Are you about to spend hours cramped in coach? You’ll want to use these airplane hacks to make the long-distance flight super comfortable and stress-free.Twelve Airplane Hacks that will allow you to have a better time during your next Long-distance Flight.Take a look at these Airplane Hacks.

Are you wondering how to survive long flights?

Flying can be stressful for anyone and having to sit in a cramped cabin with a bunch of strangers is just unbearable for some people.

Luckily, there are certain things that you can do during your flight to make it easier on yourself!

You may be interested in learning about some airplane hacks that will give you new motivation to fly. Keep reading and see if some of them may be just what you need.

12 of the Best Airplane Hacks for Your Next Flight

No one likes a long flight and some people don’t even like short flights. Here are some things that you can do to make your flight a little bit more tolerable.

1. Charge and Load Your Devices

Charge up any device you may want to use on the plane before you even leave for the airport. Make sure that your chargers or extra batteries are with you during the flight as well.

You need to double-check that you have any downloaded music, movies, or TV shows that you plan to watch ready to go as well.

It can also be helpful to download the airline’s app just in case you may decide you want to use their service.

2. Dress for Comfort

You want to be comfortable when you fly.

Remember that you want to go for clothing that is breathable and easy to move in. You want to be able to relax on your flight!

While you can be comfortable, you may not want to look like you just rolled out of bed.

If you’re wondering why you should wear leather sandals on your next flight, you should know that they go with a lot of different outfits and they are easy to relax in.

3. Get a Good Seat

Your definition of a “good seat” will depend on what you need.

If you want to sleep, you should go for the window seat closer to the front of the plane. The front of the plane is quieter and by the window, you aren’t disturbed as often by others.

If you need extra legroom, you need to choose an aisle seat or (even better) the exit row.

If you’re looking for the best service, you should try to get an aisle seat that is close to the back of the plane. This is where the flight attendants are generally placed in the plane and you can get their attention easily.

4. Bring a Travel Pillow

Although a lot of people associate a travel pillow with sleeping, it is also about comfort. Your body needs support and the pillow can help you better than the back of the seat can.

You also may want to consider a lumbar cushion for your long flight if you have lower back pain.

5. Drink Water

One of the most important things to remember when flying is to drink water.

You get dehydrated very easily from flying and drinks like coffee or alcohol make matters even worse.

Get a large bottle of water at the airport or even bring an empty one through security to fill on your own.

Try to finish the whole thing before the end of your flight and you’ll feel better than you would have without it.

6. Enjoy the In-Flight Entertainment

There are generally a lot of great movies that you can watch with most airlines and they are provided with the price of your ticket.

This is great news for people that like to be distracted while flying because you can easily take the time to see that flick you haven’t had time for when you’re on a long flight.

7. Prepare Your Mind

A lot of the time we get so stressed about the flight that it ruins part of the travel experience.

When flying, you are generally going to visit a new location or somewhere you haven’t been in a while. Fill this time with stuff that you enjoy doing so that you don’t have to dread it quite so much.

Use your time to prepare for your trip, read a book, listen to music, or even just have a good snooze.

Think of things that make you feel relaxed and try doing some of those activities during your flight.

8. Bring Anti-Bacterial Wipes

Let’s face it. Planes can be pretty gross.

Minimize the amount of risk you are exposing yourself to by wiping off all of the areas that you might touch around your seat during the flight.

Long flights mean being in the same space with lots of people for a long time, so staying healthy while flying is as important as being comfortable.

This will help you relax a bit easier and give you one less thing to worry about.

9. Have Some Snacks

It’s a good idea to have some snacks with you in case the in-flight service doesn’t start for a while. You want to eat on your own schedule, so come prepared.

10. Be Friendly to Others

This may seem kind of strange, but when you’re nice to other people, it makes you feel better.

It’s a good idea to be kind to all of the people that you come across on your journey and that includes the people you may meet before you get to your destination.

So, put on a smile and remember the golden rule. You’re all going to get through this flight together!

11. Try Not to Sit By Kids or Babies

It may not seem like a big deal, but sitting by an infant that won’t stop crying halfway through the flight or a kid that is so restless he can hardly focus is not fun.

