Top 5 Free Resume Hosting Websites

Afraid of the pink slip? Keep your online resume hosted for free on these cool websites.

There are dozens of resume building websites offering a combination of free and paid services. Many sites have excellent resume building tools, a wide variety of templates and formatting options, but do not allow you to host your resume with a personalized URL for free. From this crowd, we have distilled those sites that allow you to host your online resumes for free.

EMurse

This site allows you to create your resume in sections, and choose a design from many different templates. The resumes are suited for more conventional formats. The exclusive feature of this site is that you can publicize one URL for your resume from where employers can download your resume in various formats such as DOC, PDF, RTF, etc. Read more about EMurse in our previous coverage here.

Visual CV

Visual CV allows you to create multiple online resumes easily, with a variety of different templates. You can directly import your LinkedIn profile to jump-start resume creation, and easily incorporate multimedia elements in your portfolio. Read more about Visual CV in our previous coverage here.

Lead You

This site is geared towards artists and other creative professionals looking for a snazzy online resume. It has a wide variety of templates, and allows you to attach documents, presentations, video and audio clips to your portfolio.

How To Write A Resume.Net

This is a clean site with simple resume building tools. The unique feature of this site is the ‘Headline Helper’, which allows you to tweak the Objective/Summary sections of your resume.

If you are stuck for words, this is a great tool. The free option allows only the basic template and HTML/text download, other options require a membership.

My Resume Online

For those looking for a minimalist Google-like interface, My Resume Online offers a barebones but fully functional and free solution. You can attach your photo, MS Office documents (including Access databases), PDF, and GIF/JPG images to your resume.

Word 使用技巧收集分享

Word是我们平常用的最多的Office软件之一，也是很多朋友平时工作时用得最多的工具了。今天我们收集了一些不错的Word技巧，希望能帮助大家提供一下工作的效率和方便性吧……

把文字替换成图片

首 先把图片复制到 剪贴板中，然后打开替换对话框，在“查找内容”框中输入将被替换的文字，接着在“替换为”框中输入“^c”（注意：输入的一定要是半角字符，c要小写）， 单击替换 即可。说明:“^c”的意思就是指令WordXP以剪贴板中的内容替换“查找内容”框中的内 容。按此原理，“^c”还可替换包括回车符在内的任何可以复制到剪贴板的可视内容，甚至Excel表格。

三招去掉页眉那条横线

1、在页眉中，在“格式”－“边框和底纹”中设置表格和边框为“无”，应用于“段落”
2、同上，只是把边框的颜色设置为白色（其实并没有删的，只是看起来没有了）
3、在“样式”栏里把“页眉”换成“正文”就行了——强烈推荐！
会多出--(两个横杠) 这是用户不愿看到的,又要多出一步作删除--
解决方法：替换时在前引号前加上一个空格 问题就解决了

插入日期和时间的快捷键

Alt+Shift+D：当前日期
Alt+Shift+T：当前时间

批量转换全角字符为半角字符

首先全选。然后“格式”→“更改大小写”，在对话框中先选中“半角”，确定即可

Word启动参数简介

单击“开始→运行”命令，然后输入Word所在路径及参数确定即可运行，如“C:\ PROGRAM FILES \MICROSOFT Office \Office 10\ WINWord.EXE /n”，这些常用的参数及功能如下：
/n：启动Word后不创建新的文件。
/a：禁止插件和通用模板自动启动。
/m：禁止自动执行的宏。
/w：启动一个新Word进程，独立与正在运行的Word进程。
/c：启动Word，然后调用Netmeeting。
/q：不显示启动画面。
另外对于常需用到的参数，我们可以在Word的快捷图标上单击鼠标右键，然后在“目标”项的路径后加上该参数即可。

快速打开最后编辑的文档

如果你希望Word在启动时能自动打开你上次编辑的文档，可以用简单的宏命令来完成：
(1)选择“工具”菜单中的“宏”菜单项，单击“录制新宏”命令打开“录制宏”对话框；
(2)在“录制宏”对话框中，在“宏名”输入框中输入“autoexec”，点击“确定”；
(3)从菜单中选择“文件”，点击最近打开文件列表中显示的第一个文件名；并“停止录制”。保存退出。下次再启动Word时，它会自动加载你工作的最后一个文档。

