Archimedia Studios

One Point Perspective Photography

We are huge fans of  Black and White photography and one point perspective photography. One point perspective is defined as a straight on view with only one vanishing point, hence the term one point perspective. Parallel lines converge on one point in the distance known as the vanishing point. So here is an example of both combined.

Does Your Website Need a Redesign?

So many businesses out there set up a website and then think, “There, that’s done with” and never bother to re-evaluate their website’s design or position in the marketplace.

But looking at a website as a static, unchanging bit of advertising will put you at a disadvantage sooner or later.

It’s much better to look at your website as a constantly-updating and evolving part of your online presence.

Your design should be updated regularly to reflect new developments both in your business (or personal development if it’s a personal site) and should be redesigned thoroughly whenever necessary. Use our guide below to help you along the path of a redesign.

How to Know if Your Site Needs a Redesign

It Uses Outdated Technologies and Techniques

If your site uses technologies or design techniques that have become dated, it’s probably time for a redesign. While deprecated code is the most obvious of these, there are a lot of other things to watch out for, including:

  • Frames
    While the occasional iFrame might not be anything to worry about (and are often used for widgets, affiliate programs, or advertising), if your site makes use of frames for a major portion of its design, it is definitely time for a redesign. Frames have been outdated since around 2000. Get rid of them.
  • Intro Pages
    Intro pages were all the rage in the early 2000s. Most used Flash and/or audio content. While intro pages aren’t necessarily a completely outdated design technique, it’s becoming more rare to see them. If your site has a lengthy Flash intro, it’s probably time for a redesign.
  • Outdated Content
    Modern websites need to be updated on a constant basis. Even if you have a “static” site, you still need to make sure the content on it stays current. Many older sites weren’t built on a content management system and can be a pain to update, especially for people who aren’t comfortable with coding. If your site isn’t built on a CMS (like Archimedia Studios’  iCMS), it’s probably time for a redesign.
  • Your Site is Entirely Flash
    Most sites nowadays are not built entirely with Flash. Even those that appear to be, often have content pulled in from XML files, instead of being hard-coded into the Flash files. If your site was built with only Flash, it’s likely you’re suffering in the usability and SEO departments. Consider a redesign.
  • Tables
    Tables were in fashion a few years ago in website design, but tables were never really meant for laying out the design of a site; they were intended for formatting data. Designers just figured they were handy for creating complex website designs. If your current site is designed using tables, it’s time for a redesign.
  • Trendy Design Elements
    If your site was designed with trendy elements (such as Web 2.0 glossy buttons), it’s probably a good idea to redesign it as soon as those trends start to fade. Don’t wait until you’re the last site around using one trend or another. Stay ahead of the curve and redesign while it still looks at least somewhat fresh. Also, consider steering clear of trendy elements, or at least incorporate them in ways that will be easy to change in six months.

Ten Laws of Social Media Marketing

Leveraging the power of content and social media marketing can help elevate your audience and customer base in a dramatic way. But getting started without any previous experience or insight could be challenging.

It’s vital that you understand social media marketing fundamentals. From maximizing quality to increasing your online entry points, abiding by these 10 laws will help build a foundation that will serve your customers, your brand and — perhaps most importantly — your bottom line.

1. The Law of Listening
Success with social media and content marketing requires more listening and less talking. Read your target audience’s online content and join discussions to learn what’s important to them. Only then can you create content and spark conversations that add value rather than clutter to their lives.

2. The Law of Focus
It’s better to specialize than to be a jack-of-all-trades. A highly-focused social media and content marketing strategy intended to build a strong brand has a better chance for success than a broad strategy that attempts to be all things to all people.

3. The Law of Quality
Quality trumps quantity. It’s better to have 1,000 online connections who read, share and talk about your content with their own audiences than 10,000 connections who disappear after connecting with you the first time.

4. The Law of Patience
Social media and content marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. While it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle, it’s far more likely that you’ll need to commit to the long haul to achieve results.

5. The Law of Compounding
If you publish amazing, quality content and work to build your online audience of quality followers, they’ll share it with their own audiences on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, their own blogs and more.

This sharing and discussing of your content opens new entry points for search engines like Google to find it in keyword searches. Those entry points could grow to hundreds or thousands of more potential ways for people to find you online.

6. The Law of Influence
Spend time finding the online influencers in your market who have quality audiences and are likely to be interested in your products, services and business. Connect with those people and work to build relationships with them.

If you get on their radar as an authoritative, interesting source of useful information, they might share your content with their own followers, which could put you and your business in front of a huge new audience.

