portrait-framing.jpgInspired by a tutorial on photographing people that was posted in our forum recently I thought it might be fun to set another photography challenge for our readers (image to the right by darkmatter).

The tutorial talked about a professor setting his class the assignment of shooting 4 rolls of 36 exposure film (144 frames) of 144 different people (one shot per person) all with a 50mm prime lens.

Obviously times have changed a little, not everyone has the time for 144 shots and not everyone has a 50mm lens – so I decided to adapt the challenge.

The Challenge:

Over the next few days set yourself this little challenge.

1. Choose a single focal length. If you have a prime lens use it – if you don’t choose a zoom lens and commit to only using it at one end of its range.

2. Photograph 10 people – with each person only take a single shot.

3. Share your 10 shots with us. The easiest way is probably to upload your 10 shots to a Flickr account (or some other photo sharing site) and then group them all together into one group – share the link to that group in comments below.

Why this challenge?

The power of this kind of challenge is that it forces you to think before you shoot.

  • Not having the liberty of using a zoom means you need to consider the impact of using the focal length you’ve chosen. It forces YOU to move around your subject rather than to let your lens do the work.
  • Having only 1 shot per person means you need to think about your shot – it’s composition, the light, your exposure, the framing etc.
  • Showing us your images helps us all to learn. I’d love to not only see your images but to hear a little about how you found the exercise. What did you learn? What would you do differently?

I hope you take the challenge – I’ll try to feature some of the results next week here on DPS.

PS: if you don’t have time for or access to 10 people do as many as you are able and then share your shots. If you want to do 20, 30 or 144 people – go for that too!

Read more from our Portrait Photography Category