Create your own Facebook Timeline Cover...

We have been talking about Facebook Timeline Covers for a couple weeks and have promised you some resources and a video tutorial, so here it (they) are.

They are broken down into four catagories.

First, pre-made Timeline Covers for any occasion:

Trendy Covers has one of the largest assortments out there, and Blog Technics has a bunch as well.

Second, resources that will walk you through making a Timeline Cover online:

There are a few options, but the big kahuna, the top dog when it comes to an online resource for making your own Timeline Cover it's the Timeline Slicer App.

You will find 8 more online resources here.

Third, resources for downloading free templates and making your own custom Facebook Timeline Cover in Photoshop:

You'll find 16+ .PSD templates here, and another 10 more here.

The free template we used in the video is in this group of free templates for Worlds Best Actions.

MCP Actions (I own and LOVE their actions) has 8 more free Photoshop templates.

You will find a bunch of free Timeline resources geared specifically towards photographers over at Paint The Moon.

Fourth, these are resources that don't quite fit in the first three:

If you are interested in creating a Timeline Cover from scratch, head over to Blog Technics, there you will find every dimensional aspect and size requirements known to man for Timeline Covers, they even have a "bare bones" template for you to download.

I am a HUGE fan of Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income and he put together a post that discusses the importance of Timeline Covers as it applies to marketing yourself and/or your business.

And finally, here a couple places that will inspire you with cool and funny ideas, there are 40 creative ideas, and here you'll find 25 funny covers.

Here is our video tutorial on customizing one of the free templates listed above, hope you enjoy it.

If you received this post via email the video did not come with it, so either head back to Weekly Photo Tips or directly over to our YouTube channel to watch it there.


If you know of a resource that is not listed here, please email it to us so we can share it with everyone.

Showing off some engagement images...

I wanted to share some images from one of our latest engagement/save the date photo shoots.

The odd thing (for me) about this shoot is not that Kara is my next door neighbor, it's that I've known her since she was (about) 5 years old and it's hard for me to grasp that she is now a grown woman, has graduated from collage, and is about to join the institution of married people.

You may recognize the shooting style of these first two images, it is similar (in style) to the images from our post "Shooting into the Sun".

Shading the sun from my lens:

Letting the sun hit the lens:

It's a technique so easy to do, can give you a dramatically different look, and I find that clients really like it.

Here is a mistake I had actually made plans to avoid before the shoot took place, but I made the mistake anyway, though it was a "save the date" shoot I knew there would be images they'd want to keep/share without all the date stuff included.

As soon as I took this shot I thought to myself "crap, they are going to like this shot" and sure enough, shortly after seeing their gallery I got a text wanting to know if I could take out the date out of the shot.

So I did, and though it's not the greatest Photoshop work I have ever done, people who haven't seen the image with the date in it picked up on the fact that I "Photoshopped" it.
 

Learn from my mistake, take the shot, then add date specific touches and take the shot a second time.

How does it go, "get it right in camera"?

:)

These are my two favorite images from the shoot.

Click on any of these images to view larger.

And yes, some of them may look familiar to you, a few of them were in our post last week about creating "Custom Facebook Timeline Covers".

Be sure to come back tomorrow for a video tutorial that will walk you through making your own custom Facebook covers.

Free stuff, new stuff, and rebates on stuff...

Free stuff:

Kevin Kubota has come out with his new Action DASHBOARD 4 for Photoshop and he is giving it away for free! It comes with 50 free Kubota Imaging Photoshop actions, adding other action packs is optional but not necessary or a requirement to keep Action DASHBOARD 4 for free forever.

You can learn more about the DASHBOARD here, or head directly over to the download page here.

New stuff:

Canon has announced some new gear today, it is not yet shipping but is available for pre-ordering. Click on any of the links below to visit the product page.

Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM Lens - $849.99

Canon EF 24-70mm f/4L IS USM Zoom Lens - $1499

CANON EOS M Mirrorless Digital Camera, along with two lenses - $849

Rebates:

You will get an instant $200 rebate on the Canon EOS Rebel T4i Digital SLR Kit that comes with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens and a Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lens - the final price for this body and 2 lens kit is $999.

A book so good I've bought it 20 times....

It started the very first time back in 1985 when I was driving along and Charles Kuralt started talking about this new book, I interrupted my trip and drove directly to the book store and bought it.

"Love, Dad" was written by Patrick Joseph Connolly, though he had no idea at the time he was writing a book, as he had died of a heart attack a year before it was published.

Patrick was a reporter and would leave for work before his two boys got up, so he took a minute every day before he left to write the them a note, sharing insights, wisdom, and a bit of humor.

After he passed his wife took some of those notes, exactly as they were written (and drawn) and put them in the book "Love, Dad".

So you are probably wondering why I've bought it so many times... I was (and continue to be) so touched by it that I have given it many times as a gift, other times I simply lent it to someone and they too were so moved by it that I could not bring myself to ask for it back.

It only takes an hour to read, but a lifetime to appreciate.

At the risk of sound corny, it gave me ideas on how to be a better father.

It's been out out print forever but you can still find it on eBay for under $5.

Here are a couple of my favorite notes from the book, click on them to view larger (making them easier to read).

It's been 27 years since I first bought "Love, Dad" and I often wonder how things turned out for Dave and Rich.

Only 7 days left in our current contest...

Just wanted to remind everyone that our latest contest ends exactly one week from today (Friday November 9th).

If you would like to learn how to enter and some of the other details of this contest (like some of the cool prizes - like a one year "plus" memberships to 500px.com) follow this link, if you would like to see some of the images already posted then follow this link or head directly over to our Flickr group.

Speaking of images, here are a few more of the latest images that have been entered:

Click on any of these very cool images to view larger.

Not too early to think about Christmas...

Yes, I said "Christmas", it's really not that far away.

And is there any better gift than one a person made themselves?

Every time I give a photograph as a gift I'm always surprised at just how well it's received and the pride I feel when I visit that persons house and see it hanging in a place of prominence.

Surely there are people in your life who would love to get a canvas of one of your photographs, and right now Groupon has an incredible deal on Triptych PhotoSplits gallery wraps (a single photo printed across three panels) for a phenomenally affordable price.

There are two size (and price) options:

$59 ($288 list price) gets you a Canvas on Demand PhotoSplit with three 12”x24” panels - total image size 36"x24"

$79 ($349 list price) gets you a Canvas on Demand PhotoSplit with three 15”x30” panels - total image size 45"x30"

You have about 36 hours left to grab one of these deals (ending around midnight 11/3).

In New York and impacted by the hurricane?...

If you are in the New Your City area and having issues with power, Adorama is offering some free help.

Power Up for FREE at Adorama!

"Adorama is happy to announce that we have reopened and want to do whatever we can to help ease your recovery. 

Many New Yorkers are blacked out, so today and tomorrow (11/1-11/2) we have set up high-powered charging stations for FREE usage. 

We invite you to come down with your phones, electronics, and other devices and charge them all at any of our stations for FREE. 

This is a free public service for all of New York. 

Adorama is located on 18th Street between 5th & 6th Avenue. 

We wish you and your loved ones a very safe recovery after the storm."

Good luck everyone, I hope that your life gets back to "normal" as quickly as possible.

Be safe.