How to Produce an Explainer Video with High-conversion Rate

How to Produce an Explainer Video with High-conversion Rate
Do you want to catch the attention of potential customers, leading them down the path to conversion and sales? The video is one of the best ways to create this dynamic pathway to growing sales and your business. But not all videos are created equal. When considering video animation for business, take a long, hard look at explainer videos. As the name suggests, an explainer video dives into the who, what, and why aspects of your business; this means that the information on who you are, what you offer, and why potential customers should give you a look when beginning the decision path towards a purchase.
Making the decision to utilize an explainer video as the video animation for a business model that will work for you is a great start. Now let’s examine seven keys to producing high-converting explainer videos that’ll work for you.

7 Keys to Producing High-converting Explainer Videos

 

1. Start with the script
One common mistake made by those eager to create a dazzling video animation for business is to forget the importance of the script. It doesn’t matter how many cool animated effects you load up your video with if there’s not a coherent and compelling story underlying it. Don’t skimp on the attention this deserves – ensure that your script describes what you’re offering, and explain to your potential customers why your product is something that they need.

2. Create situations and characters that your customers can identify with
The best video animation for business will present a human side or interesting personal angle to the story that you want to tell. Your potential customers are much more likely to engage with your explainer video and become customers if they see people or situations that resonate on a personal level. As you develop your script and the subsequent visual imagery for your explainer video, always keep in mind who is the audience of your video, and work to relate to their situations and desires.

3. Capture your customers with visual imagery
 Explainer Video with High-conversion Rate
Now we’ve reached the point where many less experienced video producers start – the visuals. But as we’ve discussed, when you’re creating a video animation for business use, the visuals take a back seat to the essential tasks of creating a script based on situations and people that relate to the people you want to convert. Now that you’re here concentrate on creating a compelling visual flow that moves smoothly from one topic to the next. It’s your goal to engage, entertain, and convert those potential customers in the 60 to 90 seconds you’ll have their attention.

4. Set the tone with an energetic voiceover recording
You’ve spent time creating a great script and putting together a dazzling set of graphics for your video. Don’t ruin the effect with a sub-standard voiceover performance. Take your time choosing voice talent and work to get the tone you’re looking for. Attention to this essential element can add a lot to the overall polish and professionalism of your explainer video. 
 
5. Don’t skimp on the music bed 
Think about some of your favorite movies, and consider how much work the music does in setting the tone and driving the action forward. While you’re probably not going to hire a film composer to score your explainer video, a video animation for business needs to have music that matches the mood you’re trying to create. Take the time to listen to a variety of music beds and try out some different ones as you go through the editing process in creating your explainer video. 
And don’t forget sound effects. It’s easy to add too many sound effects to your video animation for business, but some well-chosen effects can really up to the entertainment and engagement factor of your video. 

6. Always be closing
The role of a video animation for business is to sell your product or service. Be sure to include distinct calls to action in your video. Spread them throughout the video and don’t be afraid to repeat them!

7. Don’t be afraid of revision
Take a page from Hollywood. Even the best movies can have major changes from the first edits. Try out your video on people whose opinions you trust, and solicit honest feedback. Don’t be afraid to cut sections that don’t work. In the video, as in writing, brevity is usually a virtue. Get to the point and don’t be afraid to try different versions of your video.

The Role of Photography in Social Media Marketing

The Role of Photography in Social Media Marketing
As social media marketing is becoming more important by each passing year, the importance of photography is also going up. Besides, in the last couple of years, the image became the foundation of content marketing. On Facebook alone, several hundreds of images get uploaded every day. And, when you take a look at the most popular social networks, you can clearly see that the images are the content type that gets the most likes and shares.
Photography is a key aspect of any social media marketing campaign. And, we can see that it is a trend that businesses started to hire professional photographers to get the best possible shots for their marketing campaigns on social media platforms. Here are the main roles of images in those campaigns.

The Role of Photography in Social Media Marketing


1. Branding Strategy
The importance of hiring professional photographers and getting photo editing services has never been more emphasized than it is today. These experts can make sure that the images uploaded to your official social media profiles and used in social media campaigns have a unique tone that communicates your brand message to the audience. On top of that, photography will most certainly give a brand that unique touch that will make it stand out from the crowd. Those images can be seen as timeline featured photos on social media profiles of companies. The purpose is simple; grab the viewer’s attention and get them interested in the brand.

2. Events
Another role of photography in social media marketing is for announcing events. The announcement of events has to reach as many people as possible in order to increase the chances of people visiting it. This is where a unique and beautiful photo has to play its seductive role. There is nothing that can invoke emotions in prospects and customers as a good photo. This is why this medium will not be replaced anytime soon.

3. Product Launches
All successful product launches rely on powerful images. If you take a look at social media profiles of the biggest brands, you will see how every product launch campaign incorporates several powerful photos taken by professionals. The role of images in a product launch marketing campaign is to build anticipation, generate excitement, and attract early adopters. In combination, with the right wording, a powerful and well-edited photo can generate buzz and get the comments and shares to roll in.