Avoid the hassle by trying to find a seat farther away and scope out an empty seat before the plane takes off to ask if you can move.

12. Get Plenty of Rest

No one likes to be grumpy, but people especially don’t want to be grumpy before a long flight.

There are too many other things that can potentially irritate you, so put your best foot forward and get a good night’s sleep the night before take-off. It will raise your spirits and help you feel more positive about the journey ahead.

Take Charge of Your Next Long Flight

With these airplane hacks, your next flight should be a piece of cake.

The name of the game is relaxation, comfort, and a peaceful demeanor. Flights don’t have to be terrible and doing at least a few of the mentioned things will help.

For some more travel tips, keep browsing our website and see what else you may be able to learn!

Mastering natural light is one of the fundamentals of photography. Contrary to popular belief, you can take good photos even when it’s not the “golden hour” or when there’s no available light. Even as a beginner or aspiring photographer, you can definitely shoot at any time of day and still achieve good quality output. You simply have to learn how to distinguish the characteristics of the lighting that you get during different times of the day so that you can optimize your specific conditions and use the right camera settings or photography tools to help you achieve the best photo possible.

What are the different times of day for photography?

• Golden Hour
• High Noon
• Afternoon and Mid-Morning
• Blue Hour
• Nighttime

Golden Hour

Alternatively referred to as the “magic hour,” the golden hour is the period shortly after sunrise and before sunset. Many photographers see it as the best time to take photos as it is when the sun gives off a softer, reddish-pink light that effortlessly makes for dramatic and artistic images that are perfect for various photography niches like portraiture, landscape, and wedding photography.

Taking photos during other times of the day may require you to use additional lighting equipment and other accessories to achieve the color, saturation, and exposure that you want for your image. But during the golden hour, you get your desired effect—as well as a gorgeous wash of color—with little or no help from any additional gear.

High Noon

Direct, downward lighting produced during midday or high noon creates photos that look flat, thus making photographers shy away from shooting during this time of the day. The effect of harsh lighting in photos is due to the fact that the light is undiffused, which often discourages many photographers from shooting outdoors during this time.

However, this can actually be a good time for shooting subjects with reflective surfaces, like bodies of water or glass. Water normally presents unattractive reflections during other times of the day when light is bouncing from different angles. When shooting at noon, light penetrates deeper into the water, making it appear more transparent.

Afternoon and Mid-Morning

This time of the day is best for general photography as it is when the sky casts a slightly more yellow and subtle light that enhances skin tones, reduces blown out highlights, and eliminates harsh shadows.

With exposure worries out of the way, it’s perfect for taking photos of all sorts of subjects and sceneries. However, you’ll still have to pay attention to proper framing and the composition of your photos because lighting often appears flat and doesn’t highlight the features of the subject.

Blue Hour

Also known as dawn, dusk, or twilight, the blue hour is the period before sunrise and after sunset. During this time, contrast is typically low, and the lighting casts a cool pastel undertone. The direction of the sun’s rays comes from below the horizon so lighting is more subdued.

The blue hour occurs only for a couple of minutes, so you have to be quick when capturing photos during this period. Images occasionally appear a little too blue, so warm filter gels and the tungsten white balance feature on the camera are often used to neutralize this.

Nighttime

Shooting at night presents a different kind of challenge for a photographer, since sunlight is completely absent during this time. But thanks to customizable camera settings, shooters can capture beautiful and unique nighttime photos of the city and starry skies by taking long-exposure shots.

The absence of natural lighting can also give you some of the best dramatic portraits and glamour shots, since you have the freedom to choose your light source—car lights, street lamps, external flashes, what have you—and direct the way the light falls on your subject.

Here are more tips for shooting during a specific period of the day and achieving beautiful, well-exposed photos:

Shooting During Your Favorite Time of Day:

We now know that we have more creative control of the photos that we take during the golden hour, high noon, mid-morning or afternoon, blue hour, and nighttime. On top of knowing how to make use of the natural advantages of shooting during these specific times. there are ways that we can further improve our photography style and the quality of our photos taken while shooting during these times of day.

