien’s list of WordPress security plugins. However, what I want to touch on a bit today is your domain and hosting security.

Protecting Your Domain

At first, that domain name that you’ve registered seems ridiculously cheap considering that it represents what should eventually become your brand. The domain name is how people are going to learn about you, link to you, and recognize you. In time, it will represent everything that your website stands for. It’s going to serve on the front lines of your SEO battles. As your site grows, your domain name becomes the single most critical element of your business.

Private domain registration is your first wall of defense against domain hijacking. The problem with the early days of domain registration is that you had your private contact information tied to the Whois record – meaning anyone that searched for the registration records of your URL could identify where you lived, your phone number and your email address. With your email address, hackers may start to send phishing emails with the hopes that you’re gullible enough to bite.

By now, you should know better than to click on such emails. Never, ever log into your domain account from a link within an email. Always go directly to the registrar’s website and log into your domain account directly. Even though it might double the yearly cost of your domain, private domain registration will also cut down on telemarketers. Before I started using private domains, I had SEO companies constantly calling to ask whether I wanted to use their services for my website. Avoid the hassle – hide your identity with private registration.

Protecting Your Website

There are a number of areas within your hosting account that you’ll need to double check to verify that you have a secure web hosting account. The most important is obviously the password that you use to log into the hosting account itself. Go into the account settings and change your password.  Most hosts now feature a gauge that tells you how strong your password is.

Choose a password that has capital and lower case numbers, letters, and even a special character or two thrown in for good measure. Try to follow the guidelines below for the best security.

• Never use the same password for your host account as you used for your domain registration.
• Never use the same password for domain registration as you use for your email account.
• Use a unique, strong password on all three systems – just make sure they are all different.

By avoiding the same password on different accounts, you significantly reduce the risk that if one account is ever hacked, the hacker will not have access to your other systems.

Another security concern to review on your site is folder permissions. Check folders within your public_html folder to ensure that they are either 755 or 644 for www readability. You should not find any folders that are set with 777 for permissions.

Also, take some time to review the security tools that your web host offers. Sometimes there are some pretty cool utilities that you can use to further lock down your hosting account and private directories or files from prying eyes. For example, I’ve discovered that my hosting account offers a useful password protection feature on any select web directory that I choose.

Finally, go into your admin panel for your MySQL databases and double check all of the passwords there too. They shouldn’t match any of your other passwords, and they should be ultra-strong passwords, just like all of your others.

In the end, the ultimate security in protecting your domain from being hijacked comes from the private domain registration service. For a small additional fee, you’ll have tremendous peace of mind knowing that scammers, spammers and other criminals can’t see or even hope to access your personal information. Beyond that tool, make sure to lock down your hosting and email accounts as well, and you’ll enjoy years of trouble-free website ownership.

What other tips do you have for protecting your domain from hijackers or hackers? Has your domain ever been hijacked? Share your advice and experiences in the comments section below.

Image credit: IngerM

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By Jay Hathaway, Download Squad – November 24, 2010 at 04:00PM

If you’re not sure whether your blog’s audience is responding better to keyword-heavy, all-business headlines or quirky, feature-y ones, WordPress now lets you test two headlines for each post with a new plugin. Headline Split Tester allows you to enter two headlines for every post and automatically choose one at random for each reader. Eventually, whichever headline gets more clicks becomes the permanent headline.

Of course, this can only measure clicks on articles within your site. It doesn’t provide data on the effectiveness of your headline SEO. But, if you need to decide whether it’s worth trading off those terse, keyword-laden headlines for something more fun, this plugin will do the trick. As interesting side note, the Headline Split Tester was inspired by the practices of the Huffington Post, which is the most-trafficked blog in the megaverse, so you’ll be in good company if you decide to split-test your post titles.