格式刷的使用

1、设定好文本1的格式。
2、将光标放在文本1处。
3、单击格式刷按钮。
4、选定其它文字(文本2)，则文本2的格式与文本1 一样。
若在第3步中单击改为双击，则格式刷可无限次使用，直到再次单击格式刷(或按Esc键)为止。

删除网上下载资料的换行符（象这种“↓”）

在查找框内输入半角^l(是英文状态下的小写L不是数字1),在替换框内不输任何内容，单击全部替换，就把大量换行符删掉啦。
选择性删除文件菜单下的最近使用的文件快捷方式。
工具→选项→常规把“列出最近使用文件数改为0”可以全部删除，若要选择性删除，可以按ctrl+Alt+ -三个键，光标变为一个粗减号后，单击文件，再单击要删除的快捷方式就行了。

建立一个矩形选区

一般的选区建立可用鼠标左键，或用shift键配合pgup、pgdn、home、end、箭头等功能键，当复制一个规则的矩形区域时，可先按住Alt键，然后用鼠标左键来选。我一般用此来删除段首多余的成块的空格。

将字体快速改为上标或下标的方法

本人在一次无意间发现了这个方法，选定你要下标的字，然后在英文状态下按住Ctrl，再按一下BASKSPACE旁的+/=的键，就可以了。上标只要在按Ctrl的同时也按住Shift,大家可以试试。

让Word表格快速一分为二

将光标定位在分开的表格某个位置上，按下“Ctrl+Shift+Enter”组合键。这时你就会发现表格中间自动插入一个空行，这样就达到了将一个表格一分为二的目的。

用Word来拆字

首 先点击“工具/自定义/命令/分解图片”，按住鼠标左键把它拖放到工具栏任意位置即可；然后点击“插入/图片/艺术字”，例如输入空心字“心”，选择该“ 心”字剪切，在选择性粘贴中选图片（Windows图元文件），选中该字，点击工具栏中的“分解图片”按钮，这样可以选择“心”中的任意笔画进行一笔一画 的拆分了。

快速删除段前段后的任意多个空格

选定这些段段落，单击居中按钮，然后再单击原来的那种对齐方式按钮（如果原来是居中对齐的，先单击其它对齐方式按钮，再单击居中按钮就行了），是不是这些空格全不见了？

只要打开WORD新建一个空文档的时候，出现的不是空的文档，而是我以前打的一份文档

首先:将资源管理器设置为显示所有文件和文件夹；
然后:
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates文件夹下将所有Normal.doc文件删掉；
然后：OK（XP系统）

快速输入平方的方法

先输入2,然后选重后,按ctrl加shift加+就可以了.

WORD中表格的选择性录入

1.设置好表格,选定表格-视图-工具-窗体-插入下拉型窗体域
2.输入数据,完成
3.点击锁按钮,保护,输入完后再点击进行其它的输入.

标点符号的全角/半的转换用：Ctrl+.

数字字母的全角/半的转换用：Shift+空格

轻松了解工具栏按钮的作用

按下“shift+F1”键，鼠标指针旁多了一个“？”号，想知道哪个按钮的作用，就用鼠标单击哪个。

要经常在文档中插入自己公司的信息

公司名称、公司住址、联系电话、联系人姓名、QQ号码
可以先选定这些内容，再单击工具→自动更正→在替换框中输入标记名称(如“公司信息”)→添加→确定，以后凡是在文档中要用到这个信息的地方键入“公司信息”（不要引号）这几个字后就自动替换成：
公司名称、公司住址、联系电话、联系人姓名、QQ号码
说明：有些输入法不支持这个功能，键入标记名称后要按一下空格才行。

快速换页的方法

双击某页的右下脚，光标即可定位在那里，然后按回车直到换页。ctrl＋回车点插入按纽，分隔符，选中分页符，然后确认就OK了 ！！！

表格的简单调整宽度

鼠标放在表格的右边框上带鼠标变成可以调整大小的时候
双击
根据表格内的内容调节表格大小

代替金山词霸

点工具——语言——翻译，在右边出现的搜索框中输入要查的单词，回车就可以翻译了。可以选择英语翻成中文或中文翻成英语。
第一次使用可能要安装。

[Alt]键实现标尺的精确定位

如 果你经常使用水平标尺来精确定位标签、页边框、首字缩进及页面对象的位置，那么你点击标尺设置页边框或标签时，您只可以将其设置为1字符或2字符，但不能 设为1.5字符！要想设置更为精确的度量单位（例如百分之几字符），在按住[Alt]键的同时，点击并移动标尺或边框，此时标尺将用数字精确显示出当前的 位置为百分之几字符位置。