Tips for Shooting During the Golden Hour

Shoot in RAW format

Should anything go wrong—especially in terms of exposure and white balance—while shooting your subject, having your image files in digital RAW format instead of compressed JPEG will give you more control and freedom to make major edits during post-processing, since all the pertinent details of your photo will be retained.

Set your white balance manually

The temperature and color of the sky during the golden hour will change by the minute. As you shoot, you’ll get more of that unnatural yellow undertone in your images. Instead of choosing between fixed white balance options like Fluorescent, Daylight, Cloudy, or even Auto, you’re better off setting your white balance manually so you can get the colors in your photos as accurate as possible.

Choose the best times for shooting

To yield a more pleasant and even softer effect for your photos, it’s usually advised to take your shots 15 minutes before the golden hour ends for mornings and 15 minutes after for afternoons. The reddish-pink hue won’t be as strong, but it effectively prevents excess light from washing out your subject.

You may also want to chase after the morning golden hour, which is clearer than the afternoon golden hour due to reduced haze in the atmosphere. At the same time, it has a cooler undertone that can enhance the color of your photos.

Tips for Shooting During High Noon

Minimize unsightly shadows

As much as possible, we refrain from placing subjects in positions that could possibly create unnecessary shadows in the frame. Shooting portraits and objects during high noon makes this incredibly difficult since the light source comes from above, thus creating blown out foreheads, sunken eyes, and harsh downward shadows everywhere.

One approach you can take is to have your subjects face downwards or upwards just enough for the light source to properly expose and bring out prominent facial features. Or, you can use a reflector to bounce harsh lighting and create a more diffused fill light to eliminate shadows on your subject’s face.

Shooting scenes at this time will also give you high contrast, washed-out landscapes, but neutral density or polarizing filters can help you improve your color saturation, make image elements pop, and reduce the dynamic range in your noontime photos.

Experiment with your photographic approach

Another way you can make this type of lighting work is by focusing on various aspects of the image instead of just on your subjects. You can choose to show a different perspective, specific details of a subject that you can zoom in on, or just make the shadows work for you. See how you can approach around your subject under this kind of natural light or come up with a composition—perhaps dramatic or abstract—where the presence of high-contrast elements in your photos can be appreciated and perceived as art.

Change your focal point

Despite midday lighting being difficult to work with, it has one major advantage—it brings out the many different, stunning, and brilliant colors that we don’t often see together during any other time of the day. Take advantage of this by take photos of colorful surroundings.

Should you wish to include a subject in your shot, you can also frame it so that it takes up only a small portion of the frame, by either zooming out or placing it in the background. This way, the audience’s primary focus will be on the bigger and more colorful negative space in the photo, instead of on your subject.

Tips for Shooting During Afternoon or Mid-Morning

Select your background carefully

When choosing a background for your subject, make sure that it complements your subject’s appearance or features well. Diffused, natural lighting during the afternoon or mid-morning does this effortlessly, but it’s a different story when you use the sky, sun, or reflective and bright backdrops as your subject’s background. You’re likely going to end up with shots of your subject blending in with the bright backlight (especially if they have bright-colored hair and clothes) or appearing as a silhouette instead of giving them a lovely rim light.

If you really want that slightly washed out look, you can counteract bright backlight with ample fill light—with a flash or reflector—in front of your subject. This also ensures that there will be enough contrast between your subject and background, since not having enough of it among elements within the frame can sometimes result in a dull-looking photo.

Use the spot meter

Shooting portraits under afternoon and mid-morning lighting can sometimes be a challenge, especially when you’re trying to keep your subjects properly exposed or hoping to achieve that hazy, slightly washed-out look. In this case, you can use a spot meter to manage the probability of overexposure. This is also particularly important when shooting faces of your subjects up close.

Control lights and shadows

Aside from properly exposing your subject with lights or camera exposure settings, you also have to consider the position of your subject and the shadows casted within your frame so that they do not interfere with your shot. Before you click the shutter button, check if there are shadows hitting prominent parts of the face like the eyes, nose, and lips.

When shooting multiple subjects, make sure that no shadow is hitting another so it doesn’t end up ruining the appearance of your subjects and distracting your viewers from your focal point.

