40+ Free Blog Hosts

Here got some article about free bloging/host service by Sean P. Aune

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So it seems all we ever speak about is Wordpress (), but don’t forget that you have options when choosing a blog platform. Here are 40 free ways to get started.

Danga Software Powered

GreatestJournal.com - Based on the same software as LiveJournal, offers free voice posts, 1GB of photo hosting, and space for up to 2,000 user icons.

InsaneJournal.com - Another site based on the Danga software that runs LiveJournal, offers free and paid accounts, paid benefits are only enhancements.

JorunalFen.net - Runs on the Danga platform, very much directed towards various “fandoms” (i.e. Harry Potter, various Television shows) and is meant for users 18 and older.

LiveJournal.com - One of the most well known of the blogging hosts. Offers multiple account types such as ad-supported and paid. The center of a few controversies recently.

Themed Blog Sites

Blogabond.com - A site dedicated to travel blogs with map integration and more.

BlogCheese.com - A video blogging website.

BusyThumbs.com - A blog site specifically for your text messages and camera phone images.

Freevlog - Designed for video blogging and completely free.

Trippert.com - Create and share blogs of your travels.

Ufem.com - Blogging site specifically geared towards women. Offers multiple themes and plugins.

Word Count Journal.com - A new blogging format that is also part challenge. Write one word on the first day, two words on the second day and so on, at the end of the year you’ll have written 66,795 words.

Xanco.com - Another moblogging site for you to share all your mobile communications with friends and family.

WordPress Powered

Blogetery.com - Offers multiple templates, anti-spam, free sub-domain and more.

BlogRox.com - Runs on WordPress and offers 50MB of free online space.

Blogsome.com - Based out of Ireland, this site uses the WordPress MU platform, large choice of themes.

Edublogs.com - WordPress powered blogging for educators.

WordPress.com - Not only can you install WordPress on your own sites, you can use the same software on their site and save yourself all of the technical work.

Various Platforms

Blog.com - Offers free blog hosting with unlimited bandwidth for their free package, more benefits for paid members.

Blog Ladder.com - All blog entries show up on the main ladder as well as inside your own blog.

Blogger.com - A great starting site to get a taste of blogging, very easy to use.

Blogr.com - Allows you to blog, host photos & videos, and podcasts.

BlogSpirit.com - European based blogging site, offers 30-day trial and subscription thereafter, but offers quite a bit of storage.

Blogster.com - Offers free image hosting in addition to free blogs.

BlogYx.com - Blogging site with extras such as chat boxes so you can interact with your readers.

Bloki.com - Lets you build a blog site and even open it up for collaboration.

Bravenet.com - Free blog hosting with RSS feeds and more.

ClearBlogs.com - Free blog hosting and offers templates, friends only posts, IP-Banning and more.

Etribes.com - Based in Europe, allows you to create all sorts of websites including a blog.

Multiply.com - Mixes blogging and social networking, with photo galleries and more.

Netcipia.com - Free blog and wiki for private or public display with 2GB of storage.

Open Diary.com - Offers unlimited storage and posts, low cost subscription rates for advanced features.

ShoutPost.com - A platform for creating blogs with a focus on generating traffic.

SoulCast.com - Have something you want to talk about, but want to say it anonymously? This may be the blogging site for you.

Squarespace.com - Lets you build your blog with numerous themes, also allows you to add other site features.

Terapad.com - Offers blogs as well as features such as an integrated store.

Tooum.com - Fully integrated blog and forum which allows for seamless discussion between the two.

Tumblr.com - A blog platform with a focus on allowing media-rich posts.

Weebly.com - Allows you to create a site and blog, free hosting and change designs on the fly.

Windows Live Spaces - Free blogging with your MSN account, only drawback is readers have to have an account also.

Vox.com - Part of the SixApart family of blogging sites, very much geared towards the personal journal types of blogs.

Xanga.com - Part social network, part blogging, all free.

Yahoo 360 - Part of your Yahoo account and features easy publishing.

Zoomshare.com - Free blog hosting with 250MB of free storage.

Source : http://mashable.com/2007/08/06/free-blog-hosts/

Faking the Lomo effect in Photoshop

1. File: Open: the picture you want
2. Image: Adjustments: Brightness/Contrast: increase contrast by 20
3. Image: Adjustments: Hue/Saturation: increase saturation by 20
4. Choose the Rectangular Marquee Tool (your basic selection tool)
5. Change feather amount to 1/12 the width of your picture (if your picture is 600px wide then you will set your feather to 50px)
6. Select your entire picture note: using select: all, will not work
7. Select: Inverse
8. Layer: New: Layer
9. Change your primary color to black. Fill the selection (on the new, blank layer).
10. Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay
11. Layer: Duplicate Layer
12. Now select your base layer (the one with the picture on it).
13. Layer: New: Layer
14. Change your fill tool to Gradient
15. Change your Gradient Type to Spherical
16. Change your Gradient Shading Style to "foreground to transparent" (I believe this is the default).
17. Change your primary color to white.
18. With the fill tool selected, click in the middle of the picture, and drag the line out to the farthest edge of your picture (if it's a portrait, use top or bottom, if landscape, use left or right).
19. Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay
20. Change the Opacity of this layer to 80% (or whatever you see fit)

Results:

Photo by Hugo, at Flickr

http://www.lomophoto.com/fakelomo.php

Lomography

Lomography is a commercial trademark of Lomographische AG, Austria for products and services related to photography. The 35 mm LOMO LC-A camera employed an unusual lens which produced large amounts of distortion at the edges of the image whilst keeping the centre sharp.

Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Accidents such as over-saturated colors, lens artifacts, and exposure defects are rehabilitated to produce swirly, abstract effects - a trait emphasized by practitioners. Others use the technique to document everyday life, because the small camera size and ability to shoot in low light encourages candid photography, photo reportage and photo vérité.

Current models marketed by Lomographische AG include Lomo LC-A, Holga, Holga 35mm, Actionsampler, Frogeye, Pop-9, Oktomat, Fisheye, Colorsplash, Colorsplash Flash, F-stop Bang, SuperSampler, Horizon 202, Seagull TLR and Smena 8M.

The following are the company's 10 Rules of Lomography:

1. Take your LOMO everywhere you go.
2. Use it anytime - day or night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
4. Shoot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don't think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you've captured on film.
9. You don't have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don't worry about the rules.

http://www.lomophoto.com/

DSLR Tips Lens buying guide

The joy of owning a DSLR is the ability to change lenses. You could go for a wide angle to squeeze more in, or a telephoto to magnify a distant subject. Or how about a macro lens for taking great quality close-ups? There’s almost no limit to what you can do, with lenses to suit all occasions – and budgets – but so where do you start? In this guide we’ll explain everything you need to know about buying lenses and help you make the right choice for your style of photography.

When choosing a new lens for your DSLR, you should think about what kind of photos you’re trying to take how and you’re finding your current model unsatisfactory. Maybe you’re struggling to fit everything in. Perhaps you can’t get close enough to sports players or wildlife. Or you might be perfectly happy with the range of your current lens, but you fancy something which delivers better quality, focuses quicker, has anti-shake facilities or maybe works better in low light.

There’s almost always more than one lens which does what you’re after, so the next step is working your way through the options which are available. If this is your first DSLR, the names given to lenses can often feature a bewildering array of letters and numbers, but it’s actually easier to decipher than it first appears. Here are the key specifications to look out for.

Focal length

The most important lens specification is the focal length. This defines the coverage of the lens, and how much you’ll fit into the photo. Focal length is measured in mm, and the number which closest matches the magnification of the human eye is 50mm. Our eyes have a much bigger field of view, but if you were to look at something in person, and then through a 50mm lens, the actual magnification would be similar. This is why 50mm lenses are known as standard lenses – they’re suited to a wide variety of subjects from landscapes to portraits.

Lenses with focal lengths smaller than 50mm are known as wide angle because they fit more into your photo. If you’re stood in the same position, a 25mm lens will have twice the diagonal field of view of a 50mm, and could therefore be used to squeeze in large buildings, landscapes or even big group shots – ideal when you can’t step back any further. 28mm is the most common wide angle focal length and is ideal for landscape and architecture shots, but you can go much wider still if desired, and anything below 20mm is typically known as an ultra-wide angle lens.

Squeezing in such a big view means wide angle lenses inevitably suffer from some distortion, especially towards the edges, but this can be used to exaggerate subjects for a special effect; indeed a special type of ultra-wide angle lens called a fish-eye deliberately uses distortion to deliver a highly curved result. Lenses with shorter focal lengths also inherently have a larger depth-of-field, which means it’s easier to get lots in focus from near to far. The examples here were taken with a 17mm focal length.

Lenses with focal lengths bigger than 50mm are commonly known as telephoto models. These fit less in, and are therefore ideal for getting closer to distant subjects or picking out detail; they also give a more flattering effect when taking photos of people. In contrast to wide angle, lenses with longer focal lengths have an inherently smaller depth of field, which means it’s easier to get a blurred background effect – again ideal for portrait, wildlife and sports photography.

Good focal lengths for portraits are typically between 85mm and 135mm – these are often known as short telephotos. Appropriate focal lengths for sports or wildlife are generally much longer – at least 200mm, and ideally 300mm or more. Professional sports and wildlife photographers often use 600mm lenses, or even longer still. The two examples here were taken at 400mm.

You can buy lenses with either a fixed focal length which doesn’t vary, or a zoom lens which goes from one focal length to another. Zooms are very convenient, but generally aren’t as good quality as a fixed lens. Fixed focal length or 'prime' lenses are also normally smaller, lighter and give a brighter view that’s better for low light – see aperture section on the next page. It’s all about weighing up convenience against quality, although some more expensive zooms can be very good.

General purpose zooms usually go from wide angle to short telephoto, such as 28-80mm, although some ‘super-zooms’ could give a range from 28-300mm, covering almost every photo opportunity. There are also wide angle zooms which normally offer an ultra-wide to normal range, such as 16-35mm. Similarly there are telephoto zooms which go from short to long telephoto focal lengths, such as 70-300mm.

from: http://www.dslrtips.com/lens_guide/Lens_buying_guide.shtml