用“记事本”去除格式

网 页上COPY下来的东西往往都是有网格的，如果直接粘贴在WORD中会杂乱无章。先粘贴到记事本当中，再粘贴到WORD中，就可以去除网格等格式，再全选 选择清除格式，居中再取消居中即可取消所有格式。可以直接在WORD中进行：（菜单）编辑/选择性粘贴……/无格式文本/确定。这样省事多了。

快速将文档转换成图片

先把欲想转换的文档保存退出.如:保存在桌面
然后新建一个文件.把想转换的文档(鼠标左建按住该文档不放)直接施放在页面上

恢复office的默认设置

比如不小心把word设置乱了(如删了菜单栏等等).
查找normal.dot直接删除.
下一次启动word会恢复默认值.

让Word只粘贴网页中的文字而自动去除图形和版式

方法一、选中需要的网页内容并按“Ctrl+C”键复制，打开Word，选择菜单“编辑”→“选择性粘贴”，在出现的对话框中选择“无格式文本”。
方法二、选中需要的网页内容并按“Ctrl+C” 键复制，打开记事本等纯文本编辑工具，按“Ctrl+V”键将内容粘贴到这些文本编辑器中，然后再复制并粘贴到Word中。

ctrl+alt+f可以输入脚注

这个对于经常写论文的朋友应该有点帮助。

将阿拉伯数字转换成中文数字或序号

1、先输入阿拉伯数字(如1234)，全选中，单击“插入/数字/数字类型（壹、贰……）/确定”，即变为大写数字（如壹仟贰佰叁拾肆），会计朋友非常适用。
2、其他像一千二百三十四，甲、乙……，子、丑……，罗马数字等的转换，可参考上法。

Word中的常用快捷键吧

“字体”对话框 Ctrl+D
选择框式工具栏中的“字体”框 Ctrl+Shift+F
加粗 Ctrl+B
倾斜 Ctrl+I
下划线Ctrl+U
“上标”效果 Ctrl+Shift+=
“下标”效果 Ctrl+=
“关闭”命令 Ctrl+W

Word快捷键一览表

序号 快捷键CTRL+ 代表意义
1…………Z…………撤消
2…………A…………全选
3…………X…………剪切
4…………C…………复制
5…………V…………粘贴
6…………S…………保存
7…………B…………加粗
8………… Q…………左对齐
9…………E…………居中
10…………R…………右对齐
11…………]…………放大
22…………[…………缩小
12…………N…………新建文档
13…………I…………字体倾斜
14…………W…………退出
15…………P…………打印
16…………U…………下划线
17…………O…………打开
18…………k…………插入超级连接
19…………F…………查找
20…………H…………替换
21…………G…………定位
23…Ctrl+Alt+L……带括号的编号
24…Ctrl+Alt+.________…
25…Alt+数字………区位码输入
26…Ctrl+Alt+Del………关机
27…Ctrl+Alt+Shift+?……¿
28…Ctrl+Alt+Shift+!……¡
29…Alt+Ctrl+E……………？
30…Alt+Ctrl+R……………®
31…Alt+Ctrl+T……………™
32…Alt+Ctrl+Ctrl…………©
33……Ctrl+D……………格式字体
34……Ctrl+Shift+= ………上标
35……Ctrl+=………………下标
36……Ctrl+Shift+>……放大字体
37……Ctrl+Shift+

Word双面打印技巧

　　 我们平时用电脑的时候可能都少不了打印材料，Word是我们平常用的最多的Office软件之一。有时我们要用Word打印许多页的文档，出于格式要求或为了节省纸张，会进行双面打印。
我们一般常用的操作方法是:选择“打印”对话框底部的“打印”下拉列表框中的“打印奇数页”或“打印偶数页”，来实现双面打印。我们设定为先打印奇数 页。等奇数页打印结束后，将原先已打印好的纸反过来重新放到打印机上，选择该设置的“打印偶数页”，单击“确定”按钮。这样通过两次打印命令就可以实现双 面打印。
我们也可以利用另一种更灵活的双面打印方式:打开“打印”对话框，选中“人工双面打印”，确定后就会出现一个“请将出纸器中已打印好 的一面的纸取出并将其放回到送纸器中，然后'确定’按键，继续打印”的对话框并开始打印奇数页，打完后将原先已打印好的纸反过来重新放到打印机上，然后按 下该对话框的“确定”按键，Word就会自动再打印偶数页，这样只用一次打印命令就可以了。
两种方法对比，后者较前者更为方便。

Configuring PPPoE

One of the topics covered by the CCNP Implementing Secure Converged WANs exam is Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet, more casually known as PPPoE. Unfortunately, the exam only covers the configuration of the client side; not very handy if you intend to lab out a functioning link (highly recommended). Here we'll cover the configuration of sides across an Ethernet link to demonstrate connection establishment.