WordPress gets A/B testing for headlines with Headline Split Tester plugin originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By matt buchanan, Gizmodo – November 24, 2010 at 03:59PM

Give Me Something to Read is a fantastic, simple service: It’s a collection of the best articles and essays saved with the iPhone/iPad/Kindle offline-reading service Instapaper. And you should read everything on their best of 2010 list. More »

By Jason, DadCentric – November 24, 2010 at 03:13PM

Indiana Jones teaches you table manners.

By (author unknown), Ars Technica – March 15, 2013 at 11:12PM

By (author unknown), Don’t fret: There’s another mobile RSS reader for you out there yet | Ars Technica – March 15, 2013 at 11:12PM

By Guest Contributor, Digital Photography School – December 10, 2010 at 09:04AM

A Guest post by Mark Hauge from Ana Rita Photography.

When my wife and I decided to take up wedding photography a few years back I had a good idea of how much we would need to learn. I knew reading one book on wedding photography wouldn’t cut it but it was a place to start. I recall the book stating that for weddings you should be in aperture mode so off we went to shoot our first wedding for a friend. After shooting most of the ceremony in aperture mode I quickly realized there was a lot more to it when I saw the soft and blurry images from low shutter speeds due to the low lighting in the church. I knew we had a long ways to go.

As my wife and I have grown in experience over the past few years I have made mental and physical notes of what we have learned in hopes of sharing our insight in with others and to further our learning by going through the process. This is not meant to be a how to guide but instead an overview of tips and techniques that work well for us with our style of wedding photography which is photojournalistic with some minimal posing of subjects.

Camera Settings

Every time we purchase new cameras I set them up knowing they will be used solely for weddings. Here are our preferred settings (we use Canon so your camera may have slightly different names for these settings):

Date/Time: Since both my wife and I shoot during weddings I make sure our cameras have the exact date and times down to the second. Later when we upload the photos to begin editing this makes everything quicker as the photos are in chronological order. There is no easy way to reorder photos in most photo software applications so this is a huge timesaver if you plan on posting the photos online as it simply looks better if everything is in order. It also saves time when you arrange the final wedding album.

Auto Focus Area: Many cameras have sophisticated systems to choose the best focal point for the shot. Our Canon 7D’s have 19 points which can be auto selected by the camera. When shooting weddings, we often find ourselves shooting between close objects to get the shot we want which might cause the camera to choose that object as the focal point. Also in low light it can be difficult for cameras to choose the correct focal point. If the camera chooses the wrong focal point and you need to change it you may have just missed your shot. As such, we set our cameras for single point autofocus and set the focal point to the center point. We then focus using this center focal point by pressing the shutter button half way and then composing our shot. This provides a consistent method for taking shots quickly as you are not composing your shot around varying focal points in the viewfinder and you can easily focus exactly where needed.

AF Servo Mode: This mode selects if the camera will keep a constant focus once you depress the shutter button halfway or if it will refocus if it detects the object is moving. Since many times during the procession subjects may be moving toward or away from you this is a nice feature to leverage which is why we set this to AI Focus mode (Canon). In AI Focus mode the camera will focus on still subjects as normal and notify you that focus has been achieved yet if the subject begins to move it will change to AI Servo mode which will attempt to keep your moving subject in focus until you take the photo.

Drive modes: Most cameras have various shooting speed selections from single shot mode, which is one frame per shutter button depress, to high speed continuous mode, which typically will take anywhere from 4-8 fps depending on the camera’s fastest shooting speed. We set our cameras at low speed continuous for weddings. That way we can take several shots quickly without making too much noise and without taking an excessive amount of photographs which can quickly fill up a memory card and add to your post production time.

Metering Mode: Now that we have focus set to single point we also want to tell the camera to look at the center of the image when setting exposure and this is done by setting the metering mode to center weighted average. The camera then gives higher priority to what is in the middle of the image and less to what is at the edges when it sets exposure. We also set our flashes to meter in the center, since we use flashes mostly for portrait shots, which can typically be done right on the camera when the flash is attached or on the flash itself.