4. Products Put to Use
Photography can also be used when you want to show the audience how your products and services look when they are used in everyday life. These images will bring them closer to the audience and allow them to relate to the people in the photo. Images easily capture the emotion of people using your products and easily communicate it to the audience. And, we all know that emotional value plays an important role in their buying decision. To get the best effect possible, businesses also use photo editing services for their images.

5. Targeting of the Marketplace
When you do market research, you will identify what your target audience likes, what catches their attention and what they expect to get. Photography will definitely help you reach the market segment of your interest or penetrate a new market.

It is quite clear that the role of photography in social media marketing is incredibly important. It can help you generate buzz, improve your branding strategy, and establish a better position in the market.

5 Best Live Streaming Apps for Android

5 Best Live Streaming Apps for Android
Live streaming apps let you broadcast your livestream & tune in to what others are broadcasting all over the world. Today's technology giants Facebook & Twitter, are investing in developing their live streaming platform; cause live streaming platforms can help people and brands connect with their friends or followers in real-time. There are a lot's of live Streaming Apps available for Android, here we listed top 5 Best Live Streaming Apps; read on:

5 Best Live Streaming Apps for Android

1. Periscope
Periscope is a live video streaming app for iOS and Android and currently acquired by Twitter before its launch in 2015. Periscope lets you broadcast a video either to a selective group of people or publicly. You can share the link to broadcast on Twitter, Facebook or other social networks. It makes it super-easy to discover trending live streams by listing them out on a map. It features live 360-degrees videos too.

2. YouNow
YouNow live video streaming app lets you broadcast your live video and discover live streams from all around the world. You can interact with broadcasters by liking and commenting on their live streams. The app lets you share the broadcast to Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Snapchat. The explore section lets you discover top broadcasters, fans, moment makers in the community.

3. Streamago
Streamago lets you broadcast live video either privately to your Facebook friends or publicly. While watching a live stream, it lets you favorite them, add a comment and send them virtual gifts using real money.  You can share the live stream link on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, etc.  The replay feature comes in handy as it lets you replay a live stream after it has ended. .

4. Twitch TV
Twitch is a subsidiary of Amazon, is a live video streaming platform that boasts about 9.7 million daily active users. Instead of targeting the regular personal broadcasters, Twitch targets the gaming community. Twitch lets users broadcast their gameplay which can then be watched by anyone across the globe. There’s also a Twitch prime version that unlocks exclusive game content and ad-free viewing.

5.  Stream
Stream: Live Video Community is yet another live video community which lays special emphasis on user-experience. You can discover trending broadcasts, broadcasts with most likes or better yet, choose from hand-picked staff recommendations. You can like and comment on the live stream, and take a step further and donate “Stream coins” to your favorite broadcasters.

So which one is your favorite don't forget to mention :)

5 Best Android Emulators for Windows 2017

5 Best Android Emulators for Windows 2017
Emulator softwares enables one computer system/host to behave like another computer system/guest. The emulator program typically enables the host system to run software/use peripheral devices designed for the guest system. There are a lot's of Emulator softwares for Windows available if you’re looking to run Android on your PC, For instance, Android developers can debug their apps right onto their desktop, gamer can enjoy Android-specific games on a larger screen etc. Here below top 5 Best Android Emulators for Windows 2017 listed, read on:

5 Best Android Emulators for Windows 2017

1. Remix OS Player
Remix OS Player is the fastest and most optimized Android emulator on the market and is based on Google’s own Android Studio. Unlike Android Studio and other emulators, it'll let Android developers optimize their apps for the Android PC/Chrome OS environment because of its mouse and multiple window support. It also includes a key mapping tool that allows Android games with touch control schemes to be played more effectively with keyboard and mouse. Remix OS Player is available for Windows offers Android 6.0 Marshmallow UI.

2. MEmu 
MEmu is a high-performance Android emulator for Windows that is based on Android Lollipop 5.0. It is compatible with Intel, Nvidia powered Windows PCs and unlike Remix OS Player, it is also compatible with AMD chipsets. This is specializes in video games. With MEmu you can enjoy many exclusive titles that you can find for the Android platform, directly on your computer. You don't need to adjust any complicated settings and configure the controls, just install it and start playing.

3. BlueStacks  BlueStacks App Player is designed to enable Android applications to run on PCs running Microsoft Windows & mac. It is based on Android 4.4 KitKat; has been one of the pioneers of these Android Emulators technology. It comes with the Google Play Store pre-installed, which gives you access to over 2 million Android apps and games. It has ability to live-stream to Twitch, Facebook so you can show-off you game playing skills to your followers. It supports multitasking, much like an actual Android phone.

4. Nox App Player
Nox App Player is a free Android emulator dedicated to bring the best experience for users to play games and apps on PC. Key features of Nox App Player that differentiate it from the existing emulators include: Totally green and free. Compatible to run on Windows 10. Virtual location function. Support all GPS-based games including Pokemon Go and Ingress. Players can walk and change speed with keyboards. Support multiple instances for users. Extreme compatibility with apps. In-built video recorder and macro recorder etc.

