Today I want to get some discussion going around ‘best shots’ - and give you a chance to show yours off.
- What is the best photo you’ve ever taken? If it’s hosted somewhere online (like Flickr) please share a link to it.
- Why do you consider it to be your best shot?
- Tell us about how the shot came about. What was the situation, did you plan it or did it just ‘happen’?
- What kind of camera did you use? What settings did you select or what ‘mode’ were you in?
Can’t wait to see your best shots and stories in comments below.
I’ll highlight some of my favorite shots submitted on a blog post later in the week to highlight some of the DPS community’s work.
Weekly Assignment
Well, this week, we finished the Sunny Days assignment, which may have been difficult if you’re one of those people in the middle of winter. But if you’re stuck in winter, these sunny pictures should be just the ticket to warm things up a bit. Our winner this week was MatthewBotos for his wakeboarder shot, which just epitomizes the warm, sunny days of summer and the activities that go with it. Our runners up were ating76 for the beach shot that looked almost out of a travel brochure with the blue sky and clear water, and kiriryche for her picture with the sun behind her face and the lens glow that just screams sunny days!
We also started a new assignment this week. Put off your diets for another week because this week is Food Photography and it’s your chance to make our mouths water. In order to be eligible for the mini contest, you need to have taken your photo between 9 - 23 July 2008, the exif must still be intact, and you need to include the words “Assignment: Food” either in your post title or your post in order to show that you want it to be included in the contest. Next week’s assignment is “10 Minutes from Home,” so get 10 minutes from home using your chosen mode of transportation and start shooting!
Weekly Poll
In this week’s poll we wanted to know if you take more pictures in the summer or winter.
dakwegmo said “I take more pictures in the spring than any other time. My two favorite subjects are waterfalls and flowers, which both seem to be in peak form in the spring. Summer and fall are about even in the photo opportunities they present. Winter is the only season where I have a noticeable decline in my photography.”
and jdepould voted winter for practical reasons and said “I take more in the Fall and Winter simply because of the way the academic schedule works. Colleges all have stuff going August-May, and the summers are pretty slow. That will probably change for me in the next year or two, but for now that’s how it is.” Read the rest of this entry
“What ISO is best for my pictures?”
Changing the ISO setting on your camera changes the sensitivity to light of the image sensor inside of it.
The lower number that you select the less sensitive the sensor is to light (and conversely the higher the number the more sensitive it becomes).
This is useful when you’re shooting in different lighting situations - particularly when there’s low light and you might not be able to use a flash (you’d bump up your ISO setting in this case).
The only cost of increasing ISO is that as you do it you’ll notice that the ‘noise’ or ‘grain’ in your shots also begins to increase.
You probably won’t notice this graininess on your images when lookin at them on the LCD on your camera - however when you get them back to your computer they’ll become noticeable with higher ISO settings.
Here’s an example that I’ve used previously with two images taken with exactly the same settings except for the ISO (100 on the left, 3200 on the right).
As a general rule you should choose the lowest ISO possible for smooth and grain-free shots.
6 Questions to Ask to Help Choose the Right ISO
Of course when photographing low light scenes there may be no other alternative so I’d suggest asking yourself some of the following questions when choosing what to set ISO at:
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Sometimes it is what is missing from an image that makes it so special.
One of our most popular posts on this site is How to Photograph Silhouettes. One of the things that I love about Silhouettes is that the lack of detail created by a silhouette can leave the viewer of the image to fill in the gaps with their imagination.
Today I thought I’d add to the theory of the topic by posting some examples of silhouettes to give a little inspiration to take some of your own.
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The following article on capturing fast moving images was submitted by wildlife photographer and author Joe McDonald from hoothollow.com. Learn more about Joe and his work at the end of this post.
Some of my most successful and exciting images have involved high-speed flash photography of wildlife in action, and incorporated a lot of planning, a heavy use of technology and equipment, and a bit of luck as well. Over the years I’ve photographed a variety of action sequences, from owls and bats flying at night to leaping geckos, frogs, and grasshoppers, to striking rattlesnakes, gliding sugar gliders and flying squirrels, and a host of others.
Planning
The planning that is involved revolves around pre-visualizing the images I intend to make, whether that’s a collared lizard running on its hind legs like a miniature dinosaur or a Texas wood rat leaping from one branch to another. This pre-visualization is important since I’m not reacting to a pose and then snapping the shutter but instead I am firing the camera at a specific time with the hope that my subject will be where I’m expecting it to be.
Technology and Equipment
The technology and equipment involved includes using electronic flash units with a sufficiently fast flash duration to freeze my subject’s actions, and a tripping device to fire my camera or flashes at the precise moment. Of course, there is a bit of luck involved as well, as its possible that every pose captured just isn’t right. However, if one defines luck as when opportunity meets preparedness, one can make ones own luck and accomplish the task. That I can’t help you with, but I can the first two, so variables, so let’s look at the flash requirements first.
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Every month or two I like to create a list of helpful tutorials and resources from around the photographic web.
This time I think you’ll agree that there’s been some wonderful tutorials written. I’ve included 17 from other sites - 5 from our archives (this time last year) and 3 great photoshop video tutorials.
17 Hot Photography Links From Around the Web
- Make Your own BikeCAM - a fun DIY with a video
- 5 Ways to Hold Your Viewer’s Attention - 5 simple composition techniques
- Transforming a Daylight Image into a Wild Night - Photoshop tutorial
- Nine Reasons to Manually Focus When Taking Pictures - sometimes manual focusing is your best option
- The Importance of focus and quick tips on how to get it right - another focusing related tutorial
- My Photography Workflow - Photographer Thomas Hawk talks us through his workflow
- The 15 Second DIY Adjustable Snoot! - a fast DIY
- The Nuts and Bolts of Off-Camera Flash - first part of a four part series on off camera flash (part 2 here).
- 8 Photography Myths Debunked - just what the title says :-)
- Getting Rid of Dust Spots - Photoshopping tips
- Flicker Flash - How to capture movement with a series of strobe flashes
- Introduction to Digital Photography - 10 Ways to Improve your skills
- On Assignment: Night Chopper Pt 2 - 2nd in a series of shots taking you on a shoot of a chopper at night
- Your Guide to Buying Old Film Cameras - Feeling Retro? This one’s for you!
- Seeing the Possibilities - a great post on how to see possibilities in different locations
- Understanding Camera Exposure Modes - talking you through spot, evaluative and center-weighted metering.
- Curves color enhancement tutorial - a video screencast of GIMP in action
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