Rear curtain sync: This tells the flash to go off at the end of the exposure as opposed to the beginning. This will make low light shots, such as during dancing, look more realistic as any motion blur will be behind the subject instead of in front of it. This setting can also be made on the camera with the flash attached or on the flash itself.

Highlight Warning: Most cameras will have this setting which will flash areas of the image on the LCD that are blown out in the highlights. This is a must since the last thing you want to do is blow out the bride’s dress causing you to lose all of the detail so we have this set to enabled all of the time. If we take a shot and notice areas of the image are flashing on our LCD screen we know we need to lower our exposure or turn down the flash using the flash exposure compensation setting.

White Balance: We choose to leave this set at auto. As photojournalistic photographers we take lots of photos and are thus moving around too much to be setting white balance continually. White balance settings often change even during a ceremony as the bride and groom move around so we prefer to do our adjustments in post-production using the bride’s dress to set the white balance which gives a consistent and accurate white balance to the images.

Shooting the event

Getting Ready: Typically the day starts off with my wife taking photos of the bride while I do the same with the groom. We always attempt to use existing light sources but find using the flash is often a necessity, especially indoors. During this time we both use diffusers on our flash and angle the flash upright at approximately a 45 degree angle. This gives a nice diffused light source and cuts down on shadows which are easy to come by in small rooms where people are often getting ready. For shooting modes we will use shutter priority mode and set our shutter speed to 1/60 or faster to get nice sharp stills since the subjects tend to be moving around as they prepare for the day. Manual mode is also used if we find ourselves stationary for a period of time to give the photos a more consistent look. Aperture priority may be used for detail shots of the rings, shoes, and other accessories to provide nice bokeh or to increase depth of field as needed. If you are using flash also practice with lowering the camera exposure to darken the background to give your subject more presence.

The Procession: We always attempt to practice this shot ahead of time during the rehearsal if we are in a church we have not been to prior. It’s important to know where to stand which the church’s event planner should instruct you on ahead of time. We always shoot a full length portrait shot keeping in mind the camera should be at about the midway point of the subject. This is a great opportunity to use manual mode since you will take all the procession shots from the same spot. This will give your photos the consistent look you will want if they are going into an album. Again make sure to check that shutter speed is at least 1/60 sec. if not faster. We prefer 1/100 of a second or faster when we know people will be moving. A typical setting for this shot would be 1/100 sec., F4.0, and ISO 400. Keep in mind there may be a wall behind your subjects so this a shot where you will want to use a flash bracket to keep the flash over your camera so as to minimize shadows showing on the back wall of the church. Again we typically have a flash diffuser on our flash keeping in mind they are not effective much past 10 feet so if the shot is longer than that we will remove the diffuser.

The Ceremony: This is the time to be creative but aware of lighting conditions. Since we move around a lot we will typically put our cameras in shutter priority mode to prevent low shutter speeds which might cause blur. We typically set the camera to 1/60 or 1/80 of a second depending on available light but we will go lower if needed so as to not go above ISO 1600 keeping noise at a minimum. Often we find our aperture maxed out at F2.8 which is fine by us. The depth of field at F2.8 is typically more than enough to have both the bride and groom in focus with a minimal amount of bokeh which always looks great. ISO may go up to 1600 or 3200 in some situations for which later use software such as Imagenomic’s Noiseware to remove the noise during post processing. Having a zoom lens is important to get in close from the back of the church (see below).

The Portraits

For the formal portraits after the ceremony we always use a tripod and set the camera to manual mode. The tripod helps maximizes sharpness of the photo and make it easier to move around to pose and direct. For indoor weddings we almost always use a flash. A typical setting for the portraits would be: 1/60 second shutter speed, F5.6 (or higher you need more light), and ISO 400. Keep in mind you are setting the exposure for the background so one thing we always think about is how much of the background do we really want to see? If it’s a beautiful background we may set the exposure to normal. If the background has nothing going for it we may set the exposure down to -2 stops to darken it a bit and make your subjects stand out more. This is done by raising the shutter speed. It’s certainly personal preference and we always take some test shots to verify the look we want. We use our flash in TTL mode and take it off camera using a sync cord or wireless. Our entire setup time is just a few minutes and we do not typically use a light meter. Remember, when using a flash, exposure becomes your friend, just like bokeh, to handle difficult backgrounds. In the shot below we used a -1 stop exposure to darken the background since the colors in it were a bit rich could be overpowering to the subject if not subdued.