5. AMIDuOS  
AMIDuOS is the fastest android emulator for windows pc, Run android apps on windows devices. It runs on nearly any Windows 7 or 8 PC or tablet devices. AMIDuOS is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. It does not come with the Google Play Store. But it's always easily downloadable. It supports gamepads and external hardware GPS. The configuration tool lets you set the amount of RAM, frames per second and DPI manually. It has the ability to run in root mode. This means that you essentially have baked-in root user privileges and can run all the awesome root apps for Android.

So which one is your favorite don't forget to mention :)

20 Best Front-End Frameworks for Web-developers

20 Best Front-End Frameworks for Web-developers
Frameworks is one of useful front-end developers tool for faster & better web development. With frameworks one can easily build a well structured, maintainable and upgradable website. It also save much time because there are plenty of readily available elements that one can use. Like Some frameworks provide tools for creating and providing web services. These utilities may offer similar tools as the rest of the web application. Here below top 20 Best Front-End Frameworks for Web-developers listed, read on:

20 Best Front-End Frameworks for Web-developers

1. Bootstrap 
Bootstrap is a free and open-source front-end web framework for designing websites and web applications. It contains HTML & CSS base design templates for typography, forms, buttons, navigation and other interface components, as well as optional JavaScript extensions. Unlike many web frameworks, it concerns itself with front-end development only.

2. UI Kit
UI Kit is a lightweight and modular front-end framework for developing fast and powerful web interfaces. UIkit has a well-structured, expandable, comprehensive documentation and maintainable code. It also offers a grid system which is responsive, fluid. UIkit can build navigation, buttons, modals, drop-down and more responsively.

3. Pure
Pure is set of small, responsive CSS modules that you can use in every web project. If you're planning to build a web app that works both on desktop and mobile, then you should consider of using Pure. Pure comes as a pure CSS framework only. Build on top of Normalize.css, Pure has an extremely small file size with just 3.5KB (minified and gzip).

4. Foundation 
Foundation is a family of responsive front-end frameworks that make it easy to design beautiful responsive websites, apps and emails that look amazing on any device. Foundation is semantic, readable, flexible, and completely customizable. It is most likely the toughest rival for Twitter Bootstrap. It is very well documented, stable, flexible and open source front-end framework.

5. MontageJS 
MontageJS is a modern front-end HTML5 framework that supports creating single-page applications. It uses time-tested design patterns and software principles, allowing you to easily create a modular architecture for your projects and deliver a high-quality user experience. This easy to learn because it is closely aligned with the underlying design of the Web, complementing existing standards.

6. Groundwork 
Groundwork is a lightweight, flexible and responsive front-end framework created & maintained by Gary Hepting. Groundwork is built on top of Sass and Compass, It offers a great grid system which flexible, fluid and nestable. With its grid system, you can build any layout type of layout that fit on any screen size also it's well documented.

7. Inuit
Inuit is another great CSS famework that focuses on Mobile First approach and leave all the design to you. While many other framework are coming with their own built in design CSS, Inuit.css, however, don’t. Inuit.css works in OOCSS (Object Oriented CSS) manner which is a fast, scalable and maintainable method of writing reusable CSS.

8. Metro UI
Metro UI is front-end framework for developing projects on the web in Windows Metro Style  Metro UI CSS developed with the advice of Microsoft to build the user interface and include: general styles, grid, layouts, typography, 20+ components, 300+ built-in icons. Metro UI CSS build with LESS. Metro UI CSS is open source and has MIT licensing model. 


9. HTML KickStart 
HTML KickStart is an Ultra Lean HTML5, CSS, & JS Building Blocks for Rapid Website Production. It was developed based on Twitter Bootstrap with the icon support from Font Awesome. With its ready menu, list, tables, buttons, grid system, and many great elements, one can save the process of web project up to 10 hours or even more.

10. Materialize 
Materialize is based on Google’s Material Design principles, Materialize has come as a modern responsive front-end framework. This framework is very suitable for those who want to implement Material Design look and feel into their website without any complexity. It features card design, ripple effect animation, Sass mixin, drag out mobile menu etc.

11. Bootflat
Bootflat is an open source Flat UI KIT based on Bootstrap 3.3.0 CSS framework. And, for the designers, they offer a free PSD Download. It provides a faster, easier and less repetitive way for web developers or designers to create elegant web apps.

12. Flat UI 
Flat UI is Free and Pro User Interface Kit they got tons of Basic and Custom UI Elements, A Lot of Useful Samples, More Vector Icons and Glyphs, Pro Color Swatches, It's based on Twitter Bootstrap Based HTML/CSS/JS Layout.

13. 960 Grid System 
960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow. It is a front-end framework that can streamline your web development workflow based on a 960px wide container. The container is then can be sliced up into 12, 16 or even 24 columns for easier laying out content.

14. Skeleton
Skeletonis a lightweight CSS framework that uses a 12-column grid system. Skeleton provides you with some fundamentals components only like button, lists, table, forms which aimed to kick-start your development process.

15. Jeet 
 Jeet allows you to express your page grid on the fly in a very intuitive, clean, manner. No more needlessly nesting elements. No more rigid twelve column rules, with less code, and more flexibility. It supports almost all modern and old browsers.

