Doug Sahlin

Cheat Sheet / Updated 11-13-2023

Note: The following cheat sheet is from Building Websites All-in-One For Dummies which published in 2012; therefore, this content may be outdated. For more current information on website building, please see HTML, CSS, & JavaScript All-in-One For Dummies. Whether complex or simple, websites require that you make decisions — such as color, theme, and tone — and that you juggle many pieces of the project — like code, style sheets, and graphics. Knowing which resources to turn to for help implementing HTML5, and a few key points about incorporating graphics and video, can help you.

Article / Updated 09-14-2023

Multiple sources say there are now more than 800 million videos on YouTube and about 37 million channels. That's a lot of videos to sort through! If you're interested in looking at which videos are most viewed by YouTube visitors, you'll need to search by a category or channel. Here's how to do it. Search by category Go to YouTube and notice the Search field at the top of the page. In the Search field, enter the kind of videos you're interested in, such as "photography," or "dog training," or "Saturday Night Live." YouTube will then load your category of videos on the page. Click on "Filters" toward the upper right side of the page, and then under the heading "Sort By," select "View Count." YouTube will then sort the videos according to the most viewed, from top to bottom. Search by channel Go to YouTube. Click on the channel of your choice. You can find channels by searching with keywords in the Search field at the top of the page. For example, enter "football," and after the videos load, click on a channel name, which is always preceded by the @ symbol — such as, @MiamiDophins. Once you're on the channel of your choice, click the "Videos" tab. Next, click on the "Popular" button under the Videos section. If you don't see that button, click on the "Sort By" filter toward the top right of the screen and select "Most Popular" from the menu. Browse trending videos on YouTube If you're interested in seeing what is popular on YouTube in general, you can look at the Trending page. To find it: Go to YouTube. In the sidebar navigation on the left side of the screen, under "Explore," select "Trending."

Video / Updated 08-08-2023

When you photograph a beautiful landscape or an animal, placement of the horizon line can make or break the image. If you place the horizon line in the center of the image, your viewer doesn’t know which part of the image is the most important. You make that decision when you visualize the resulting photograph in your mind’s eye. The placement of the horizon line is determined by which parts of the scene contain the visual information you think is the most important. Nature is often chaotic. When you travel through a lush forest or craggy mountains, there is no sense of order. Animals often exhibit the same random nature, although many of them do line up in artistic patterns when traveling or migrating. Humans, on the other hand, don’t relate well to chaos. We prefer some order in our lives and the way things are arranged. That’s why it’s important to have some sort of organization to your photograph, a path viewers can follow to make sense of nature’s chaos. If you use the Rule of Thirds, you know that you divide the scene into thirds vertically and horizontally. If the most important information is above the horizon, such as a scene with a beautiful cloudscape (see the figure), place the horizon in the lower third of the image. Conversely, if the most important information is below the horizon line, such as a scene with a still lake with wonderful reflections, place the horizon line in the upper third of the image. If you pay attention to placement of the horizon line, the viewer knows where to look.

Video / Updated 08-08-2023

When you photograph a scene with a wide-angle lens, you always get a larger depth of field than you would with a longer focal length. The figure shows an example of a scene photographed with a 24mm lens. There’s a wide variety of lenses out there, each suited for specific tasks. Lenses fall into the following categories: super wide-angle lenses that have a focal length from 10mm to 20mm wide-angle lenses that have a focal length from 20mm to 35mm normal lenses with a focal length of 50mm and that are close to the range of vision of the human eye short telephoto lenses with a focal length from 85mm to105mm long telephoto lenses that have a focal length of 150mm or greater A short focal length captures a wider view of what’s in front of the lens. A long focal length zooms in on your subject, capturing a narrow angle of view. Telephoto lenses are ideal for taking pictures of subjects you can’t get close to, such as birds and wildlife. Telephoto lenses are also great for capturing details of a scene. When you photograph a scene with a telephoto lens, you end up with a shallower depth of field than you would when photographing with a lens with a shorter focal length. Remember this when you photograph subjects like birds and animals. Another way to control your depth of field is to get closer to your subject with a telephoto lens, which brings your subject into clear focus. The combination of being close to your subject, shooting it with a telephoto or macro lens, and using a large aperture (small f-stop number) yields an extremely shallow depth of field. Notice that the butterfly’s head and antennae, and the flower are in focus, but the tips of the insect’s wings are not.

