How to make your own Twitter background

I hope that you all are having a great week so far. Since I was sharing MY new Twitter background for Picture Monday I thought I would share how you can make your own personalized Twitter back ground too.

Open a new document and make the canvas 1675 pixels x1200 pixels @ 72 dpi. (You may need to play around with this a bit to make it look right, but I found that 1675 fits my monitor without any black space at the edges. My monitor actually cuts off the bottom of my background, but since some people are still rocking the older square monitors vs. the wide screen ones I kept the height at 1200 pixels just in case)

You need to leave a margin of about 225 pixels at the left side of your document so that you don't put content behind where your Tweet stream will show up. I found this to be just under 3 inches at 72 dpi.

Go to town! I can't tell you what to put on your background but be creative, think of who you are trying to appeal to, be consistent with your brand image and give it a go.

If you want a little extra help this article from mashable is a good starting place so check it out here.

I'd love feedback on how my background looks on other people's screens and I would also love to see your backgrounds so send me a link in the comments. Have a great day!

Picture Monday!

Good Morning and Happy Monday to everyone! The family shoot that I had schedules on Sunday (and planned to post today) got rescheduled due to the fact that it was insanely cold and rainy - in other words, no fun for anybody.





Instead of some very cute family pictures I am going to have to settle for posting my newly designed Twitter background.

In case you had no idea that I was on Twitter you can follow me (@MollieTobias) and I promise to give you updates of what I am working on and pass along any great images, articles, and inspiration that comes my way over the course of the week.

Let me know what you guys think!

Friday Site of the Week - Marin Kristine Photography

This website you just have to check out. I absolutely love her work both for weddings and boudoir. You don't see a lot of boudoir out there that is fun and classy while being totally sassy at the same time. Love, love, LOVE.

Hope that you have a great weekend!

Aperture Example

I like to shoot in Aperture Priority Mode a lot. That said, it is important to know what to expect at different apertures so that you can choose the one that will be the best for what you are trying to accomplish in a given scenario. So, I thought that I would put together a little example of what all of the "true apertures" look like on my camera (Canon EOS 5D Mark II) with the EF50mm f/1.8 lens. All of the photos were taken at ISO 1600 with no flash or exposure compensation and focused manually on the small statue in the foreground. I will note the aperture and accompanying shutter speed for each image so that you can take note of the relationship. Once you know the true apertures on your camera you can figure the shutter speed at one aperture and know what it will be at all of the others which can be helpful when shooting in full Manual mode. Here we go!

F2.0 1/60 second

F2.8 1/30 second

F4.0 1/15 second

F 5.6 1/8 second

F8.0 1/4 second

F11.0 1/2 second

F16.0 1.0 second

F22.0 2.0 seconds

Picture Monday - Linn and Matt

Today I wanted to share some images from a family shoot done recently at Rassie Wicker Park in Pinehurst. Linn had contacted me to get some family pictures done to mark their newest addition. While Linn, Matt, and their family were all great to work with and super nice, I have to say that the kids stole the show. They are adorable! Here are a few of my favorite images from the shoot...

Friday Site of the Week - JLMCNC.org

Hello everyone! I apologize for the missed post on Wednesday but I have been sick and it just wasn't happening for me. For the site of the week this week I am going to send you to the newly launched www.JLMCNC.org.

It is the site for the Junior League of Moore County (which if you read the blog I am sure that you already know I am on the board). There are a lot of great events coming up over the next few months including the Fall Academy for Success project tomorrow at Samarcand Manor. Academy for Success is a workshop that teaches at risk girls life skills and life enrichment courses in hopes of helping them make better choices for their futures.

We also have our annual wine tasting coming up in a month which is always a great time. Be sure to swing by the site and check it out!

Album Design for 10x14 Sample Album

Last week I showed you a design of a Client album so I felt that it was only fair that this week I show you something that I am working on for a Studio Sample. This is the same wedding that you saw last week, but you will notice that the album designs are pretty different. My sample focuses a lot more on creating a mood and really telling the story of the day as I saw it through the viewfinder.

The cover (pictured below) is going to be a printed metal cover with a protective coating and the spine and back of the album are going to be a very cool nubby leather called "firefly" (also pictured below)

Let me know what you guys think of the design and I will post more pics of the actual album when it comes in after production.