7. The Law of Value
If you spend all your time on the social Web directly promoting your products and services, people will stop listening. You must add value to the conversation. Focus less on conversions and more on creating amazing content and developing relationships with online influencers. In time, those people will become a powerful catalyst for word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

8. The Law of Acknowledgment
You wouldn’t ignore someone who reaches out to you in person so don’t ignore them online. Building relationships is one of the most important parts of social media marketing success, so always acknowledge every person who reaches out to you.

9. The Law of Accessibility
Don’t publish your content and then disappear. Be available to your audience. That means you need to consistently publish content and participate in conversations. Followers online can be fickle and they won’t hesitate to replace you if you disappear for weeks or months.

10. The Law of Reciprocity
You can’t expect others to share your content and talk about you if you don’t do the same for them. So, a portion of the time you spend on social media should be focused on sharing and talking about content published by others.

The 50mm F1.4 lens a magic bullet for low light photography

Being able to effectively capture a scene in dimly lit situations (or at night altogether) is one of the toughest things to do in photography. Even if you have a flash, you have to be careful when firing it if you don’t want to simply blow everything out and ruin the “mood” and “feel” of a night shot. The most common problems with night images are : too much blur, too dark of a shot overall or too much noise in the shot. How do you solve those issues? It obviously depends on the camera and accessories you’re using, but one surefire way to make your existing DSLR entirely more capable at night is the purchase of one single lens. The 50mm F1.4 is as close to a magic bullet as there is in the photography world.
The 50mm F1.4 has a lot of things going for it. For one, it’s available for nearly every DSLR out there. You can find dedicated versions (either first-party such as Nikkor or third-party like Sigma) for Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus DSLRs, with plenty of aftermarket solutions out there for even more brands. Secondly, it’s incredibly small. Thirdly, it’s relatively cheap by FX (or full-frame) standards. And finally, the shots you can get from this lens are truly amazing.

This lens can “step down” to f/1.4, which is a fancy way of saying that it can allow a flood of light in compared to most lenses, which can only step down to f/3.5 or so. When you’re shooting with limited surrounding light, having the ability to let your lens pull more light in from practically nowhere is vital.

This allows your shots to be brighter, your shutter speed to be faster (which lessens the chance of unwanted blur) . The 50mm aspect is also important; this is not a zoom lens. It cannot be zoomed at all. If you aren’t familiar with “prime” lenses this will probably be strange to hear, but you literally have to walk forward and back while holding the camera to get closer / farther from your subject. 50mm, however, is a solid distance that’s useful in the vast majority of circumstances.

Using the 50mm F1.4 at night is pretty simple. Regardless of what DSLR body you have, try setting the aperture down to f/1.4 (using Aperture Priority or Manual Mode) and firing a few test shots. Compare that to shots with the aperture set at f/3.5 or higher, and you’ll notice an immediate impact. The flood of light that is allowed in by the F1.4 lens is really incredible, and in many cases, it allows a shot to be taken that would never be possible otherwise. Of course, all of this is assuming that you’re trying to avoid using a flash in order to retain the mood of your scene; lowering the aperture all the way to f/1.4 is simply an alternative to using a flash, and it’s one that natural light lovers greatly prefer.

Owning this lens most definitely isn’t the only way to take low-light shots. You could use a flash, purchase a new body with a higher ISO range  or move your shot into a place with more external light. But if you’re unable to move your shot , you aren’t willing to spend thousands on a new DSLR body and you aren’t fond of how a flash distorts the vibe of a night shot, there’s hardly a better and more affordable alternative than the 50mm F1.4. For Canon owners in particular, there’s a 50mm F1.2 that allows even more light in, but of course it’s over four times more expensive; the 50mm F1.4 for Canon bodies is around $350 on the open market, whereas the F1.2 version is over $1,600. It’s hard to justify that increase.

While the average 50mm F1.4 lens will cost around $350 – $400 regardless of what brand or body you’re buying for, there’s a bargain alternative even to that. Many companies also make a 50mm F1.8 lens, which allows nearly as much light in, but not quite as much. The good news is these are usually around half as expensive as the F1.4 variety, but in my experience, it’s definitely worth saving up and getting the F1.4. It’s a lens that’ll never leave your collection, and will likely follow you around for as long as you’re into DSLR photography. $350 or so is a low price to pay for the ability to take blur-free images in dimly-lit restaurants, at indoor sporting events and in concert venues, not to mention millions of other after-dark opportunities

Final Cut Shortcut Keys

Download a very nice Final Cut Keyboard Shortcut file HERE

Also, believe it or not, there is an iphone / iPod app for FInal Cut and Photoshop keyboard shortcuts ! Search the iTunes App Store for “iKeysToGo” .

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