Video / Updated 08-08-2023

Photographing landscapes after dusk is not as easy as photographing during the day. Twilight offers low light, which means you’ll have to increase the ISO setting, and many cameras are extremely noisy at high ISO settings. Here are some tips for the aspiring twilight photographer: Scout your shooting location. Even if you know the place you plan to shoot like the back of your hand, the next time you shoot there, get into a twilight state of mind. Look at the features of the landscape and visualize what they’ll look like as silhouettes. If you think a tree will look good as a silhouette, use it as a focal point in one of your images. You also need to think of the background and make sure there are no large shapes that will compete with the object you’ve chosen as the focal point of your image. Visualize. As you check out a location that might be good for shooting at twilight, look for objects you can use to compose your images. Are there any strong lines that you can use to lead your viewer into the image? Remember that a diagonal line is more interesting than a vertical one. Also look for natural frames. Get your times right. If you plan to do a photo shoot beginning at dusk and into the twilight, know what time dusk begins. You can find this information online or by using an application like The Photographer’s Ephemeris. Leave plenty of time to get to your location and set up. An unexpected traffic jam when you have perfect conditions for photographing your desired subject is not good if you don’t have a fudge factor. If you do leave in plenty of time and run into a traffic jam, you can visualize, while you wait, the great pictures you’re going to get. Look for reflective surfaces. Clouds will reflect in bodies of water like lakes and rivers. If you have a still body of water, you have a mirror reflection of the sky and any objects on the horizon. Use a tripod. Your exposure times will be long. Cranking up the ISO in twilight will result in lots and lots of digital noise in the shadow areas of your image, which in many instances is the majority of the image. A long exposure time will increase noise as well, but not as bad as switching to an ISO high enough to hand-hold the camera. Another benefit of using a tripod is you can get the camera level. Lock the mirror. Before you fly into the twilight, make sure your camera mirror is in the upright and locked position. This applies only if you use a dSLR to take your pictures. When you take pictures at slow shutter speeds, the act of the mirror stopping transmits vibration to the camera, which results in an image that isn't as sharp as it could be. If your camera has the option to save custom settings, create a custom setting to lock up the mirror. Add other settings such as switching to the Aperture Priority mode. Use a cable release. A cable release enables you to open the shutter without touching the camera (which can cause vibration resulting in a blurry image). In lieu of a cable release, you can use the auto-timer to delay the release of the shutter. Carefully position the horizon line. Place the horizon line where it will draw the viewer’s attention to the most important objects in the photograph. Photographer David duChemin calls this “visual mass.” If the most interesting parts of your photograph are above the horizon line, place the horizon line in the lower third of the image. If the most important parts of your image are below the horizon line, place the horizon line in the upper third of the image.

Article / Updated 10-19-2022

If you forget your YouTube username or password, don't panic. YouTube has your e-mail address, and you can retrieve your forgotten username or password from them. (When you first register with YouTube, jot down your username and password, especially if they’re different from those that you use regularly on other websites.) Go to YouTube.com and click the Sign In link at the top-right corner of the page. Bam — the sign in page appears. Click either the Forgot Username link or the Forgot Password link. Enter your username. Enter the verification code from the multicolored text. Be sure to copy it exactly, using uppercase or lowercase, as shown in the code. Click the Reset My Password! button. YouTube sends an e-mail containing your password to your registered e-mail address. If you still can’t log in with what you’re certain is your correct username and password, it’s probably because you don’t have cookies turned on in your browser preferences. If you’re using Chrome, for example, at the top-right corner of the screen, click the three vertical dots icon. Choose Settings. Under Security and Privacy, click Site settings. Scroll down and click Cookies and site data. From here, you can choose Allow all cookies, Block all cookies, or select other options.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-04-2022

Capturing beautiful landscape images isn't always easy, and ticking off items on a checklist might not seem like a useful technique in photography, but ensuring you have all equipment with you on a photo shoot ensures you can focus on snapping pictures instead of discovering you've left something behind. By the same token, readying your equipment upon your return lets you grab your camera bag and go capture more landscape and nature pictures.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-18-2022

Your Canon EOS 7D has a stunning 20.2-megapixel capture, Live View, high-definition video, and much more. But all this technology can be a bit daunting, especially if this is your first real digital SLR (single-lens reflex). Discover how to get the most out of your camera’s shooting and metering modes, as well as how to assemble a makeshift tripod. In addition, find out the steps to take after a photo shoot to ensure your camera is ready for the next one.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Your Nikon D780 is the latest and greatest digital camera on the market—with a stunning 24.5-megapixel capture, live view, high-definition video, and much more. But all this technology can be a bit daunting, especially if this is your first real digital single-lens reflect (DSLR) camera. Discover how to get the most out of your camera’s shooting and metering modes, as well as how to assemble a makeshift tripod. In addition, find out the steps to take after a photo shoot to ensure your camera is ready for the next photo.

Step by Step / Updated 01-25-2022

Creating a YouTube account is free, quick, and painless. To create a YouTube account, just submit a few bits of basic information and create a username and password. That's it — you don’t need to add your street address or phone number, and YouTube doesn’t ask you for a credit card number.