Tips for Shooting During the Blue Hour

Use the Shutter Priority Mode

Shooting during the blue hour is a lot like shooting in the dark of night—light will be your main element and saving grace. In order to capture somewhat brighter photos before sunrise and after sunset, you’ll need to rely on your camera’s shutter to allow a greater amount of light to enter the lens. Under this mode, you can set the shutter speed to your own preference (typically between one to six seconds) and avoid getting underexposed photos.

Shoot as steadily as possible

Shooting under low-light conditions can make it difficult to get good quality photos as is. You’ll definitely need all the help you can get to alleviate factors that can contribute to poor image quality, which in this case is camera shake from holding your camera or manually clicking the shutter. You’ll need to use a tripod or monopod as well as a remote shutter or your camera’s timer to prevent motion blur and help you produce clear and sharp long exposure images.

Capture more available light

Since there is barely a hint of sunlight during this time, you’ll mostly get blueish photos during the blue hour. Including parts of a scene where there is some visible light, such as cityscapes, introduces more (hopefully warm and contrasting) colors that will add life to your image and make it appear more dynamic.

Tips for Shooting During Nighttime

Capture the unseen

The best thing about shooting in the dark of night and having a highly-capable camera is the ability to see what the naked eye can’t. Instead of sticking with cityscapes and night skies for your nighttime photography, go ahead and use even slower shutter speeds to capture sceneries where there is seemingly no available light. Allow your lens and camera sensor to do its magic and deliver you some of the most interesting, peaceful, and even desolate shots of the ocean, mountains, or deserts.

Experiment with exposure settings

Unlike when shooting during the blue hour, shooting at night often requires the use of much longer shutter speeds, higher ISOs, or even infrared filters to be able to gather enough light for your image. You’ll be surprised how the difference of a just few seconds of exposure can give you different results. For these reasons, it will definitely take you some time to understand how different exposure settings can affect your shot and give you your desired results. Invest your time in night photography and you’ll be amazed with the quality of photos that you can deliver.

Use motion blur to your advantage

To be able to achieve a sensible nighttime shot, you’ll obviously need to use much slower shutter speeds and accept the presence of possible motion blur, depending on your choice of scenery. Instead of going for photos that are sharp all across the frame, you may want to be creative and capture images with moving cars, clouds, or stars. You can even use light play using flashlights or even fireworks to create artistic shots during nighttime.

Flights might seem like the simplest mode of transport, but a ride on the fastest train in the world will challenge airplanes on travel time, not to mention efficiency. And while headlines may proclaim Japan’s L0 Maglev between Tokyo and Nagoya the fastest train ever, with a 313 mph average speed that cuts the time it takes to travel between the cities by half, it’s not scheduled to start service until 2027. So although there are faster ones in testing than those in this list of the fastest trains in the world, we’re only featuring high-speed rail currently in service, that you can actually ride right now.

Here are the world’s fastest high-speed trains in commercial service, ranked by speed.

1. Shanghai Maglev: 268 mph

The world’s fastest train isn’t the newest, the shiniest, or even the one with the most expensive tickets. Charging 50 yuan (about $8) per person, per ride (or double that for a “VIP” ticket in a slightly more spacious cabin), the Maglev runs the nearly 19 miles from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport to the Longyang metro station on the outskirts of Shanghai. That’s right, the train—which takes just over seven minutes to complete the journey—doesn’t go to the city center. As such, the bulk of the passengers since its 2004 debut have been travelers on their way to and from the airport, cameras out and ready to snap a photo of the speed indicators when the train hits 431 km/hr (268 mph).

2. Fuxing Hao CR400AF/BF: 249 mph

China wins again, also serving as home to the world’s fastest non-Maglev train currently in service. The name “Fuxing Hao” translates to “rejuvenation,” and each of the trains have been branded with nicknames: CR400AF is “Dolphin Blue,” and the CR400BF is “Golden Phoenix.” (The “CR” stands for China Railway.) Both take just under five hours to zip up to 556 passengers each between Beijing South and Shanghai Hongqiao Station, easily halving the nearly 10-hour time it takes to ride the conventional, parallel rail line between these two megalopolises. The lines served by these trains have greatly expanded over the last several years, with newer routes including Jinan-Qingdao and Guangzhou-Zhuhai, and a 2018 debut of what remains the world’s longest high-speed rail route, from Beijing to Hong Kong in nine hours.

