This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (14-20 Feb ’10)

Weekly Assignment

We continued our month of food photography this month with our Fruits and Vegetables Assignment. The goal was to progress on what you learned in the Desserts Assignment and apply it to fruits and vegetables to make them look just as appetizing. Well, you guys really did well. This week’s winner was gomommygo‘s Fresh Tomato. We liked how fresh it looked, but also it was well lit, had nice colours, and the water droplets really added a nice texture and emphasized the fresh feeling. Our first runner up was Alvidziune‘s Lemons. The fruit looked so freshly picked our mouths were watering. The simple composition really let us focus on the fruit and the bright colours helped contribute to the fresh look as well. And last, but not least was sdhondatuner‘s Peaches. They may have been canned, but the staging was really well done. The peaches on the fork looked absolutely appetizing and had the feel of an ad. Well done!

We’re on to assignment 3 in the food photography month which is Main Dishes. Main dishes can include a number of different things. Soups, large salads, meats, sandwiches, pastas, pretty much anything you would eat as the main portion of your meal. As usual, a quick rundown of the rules for the assignment. In order to participate in the mini-contest to have your photo featured on the blog, your photo needs to have been taken between 10-24 February 2010. In order to ensure that it’s counted in the voting process, your post must include the words “Assignment: Main Dish” and the date that the photo was taken. Finally, your EXIF should be intact, and it’s useful if you can include some of the main points, such as shutter speed, aperture, camera, lens, ISO, etc. Next week’s assignment will be Beverages. So whether they’re hot or cold, alcoholic or not, we want you to quench our thirst for some interesting photos.

Hot Threads

• Focus Stacking Software: One of the biggest difficulties you may encounter with macro photography is getting the entire subject sharp. Well, equitation has a solution for that. In this thread he shows us how he used focus stacking software to combine 24 photos into one incredibly sharp photo. This can be done in Photoshop CS4 or using software specifically for the purpose.
• What Are You Looking for When You Critique?: An interesting question came up in the forums this week asking what people look for when they decide whether or not to critique a shot. Often times shots in the critique section get views, but very few critiques. So what is it that prompts you to offer your opinion? Come share your thoughts over in the forum (and maybe jump in and critique a few threads while you’re at it).
• How to Get People to Relax: If you’re taking portraits of people, or trying to take portraits of people, one of the most important things can be getting people to actually relax during the session. But how do you actually get people to relax? Come share your hints, tips, and suggestions over in the forum.
• What To Do When Inspiration is Running Low: It happens to the best of us. The dreaded photographer’s block. But what do you do when it happens? Do you take a break? Try to push through it? What gets you back on track? Come share your thoughts with us in the thread.
• What Would You Do: As usual, we have another week of our What Would You Do editing challenge. The game is simple, you edit the photo of another forum member which is posted in the first post of the thread. Then you come back and show us and tell us how you got from the original to what you posted. It’s a great learning exercise for beginning and expert editors alike.
• Life dPS Photography Competition: This is the last week you have a chance to enter into the competition to win part of nearly $3000 worth of prizes thanks to DigitalRev. The theme is Life, and you only have until 27 Feb 2010 to be in to win.