Take Low Light Photos Like a Professional

http://www.lightstalking.com/low-light

Low light photography can be a lot of fun. And you don’t need to trade your soul for an expensive camera to do it. You just need to have one that has some manual setting options. I’m focusing on digital here, but I think most of what I’m going to talk about will apply to film cameras too. The only real difference is that with digital you get to view your results instantly, which allows you to adjust your settings on the fly and you can switch ISO without changing your roll of film.

You’ll have to adjust your methods to accommodate for film a little and keep better notes to track what you’re doing. I recommend keeping a small notebook with you no matter what you shoot with to track what you did so you know what works and what doesn’t.

OK, so before we get started there’s a few things you’re going to need. Here’s a list:

• * Camera
• * Tripod
• * Flashlight
• * Remote shutter release (this is optional if you have a timer on your camera)
• * A subject to shoot. This can be anything; a person, landscape, an object, whatever. I recommend starting with landscapes or inanimate objects to keep it simple.

So, get your camera mounted on the tripod and either set it to timer mode or attach your remote trigger. You want to trigger the shutter remotely or use the timer to keep from jiggling your camera when doing long exposures. The remote is the best way since you never actually touch the camera, but I’ve also found that a solid tripod, a light touch, and a two-second timer work just fine. That gives the camera/tripod combo some time to stop moving if you bump it. If it’s not enough time switch to the ten-second timer.

I shoot with a Canon 1D Mk2n in Manual mode, so at this point I’m going to tell you what settings I use and you can tweak as needed to fit your camera’s capabilities. I use the following settings as my starting point:

ISO 100, 20 second exposure, f-stop 22. If you want a shallow DOF, you’ll have to cut your exposure time down drastically when you open your aperture. I use a small aperture to keep the subject sharp and I’ve come to the conclusion that 20 seconds is a good starting point for my camera and lenses. Usually the only thing I change is the shutter speed. I only change the aperture if I can’t get enough light with a 30 second exposure. I don’t use the bulb setting very often. I’m kind of ADD and my mind wanders after about ten-seconds of waiting for the shutter to close.

What’s the flashlight for? Well, it’s for two things. The most important function is for focusing. If you’re shooting in extreme low light conditions you’re going to need some light for your autofocus to work, especially if you’re using a point & shoot camera that won’t allow manual focusing. Even if you have the option to focus manually, you might still need the light to see whether or not your focus is sharp. It’s easy to be close and still be out of focus when its dark.

The flashlight is also for painting with light. This is a lot of fun. You can use a flashlight, a laser pointer, a hand held flash fired manually, basically anything that emits light. I like using a mini Maglite for still life subjects. One of the things I like about the Maglites is that you can adjust the beam diameter from a tight focused spot to a soft wide glow.

So, now you are ready to experiment. Keep it simple to start. Just pick an object from around your house and rig a black backdrop for it. I usually do this after dark so I don’t have any stray window light. I also like to go down to the waterfront late at night. The glow from the city lights and the street lights in the parking lot are more than enough light to shoot by. And experiment with light painting. It can be a lot of fun.

Spider Baby 02

Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)

Aperture: f/5

Focal Length: 70 mm

ISO Speed: 800

Single light source (clamp type shop light) from stage left. Lots of layers and adjustments in CS2 afterward, but no dramatic changes to the basic lighting effects from the original.

Red Queen & Black Queen

Exposure: 5 sec (5)

Aperture: f/4

Focal Length: 17 mm

ISO Speed: 100

These are the same photo, except I converted one to B&W. This is an example of painting with light. It’s an abstract style and not normally my thing, but it was a fun experiment. I set the camera for a 5 second exposure and waved it around. When I got home I uploaded the photos, picked the most interesting area and then cropped it and mirrored it. Some of them I mirrored bilateral and others quadrilateral. Outside of contrast and curves adjustments in CS2, I didn’t alter anything else.

Reentry

Exposure: 5 sec (5)

Aperture: f/5.6

Focal Length: 75 mm

ISO Speed: 100

One of my favourites despite the fact that it reminds me of a Journey album cover.