16. Susy 
Susy is an automated grid system that can help you build web layout in any kind of column you want. It gives one the freedom and flexibility to build design of their own choices. It’s able to handle whether your design has 5, 12, 24, 48 or unequal columns.

17. Simple Grid
Simple Grid is a very lightweight, responsive grid system. It’s not like other frameworks that have that fancy button, menu, table, etc, Simple Grid offers only a pure grid. The grid feature is based on 1140 px screen size with 12 columns that you can customize to get your best layout.

18. TopCoat
TopCoat is a robust front-end framework made by Adobe team for developing web application designed with speed in mind. Every single detail in TopCoat is optimized for performance priority. It also offers you with customizable theme, open source font and also PSD UI Kit to use with your project.

19. Ink
Ink is a front-end framework that is developed for quicker UI development using HTML, CSS and Javascript, just like Bootstrap does. Create modern layout easily with some reusable interface elements like table, tabs, data picker, modal, sortable list, tree view, gallery, form validator.

20. Material UI
Material UI is another framework that implements Material Design specification. The only thing that differentiate it from Materialize is it’s built by the love of React JavaScript library from Facebook. It has many beautiful UI components that you may use freely on your web page.

So which one is your favorite platform don't forget to mention :)

10 best vector graphics editing software

10 best vector graphics editing software
Vector graphics is the use of polygons to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics are based on vectors, which lead through locations called control points or nodes. Each of these points has a definite position on the x- and y-axes of the work plane and determines the direction of the path, each path assigned various attributes, including such values as stroke color, shape, curve, thickness, and fill. Here below top 10 best vector graphics editing software listed, read on:

10 best vector graphics editing software

1. Vector Magic 
Vector Magic is vectoring software and service. By using it’s easy to use the web interface, it converts bitmap images to vector images. The process of converting bitmap images to vector image is called tracing or vectorization. It converts JPG, PNG, GIF bitmap images to EPS, SVG, PDF, AI, DXF vector file formats with the world's best auto-tracer.

2. CorelDRAW 
CorelDRAW is tracing software with vector illustration and photo editing. Any type of graphic project can be tackled using it. CorelDRAW is sign making and fashion design industries. Its capable of limited inter-operation by reading file formats from Adobe Illustrator. Its high quality graphic content along with other feature converts your creativity into professional product.

3. Adobe Illustrator 
Adobe Illustrator gives comprehensive vector graphic environment with creative effects and advanced color controls. It is an excellent and efficient tool for typography and drawing. The powerhouse of Adobe Illustrator's vector drawing interface is the pen tool and its set of complementary tools, which offer refined control over curves and anchor points.

4. ConceptDraw PRO
ConceptDraw PRO is a business diagramming tool and vector graphics editor available for both Windows and OS X. It provides a complete range of business graphic documentation solutions with thousands of stencils and hundreds of templates also supports multi-page documents, and includes an integrated presentation mode.

5. Bloom
Bloom graphic editor having fast, light-weight and cross-platform. True non-destructive editing is first allowed by it. Your each and every editing including filter, effect, or vector all store separately without anything baked in it. It is simple 16-bit per channel app. It implies you never lose exactness and shading accuracy, taking into account the most dynamic and exact pictures to be made.

6. OpenOffice Draw 
LibreOffice Draw function are the drawing components and vector graphics editors of the OpenOffice and LibreOffice open source office suites. Each are available for multiple desktop operating systems. The Document Foundation with the help of others is currently developing Android and online versions of the LibreOffice office suite including Draw.

7. Serif DrawPlus
Serif DrawPlus is a powerful but easy to use graphics studio for illustrators and hobbyists looking to create digital art. It has a lot of options for being attracted to the artists, developers and designers; realistic painting, creative fun, logos, interactive Flash animations, business diagrams, layouts and plans. It let you to import artwork from anywhere and to share your creations online easily.

8. Karbon
Karbon is a vector drawing scalable software in KDE. Artists can create a complex drawing and can get the desired zoom in on, as it does not loose image quality for zooming in or out. You can easily transform your graphic design into high-quality illustrations. It is a great application for beginners as well as artists and professionals.

9. Sketch 
Sketch gives you the force, adaptability and rate you needed in a lightweight and straightforward-to-use bundle. It provides flexible workflow by the support of art boards and multiple pages. It is light-weight. Complex shapes can be drawn easily. Artworks are of high-quality and make beautiful sketches as the workflow is vector-based.

10. PhotoLine 
PhotoLine is a raster graphics editor but also offers a comprehensive set of vector drawing tools including multiple paths per layer, layer groups, color management and full color space support including CMYK and Lab color spaces, and multipage documents. PhotoLine can import and export PDF and SVG files as well as all major bitmap formats.