The Reception

Here we will set our cameras back to shutter speed mode so we can take candid shots quickly without the need to change settings. If the reception is outdoors we may use aperture priority mode since available light is plentiful so we can choose the depth of field. Any outdoor portraits of the bride and groom would also be taken in aperture mode with the flash turned on for fill flash if needed. Flash exposure may need to be set to -1 or lower to make the flash blend nicely which we always verify on the LCD. Aperture settings would be F4.0 or lower for more depth of field if we wanted to show the background otherwise we might raise aperture to blur the background to draw more focus to our subjects.

Cake cutting and toasts is another time when a flash bracket is handy as often the couple will be standing near walls so keeping the flash over the camera for these portrait shots is essential. If you don’t have a flash bracket you are better off taking the shot in landscape and then making it a portrait image during post processing to help minimize shadows.

Finally for the dance we continue to take flash photos with our diffusers attached bouncing the light off the ceiling when possible. If we need more light we take off the flash diffusers. We also will lower our shutter speeds down to 1/10 sec. or lower to bring in more background light. This works fine since the flash freezes the motion of your subjects so blur is limited and it keeps the background from being overly dark with no detail.

Reception photos are a great time to experiment with different settings on your camera and trying out new ideas. We often will get on chairs to try a different perspective or you can also utilize live mode, if your camera has it, to take the shot leveraging the back LCD monitor which allows you to raise the camera above the action and still see your composition.

Final Thoughts

If someone asked me how to do a wedding and I had thirty seconds to respond I would advise them to use aperture priority mode outdoors, shutter priority mode indoors, and use manual mode for portraits leveraging a tripod and flash. While this is certainly no catch all advice it certainly has helped us to have a high level game plan in place which we then can build from as our experience grows. The worst feeling is getting into a situation where you aren’t ready to take the shot when it occurs so these basics are our failsafe. Over time I have come to enjoy using manual mode because in addition to giving the images a consistent look, it slows you down and makes you “think” more about your composition and your camera settings before you press the button.

I’m sure our techniques will continue to evolve over time. It’s that continual learning process which makes photography so rewarding for us. Each and every wedding we do prepares us for the next and this evolution will be your best learning tool and confidence builder as it has been for us.

Mark & Ana are an energetic husband and wife team specializing in wedding photography in Atlanta, GA.

Post from: Digital Photography School

By Guest Contributor, Digital Photography School – December 09, 2010 at 02:59PM

A Guest post on conference photography by Paul von Schwarzenfeld.

I love conferences. There’s always a lot of people mingling and networking, some interesting speakers and everything goes according to a fixed agenda — even the coffee breaks! There are no surprises and the stress levels are low, so long as you’ve done a good job preparing yourself for the event.

All the rules of photography apply to conferences as well. Assuming you already have some knowledge about them, I’d like to add some hopefully helpful but certainly not complete tips.

1. Define the job

If you’re photographing the conference as a professional photographer, both yourself and the client should sign a contract that clarifies the way pictures are delivered, delineates the copyright situation, and last but not least, limits your liability as a photographer.

Keep in mind that the copyright demands on this kind of job might be different from those on other jobs because the conference organizer likely needs to publish the pictures online, and if they’re unable to do that, the shots may be worthless to them.

Also, forget about any price model including prints. They will never, ever need prints. The only prints that will be made out of your conference pictures will be found in the next year’s program, or other marketing material that will be printed by them or their designer. So shape your pricing model around a DVD delivery.