Skull Baby

Exposure: 30

Aperture: f/22.0

Focal Length: 70 mm

ISO Speed: 100

Single light source (3 D cell Maglite) from stage right. I use a large piece of black poster board for a seamless backdrop for small objects like this baby head. The skull face was painted in Adobe CS3 and several layers of grain in opposing directions were also added later.

Deer Skull & Antlers

Exposure: 30 sec (30)

Aperture: f/32

Focal Length: 200 mm

ISO Speed: 50

This is another light painting. Black poster board background, pitch dark room, and a mini maglite. I set my focus with the lights on and then shut them off. I triggered the camera with a remote and then painted the skull and antlers with a mini maglite. This is a perfect example of trial and error. I think it took me around 15 shots to find the right combination of settings to get this photograph. So, if you don’t get it on the first try, don’t be discouraged. Remember that when you’re looking at someone else’s photos they’re showing you the two or three good ones…not the five hundred that went in the trash. Shoot, shoot, shoot, and then shoot some more!

Waterfront at Night

Exposure: 20 sec (20)

Aperture: f/4.5

Focal Length: 22 mm

ISO Speed: 100

Tripod, remote trigger, and a hint of sunlight on the horizon. For all intents and purposes it was dark. I mean, we’re talking just barely a glow on the horizon.

Baby Head & Laser Pointer B&W

Exposure: 30

Aperture: f/22.0

Focal Length: 70 mm

ISO Speed: 100

It’s that damned baby head again! I know…it’s my favourite subject for low light shots. This was shot with no light. I focused with the lights on and then switched to manual to keep the focus from changing when I hit the remote trigger. Then I just painted on it, scribbled really, with a three dollar laser pointer. It’s not the most exciting photo, but it gives you some idea of what you can do with a laser pointer.

Joe Graziano is a professional freelance photographer who also has some great photojournalism shots worth checking out. Don’t forget to follow him on Twitter and check out his page on Facebook!

10 Web Site Strategies for Emerging Photographers

http://www.lighting-essentials.com/10-web-site-strategies-for-emerging-photographers/

As a photographer and web designer, I really believe that the website should be a vehicle for making business happen, and connecting with clients and possible clients, not just an online brochure or replica of a print portfolio. Too many shooters have websites that simply mimic the old passive model of advertising and promotion. “Here are my pics, got a job?” Today, that may not be enough when you are an emerging talent. With less capital, less fame and a challenging working environment, there are things that must be considered when creating an online presence.

As the web moves solidly into a more interactive mode (Google Videos, YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, Twitter and more), it makes me wonder why photographers are creating websites that are more web 1.2 than web 2.0. (Before you write, yeah, I am over that 2.0 term too, but for now it works for our purposes.) Again and again I visit photographers sites totally done in Flash with no visible search engine ranking, no collaboration, no customer tracking, no interactivity – and, for the record, chasing your thumbnails around to click on them isn’t interactivity, it’s annoying.

Too many photographers seem to turn a deaf ear to the basic tenets of the new web, preferring to have monstrous, slow loading, nearly impossible to update sites that look far more like a commercial than a resource. I see it first hand as a web designer. Recently I had to turn a design job down because it just went against all that I believe in on creating useful sites instead of brochure sites. The photographer has nice images, and is just starting in the business, yet insists on having a site that will never be indexed and will drain him of assets while he has to traditionally market his website instead of having it found by people looking for what he does and his services. Spending money on advertising to drive visitors to your site is backwards, folks.

With a careful eye toward his budget he will end up with a beautiful site, with music and 60 images that will cost him a fortune to change out. No interactivity, no collaboration, scheduling, estimates, client area, CMS or CRM… just a site with images. And every time he wants to add an image, or change an image, or whatever, he has to go back to his Flash designer with the change, and some bucks. That restricts him too much in my opinion. Yes, there are some Flash designers who can build a backend management system for him, but not for his budget. So, to me, it seems like wasted bucks on a site that needs even more bucks to promote it, and will only be seen by those who have been prodded to visit.

Definitely last century web-think.

I have ten must-have’s for photographer’s websites. Let’s take a look. I have found some examples to go along with the information, so be sure to say hi from LE when you visit their sites.

1. Be Found When People Are Looking For You – Or Looking for What You Do
A very friendly search engine optimized site. For starting out in the industry, being found by people looking for you can be invaluable. Being found means for your work, not your name. There is a lot of information that can be found on how to make a site more friendly to the search engines, and the things you can do for your site should be done. Diligently and with a sense of purpose.