PPPoE provides an emulated (and optionally authenticated) point-to-point link across a shared medium, typically a broadband aggregation network such as those found in DSL service providers. In fact, a very common scenario is to run a PPPoE client on the customer side (commonly on a SOHO Linksys or similar brand router), which connects to and obtains its configuration from the PPPoE server (head-end router) at the ISP side. Note that ATM is typically run between the customer's modem and the DSLAM, though it will be transparent in this lab since our PPPoE client exists on a separate device.

Server Configuration

The first task at the ISP end is to configure a Broadband Aggregation (BBA) group which will handle incoming PPPoE connection attempts. We'll name this MyGroup, and bind it to a virtual template to be created shortly.

ISP(config)# bba-group pppoe MyGroup ISP(config-bba-group)# virtual-template 1 

Here we can also apply PPPoE session limits. For example, we can limit the number of sessions established per client MAC address (setting this limit to 2 allows a new session to be established immediately if the prior session was orphaned and is waiting to expire). This is an optional step.

ISP(config-bba-group)# sessions per-mac limit 2 

Next we'll create the virtual template for the customer-facing interface. When a PPPoE client initiates a session with this router, the router automatically spawns a virtual interface to represent that point-to-point connection.

ISP(config)# interface virtual-template 1 

At a minimum, we'll need to configure two items on our virtual template: an IP address, and a pool of IP addresses from which clients are assigned a negotiated address (similar in operation to DHCP).

ISP(config-if)# ip address 10.0.0.1 255.255.255.0 ISP(config-if)# peer default ip address pool MyPool 

You may be wondering where the IP pool is defined. Well, it isn't; that's what we have to do next. Back in global configuration mode, we define a local IP pool named MyPool with the starting and ending addresses of an IP range. If you've configured DHCP on IOS before, you should find this task very familiar.

ISP(config)# ip local pool MyPool 10.0.0.2 10.0.0.254 

Last, we need to enable our PPPoE group on the interface facing the customer network.

ISP(config)# interface f0/0 ISP(config-if)# no ip address ISP(config-if)# pppoe enable group MyGroup ISP(config-if)# no shutdown 

Note that this interface should not have an IP address; the addressing is provided by our virtual template.

Client Configuration

Client configuration is relatively simple. We create a dialer interface to handle the PPPoE connection, and tie it to a physical interface which provides the transport.

Creating our PPPoE dialer interface:

CPE(config)# interface dialer1 CPE(config-if)# dialer pool 1 CPE(config-if)# encapsulation ppp CPE(config-if)# ip address negotiated 

The line ip address negotiated instructs the client to use an IP address provided by the PPPoE server.

The PPP header adds 8 bytes of overhead to each frame. Assuming the default Ethernet MTU of 1500 bytes, we'll want to lower our MTU on the dialer interface to 1492 to avoid unnecessary fragmentation.

CPE(config-if)# mtu 1492 

Lastly we assign our ISP-facing interface to our newly created PPPoE dial group:

CPE(config)# interface f0/0 CPE(config-if)# no ip address CPE(config-if)# pppoe-client dial-pool-number 1 CPE(config-if)# no shutdown 

If all is well, you should see a notification indicating the PPPoE session has successfully formed:

%DIALER-6-BIND: Interface Vi1 bound to profile Di1 %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Virtual-Access1, changed state to up %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Virtual-Access1, changed state to up 

We can verify that interface Dialer1 has negotiated an IP address from the ISP router:

CPE# show ip interface brief  Interface                  IP-Address      OK? Method Status                Protocol FastEthernet0/0            unassigned      YES manual up                    up       [...] Virtual-Access1            unassigned      YES unset  up                    up       Dialer1                    10.0.0.2        YES IPCP   up                    up 

show pppoe session shows our PPPoE session with the ISP router terminated on Dialer0, via FastEthernet0/0:

CPE# show pppoe session       1 client session   Uniq ID  PPPoE  RemMAC          Port                  Source   VA         State            SID  LocMAC                                         VA-st     N/A     16  ca00.4843.0008  Fa0/0                 Di1      Vi1        UP                       ca01.4843.0008                                 UP 

Authentication

Of course, at this point anyone can connect via PPPoE. Generally we only want to provide service to trusted (e.g. paying) customers, so adding some low-layer authentication would be a prudent step. PPP can use PAP or CHAP to authenticate clients, with the later heavily preferred.

