This Week in the Digital Photograph School Forum (29 Mar – 4 Apr 09)

Weekly Assignment

This week we finished the Shallow Depth of Field assignment. There were a huge number of entries to go through this week, but there were a few that really stood out. Everyone agreed that withlime‘s Sandy Hand was a clear winner this week. The narrow depth of field captured enough detail, including the frozen grains of sand, to suggest a story. Even though the background had a minimal amount of detail because of the shallow depth of field, the pink, yellow, and red tones created a coherent palette of colours. Our first runner up was dj_grenier‘s Chrome Pipes in a Playground. The background lent itself to completing the in focus pipes, but there were also good colour tones and there was an effective repeating pattern. The shallow depth of field gave this picture an almost painted look. And last, but never least, jprime84‘s Snake. The clear, green snake head coming out of the misty green background was a very effective use of a shallow depth of field, and the entire shot had a very pleasing composition. Well done everyone!

We also started a more abstract assignment this week. The topic is Wisdom. We all know what wisdom means, or at least, we think we do, but how can that be interpreted in a photo? We want to see your photographs of wisdom this week. As always, there are a few rules for the mini-contest. First, your image needs to have been taken between 25 March – 8 April 2009. Your post must include the words “Assignment: Wisdom” and the date that the picture was taken. Finally, the EXIF should be intact and it’s helpful if you can include the main points such as camera, lens, ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Next week’s topic is “In the City” so for some people it’s just a step outdoors, and for others it may mean a little travel. Regardless, we want to see some urban shots that capture the feel of the city.

Hot Threads

• A No Flash Photography Wedding: Wedding photography can be difficult at the best of times. But another difficulty is added when the church doesn’t allow flashes during the ceremony. Come and share your tips for shooting a “no flash” wedding.
• Value your work and charge accordingly: Sometimes when we finally get a chance to sell our shots, we’re so happy just to have anybody appreciate our work enough to pay us that we’re happy to take whatever is offered. And some people who start our in their photography businesses price low just because they don’t feel like they can justify charging more. But Jim Bryant has written up a piece to explain why you should value your work and provides a few tips on how to charge what it’s worth. Come read the discussion and add in your own thoughts.
• Handy Flickr Add-Ons / Plug-ins / Scripts / Etc: Lots of forum users also use Flickr for posting their photos. The handy thing about Flickr is that if you also use Firefox, there are a lot of different add-ons and scripts that you can use to make your Flickr experience even better. Come find out some of the popular ones in this thread and feel free to add your own to the list.
• Convert Raw to What Format?: If you shoot in Raw, you already know that in order to print or display photos online you need to first convert them to another format. Jpg is one popular format, tiff is another. But what format do you convert to and why? And what Raw converter do you use? Come join in the discussion in the forum.
• Enter our Latest DPS Competition: If you’ve been following along on the blog or in the forums, you may know that there’s currently a competition running to win an Olympus Tough 8000 camera. Well, there are only another few days to go, and we’ve already received over 100 great entries. All you need to do to be in to win is to contribute a photo tip in the forum thread that’s 350 words or less. The full rules are in the first post of the thread. So think up those tips and head over to the forum. Good luck!