Event photography is all about capturing that ‘once in a lifetime’ moment, isn’t it? As much as this sounds incredible and nearly effortless, capturing the right moment at the right time, more often than not, is a real struggle. Oftentimes, the best moments do not occur twice, and due to things moving fast, photographing events can easily become one of the most stressful types of commercial photography.
Luckily, we have five event photography tips for you that not only will help you in taking creative photos but will also aid in not missing your shot ever again. From sports events to concerts, weddings, and small gatherings, these useful tips got you covered!
Let’s begin.
1. Think of the Story You Want to Share
Every event has a story, and it is your duty,
as a photographer, to deliver it in the best way possible. Therefore, it is a
good idea to think of the story before you even step into the venue of the
event. Plan everything down to details and do not leave anything to
coincidence.
For instance, start by contemplating the
overall story in your head. What would highlight moments of that event be? When
do you expect them to occur? How many people are you photographing? Who are the
main characters in this story? What type of pictures do they prefer? If you are
unsure about something, ask as many questions as you feel necessary to help you
determine the tone as well as the exact story you are expected to share.
Additionally, take a moment to think about the
place where you will be shooting. Is that a building you are already familiar
with? If not, arrive at the venue before anyone to look for the right angles as
well as size up where is the best light. This will prevent missing the right
shots and will help you immensely in the process.
2. Capture Some Behind the Scenes Action
Alongside the proper planing, capturing behind the scenes shots will also greatly contribute to the story. In case you are allowed to access the backstage, we advise you to go for it!
When it comes to events, especially shows, and sports matches, people simply love seeing what goes on behind closed doors. These types of photos make the whole story of the event more personal, relatable and beautiful, so make sure you do not miss the opportunity to get behind the curtains and photograph some real, raw action.
3. Be Prepared for the Memorable Moments
As
mentioned, event photography revolves around capturing the right moments.
Depending on the event itself, the right moments may be the bride dancing with
her bridesmaids, a guitarist at a concert performing a solo, or group of
friends laughing at a joke. Whatever these memorable moments are, catching
people’s genuine emotions and reactions, is what makes photos great and
creative.
Hence, be on the lookout and prepare yourself for them to occur at all times. You need to pay attention to your surroundings and catch the action as it is arising. Moreover, it goes without saying – The secret of not missing the moment when it happens is setting up everything beforehand.
4. Look for Interesting Details
Everything
is in the details. Especially when we are talking about event photography,
details matter the most, so do not make the mistake of neglecting them.
Capturing interesting details proves the excellence and the creativity of your work thus focus on them. They do not need to be hugely complex to look good, as some of the most powerful details are the ones you can spot without even trying. Among these, you can find the wedding napkins, the seat decorations during a theater play, the cake of the birthday party, or the public speaker’s outfit.
5. Never Settle for Boring Photos
Needless to say, boring photos never look good and almost always it is recognizable whether or not the photographed people felt comfortable during the shoot. The only way to candid portraits is to make people feel at ease while you are taking pictures of them. Find something you have in common with them, crack a joke, ask a question or compliment them so they can relax and ultimately look natural on your camera screen.
Summary
Interesting
and storytelling event photographs are not that hard to make if you know
exactly what you should do and what to focus on. The next time you have an
event to photograph, try at least one of these five tips and we assure you will
immediately notice a difference.
Pay
attention to the details, be prepared for emotional memorable moments and
action shots, talk to people and use all of your creativity and expertise to
share the story in the most beautiful way.
Declared as the Most Depressed Country by the WHO, India has the highest suicide rate in the South Asian Region. The stigma surrounding suicide is widespread and often treated as a taboo. Striving to break this stigma, Safe Space India sheds light on suicide and mental health issues through social media, educating the audience through a combination of facts, figures, and science, highlighting signs to look out for, and encouraging them to seek help. #TheGreatExpectations showcases how expectations set by families, teachers, bosses, and others affect an individual’s mental health. When the bar is set unreasonably high, the pressure can often drive people to kill themselves by suicide.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a restaurant menu template in Adobe InDesign. Complete with a luxurious color palette and a vintage style, this fancy menu template is perfect for high-end restaurants or luxury bars.
This InDesign menu template, which consists of an A4-sized food menu and A5 drinks menu, can be easily adapted with your own text content and is set up for professional, full-color printing.