On our ISP router, we'll create a local user account name CPE and the password MyPassword. (In real practice, account creation is typically performed on a back-end server and referenced via RADIUS or TACACS+ rather than being stored locally.)

ISP(config)# username CPE password MyPassword 

Next we enforce CHAP authentication on our virtual template:

ISP(config)# interface virtual-template 1 ISP(config-if)# ppp authentication chap callin 

This will terminate our client session, as we can see from the logs on CPE:

%DIALER-6-UNBIND: Interface Vi1 unbound from profile Di1 %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface Virtual-Access1, changed state to down %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Virtual-Access1, changed state to down 

To reestablish the connection from CPE, we'll need to enter the proper credentials:

CPE(config)# interface dialer 1 CPE(config-if)# ppp chap password MyPassword 

We should see the PPPoE session come back up a few seconds later after successfully authenticating. debug ppp authentication can be used on the ISP router to monitor the CHAP exchange:

ppp50 PPP: Using vpn set call direction ppp50 PPP: Treating connection as a callin ppp50 PPP: Session handle[E800003A] Session id[50] ppp50 PPP: Authorization required ppp50 CHAP: O CHALLENGE id 1 len 24 from "ISP" ppp50 CHAP: I RESPONSE id 1 len 24 from "CPE" ppp50 PPP: Sent CHAP LOGIN Request ppp50 PPP: Received LOGIN Response PASS Vi1.1 PPP: Sent LCP AUTHOR Request Vi1.1 PPP: Sent IPCP AUTHOR Request Vi1.1 LCP: Received AAA AUTHOR Response PASS Vi1.1 IPCP: Received AAA AUTHOR Response PASS Vi1.1 CHAP: O SUCCESS id 1 len 4 

The final configuration of both routers are attached below.

File Attachments

• pppoe_configs.txt (641 bytes)

NOKIA Maps2.0（诺基亚地图2.0）最新免费版--支持FP1/FP2机型

本方法经过REX用N85（FP2）实际测试后可用。其他FP1机型只要支持GPS，理论上就可以使用，请自测。5800暂时不支持

1. 请下载下面的NOKIAMAPS2.0免费安装程序，记得需要自己签名

免费版

2.（此步骤不必须，但是推荐）去诺基亚官方网站下载一个官方版本，找到自己对应的机型。点击进入官方下载地址


3.将两个软件都放到自己的存储卡里，注意，是放进去，先不要安装。

4.把存储卡根目录下面（E盘）Cities文件夹全部删除。如果没有这个文件夹则跳过此步骤

5.安装官方版本

6.安装完成后，请删除存储卡根目录下（E盘）下的CITIES文件夹，然后在手机里启动一次“地图”(NOKIA MAPS），出现提示选项一律选择“是”。进入后发现画面上什么都没有，因为没有地图嘛。关闭退出后继续下面的步骤

二. 电脑端（安装地图下载器，下载地图）

1.购买手机的送您的DVD光盘里面有需要的相关程序，放进光驱安装软件即可。（必须安装PC套件）

如果您不幸没有光盘，那么去官方地址下一个。点击这里进入诺基亚官网下载PC套件
点击这里进入诺基亚官网下载PC套件
备注：N系列手机不但支持PC套件，还支持OVI套件。都可以

2.PC套件安装成功之后，请安装NOKIA地图下载器（NOKIA MAP LOADER)
随机DVD光盘里也有，没有的话去官网下
点击这里进入官网下载诺基亚地图下载器

3.启动诺基亚地图下载器（NOKIA MAP LOADER), 点击 √ 确定


4. 此时软件提示等待设备，请用USB数据线连接手机，在手机界面上选择“大容量存储模式”。注意必须选择此模式！


假如插入数据线后长时间显示等待设备，请断开USB连接，在存储卡根目录创建名为cities的文件夹！

5.非常重要的一步！打开地图下载器界面后，点击“将地图从存储媒体删除”，确定执行。
假如不执行这一步，在使用导航地图是街道名称可能会显示为拼音。如果您的手机用户界面菜单是英文，则地图也会显示为拼音和英文。



