Weekly Assignment

222/365 (by puckers52)You can tell it is winter for a lot of our forum members if you look at the Landscapes assignment we finished this week. There were a lot of snow covered landscapes out there. Our winner this week was one of those snow covered landscapes, lisa‘s Lonesome Tree. The soft colour palette, composition, and simplicity of the landscape really made it stand out amongst the other lonesome trees. Our first runner up was Cpt‘s Once Upon a Time. The starkness of the shot with just hints of the house and the lonely horse standing outside really tells a great story of winter. It suits it’s title of “Once Upon a Time” very well. And last, but not least was RH09‘s Winter Sadness. We liked the way that this shot implies the nature of the landscape while keeping many of th elements in the foreground. The photo does give off a feeling of the sadness many of us feel during winter. Well done everyone!

Once upon a time (by Cpt<HUN>)winter sadness (by RH09)Our newest assignment this week is Streets. Whether your street is rural or urban, busy or quiet, we want you to show us the personality of a street by you. Use what you learned in your landscape shots because it will come in handy in creating a scene that shows the sense of a place. Make sure you consider your choice in depth of field and composition when taking the shot. We want to feel like we’re there. As always, a quick overview of the rules if you want to participate in the mini-contest. First, your photo must have been taken between 13-27 January 2009. Your post must include “Assignment: Streets” and the date it was taken. Finally, your EXIF should be intact and it’s helpful if you can include the main points in your post (camera, lens, ISO, shutter speed, and aperture). Next week’s assignment will use a compositional technique that we’re often told to stay away from: Centered Composition. Centered composition is generally considered too static, but a centered subject can be very arresting and dominate the composition. So the next assignment is to take a photo where the main subject is dead center.

Hot Threads

  • Your General Shooting Technique: One of the questions that came up in the forum this week asked what steps you go through when shooting a picture? What order do you set your ISO, shutter speed and aperture in? Do you use a handheld light meter or a grey card? What are your personal rules of thumb for when you’re shooting a scene? Come share your techniques over in the forum.
  • 3 Rules for Great Candid Photography: If you’re interested in candid photography, a great tutorial was posted last week which offers some tips on how to get started. From tips on how to set your camera to tips on how to approach the overall candid photography genre and even people, this thread has a wealth of tips to get you started.
  • If you could ask one question of a sports photographer…: What would it be? This was posed in the forum last week. How do you pick the one question that you would ask? As an aside, sports photographer Jim Bryant has been participating a lot answering questions in this thread. So throw your question in the thread (whether they’re for Jim or another sports photographer).
  • Werewolf before and after the moon: Sometimes we get some amazing photoshop manipulations on the site. And this time Usuqa has been kind enough to explain exactly what he did to transform his subject into a very convincing werewolf. If you’re looking for a photoshop challenge, this may be the thread for you!
  • What Would You Do: Every week we post a photo from a forum member for you to practice your post-processing skills on. This week is no different. Whether you’re a pro or just starting on learning post-processing, you’re welcome to participate in the thread.

Read more from our From the Forums Category