Looking for a different menu style? Discover more delicious and easy-to-edit menu templates over on Envato Elements.
What You’ll Need to Create Your Fancy Menu Template
We’ll be using Adobe InDesign to create the menu layout, and dipping into Adobe Illustrator to edit the vector graphics for the menu design.
You’ll also need to download the following fonts and image files:
Once you’ve installed the fonts onto your computer and saved the graphic files to a safe place, you’re ready to get started with creating your menu design.
1. How to Set Up the Menu Template in InDesign
Step 1
Open InDesign and go to File > New > Document.
In the New Document window, choose Print from the options at the top of the window, and select A4 for the page size.
To the right side of the window, uncheck Facing Pages. Increase the number of Columns to 3 and set the Gutter to 9 mm.
Add Margins of 15 mm and a Bleed of 5 mm, before clicking Create.
Step 2
Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and double-click on Layer 1, renaming it Background.
Select New Layer from the panel’s main menu at the top right, and create two new layers: Material and Type.
Lock all the layers except the bottom layer, Background.
Step 3
Expand the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and choose New Color Swatch from the panel’s menu.
Set the Color Type to Process, Mode to CMYK, and the levels below to C=10 M=2 Y=26 K=0 (Peppermint). Click Add and then OK.
Repeat to create three more CMYK swatches:
C=100 M=83 Y=29 K=27 (Blue)
C=25 M=20 Y=19 K=7 (Silver Gray)
C=13 M=35 Y=85 K=7 (Gold)
2. How to Add Color and Texture to Your Menu Template
Step 1
Working on the Background layer, select the Rectangle Tool (M) and drag across the whole page and up to the bleed.
From the Swatches panel, set the Fill Color to Blue.
Step 2
Lock the Background layer and unlock the Material layer above.
Use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to create an image frame across the left half of the page. File > Place, navigate to the Cloth Backgrounds folder, and choose image 25.jpg, before clicking Open.
Select the image inside the frame directly by double-clicking, and Right-Click > Rotate 90 Degrees CCW.
Allow the paler half of the cloth image to fill the image frame.
Then select the image frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste it. Then Right-Click > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Move it over to the right side of the page.
Step 3
Select both image frames on the Material layer and go to Object > Effects > Transparency. Set the Mode to Multiply and click OK.
3. How to Add Typography to Your Menu Design
Step 1
Lock the Material layer and unlock the top layer, Type.
Use the Type Tool (T) to create a text frame across the center of the top of the page.
Type in the restaurant name and, from the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character), set the Font to Coellak Rad, Size 60 pt, and increase the Tracking (letter-spacing) to 40. You might want to use the Glyphs panel (Window > Type & Tables > Glyphs) to insert different variations of the characters.
From the Swatches panel, set the Font Color to Silver Gray. You can add an optional subtitle below, set to a 20 pt Font Size.
Delete the background color and select the four elements of the design shown below, before going to Edit > Copy.
Return to InDesign and Edit > Paste the design directly onto the menu.
Switch the Fill Color of the graphic to Silver Gray, and position it to the left of the restaurant name.
Step 3
Edit > Copy the graphic and then Right-Click > Transform > Flip Horizontal.
Position it to the right of the restaurant name to frame the header.
Step 4
Copy and Paste the restaurant title text frame and move it below, reducing the Font Size to 42 pt and editing the text to read the menu name, e.g. ‘A LA CARTE’ or ‘FOOD MENU’.
Step 5
Open the kitchenware01.ai file in Adobe Illustrator. Select the spoon graphic on the far left side and Edit > Copy it.
Head back to InDesign and Edit > Paste it, switching the Fill Color to Silver Gray. Paste a spoon graphic on either side of the menu title.
Step 6
Create a text frame spanning the width of the left-hand column, typing in the first subtitle (e.g. ‘STARTERS’), and setting the Font to Coellack Rad, Size 25 pt, and the Font Color to Peppermint.
Create a text frame below this, typing in the name of the first item on the menu, followed by a series of ellipses, and the price on the right side of the text frame. Set the Font to Fiona Regular, Size 16 pt, and a Peppermint Font Color.
Copy and Paste the text frame repeatedly, creating a block of dishes under the ‘STARTERS’ title.
Step 7
Select all the ‘STARTERS’ text frames you’ve just created and Right-Click > Group them.