6.下载所需的地图资料。点击界面中的“地图”，根据图中所示找到亚洲-中国，下载完整的全中国地图，或者下载某个省份的地图，注意按“+”键选择。 选择完毕后所选项目出现在界面右侧
点击图片放大



7.选择导航语音的语言。点击“语音”，选择普通话，按“+”号选择，此时界面右侧出现相应语言。
点击图片放大



8. 点击“下载”即时开始下载地图和语音，根据不同的网络状况可能需要10到20分钟的时间完成下载。


下载完毕后把断开USB连接，在手机的功能表中打开“地图”就可以启动导航系统了。

关于收费：
如果开启了网络辅助GPS（A-GPS）是收取流量费的，收费标准和GPRS上网收费标准相同。A-GPS必须使用CMNET接入点。推荐开通包月业务
如果想关闭网络辅助功能，菜单--工具--连接--GPS数据--设置--位置设置--定位方法
把网络辅助前面的对勾去掉即可。

其他地图功能则免费，例如导航，步行模式，实时路况，语音等等。

优点：此试用版支持NOKIA地图所有功能。可以导航，有语音，永久免费，永不过期。试用满意之后请自行删除。
缺点：软件版本不能升级（地图可以升级），能明白我的意思吧~~

为了让您更加有效的利用您的手机GPS，REX推荐您再看看这篇文章

Nokiamaps使用技巧-让诺基亚地图使用效果更好

虽然发生几率和地球爆炸的几率差不多，不过万一您的手机用了上述方法还不能实现免费导航，我们还有一套备用方案。所谓备用，就是肯定没有首选方案好。
免费导航备用方案

13 Tips for Improving Outdoor Portraits

With my very first digital SLR there was a sigh of relief, everything was going to be so much easier now and I didn’t have to think anymore.

You know the scenario; you pull the camera out, charge the batteries, go for a walk around the house and down the street taking the same pictures you have taken every time a new camera came into your life. “This is great!” you think to yourself, “this is going to make my life so much easier!” I was wrong… In fact, I was dead wrong.

There are three very simple things that improve all photography, including portraits. To this day, there is no trick I have found that replaces the need forproper exposure,white balance, andsharp focus. Today’s digital cameras have less exposure latitude than a roll of Kodak gold film. In-camera metering systems have become much more advanced, but the sensors still lack the seven ƒ-stop exposure latitude that negative film has.

1) Never select all of the focus points for portraits, pick one.

When you pick the autofocus option that allows the camera to select focus points, you are doing your portraits a terrible disservice. This feature of a camera is usually designed to pick whatever is closest to the lens and focus there. In some cases, like with my 1DS Mark III, the camera will choose a cluster of focus points and make a “best guess” based on averaging the distance between all of the chosen points. Using one focus point gives you, the photographer, ultimate control.

2) Always focus on the eyes.

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and should be the focal point of any good portrait. Not only are the eyes the most important part of a good portrait, but they are the sharpest element on the face and should be left that way. When you are shooting with a wide aperture value focused on the eyes, the lens’s bokeh will aid in softening the skin as well.

Image by Geomangio

3) Shoot wide open for shallow depth of field.

There are quite a few reasons to invest in a fast lens capable of wide aperture values; the most common is for shallow depth of field. Now that you can shoot at ƒ2.8 or ƒ4 you should use it. Most fantastic natural light portraits are from wide aperture values and it is all because of the wonderful smooth background blur we call “bokeh”.

4) Never, ever, shoot a portrait at less than 50mm; try to stay at 70mm or higher.

The last thing you want to hear from a client is “Why does my head look swelled?” Any focal length below 70mm can distort your subject, however it doesn’t become very noticeable until you are below 50 MM. The compression effect of a telephoto lens will also increase the blur of bokeh. Most of my portraits are done between 120mm and 200mm.

5) Always shoot in RAW.