So which one is your favorite don't forget to mention :)

5 Must Know Tools for Photo Editing tool

5 Must Know Tools for Photo Editing tool
If you are a photographer, a graphic designer, illustrator, or an artist in general, then you certainly need tools or services for image manipulation. Logos, album covers, movie posters, wallpapers, book covers etc. are all designed using photo editing tools, and due to the high demand for quality photos, there are numerous photo editing tools available.
The problem with such a high number of tools is that you can easily go for one that lacks the necessary features to help you complete your tasks. Moreover, you can easily end up paying for a software solution even though there is a free version that can be just as effective.
In the following article we are going to discuss the top photo editing tools. Hopefully, you will be able to pick the right tool to meet your needs, and a tool you can easily master, so let’s begin.

5 Must Know Tools for Photo Editing tool

1. Photoshop 
Photoshop has been around for a very long time and with each new version its features and efficiency has improved. It is widely used, and has numerous options that give you countless possibilities for photo editing. It is one of the top photo editing tools for a reason, but for a novice this might not be such a good idea.
Learning how to use Photoshop is really useful, but the whole process will quite possibly turn out longer than expected. However, once you master all the layer manipulation and know all the shortcuts by heart, you will become a lot faster.
Another reason why Photoshop is such a good choice is because you can download free action packs. These action packs allow you to edit photos in one particular fashion, and the end result will look pretty awesome.
The best thing about them is that they allow you to edit images with only a few clicks, so you can end up with great images, even without outstanding skills. The downside is that your photos will only have limited editing options using a certain action pack, so make sure you get more than one, and to get those that are free.

2. Paint NET
Even though Paint NET lacks some advanced features when compared to Photoshop, it is its simplicity that allows it to retain a large number of users. Paint NET is like a super-enhanced version of the well-known program called Paint that is found on every PC, but it is definitely not its clone.
There are numerous community plug-ins created for this tool, which increases its capabilities even further. Moreover, it has really useful features like layers, filters, 3D rotate and zoom, which allows it to be sufficient editing tools for many purposes.
If you don’t want to spend countless hours mastering Photoshop just for basic image manipulation, then Paint NET is your next best friend.

3. GIMP
If there is one Photoshop rival in terms of popularity, it would definitely be GIMP. The number of features and cross-platform accessibility make this tool a worthy competitor. In fact, it is regarded by many as the best free photo editor. It practically never crashes and it is glitch free. Basically, the only difference between GIMP and Photoshop is aesthetics.
Also GIMP has some of the filters that have remained the same for a while now, and they could really benefit from an updated or two, considering for how long they have been around. If you have used Photoshop before, then the GIMP interface will definitely look familiar.

4. Pixlr Editor
If there is one advantage of Pixlr Editor is that it does not require installation and it does not need to be upgraded whenever a new version appears. The reason for this is because Pixlr Editor is browser-based, which means you only need a stable internet connection in order to use it. It is free to use, and it is just as good as other desktop photo editors.
Once you load your photo, you can use layers, masks, and many other tools and features that are available in all of the quality photo editors by Photo editing company. It is worth mentioning that there is no so-called batch editing; you will have to upload numerous images and edit each of them individually.
Also, Pixlr is not available for most mobile devices, so if you are looking for a good smartphone photo editor, this is not the one you are after.

5. Fotor
Fotor is not like other tools on this list, since its primary purpose is to serve as a photo enhancer. However, this makes it the perfect option for those who work as photographers, and make a living by selling stock photos. It has all the necessary tools like clone brush, or healing tool, as well as lots of different and high quality photo filters, which you can use to polish each image to perfection.
All of its features are easily accessed, and it has a really user-friendly interface. With Fotor you can edit or enhance pictures with ease, so your projects won’t be time consuming at all. Another advantage of this software is the ability to edit multiple images at once, or as mentioned previously, batch editing. This will help you save a lot of time, and if you aim for a larger quantity of edited images, then Fotor is the best option for you.

To sum up: there are easy and hard ways to edit photos, but mastering harder tools is more likely to give you better results in the future. So, learning how to navigate through Photoshop or GIMP is definitely time well spent.
If your images do not need heavy editing, there are different software tools you can use to achieve the desired results, and it will be far less time-consuming than doing those same edits in a complex and more versatile piece of software.
Finally, if you do not have time for editing or mastering a particular tool, you can always outsource editing services, and get a really good end result. The only thing to remember is to check whether a provider is reliable by going over his or her, portfolio, job history, recommendations and reviews.

4 Annoying Issues That Travel Photographers Have to Deal With

4 Annoying Issues That Travel Photographers Have to Deal With
Capturing a beautiful image at just the right time and under the right conditions can speaks volumes about a particular moment, which is why many people choose to take up photography and spread their artistic vision across the world. It is also a potentially lucrative hobby.
In the past couple of years numerous travel blogs have become incredibly popular. If you are thinking about becoming one yourself, you should know what are some of the basic problems that travel photographers have to deal with.

4 Annoying Issues That Travel Photographers Have to Deal With


1. Time efficiency
Time is of essence when it comes to traveling. You are not always going to have the chance to take that perfect photo because you have limited time to take it. This is something that photographers mentally prepare for but they also take some steps to avoid these types of situations.
The best solution is to evaluate your traveling schedule and fine tune it to allow yourself to take the best photos of these locations. Simply let the people you are traveling with know of your plans so that they can organize their schedule to fit your timing.