You can now use this group as a block for populating the rest of the menu design.
Step 8
Return to the Art Deco Ornament Pack illustration and select the elements around the edge of the graphic, as highlighted below.
Edit > Copy this border graphic. Then head back to InDesign and Edit > Paste it onto the Type layer, rotating it to fit any large gap on the menu layout.
Set the Fill Color to Silver Gray.
Inside this border, you can feature a special dish or dish of the day. Set the header in Coellak Rad with a Gold Font Color.
Copy across one or a few of the dish text frames to place inside the border.
Step 9
Don’t forget to add a little key at the bottom left of the menu, for dishes with special dietary requirements.
The final decorative touch is to add a large text frame across the bottom-right of the page, rotating it slightly and typing in a slogan or quote, before setting the Font to Rosemary Signature and a Gold Font Color.
4. How to Create a Matching Drinks Menu
Step 1
Expand the Pages panel (Window > Pages).
On Page 1, Right-Click > Duplicate Spread, to create a copy of the menu.
Scroll down to Page 2 of your document. Select the Page Tool (Shift-P) and click onto the page to select it. From the top Controls panel, set the Liquid Page Rule to Scale, and then switch the Page Size to A5 from the size menu.
This scales all the elements on the page down to a smaller A5 page size, without the need to resize elements individually.
Step 2
Working on the Background layer, select the rectangular shape and switch the Fill Color to Peppermint.
Lock the Background layer and unlock the layer above, Material. Delete the image frames on this layer, before creating a new one with the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) that extends across the whole page.
File > Place, go to the Cloth Backgroundsfolder and choose the 28.jpg file, before clicking Open.
Select the image frame and go to Object > Effects > Transparency. Switch the Mode to Screen and bring the Opacity down to 75%, before clicking OK.
Step 3
Working on the Type layer, select the restaurant name text frame(s) and switch the Font Color to Gold. Do the same for the border graphics too.
Switch the name of the menu to ‘DRINKS MENU’ or similar, and the Font Color to Gold.
Step 4
Delete one of the columns of type from the far left or right side, leaving just two columns of text. Move these centrally onto the page, and revise the headings of each section as required (e.g. to ‘COCKTAILS’, ‘BEERS’, etc).
Keep the decorative frame, moving it to the top right of the righthand column, and use this to frame the name of some special drinks.
Change the Font Color of the script text at bottom right to Silver Gray.
Step 5
Return to the kitchenware01.ai illustration in Adobe Illustrator. This time, select a teapot graphic and Edit > Copy it. Paste it onto your InDesign drinks menu.
Select a teacup image separately and Copy and Paste it too.
Adjust the Fill Color of both to Silver Gray.
5. How to Export Your Menu for Printing
When you’ve finished working on your menu and are ready to send it to print, go to File > Export.
Choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the options in the Format menu at the bottom of the window, name the file, and click Save.
In the Export Adobe PDF window that opens, choose [Press Quality] for the Preset.
Then click on Marks and Bleeds in the window’s left-hand menu. Check both All Printer’s Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings.
Click Export to create your menu PDF. You can send this document straight off to the printers—great job!
Conclusion
Your menu layout is finished and ready for sending to the printers! Congratulations!
In this tutorial, we’ve covered a range of skills and techniques which are really useful for creating print documents in Adobe InDesign. You can now feel more confident in:
setting up a full-color menu layout in InDesign
using vector graphics to add visual interest to your menu designs
choosing and using suitable and effective fonts for your menu layouts
layering color, texture, type and graphics to give your menu designs a modern, on-trend look
exporting your artwork to a print-ready PDF format
Menu Templates From Envato Elements
Discover more delectable InDesign menu designs over on Envato Elements. Check out our edit below of some of our favourite menu templates:
This restaurant menu template has a rustic style which could be adapted for seafood restaurants, cafes, or coastal pubs. Available as both a Photoshop and InDesign template, this menu template also makes use of free fonts.
Complete with vintage-inspired typography and a punchy color palette, this restaurant menu template is available as Illustrator and Photoshop versions. If you’re designing for a steak restaurant or diner, this menu layout would be a perfect choice.
Looking to design a menu for a cocktail bar, nightclub, or pub? This colorful Photoshop menu template is set up to a large-scale A3 page size—perfect for doubling up as table placemats.