This means you have to have the tools in place to be found. That takes work. That takes stepping out of your comfort zone. It means you may have to give up on the notion that things should only be the way you want them to be, and accept that there are things that simply are as they are. I hear too many photographers say “I don’t know why I have to have text on the home page, so I won’t do it.” OK… but that sort of denial of the reality of the way Search Engines work certainly doesn’t make it work your way.

And, BTW, searching for Don Stevenson will return Don’s site, www.stevensonphotography.com. That is as it is supposed to be. Don has a redirect from the site name www.donstevenson.com. So that is about as magical as him answering the phone when you dial his number. However, search Google for “Arizona Corporate Photography” and you get www.stevensonphotography.com. Search for “Editorial Portrait Photographer Arizona”. Search for “Arizona Industrial Photography”. You will get the same websites… different pages. Now that is SEO.

Don gets about 40% of his business from being found by editors and corporate art departments. He is quite busy and keeps his site robust and ever changing. Daily, there are new articles or links added to the many landing pages he has created within his site. Not one to waste time, Don has a very detailed editorial plan, and keeps the site fresh and inviting to new clients and old alike.

2. Constantly Changing Content
And to keep the content changing easily, you need a tool to do that. It’s called a Content Management System. From WordPress to proprietary CMS solutions, it means that the photographer can change out the content on the page whenever they want. Calling or emailing a designer everytime you need to make a change is frustrating and not cost effective at all.

Using a system that allows you to manage your work effectively, while on the road, and on location, keeps the site fresh. And the easier it is, the better.

Look, if you want to learn how to do it in Dreamweaver, it really isn’t that hard. But, for most photographers, it is simply a waste of time. Find a designer / developer / platform that allows you to easily manage your site’s content. Wordpress, Joomla, .NetNuke… there are lots of ways to do it. Even Adobe’s wonderful Contribute makes it easy to update and modify the site.

And an ever changing site is very, very important to Google and other Search Engines. There are many reasons why.

Google looks at your site from the standpoint of a lot of different values. And the purpose is to decide if the content is relative to the search. If someone is searching for you, a food photographer in Cleveland, they are not really interested in deals on toner cartridges or online dating. So the relevance of your site to the searcher’s needs is very, very important. Google can only know that by what is on your page, gauging how others who were searching for food photographers in Cleveland reacted upon arriving and how popular the page is from places mentioning food photographers in Cleveland and then linking that to you. Trying to trick Google into thinking you are one thing when you are actually something else will not work.

So you need content about food photography. Food photography in the studio. And on location. And in Cleveland – and Akron – and anywhere else that is reasonably close enough for you to market and shoot in.

Keeping the text changing on the pages is important as well. Think of it as ‘proof of life’ for your site. Best way to do that is keep the content ever-changing and relevant.

Examples:
Enlight Photo
Don Stevenson (corporate events) (editorial portraiture)
GraphPaperPress
LE WordPress Themes

3. Content That is Compelling
By compelling, I mean that there should be some reason for clients to come back to your site. Projects are a great way to show images and keep interest high. “New Work” can be featured, and additions to the portfolio should be announced and published.

Projects show clients how you handle long form assignments. How you tie subject matter together… and make it interesting. Do you like telling stories or creating a set of images? Then that is a project. What I like about projects is that they can be ongoing. Adding a few pictures a month can be a compelling reason for people to come back to the site. Sure, you can do that on your blog, but that is a different architecture and doesn’t present the same way.

Look at your site. Is there a reason for me to come back next week or next month? Is there anything there that would change if I did come back in a few weeks or even a few months? Or would it be the same. Same won’t work. I just won’t bother coming back to the site if things are not changing.

Find ways to get new stuff on your site and let everyone know that there is new stuff there.

Examples:
Nick Onken – Stories
Chase Jarvis – Panoramic Project
James Cowlin (Route 89 Project)

4. Access to You.
A contact page is important. So is honesty. Trying to pretend you have no phone number because you are not wanting to give away that you live somewhere no one ever heard of is silly. Actually being somewhere other than the big centers could work to your advantage. You know, at some point you will have to give me a phone contact, so just get it over with. I have seen too many websites with insufficient contact information.