2. Packing
Bringing all of your lenses will make your traveling plans much harder. Many travel photographers are dealing with these issues as you always want to make sure that you have everything for different photography types. The solution is actually very simple; all you have to do is think about types of surroundings that you are going to face. This will make it easier for you to decide which lenses you should have on you at all times.
Another usual problem are the batteries. Avoid taking 10 batteries with you, it is completely unnecessary. You know what your day is going to look like and chances are that two or three batteries are going to have you covered.
Calculate how many photos you can take per battery and decide how many you are going to need. Following these tips is going to allow you to have all the necessary gear on you during your shooting session without feeling overburdened, which can really wear you out towards the end of the day.

3. Unexpected weather conditions
 Travel Photographers
Different weather conditions create two main types of problems that photographers face. However, dealing with this problem is something that you can deal with easily.
  • Skillset – You have to know how to take photos in different weather conditions. This will make it irrelevant for you what the weather conditions are.
  • Gear protection – You should always have the right equipment that is going to keep your photography gear safe.
If you simply didn’t want to take a photo of a particular location in current weather conditions, you can always rearrange your traveling schedule and visit the location when the weather is better.

4. Problems with local population
 Travel Photographers
There are various cultures around the world that photographers should become familiar with before traveling. Taking photos in some parts of the world can be very dangerous, making it incredibly important to always ask for permission before taking a photo. 

Or, if you do take a photo and do photo editing service, immediately show it to the person and pay attention to their reaction. Always make sure to evaluate the situation and learn as much as possible about the country you are visiting, it is the best way to avoid any of the problems that might occur.
These are the most common issues that travel photographers have to face. Taking appropriate action is going to ensure that you avoid these types of problems easily. Always keep one thing on your mind, take the camera down and enjoy some moment to experience the amazing places you are visiting; this will help you make the most out of your traveling experiences.

4 Ways Photo Editing Can Boost Your Social Media Efforts

4 Ways Photo Editing Can Boost Your Social Media Efforts
Social media presence plays an important role in running an effective marketing strategy. Owing to the fact that billions of people use social media networks, it is necessary to establish a strong presence.
This is something that the majority of businesses are aware of; therefore, the amount of competition is pretty high. All this means that you as a marketer have to go the extra mile and offer something that the competition is not offering.
This is where photo editing services are necessary, or even an in-house photo editor. A lot can be achieved with smart photo marketing. Therefore, let’s get into the interesting details of how images and photo editing can help you create a better social media marketing strategy.

4 Ways Photo Editing Can Boost Your Social Media Efforts


Overall impact of images on people 

Social Media Efforts
The average consumer’s attention span is fairly short nowadays, as millions of people are continuously bombarded with marketing materials wherever they turn.
For example, you go outside and you see a billboard advertisement, or you turn on TV to watch a movie, and advertisements pop up, or you go online, there are ads everywhere, starting from search engine results to the pages of your favorite websites.
Ads have even penetrated the mobile market applications which pop up every couple of minutes. All this has led to a great reduction in customer’s attention spans, making it necessary to actually offer something extremely eye catching to successfully grab the visitor’s attention.
Adding images to your posts is an effective way of not only attracting visitors and potential customers, but also a great way to engage people. The higher the engagement on the post, the more people are going to see it.
According to the MIT report, the underlying reasons for this kind of behavior lies in the fact that people tend to create emotional, mental or social connection to the image displayed to their eyes. This is the main reason why their Facebook posts with images receive 37% more engagement.
But how can photo editing help in the whole process? Let’s take a look:

1. Telling a story to your audience
 Social Media Efforts
Images are a perfect medium because they can be added on any social media network and are a perfect way to tell a story. For example, if you are running a tourist agency that sells accommodations in various places across the globe, making posts on Facebook or Instagram without images is quite pointless.
You want to show to the visitors what they are going to experience, it will make them wish to visit a location you are talking about, as they can see and imagine the feeling of being in the actual room. On the other hand, branding in all lines of work is essential for successfully achieving long-term growth. Images serve to create a great follow-up to the story you are trying to convey.
Take Coca-Cola, for example; every single image this company uses on social media networks portrays people with broad smiles. It makes you subconsciously connect drinking this drink with good family times, or fun times spent with friends.
Photo editing comes in pretty handy, because it lets you create your signature across all posts. For example, Schweppes always creates black and white images for their marketing campaigns, but keeps only the yellow color to emphasize their brand. Also, there are always great captions which make people think about drinking their product. This is their signature which is achieved exclusively with great photo editing.
It all comes down to how creative your social media marketing team is, and what story and signature they can think off.

2. Shifting image styles for different target audiences 
There are different social media networks out there. As each of them counts millions of customers and it is clear that there are those who prefer different social networks due to different reasons. The conclusion is that there are different target audiences you are appealing too.
For example, images on Tumblr greatly differ from images on Instagram or Pinterest. This implies that it is necessary to create specific image materials for different online locations. This is where photo editing plays an important role, especially when you take into consideration that you’ll need images of different sizes for different social media networks.