On the hunt for a minimal, easy-to-edit restaurant menu template? This stripped-back menu design is supremely stylish and could be adapted for almost any type of restaurant or bar.
Creating a completely custom font effect from scratch may sound like a daunting task, but it’s much less complicated than it might seem! And the task becomes even simpler when you put some high-quality resources to use—resources that you can customize and alter so you still end up with something that’s unique to you and your project!
In this quick tip, we will be taking a look at how to create a Japanese brush font text effect in Adobe Photoshop.
First, let’s start by creating an ink brush Photoshop brush.
Step 1
Import an image of painted brush strokes. Ideally, you want them to be long, with tapered and textured edges.
Step 2
Turn the image black and white by going to Image > Adjustments > Desaturate.
These paint strokes are a little light, so let’s darken them by going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and bringing the Contrast up to 100 and the Brightness down to -150.
Repeat this step until your paint strokes are a nice solid black.
Step 3
Select your paint strokes by going to Select > Color Range and clicking on the black paint. Bring the Fuzziness all the way up to 200 and hit OK.
Step 4
Create a Color Fill layer set to black. The color fill layer will automatically take the shape of the selection!
Step 5
Smooth out the edges of the paint stroke by double-clicking on the color fill layer’s layer mask and choosing Select and Mask.
Set Smooth to 9,Contrast to 24%, and Shift Edge to -30%. Your settings may vary, but we don’t want to lose too much of that streaky brush texture, so be careful!
Step 6
Finally, Crop down your paint stroke and go to Edit > Define Brush Preset. Name your brush, and you are done!
You will want to make as many brush strokes as possible, but alternatively, you can also download a set of premade brush strokes that come on a transparent background or a premade brush pack that is all ready to go!
Step 7
If you’re not sure how to install Photoshop brushes, you will want to select the Brush Tool, open the Brush window, click on the Gear icon found in the top right-hand corner, and then select Import Brushes.
From there, you will want to navigate to wherever you save your brushes, select them, and that’s it!
2. How to Create a Brush Stroke Font Effect
Finally, let’s move on to creating our Japanese-inspired text effect.
Step 1
This first step is optional, but it might help you out for your first few tries with this effect!
Choose a font that’s similar to the structure you want your text to have. In this case, the Japanese brush font “Little Samurai” works perfectly.
Type out your word or phrase. Now, we can use this as a template when we are placing our brush strokes!
Step 2
Import your brush stroke brushes, or have your brush stroke images (with a transparent background) in a folder nearby so you can drop or paint them in as needed.
Now, it’s a matter of combing different brush strokes to make different letters. Let’s start with an easy one, “M.”
Drag and drop your strokes to match up with the three vertical lines that make up the lower section of the „M”, using our text as a guide.
Make sure to use different strokes for each line. You want to avoid patterns and repetition!
Step 4
Place a fourth line going through the upper portion of all three lines. You have an “M”!
I suggest grouping all of the brush strokes into their own group and naming it according to the letter they create.
Step 5
You can use the Paint Brush and Eraser Tool to add or take away detail from each line to add further fine-tuning and variation.
Also, remember to Flip lines Vertically and Horizontally and adust both their height and width to avoid the look of repetition.
Step 6
Use the Warp Transform Mode to create and match curves, and to fit the strokes to match the shape of the template text.
Do these steps over and over until all of your letters are created!
Step 7
Change the color of the text by adding a Color Fill layer and clipping it into your master group—the group holding all of your letters.
You can also go ahead and fill in any sparse spots quickly by creating a New Layer below all of your text layers and painting using a hard white brush. This will help your paint look fuller, if that’s the look you are going for!
We’ve Done It!
And there you have it! You can whip up these painted letters in a matter of minutes, and if you find yourself reaching for this kind of text effect fairly often, go ahead and create the whole alphabet, save it in a PSD file, and you’ve officially created your very own template!
So, as always, keep experimenting with different techniques and practicing, and don’t forget to post your version below, along with any questions, comments, or critiques!
Okami is a hand-drawn brush font with rough and bold letters. It’s great for logos, branding, print projects, and of course creating a Japanese brush font text effect!
Petal is a beautiful brush font that was handcrafted by yours truly with a Japanese brush pen. The font is full of character and personality and sits comfortably with modern trends.