And forget contact forms. No one wants to fill out those things. If you must have one, keep it simple and to the point. Ask only for what you need and keep it to only a few fields of information.

Embedded maps to your studio makes it valuable for your clients as well.

5. Information For Clients – and possible clients
This is especially important for those of you who do work with the same kind of subjects. Senior Portrait and Wedding Photographers have information pages that can be very robust. From fees and packages to what to wear and what to expect, these pages give a client confidence in the professionalism of the photographer. Make it downloadable so they can print it out, share it with friends, and spread your name around.

If you are working with portraits, have a page that can relax the ordinary person. What to expect, what to wear, what to do to get ready. Make sure your contact information is there. (Actually, I like contact information on every page.) Let the possible client know how well you prepare for your shoots. It can be quite interesting to people, who are not currently clients, when they see the detail and planning that goes into your work.

Examples:
KaizenPhoto (LA)
Kevin McLellan

6. A PDF to Download
Whether it is a portfolio, or a few images in a project, or even a fee/information document, a PDF download can be a wonderful way to get viral with your work. It may get printed then passed around and seen by people you have no way of every marketing to. That is called viral… and that means that you also have no cost involved in delivering your message to those people who inadvertently ended up with your PDF.

Creating something that can be taken by the client, possibly printed out and saved is a great branding tool. And if they can send that portfolio to peers and clients, that just gets the work out to more and more interested people. Keep your branding on every page in case the document gets split up. Wouldn’t it be terrible if someone saw an image and really wanted to work with you, but couldn’t find you because the contact information was on a page not attached? Suck? Oh yeah.

Mini Portfolios can be designed in InDesign, Word, Photoshop or Illustrator and then saved out as PDF presentations or documents. The nice thing is that they work cross platform and nearly everyone can see them. Keep your branding and contact information on every page and hope that tons of folks download it.

Examples:
Frank Petronio (Possibly NSFW)
Cherrystone Photography
Jim Lewchuk

7. Big Photos.
Yes, we are now at the point in our connections that we can show big pictures. And show them really big. Buyers love them and if they are optimized well, they look great and download fast.

I don’t recommend any larger than 900 pixels wide, as larger could be a problem with some browsers having to go sideways scroll to see the full image.

Should they be in html or Flash… I don’t care really, but my strategy is to allow every image to be searched with keywords, alternate text and keywords. Searching for an image and finding mine could lead me to some new clients. If I try to hide from the world from fear of someone using my images, I may lose to someone who puts the images out there with no fear.

Fearless promotion means being comfortable enough to show the big images big. Without worrying about the occasional thief. And when you do find someone who took your picture be ruthless and powerful and do whatever you can to expose and punish them.

8. iPhone Compatibility
The smart phones and devices are becoming very hot right now. Make sure your site can be seen on them, or at least mostly seen. I have known photographers who have gotten portfolio showings from their iPhone presentations. Me being one of them.

As more and more smart devices become the rage, being seen there will be an important strategy. People Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo and more from their smart phones… looking at websites is one of those things they do as well. To dismiss that trend as meaningless (as someone did recently) is to be simply unaware of the way things are going. I like to be out and have a nice presentation at my fingertips. I’ve shown it at restaurants, pageants, the skate rink, in airports… and walked away with contact info. Three jobs this year directly tied to the iPhone presentation.

So if you have to have a site in full Flash (sigh) then at least make sure that the portfolio images can be seen on an iPhone or other smart devices. (BTW, Flash is not compatible with iPhone technology at this writing.)

Examples:
Steve Dreisuszun
Chase Jarvis
Eccentris

9. A Very Strong “About Me” page.
Introduce yourself. Tell us about who you are and why we should consider using you for our assignments. There are lots of photographers with good work. There are probably other photographers that do a similar style, and subject matter. There are cheaper and there are more expensive shooters, and there will always be. But there is only one of you. Let us know a little about your sense of humor, and how you see yourself. Above all, be clear and concise and be who you are.

The “about” page is one of the most viewed pages on a site. Does yours say anything about who you are? Are you comfortable with people not getting the impression you want? Do you have an impression that you want to impart on them? I hope so. People hire people. They like knowing a little about who is behind that site or voice on the phone.