A thousand times these words have bellowed from my mouth, and it will surely come out a million more. Raw is an unmodified compilation of your sensors data during the time of exposure. It is your digital negative. When you shoot in JPG format, everything but what the image processor needs to make a shell representation of the image you intended to capture is stripped away. For every edit you make to a JPG, you lose more data. With RAW, you can make a vast range of edits before creating the JPG. How can this make you portrait better? Think about the last time your white balance was set incorrectly, and you tried for hours to remove the color cast only to destroy the image with every attempt. RAW would have saved you by allowing you to fix the color before opening the image for retouching.

6) Always bring a gray card or a piece of a gray card for white balance.

You got me, gray cards aren’t free. However, $5.95 US for a cardboard Kodak gray card is darn close. To avoid confusion, I am going to explain this backwards. When opening Adobe Camera Raw or any other RAW image editing application there is always a way to select a custom white balance. Usually it is an eyedropper of some kind that you can use to click on what you think is neutral gray in your image. Imagine a world where your photo shoot involved 4 locations and a total of 800 images, and all day the camera was set to Auto White Balance. That is 800 different white balance values, a post production nightmare. If, at each location, you have your subject hold the gray card on the first shot, you will save hours of work. When you open location one (200 images) in your favorite post production application, all you have to do is click the eye dropper on the gray card, select all and synchronize the rest. Precious hours have been saved. (If you plan on taking your time, it may be wise to do this once every 30 minutes or so to compensate for the changing light of day.)

7) Shoot in the shade (Avoid direct sunlight)

Direct sunlight is harsh, makes your subject squint, and creates hard directional shadows and unpredictable white balance conditions. When shooting in the shade, there are no more harsh shadows, only smooth milky shadows created by your subject’s natural features. With proper exposure and white balance, you can make these shots look amazing.

8) Shooting carefully on an overcast day.

Natures softbox is a giant blanket of clouds. A good heavy blanket of cloud cover can help you enrich your colors, and make some very smooth and pleasing shadows.

9) If you must use hot, hard, bright light…

Always try to control the direction, use some kind of reflector, and try to mimic a studio light. Putting the sun directly behind your subject isn’t a good idea, unless you are trying to make a silhouette. When the sun is at my back, I have the subject look off camera (away from the sun) and get very nice results. Another great trick is to wait for a cloud to move in front of the sun, this usually creates a very bright yet contrasted look.

Image by Meredith Farmer

10) Use an existing reflector.

For example, my guess is that about 75% of the delivery trucks on the planet are white. These big white delivery trucks can make amazing fill light reflectors as long as they weren’t painted with an off white. (A yellow tint can change the white balance in your shadows.) Picture framing outlets and craft stores always have medium to large sized pieces of foam core lying around that have been left for scrap. They are usually more than happy to part with these scraps, and if not, chances are there are pieces by the dumpster.

11) Learn the sunny ƒ16 rule.

Why? So you have a baseline for proper exposure in your mind to work with if no other tools are present. The sunny ƒ16 rule states that on a sunny day, with your aperture value set to ƒ16, your shutter speed will be the inverse of the current ISO speed. For example, if your camera is set to ISO 100, and your aperture value is ƒ16, your shutter speed will be 1/100th of a second. On a cloudy day (or when in the shade) you simply use ƒ8 instead. If you own either an incident light meter, or gray card use either for the most accurate exposure instead. (Note: the procedure for metering exposure with a gray card is not the same as a custom white balance.)

12) Bring a sheet and a few spring clamps from home.

Leave the expensive 200 thread count sheets on the bed. You already got them? Well go put them back. You know that cheap old sheet you stuck in the corner of a closet to use as a drop cloth the next time you paint? Go get it. (Another option is to buy the cheapest, lowest thread count, white top sheet you can find.) A queen size sheet is an amazing, cheap, diffuser. Sort of a sever foot soft box for the sun. Wrap an edge of the sheet around a branch or clothes line and clamp for a side light. (Anchor the bottom corners with rocks to keep it from blowing into your image.) Clamp all for corners to anything you can above your subject for an overhead light.

13) Keep the power-lines and signs out!

We have already discussed keeping your camera focused on the eyes; keep your mind focused on the image as a whole. Power lines, signs, long single blades of grass, single pieces of garbage, sometimes even trees can be serious distractions from the overall focus of the image… The person you are photographing.

Last, and most important, have a great time shooting, enjoy what you’re doing and it will show in your work, and the expression of your subject.

A few Bonus Tips on Shooting on Cloudy Days

Clouds are wonderful. They create a giant blanket of natural sunlight diffusion to make your images rich and powerful. The clouds can fool your mind in ways you can’t imagine, much like your mind corrects for the natural white balance throughout the day.