Don’t rely on your client reading the fine print of your contract. Even if your contract allows you to, discuss with them whether you can publish the conference pictures on your website or not. Sometimes the client won’t have a problem with that—they would probably even appreciate it because you’re doing additional marketing for their project. But they may want to limit the distribution of the images, so be careful to talk to your client beforehand about publishing the pictures you’re about to take.

Also, get ready for guests and speakers approaching you with the question: “Where can I see the pictures later? Do you have a business card?” Again, a clarification with your client will help you give a confident answer—or any answer at all.

2. Bring a fast lens

Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and bad lighting at conference venues. I don’t want to discourage anybody who’s planning to work with a point-and-shoot camera, but if you want to have some quality shots at the end of the day, bring a SLR which can produce acceptable photos at ISO 1600, and an 85mm f1.8 lens. I wouldn’t dare to set a period at the end of this statement, but you can photograph a whole conference with two lenses: an 18-(…)mm f2.8 to capture some wide-angle frames of the venue, mingling crowds, and group shots, and the 85mm for the rest. A pricy but ideal combination would be a full frame SLR that can work with ISO 3200, and a 70-200mm f2.8 plus a wide-angle lens.

Bring your flash with you, but most likely you won’t use it. Ceilings are high, direct flash is a bad idea, and the speaker and audience may easy be bothered by you strobe-lighting the keynote.

I stopped using shoulder bags in favor of a lens-belt system that’s based on a simple waist bag (that accommodates batteries, memory, business cards, and one lens) with one or two belt lens cases. ?

It’s a $25 combination that doesn’t drag me down or hook me up with armrests.

A tripod is great for group shots, but it’s not a must-have, and a monopod can be helpful. Maybe you can leave some gear in the car or at the conference registration table. Go light-weight, since you’ll probably be stuck with that gear for a very long time.

3. Know the agenda

As soon as I’m booked for a conference, the website goes to my browser favorites. At the night before, I sneak over the agenda to check for changes and to prepare myself for the day. How many panels do they have? How many keynotes? How long is the job and how long do my batteries/memory cards have to last? I count on at least 50 pictures per panel and keynote. What’s the parking situation and how long does it take me to get there? When there is parking close by I can leave some stuff like my tripod in the car when it’s accessible within five minutes’ walk from the venue. Valet parking is a problem for that.

Arrive on time and grab an agenda or program from the registration table. It’s much more relaxed when you’re aware of the agenda and have a watch on hand. You don’t need to stay in the conference room all the time, but don’t miss any program points, and be back for the Q&A sessions.

Take a look at the program, specifically at the faces of the speakers and panelists. You don’t want to miss a picture of the CEO meeting another VIP at the coffee table because you don’t know what he looks like. Also, having some idea of what the conference is about could be helpful.

4. Don’t bother the guests

It’s a thin line: they conference-holders want you to take great pictures of the speaker, but they don’t want you to block the guests’ views or machine-gun people with your camera.

Some people talk and move themselves in a way that ensures every shot you take of them is great. Unfortunately these people are rare. Most of the speakers will have weird expressions on their faces, mouths that look bizarre when they’re snapped mid-sentence, and will make fast movements that blur in every single one of your shots. Some of the worst ones will constantly stare at their notes and only look up to the audience (and your camera) for half a second at the most!
?My only recipe for not machine-gun-shooting the speaker, but still getting some great shots, is to instinctively wait for the right moment (observe how the speaker moves – they’ll behave and move repetitively), make a single click, and check the display before making another shot. If you make a click every 10-15 seconds, people will not perceive this as too disturbing.

Speaking of disturbing: never stand in front of the guests or a video camera. If there is a camera, the videographer will love you for that, and the guests will feel more comfortable.

Remember: you’re not capturing a golden memory, you’re just another service person delivering … lunch … coffee … no: pictures. The guests or their companies paid a lot of money to attend the conference and to listen to whatever the person on the stage has to say. Keep that in mind. They are paying you to take pictures but they expect you to be as unobtrusive as possible.

