Category Archives: Summary

How to Make Your Camera Settings Work for You

Understand your camera settings is imperative to create stunning, high-quality photographs. There is the aperture and shutter speed, which controls the amount of light that enters the lens. There is also the ISO, which allows for smoother, or more grainy photographs. Also, it’s important to understand the exposure, as too much exposure may lead to less detail, but too little may be too dark. Although, before clicking random buttons on the camera, you should always consult the user manual for guidance.

Key Takeaways:

  • Understanding the different settings of your camera is paramount to shooting high-quality photographs.
  • Changing the shutter speed on your camera effects how much light is let in through the lens, and can drastically change the picture.
  • Before changing all the settings right away, it’s best to look at your camera’s operation manual.

“Let’s talk exposure. In underexposed images, the shadows are too dark and details in those areas are lost.”

Read more: https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/how-to-use-camera-settings/

58 Photography Terms You Need to Know

If you are an amateur photographer, it’s important to understand the common terms used by professionals. There are color terms, like balance, space, and temperature, which all have to do with the vibrancy of the photograph. Also, lighting terms like ambient light, bounce lighting, soft lighting, highlights, and white balance are important to understand. All in all, if you speak the language of photography, you’ll be able to articulate exactly the type of image you would like.

Key Takeaways:

  • Learning photography terms, even for an amateur photographer, is important is key to obtaining quality images.
  • Lighting is key in photography, so know the difference between ambient light, bounce lighting, and white balance.
  • Underexposure occurs when to little light hits the film, while overexposure occurs when too much light hits the film.

“If you hire a pro photographer, it’s easier to get what you want if you ask for it in their language.”

Read more: https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/photography-terms-you-must-know/

How to Research Your Ingredients: Part 2

With so many sources claiming the viability of different products, researching ingredients for homemade cosmetics can be an arduous task. For initial research, there is plenty of information in product descriptions, formulation guidelines, safety data sheets, and even marketing data. If you already have the ingredient, the first source you should contact for product information is your supplier. Sometimes, it’s best to consult scientific publications, like PubMed, if you want further information on these products and their effects on the human body.

Key Takeaways:

  • In order to gather information on ingredients you can check formulation guidelines, product descriptions, fact sheets, and more.
  • Before going into depth, first contact your supplier if you have any specification questions about the ingredients.
  • For more scientific information, and how products react with the human body, you should look at scholarly sources like PubMed.

“A good sample formula is basically a jump-start for using a new ingredient and/or for making a new type of product.”

Read more: https://www.humblebeeandme.com/how-to-research-your-ingredients-part-2/

Best Practices in Measuring

Creating homemade cosmetics is a science which requires precision and accuracy. Although, many beauty product recipes call for ingredients in volume-based measurements, like cups and spoons, which is not always accurate. Instead of using measuring cups, you should be using a digital scale, which is much more accurate. It’s best to get a corded scale, as some of the battery-powered scales lead to inaccurate measurements. Also, it’s important to clean and calibrate your scale regularly so you can continue creating consistent products.

Key Takeaways:

  • Measuring cups are not always precise, so it may be best to use a digital scale for homemade cosmetic creations.
  • Calibrating digital scales regularly is important since the power supply can sometimes affect the reading.
  • Corded scales tend to be more accurate than battery scales, but tend to be less portable.

“If you get a new measuring cup or share the formula, for instance, the result may not be as favorable or consistent.”

Read more: https://makingsoapmagazine.com/2019/11/22/best-practices-in-measuring/

How to Light Your Product Photos Like a Pro

One key to spectacular photographs is lighting. It doesn’t matter how great the camera, without proper lighting, the photo will turn out poorly. It’s important to understand the color temperature of the lighting, warmer colors tend to have an orange tint, while cooler colors showcase a blue tint. By learning your camera’s settings, you can maintain a proper white balance and create vibrantly colored photographs. To obtain light, you can obtain light boxes, utilize natural light, or even rent out a photography studio.

Key Takeaways:

  • No matter the camera quality, if the lighting is poor, the resulting picture will surely be poor.
  • Learning to tweak your camera’s white balance is essential to capturing bright and vibrant colors.
  • Natural light may be ideal for photography, but it’s limited, so it’s best for photographers to master the use of artificial light as well.

“Your camera is sensing how much light it is getting from the image and how much light is being reflected back into the camera.”