This collection contains 30 isolated high-resolution brush texture strokes made using yellow acrylic paint and many different paintbrushes perfect for creating a Japanese brush font effect.
Download 66 hand-painted ink Photoshop brushes that work with any Photoshop version! This ink brush Photoshop pack is high resolution and would be a great addition to any project.
Looking to learn more? Why not check out the following tutorials:
THE ORIGINAL? Mitsubishi Pajero 4×4 – 2005 “The more powerful Pajero is available”
Source : AdsOfTheWorld
Agency : JWT (Bahrain)
LESS ORIGINAL Volkswagen Pick-Up –2019
“The most powerful 4×4 Volkswagen Pick-Up
Source : AdsOfTheWorld
Agency : Geometry Global Buenos Aires (Argentina)
More than 100,000 marine animals die each year from trash dumped into our planet’s oceans. In Mozambique, in addition to the lack of a sustainable recycling system, there is a bad habit of littering along the country’s vast coastline, mainly on beaches and especially during the holiday season. December 4 was World Wildlife Conservation Day and in order to draw society’s attention to this situation, Mozambique Fashion Week launched the Unwanted Fashion campaign, transforming the trash that is dumped into the oceans in fashion accessories and the animals in digital influencers. The initiative wasn’t just live on digital. Also offline, the event’s catwalk was entirely built with 5,000 tiles made from 250,000 plastic bottle caps. Mozambique Fashion Week also featured exhibits of sculptures of marine animals and a 6-meter tree, both made from recycled materials and illuminated with energy from solar panels. In all, more than 1 ton of plastic was used to build these works.
Facebook actually hides 'dummy’ DOM nodes between the 'Sponsored’ text. These values are entirely random characters, with a random number of DOM nodes between them. Invisible characters. At this point our CSS ad blocker is completely broken. There is no way for us to possibly code every possible value in CSS.
We’ve covered this before when Mike Pan noted it. Looks like it’s evolved a bit since then, getting even a little tricker.
I just opened my Facebook and selected „Copy Outer HTML” on the word „Sponsored”:
I guess we shouldn’t be terribly surprised at Facebook being user-hostile. I can imagine a workplace environment where fighting against ad blockers is turned into this fun kinda cat-and-mouse technological tennis match. But what they are fighting against is people wanting to exert a little control over what they allow into their eyes, ears, and brains.
It’s worth noting that nothing else in the DOM helps identify a post as an ad. So in that sense it’s just like how Google has evolved SERPs in how ads look just like organic results aside from a tiny „AD” before the URL.
We run sponsored posts here on CSS-Tricks too, so please feel free to hold our feet to the fire of accountability if you feel sponsored posts aren’t clear enough.
We just covered The Current State of Styling Selects in 2019, but we didn’t get nearly as far and fancy as Julie Grundy gets here. There is a decent chunk of JavaScript that powers it, so I’m still very much eyeballing browsers’ recent interest in giving us more powerful selects in (presumably) just HTML and CSS.
I tossed a fork on CodePen in case you just wanna see the final result.
This is also the first article in the 2019 edition of 24 Ways, the long-running and wonderful annual advent calendar for developers that is worth reading every single year.
Have you ever looked at a site and knew exactly what CMS powers it? You might see a distinctive design aesthetic that gives it away. Or maybe it’s something even less obvious and even harder to articulate, but you know it when you see it.
That seems true with just about any platform, especially those that rely on a set of templates. If you were to jump from one site ot another on the same platform, you can see the similarities, sort of like walking down the street of a neighborhood where all the homes are designed by the same architect.
It’s not a bad thing. But like homes, we tend to want websites with personality and that feel unique. That’s one of the things that makes WordPress.com a nice hosted platform option.
Yes, it has core themes, some of which are commonly used. What it also has is hundreds of others, including 110 themes that are free. The designs range from portfolio- and business-themed sites to ones themed around traditional blogs, weddings, travel, music, and food. There’s so many to choose from, and they’re introducing more every year. Take a look through some live sites using WordPress.com. The variety is awesome and showcases the many possibilities of WordPress as a content management system.
We’ve said it before: if you can build a site with WordPress.com, you should build a site on WordPress.com. We’re proud to have WordPress as a sponsor here at CSS-Tricks and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone who needs a quick and easy way to spin up a site. Plus, with a free plan tier, it’s even easier to get started.