3. Brand consistency 
Social Media Efforts
Brand consistency is something that many businesses fail to respect. You cannot advertise your business without telling a single story, without creating a style and using consistent design elements across all your marketing channels.
For example, imagine that the color you want to use on your website is completely different from the colors which dominate images created for marketing. This can cause a lot of confusion for the customers and will make it harder to establish a memorable brand. People need to see the same things appear on different channels to more easily memorize your brand. 

4. Higher customer engagement 
Achieving higher engagement is necessary for making “trending” posts which show up in feeds of a higher number of people. Images play an important role in achieving higher engagement across company’s social media channels.
According to Hubspot’s infographic, great looking images generate 94% more views on your social media posts. One of the main benefits that also come with great looking photos is the potential for the post to become more viral. Additionally, using visual content generates a 65% increase in engagement only after a month.
All this shows how effective eye catching images are for a marketing strategy, making photo editing quite important as well.
The only question remains, whether it is better to hire an in-house photo editor or outsource the job to a company which offers photo editing services. If you are planning to hire an in-house editor, make sure that he or she is skilled with various types of photo editing software tools, as it can help you greatly reduce costs in the long run.

If you haven’t already included great looking photos in your marketing campaigns, it is definitely time to do so. It is one of the best ways to significantly increase engagement, brand awareness and the number of customers.

6 Photo Editing Do's and Don’ts That Will Make or Break Your Photos

6 Photo Editing Do's and Don’ts That Will Make or Break Your Photos
When I was a teenage girl, I had a lot of problems fitting in. Most of the girls in my class wore makeup every day, and my mom was quite traditional, and she didn’t let me do that. This made me feel left out like I was the ugly duckling.
Not only did I feel like I didn’t belong with the rest of the group, but I also didn’t feel pretty and attractive. All the girls at this age wanted to look older, and for me, this was not an option. But what I didn’t realize at the time was that most of those girls put too much makeup on, and they ended up looking worse because of it.
When I started putting makeup on, I was aware of this, and I used only a little bit so that it was barely noticeable, but still getting the effect I wanted. The same principle applies to photo editing as well. I can’t stress how many good photos I see taken by photographers who do their job well, but then somebody comes along and edits it too much and ruins the artistic value of the photo.
Photo editing can either make or break a photo, and you need to learn certain things before you can do this properly.

6 Photo Editing Do's and Don’ts That Will Make or Break Your Photos

1. Edit RAW photos
No matter if you are editing the photos you shot, or you are editing someone else’s photos, it’s important that they are all shot in RAW. All professionals shoot in RAW, end of discussion. The reason for this is quite simple.
All RAW files are not compressed, meaning that they contain a lot more information, so there is more room for editing. With these files, you can fine tune your white balance, exposure, and many other things right there on your camera when shooting photos.
If the images you or somebody else takes are shot in JPG format, this means that you will have a lot fewer options available for finishing the final project. Of course, RAW files take more space, and you will have to make sure you have a big memory card to store all the images.
At the same time, not all photo editing software tools can read these file formats, and this brings us to the next step. Just remember to take photos while thinking about the editing process as well, and get RAW images. 

2. Get the right software
You won’t be able to edit your photos professionally and get great results if you don’t have a professional piece of software to use. If you want to be good, you will need to acquire professional tools that allow you to achieve the specific look and feel you are going for.
The best way to go is to invest in Adobe Photoshop, and I'm not talking about Gimp, Windows Photo Editor, Photoshop Elements or anything like that; you need the real deal. After you get your tool, learn as much as you can about it.
There are people that like to improve their arsenal by using Lightroom as well. Learn all the features, tools, options and take enough time to get some experience and train yourself to use your software. 

3. Don’t use the Blur Tool
Nobody is saying that you should never edit people’s faces or skin when editing images. You should do this when necessary, of course. However, when you are doing this, you must make sure that you don’t go over the top when cleaning skin irregularities or blemishes because you won’t remain true to your photo and the subject in it.
There is a simple recipe to make sure that you don’t go too far - don’t use the Blur tool. What blurring pixels do is that they simply attract attention to the area that has been fixed and they also destroy all the pixel information in the area which has been edited.
Don’t go this way, you will need a lot of time and work to avoid ruining areas, and it’s simply not worth the result. Luckily, there are alternatives for cleaning the skin and a lot of other tools that do the same job much better. 

4. Don’t crop straight away 
A lot of people take it too far with their cropping, and they are in quite a hurry when it comes to cropping. Nobody says you have to crop straight away and that you should remove absolutely everything from the image to make it look good.
You must remember that you can always crop the photo a bit more, but you can’t stretch it when you need to. This is why you should do all of your editings and leave cropping for later, who knows what you might notice and what fresh ideas you might get from your editing. 

5. Leave out cheap tricks
There are a lot of “flashy” options you can use in most photo editing tools. Just because they are there and have a drastic effect, doesn’t mean that you should use them. If you do use them, you should adjust the setting to make the changes minimal and natural.
There are various coloring options, lens flares, fake HDR, sparkles and other filters that might seem attractive to you, but you should avoid them as much as you can. They will only distract you from the photo idea, and you will completely change and ruin the original thought.
One last thing you should make sure to avoid definitively are the frames. These things will only make your photos look trashy and if you want to be taken seriously and make your photos professional, make sure to avoid them. These things are for Instagram. 