3. Shinkansen H5 and E5: 224 mph

A bullet train pioneer, Japan debuted the Hikari high-speed train launched service between Tokyo and Osaka way back in 1964 that, cutting travel time between the country’s two largest cities from nearly seven hours to a mere four by rail. The H5 and E5 series Shinkansen, respectively running the Tohoku and Hokkaido services, are two of the newer bullet trains on Japan’s tracks, and they’re expected to make their international debut on India’s first high-speed rail line, connecting Mumbai and Ahmedabad, in 2026.

4. The Italo and Frecciarossa: 220 mph

Italy’s dueling train operators, NTV and Trenitalia, each flaunt a high-speed train that tie as Europe’s fastest, capable of shuttling passengers around much of the country far faster than by car. An international route from Milan to Paris, taking six hours, has proved to be so popular that Trenitalia has increased their daily frequencies. The Frecciarossa, or “red arrow,” was unveiled during Expo 2015, held in Milan, and the train is remarkable as much for its speed as for its construction; its components are nearly 100 percent renewable and sustainable.

5. Haramain Western Railway: 217 mph

The Mecca-Medina high-speed link stretches the 281 miles between Saudi Arabia’s most holy cities and was fully completed in 2018. Traveling the length of the route takes two and a half hours, compared to five hours by car. Speed isn’t the entire justification for the construction of this railway, however; the Haramain carries millions of passengers a year, including many Hajj and Umrah pilgrims, relieving traffic congestion. In 2019, Saudi Arabia announced plans to triple the size of its rail network by adding nearly 5,000 miles of new track, although not all will be high-speed.

6. DeutscheBahn ICE: 205 mph

The distinctively futuristic white and silver of the Inter-City Express, or ICE, combined with its sharp red cheatline, makes an impressive sight speeding through scenic German countryside. And, with Deutsche Bahn placing more and more orders for them, they’ll become quite a common sight by 2030, when some 450 ICE trains run on Europe’s rails. Similar to Spain’s Renfe AVE train, Germany’s fastest train is a Siemens design, the Velaro, and was built to fit through the Channel Tunnel. This fact is important as DeutscheBahn has long-term plans to operate these trains from Frankfurt to London.

7. Eurostar e320 and TGV: 200 mph

Both the TGV and Eurostar e320 trains are tied for next on the list, but the latter underwent a redesign in 2015. Named for its top speed of 320 km/hr (200 mph), the e320 series is the first tip-to-tail redesign of a Eurostar train in the company’s 22 years. The speedier trains—20 km/hr faster than the earlier, e300 series—are capable of trimming another 15 minutes off the already zippy Eurostar trips of around two hours between Brussels, Paris, and London, and cutting the comparatively lengthy ride from London to Amsterdam to under four hours.

8. Al Boraq: 198 mph

Named for a winged horse animal from Islamic lore, Al Boraq puts Africa on the list of fastest trains with an hourly, 116-mile service between Tangier and Kenitra, in Morocco. From Kenitra, it must slow down to travel on regular tracks into the Casablanca terminus, but the entire journey is still sliced in half, from almost five hours of travel time to just over two hours. Debuting in 2018, the train’s destinations are expanding as the rail infrastructure is upgraded for high-speeds, with Rabat next on the list.

9. Renfe AVE: 193 mph

Spain’s fastest train is the Velaro E by Siemens, and it is used for long-distance services to major Spanish cities and beyond: traveling from Barcelona to Paris can now be accomplished on high-speed rail in six hours.

10. Korail KTX: 190 mph

South Korea’s high-speed rail network may not be the newest (the KTX, or “Korean Train Express,” debuted in 2004) or the shiniest, but it does hold its rank among the fastest. In 2018 the train enabled athletes and spectators to reach the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics direct from Incheon International Airport, cutting the journey from six hours to under two. The newest route, on the Jungbunaeryuk Line connecting Bubal and Chungju, cuts through the center of the country to reach a region cherished for its mountains, caves, and natural springs.