The good news is: there’s no need to hurry. You have a lot of time to take the shots, since the speaker will be up there for at least 15 or 30 minutes.

5. Change your point of view

The speaker won’t run away. But you can move around and get some great shots from different perspectives.

Sit down on the floor in front of the stage, take a seat in the front row, take pictures from the back including some guests, take the same with a wide-angle lens including a lot of guests, walk around and make pictures from the side.

You are shooting marketing material so stop thinking exclusively like a photographer, and start thinking like a designer. How would you like to crop this guy into the next year’s website? Or into the conference report? Take a full-body picture from the front, the side, and maybe from behind. Take a landscape and a portrait picture, a close-up, and one from very far away. Include the conference logo if possible and make one with an interesting bullet point on the presentation screen in the background. Don’t leave out any possible perspective.

Try to make every image look full. Nobody wants pictures of empty seats.

6. Take the must-have shots

At the end of the day, you want to go home with a story on your memory card. Shooting all the different angles of the keynote speaker alone is not going to cut it.

Make sure you talk to your client before the event, though. If they just want to have pictures of the one VIP speaker, forget about this part and save your shutter some actuations.

Assuming the client wants more than this, you have some serious work to do. Your photographic story starts at the registration table: guests getting the program and their nametags. They’re reading the program and getting coffee at the breakfast bar. Then the first speaker is talking. Take pictures of the guests listening, and wait for them to clap – that’s a great picture.

When it’s time for the Q&A session, get shots of the guests with the microphone asking questions, and of the speaker answering them. At the coffee break, take pictures of people mingling. Use your 85mm to get in close without being noticed. Then, in a panel, don’t forget to shoot a single panelist — capture them all, and get shots while they’re talking. What’s going on in the audience? Are there any crazy laptop stickers, fancy devices, or people making notes? Is the VIP keynote speaker already sitting in the audience? Try to capture everything that you would observe as a guest sitting in this room for a couple of hours.

Also, look at what’s going on outside: is there anything that needs to be documented? Did you take a picture of the programs being lined up on a table and that display the main sponsor put up in the foyer??At lunch, don’t take pictures of people chewing, but do try to make some shots of the food.

The rest of the day will continue in the same vein, but try to squeeze out new aspects of every network coffee break of the day, and don’t forget a single speaker.

Later, there may probably be time for group pictures of the conference organization team. Maybe you should address that, but sometimes the client isn’t interested, or they simply forget about it. I try to remind them that a group picture would be a great memory, but I don’t push it that hard, because at that point, they usually have other things in mind than pictures.

7. Process fast

Remember, you’re producing marketing material. And that gets old very fast. So be faster and try to get the selection ready within 48 hours. These guys are not a wedding couple waiting for their lifetime memories — they want to post the shots on their website now! Taking fewer pictures and deleting some of the bad ones from your camera might help to speed things up afterwards.

Forget about black and white pictures, HDR, crazy colors, or any artistic experiments. You’re not producing art, you’re producing marketing material.

Sort out the pictures. A happy couple might be excited to sneak through hundreds of their pictures on a DVD, but a marketing rep from the company that held the conference is definitely not. I find a good practice is to hand out a master collection with not more than 300 pictures (for an eight-hour conference), plus a selection of the best 125, plus the very best 75 pictures. Each image is provided in low, medium, and high resolutions.

Be a service person. It’s hard to get into the conference business because every organizer will probably be thinking of hiring last year’s photographer again. But not always.

From my experience—I once organized a conference—I can give you a pretty bad example. I was creating the website for a conference, and we’d Iost the photo DVD. So I asked the last year’s photographer if he could send me a copy of the pictures again. He responded more than a week later, and charged $125 for burning and shipping the DVD to me. Guess what? He got the $125 but was never ever hired again.

Paul von Schwarzenfeld is a wedding and conference photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
www.schwarzenfeldphotography.com

Post from: Digital Photography School