Make your “About Me” page as robust as you can. Tell ‘em all about you… you crazy devil you.

Examples:
Chase Jarvis
Don Stevenson

10. Multiple Channels of Content Delivery
That’s a fancy way of saying you need to have other ways to get content under your site. The most easily understood is a Blog. Whether it is a full text and image Blog, or a Photoblog, it is a way for your site to gain content and keep the visitors interested in what you are doing.

Wedding and portrait shooters have been successful in building interest in their work by showing images from recent weddings and engagement shoots, portrait sessions and just fun personal shots.

Commercial shooters are using blogs to create buzz and interest in their work. And interest begets interest. When people are talking, it creates a sense of excitement. And that creates interest and that creates more visits by more people. More people mean more exposure and that can mean contact from people you have never met in places you have never heard of.

A. Blog or Photoblog
B. Social Network (FaceBook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Plaxo)
C. Twitter – even if only for a tweet a day… to stay connected.
D. Email Portfolio showings
E. Additional Portfolio Sites to show off your work.
CarbonMade
BigBlackBag
Format Pixel
Viewbook

These are places where your work can reside, and portfolios managed. Most of them have great tools for sharing those portfolios on all kinds of sites and digital media. So more people can see your work and link to to your site. And that means a higher ranking with SEO. And that, gentle readers, is a good thing. A very good thing.

I hope you enjoyed this post for the business section… “Going Pro”, we are back with a lighting post and two Photoshop posts next week. On the following weekend (Aug 8, 9) I will be in Seattle for a workshop. Hope to have some time to wander around and shoot. I will keep you all posted.

32 Ways to Use Facebook for Business

http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/21/32-ways-to-use-facebook-for-business/

Facebook’s not just for keeping tabs on friends and filling out quizzes — it can also be used as a highly effective business tool. It’s great for marketing your products, landing gigs and connecting with your customers.

Here are 32 ways to use Facebook in your business.

Manage Your Profile

1. Fill out your profile completely to earn trust.
2. Establish a business account if you don’t already have one.
3. Stay out of trouble by reading the Facebook rules regarding business accounts.
4. Install appropriate applications to integrate feeds from your blog and other social media accounts into your Facebook profile. (Although you should be careful before integrating your Twitter feed into your Faceboook profile, as a stream of tweets can seem overwhelming to your contacts.)
5. Keep any personal parts of your profile private through Settings.
6. Create friends lists such as “Work,” “Family” and “Limited Profile” for finer-grained control over your profile privacy.
7. Post a professional or business casual photos of yourself to reinforce your brand.
8. Limit business contacts’ access to personal photos.
9. Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.

Connect and share with others

10. Obtain a Facebook vanity URL so that people can find you easily.
11. Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
12. Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on web site redesign.”
13. Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
14. Combine Facebook with other social media tools like Twitter. For example, when someone asks question on Twitter, you can respond in detail in a blog post and link to it from Facebook.
15. Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
16. Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.
17. Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
18. Use Find Friends for suggestions of other people you may know to expand your network even further.
19. Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friends lists.
20. Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
21. Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
22. Share survey or research data to gain credibility.
23. Use Facebook Connect to add social networking features to your web site.
24. Suggest Friends to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.
25. Buy Facebook ads to target your exact audience.
26. Read up on Facebook Beacon to see if it might be useful for you.

Use Network, Group and Fan Pages

27. Start a group or fan page for product, brand or business. Unless you or your business is already a household name, a group is usually the better choice.
28. Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to company site, newsletter subscription information and newsletter archives.
29. Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
30. Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
31. Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
32. Use search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.

How do you use Facebook for business?

Related Posts

• GigaOM: Do Facebook Vanity URLs Equals Kill Twitter Vol. 2?
• GigaOM: Facebookers Can Cash Out, Sell Shares to Russians
• WebWorkerDaily: 33 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Business

18 Great Sites To Learn A New Language

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/18-great-sites-to-learn-a-new-language/

BBC Languages

BBC Languages’ site is very aesthetically pleasing, even though the organization is a bit confusing. The site is aimed at travelers, who only need to have a basic knowledge of a few key phrases in order to stay in a foreign country. Thus, BBC Languages offers “Quick Fix Phrases” in 36 languages to aid the weekend traveler in surviving abroad.