6. Shoot with low ISO
Make sure that the images are shot with the lowest ISO possible. The lower the ISO is, the better the dynamic range you can create. Take your time and shoot the best exposure possible, low USO and high F-stop. When you are really in a hurry, you can set your exposure speed t 1/160th to prevent any blurs or vibrations from disrupting your shots. 

Conclusion: These are some of the essentials you should know before you start photo editing services. As you learn more, you will have to constrain yourself more, so you don’t cross the line and make your photos unnatural and tacky. A lot of people have a problem with wanting to do as many edits as possible and they completely destroy the original idea of the photo.

Pro Photo Editing Tricks to Give Cinematic Effect to your photos

Pro Photo Editing Tricks to Give Cinematic Effect to your photos
Getting into photography is a great way to work on your creativity in various ways. For some, it is all about capturing breathtaking nature photos, whereas others love capturing important life moments and people’s emotions. There are also those who love taking macro photos which bring small things closer to us What all of these types of photography have in common is post processing, where other kinds of creativity come to life.
During the photo editing process, a photographer can completely alter a photo to tell a completely different story. This is why many opt to create an astonishing movie look in their images. Let’s take a look at some ways in which you could use photo editing tricks to give your photo a great cinematic effect.

A couple of basics to understand

The Lightroom and Photoshop method
To get on the right foot from the beginning, it is important to understand that you are going to need all your photos to be in the RAW format. This is going to allow you to conduct a lot of editing without affecting the photo quality too much.

Additionally, a majority of contemporary films take place in an urban setting, and this should probably be your first choice when choosing the right image. Additionally, learn to shoot in different types of weather, because it is going to allow you telling your stories more effectively through your photos.
Also, to keep your original image safe; you are going to work on a duplicated layer.

Making the choice
Now, picking a movie look, you wish to replicate is a completely personal choice. The point is to make the whole process enjoyable for you. There are older types of movies you might be interested in replicating and, on the other hand, someone else might like the contemporary film better.

To get an idea of what you want to achieve, you can do your online research on Flickr, photography blogs and various other places, to see what people have done, and how they have done it. This is going to help you decide what you would like to convey with your images.
For example, a great starting point is to recreate a look from one of your favorite films.

The Lightroom and Photoshop method
The Lightroom and Photoshop method
There are plenty of different methods for photo editing, as there are numerous software tools out there. Let’s take a look at how you could use Lightroom and Photoshop together to give a cinematic effect to your photo and make it look astonishing:
  • Take the RAW image you wish to add effects to and load it into Lightroom
  • Split toning should be your primary focus. It is the perfect tool for changing the look of your photo by editing the color. Depending on the film, you can either make the photo warmer or colder. Also, there are other things you can play with, such as vibrance, saturation, blacks, color temperature, white balance, luminance, and shadows. Each of these things will allow you to change the look and feel of a photo greatly. There are also effects such as vignetting you could add, but it solely depends on the style of the photo and the look you wish to achieve. Also, remember to add a bit of grain, as it naturally appears in movies. Another useful feature you should play with is contrast, as movies have a much higher dynamic range than photos.
  • Once you are done adjusting the look of the photo, it is time to export it to Photoshop.
  • The first thing you are going to do in PS is to add a solid black layer under the background layer.
  • Now it is time to rely on the Marquee tool to pick a ratio of 16:9. The width should be 16, whereas the height should be set to 9. This is going to generate a widescreen image. Once you have set these parameters, it is time to use the marquee to cover the crop area.
  • After dragging the marquee, you can go to the Crop setting an input a ratio of 2.35:1. This is going to create an anamorphic look. However, do not crop the image; add an Adjustment Layer instead. 
  • Now, click on the “link” symbol. This is going to unlink the Adjustment layer and the image.
  • Once you have done this, you can go to the Layers panel and apply the mask on the image.
  • Depending on your operating system, it is time to press either the Ctrl or the Cmd button and the A key. This is going to highlight the whole document. Now you can apply a Layer Mask by making a right click on the Adjustment Layer.
  • Finally, you can now select the whole document and select Align Layers to Selection in the Layers menu. Once you have done that, you can do the same for vertical centers.
To get the perfect idea of how the whole process looks, you can take a look at a YouTube tutorial to see all the tiny details for yourself.

This is only one of the possibilities in which you can add cinematic effects to your photos. There are many other options out there. Photoshop services are extremely useful, as there is always the possibility of finding free or cheap presets that will help you achieve your goals in a much shorter time. These plugins and presets are created by professionals who are already offering photo editing services.

It all comes down to whether you want to express your creativity completely, or you want to get the job done. It is best to go with the option that makes you happy. As you are probably looking for a way to learn more, the online world is your friend. You are going to easily find plenty of resources that will help you improve your Photoshop skills, making it easier for you to add that cinematic look to your photos.