When you are shooting on an overcast day, custom white balance is especially important. Every day is completely different for color, and that color depends on two things. First, the time of day, as most people understand white balance and how it changes throughout the day. Second, you have to account for all of the wonderful things that light has to pass through before it hits your subject.

Pollution changes the color of the light from minute to minute even if your eyes don’t see it, your camera does. On a cloudy day, pollution particles are being carried around in the sky by little tiny prisms; water droplets. Now your sunlight is passing through nature’s prism and reflecting off of pollution particles in infinite directions.

Don’t forget to white balance with that custom, tricked out, six dollar piece of cardboard, your Kodak gray card.

The ultimate secret to shooting on a cloudy day is a compass. (You either tipped your head like a confused Chihuahua or just had an epiphany.) I am an experienced, internationally published photographer, and rarely can I see where the sun is coming from on an overcast day. The light isn’t omnipresent; it’s just diffused, softened and scattered. Sunlight on a cloudy day is still directional, and your subject still has a dark side. Use a compass to find out where the sun is, put it at your back and shoot like mad. Never again will you look at an image after and wonder why the sky is blown out when it was so cloudy, or why the clouds look great but your subject is dark.

Read more: 13 Tips for Improving Outdoor Portraits -http://digital-photography-school.com/13-tips-for-improving-outdoor-portraits#ixzz0CbQIYzQ4

How To Find Unprotected Website Directories & Get “Interesting” Files

With all the risks involved in using file sharing networks, browsing unprotected website directories is probably a lot easier and safer. Only when you start doing that do you realise half the stuff that people keep in their website folders (Sports Illustrated magazines!)

Then you start to realise how silly they are for not password protecting those folders and leaving them wide open for the whole world to walk in and take a look!

This might be really old news for a lot of people but I thought I would just quickly jot down the search parameters for finding files in unprotected website directories.

In case you don’t know, an unprotected website directory is a website that doesn’t have an “index” file created for it - index.htm, index.html, index.php. So if you try to access a website directory which doesn’t have a password controlling it or which doesn’t have an index page, you will be able to see a list of all the files and folders that are inside that directory. If you can see that, you can then click on the files and both download them and open them.

Here’s what a typical unprotected directory looks like :

Directories like these will have all kinds of files. Things like pictures, music, video files, documents, you name it.

Now you can do a general search and go through literally hundreds of thousands of these directories. But to do that sort of search is both time consuming and a bit mind numbing. But if you want to do it, just put into the search box (be it Google, Yahoo, whatever) the following search string :

-inurl(html|htm|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size

This will bring up EVERYTHING and you can go hunting for whatever you can find. Good luck.

But don’t you want to be selective? Don’t you want to look for something in particular? Well, if so, you can change the search string to look for ONLY pictures or ONLY music or ONLY video. So….

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wmv|avi)

This will only look for wmv and avi video files. You can easily alter it if you don’t want “wmv” or “avi” or if you want “mpg” instead. You get the idea.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(jpg|gif)

This will only look for jpg and gif files. Again, you can alter the file formats to suit yourself.

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(wma|mp3)

This will only look for wma and mp3 music files. Again you can easily change the file formats to suit yourself.

Just put the search string you need into the search engine box. Then hit the ‘enter’ button and your results will come up. I guarantee you’ll be hooked for ages trying to see what you can find! You can also put a certain search term after your file format so :

[-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(jpg|gif) "britney spears"]

Obviously you are not going to get perfect results. You are going to have to wade through a lot of irrelevant and useless stuff some of the time but quite often you do find a lot of good stuff too. It’s quite fun peeking into people’s unprotected folders seeing what they have stashed away. Stuff like embarrassing photos, drunken videos, “provocative” material, and much more.

Some people have embedded these search algorithims into software which makes it easier to search for files. One of them is Clickster which I reviewed last May. It searches for MP3’s in peoples unprotected directories and it has a very nice simple GUI.

Some of you might say what right do we have to go browsing through people’s website folders? But look at it this way - these people posted this stuff online - in an unprotected unsecure website folder. It’s as if they are asking for it to be found. They are making no effort to keep it hidden or secure and putting it out on the World Wide Web is the most stupidest thing in the world to do if you want to keep something private and hidden.

So go out there, find it and enjoy it. Oh and let us know in the comments some of the stuff you managed to find in your searches.