Read more: https://www.modernsoapmaking.com/photography-lighting-for-product-photos/

How to Make Your Own Homemade Soap

You may think that there is no sense in making your own soap. You can simply go to the drug store and having many different soaps to choose from right then and there. You probably also think that it has to be complicated or everybody would be making their own soaps and there wouldn’t be so many available at the store. This is false, however, because making soap is not as complicated as you think. It is a simple chemical reaction with lye, oils, and fragrances, and that’s about it.

Key Takeaways:

  • The four methods of home soap-making are cold process, hot process, melt and pour, and re-batching.
  • Melt and pour utilizes pre-made soap “base” to which you add fragrance and color.
  • Cold process is making soap from scratch, but requires working with lye.

“Soap is the result of a basic chemical reaction between fats or oils and lye. That’s it.”

Read more: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/how-to-make-soap-517084

Charcoal & Clay Facial Soap Recipe

Making soap is an age old process. Don’t be concerned about using lye in your soap, the reaction that takes place is for making the soap become soap and won’t have any reaction when using it on your skin. Be careful when mixing lye in your soap mixture, you will want to balance it out really well, if you do then you shouldn’t have a problem. Clay and charcoal soaps will not leave a reside and are excellent for cleansing the skin, especially on those with acne.

Key Takeaways:

  • Clay and charcoal are perfect for oily skin and do not leave residue.
  • A slow cooker, digital scale and stick blender are tools used in home soap-making.
  • Lye is used as a reagent in soap-making, but is caustic and needs to be handled carefully.

“Hot process creates a faster soap, and cold process often creates a smoother soap, though I’ve found both work great on my skin.”

Read more: https://wellnessmama.com/26239/charcoal-clay-facial-soap-recipe

Product Testing: Five Tips to do it Better

You may not want to take the time that it requires to get the perfect product because of how time consuming and wasteful it seems, but it is important to do so you can have a product that you are proud to stand behind. You Google until your fingers fall off to gain information, and don’t be afraid to click on the links that aren’t the most popular. You can also seek out advice from another fellow candle maker to help you streamline what you want to do, and don’t be afraid to use your product to make test samples, it’s the only way to get it right.

Key Takeaways:

  • The best thing that you can do to improve in any area is to do research and look to experts of the field to gain knowledge.
  • Keeping notes is a very valuable skill as it can come in handy whenever you forget something and can also be a great before and after type thing.
  • If you want to test scenes, make a large batch and divide it into smaller parts. This helps test the intensity of the scent.

“Yes, testing is necessary, but get smart about the testing to reduce the time and resources necessary to create that ideal product.”

Read more: https://makingsoapmagazine.com/2020/02/07/product-testing-five-tips-to-do-it-better/

Oodles of Oils

Knowing which oil to choose if you are in the business of making soaps is important because you will want to know which oils are the best for your target market. If you are in the business of selling you will also want to know which type of oil is best for you to use based on their shelf life and what people are willing to pay for those oils. There are three types, and those are fat, butter and oil.

Key Takeaways:

  • When creating a cosmetic product, the sheer number of oils to choose from can be confusing.
  • Typically, oils are liquid, butters are plant-based solids, and fats are animal-based solids.
  • Fatty acid composition, shelf life, availability and price are what differentiate the various lipids.

“Consider a few key points and you will be on track to making good choices”

Read more: https://makingsoapmagazine.com/2020/01/06/oodles-of-oils/

My Best Advice for Successful Holiday Craft Shows

Holiday craft shows can be stressful and a burden on the average crafter, or they can be a chance to showcase your wares and learn new, exciting skills. This is a great chance to network, which means connecting with other crafters and building a network of friends and colleagues. This network can help you develop new skills, find new clients and customers, and find resources as you need them. Another piece of advice is to have confidence.

Key Takeaways:

  • You should be able to take money besides cash. More specifically have the ability to accept at least two types of credit cards.
  • Practice your checkout process and keep it smooth. It is important to be efficient during this process but also calm, friendly and accurate.
  • Spend a little time setting up your booth to make it as effective and efficient as possible.

“Having a booth at a craft show can be stressful. It’s hard to be super successful right off the bat and it’s tempting to quit. However, it’s better to use the opportunity to learn.”

Read more: http://mbt.resultflow.com/page/leverage/public-content?id=workspace://SpacesStore/f5a76987-23b9-45f0-a16c-3f649168299d