However, for those inclined to pursue either French, Spanish, German, or Italian further, BBC Languages offers a total of six 12-week courses in those languages. BBC Languages’ use of multimedia resources, including audio recordings of dialogues and videos of people encountering language-related mishaps overseas, makes this site a worthwhile site to check out, especially if you’re learning a language to travel.

LiveMocha

LiveMocha is one of the most full-featured language learning sites on the web: not only does it offer structured lessons for over twenty languages, but it also links you with other users all over the globe who are learning, or already fluent in the language you are learning.

As an incentive, LiveMocha uses a reputation system to encourage its users to submit flashcards and other teaching content, contact one another in order to practice speaking, and correct one another’s assignments.

The only drawback of using LiveMocha is in the event you are learning a language that does not use a Latin writing system – LiveMocha does not teach other writing systems, so for languages like Korean or Mandarin, you are on your own.

Check out Saikat’s review of LiveMocha here.

Babbel

Babbel’s premise is similar to that of LiveMocha – community driven learning. However, akin to previously mentioned Busuu, Babbel only offers Spanish, French, German, and Italian, and does not have LiveMocha’s structure.

Babbel teaches mostly vocabulary, and offers a very limited set of grammar lessons and writing exercises. However, when it comes to teaching vocabulary, Babbel is very thorough: it offers almost ten different ways to learn words, including “Listen and Match,” and “Slideshow.”

Like LiveMocha, Babbel also offers a chat, but rather than being one-on-one, Babbel offers five different chat rooms in the languages it teaches. In addition, Babbel hosts its own forum for users to interact and help each other learn.

Foreign Services Institute

The courses offered by the Foreign Services Institute were created by the United States Government and geared largely towards developing a verbal command for any particular language. All of the languages that FSI offers come with either a scanned textbook,  a large number of audio lessons, or both. Some of the more popular languages even come with a workbook.

In terms of solid material, FSI has the most usable content, but its lack of social features that allow you to interact and practice with other people is a major drawback, at least for me. However, if you’re not me, and would rather not have a social component to your language-related pursuits, then that shouldn’t bother you at all.

So today, I’ve introduced to you a few useful websites that will kickstart your language-learning adventures. However, the above sites may not be enough for you knowledge-hungry cosmopolitans out there, so indulge yourself in the following, language-specific links.

Spanish

Study Spanish - Best used in conjunction with Babbel, Study Spanish is great with grammar, but very limited with vocabulary.

Voices in Spanish- A Spanish Podcast – for intermediate to advanced students.

Learn Spanish at About.com – A conglomeration of other articles, the highlight being lessons on Spanish culture.

Chinese

Min Multimedia – Although the main page is a bit disorganized, the lessons are quite structured. Each has embedded audio, practice worksheets, and homework.

Chinese Tools – Grammar lessons, in addition to useful tools for writing in pinyin, converting between simplified and traditional, etc.

CRIENGLISH – Every lesson comes with a flash video, a review of difficult points, vocab, cultural tips, and more.

French

French Language School – Very well organized grammar lessons, but lacking interactive exercises.

The French Tutorial - Lacks exercises, but the lessons are downloadable as a printer-friendly PDF textbook.

Japanese

Learn The Kana – Uses cute image association tricks to help students learn Hiragana and Katakana.

Nihongo o Narau – A great collection of resources, including Japanese songs, to help you learn and practice Japanese.

Italian

Learn Italian at About.com – A collection of articles teaching various points of Italian grammar and vocabulary.

Italian Language School - The most complete, free Italian lessons I can find; comes with podcasts too!

German

Deutsch Lernen - 34 German grammar lessons (10 beginner and 24 advanced), accompanied by exercises and tests

DW-World – An impressive range of interactive lessons categorized by difficulty, and a progress meter for each lesson!

Whew, that was a lot of links. In any case, you should now have no excuse not to play around with the links and learn something new. If links don’t cut it for you, check out previously covered AIR application Popling , which pops up vocabulary words in your chosen language, or watch somesubtitled music videos!

Are you dabbling in any languages? Do you have a tried and true site for learning languages? What do you think is the best method to learn a new language? Let us know in the comments!