Digital Photography School

This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Wow, this week we passed 7,000 forum members! Which is a huge amount of growth since the forum has been around for less than a year. If you haven’t already stopped by to say “hi,” we’re all pretty friendly and love to see new faces.

Weekly Assignment

We finished the Water II assignment this week, and boy did we see a lot of the stuff. There were lots of great entries, but we managed to pick out a winner. The winner this week was Thingy for his colourful water droplet which was done with wrapping paper in the background. Our runners up were GaryMoffat for the cloudy and overcast picture which froze the water as it hit land and barladeanca for freezing the motion of the water as it came out of the sink tap.

We also started the new weekly assignment, and this week’s assignment is Hands. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest, you need to have taken the photo between 17-30 October 2007, the exif must still be in tact, and you must include “Assignment:Hands” somewhere in your post. We look forward to seeing what those hands can do.

Weekly Poll

Last week we asked forum members whether they had any previous formal photography education… or at least any organised photography education. The response was pretty overwhelming that people were self-taught. Over 90% of the people who answered said they were self-taught. But I suppose that’s why we’re all at the Digital Photography School, right?

Saralonde said that she was self-taught, also said “Sometimes I wonder if I had taken an organized course if I would be a little farther along at this point, but I’m still plugging along under my own speed. There is so much info on the internet that covers virtually every aspect of photography, even places like DPS that will give you feedback. But I admit that sometimes I look at the courses offered by Betterphoto and NYIP and wonder if it might be worth it.”

Of course, then there’s clockdoc, who has plenty of education on the subject under his belt and still enjoys photography. Talk about doing what you love. “While working as a student photographer being mentored by the university photographer, I made the decision to seek a degree in photography. Received a BA from Brooks Institue of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA with a major in cinematography. Later completed MS at the University of Southern California. Taught photography at the junior college level and have continued to read/hone photographic skills since that time.”

This week’s poll asks whether or not you title your images and how.

Hot Threads

Cold Weather Photos: Winter is slowly creeping up on the Northern hemisphere, but that doesn’t mean that you have to put the camera away. There are a few things you need to be aware of when you’re shooting in cold weather though, so check out this thread for some tips.

A Very Basic Guide to Critiquing Images: The Critique My Shot section of the forums is one of the most popular, but often people don’t know where to start with a critique. If you’re stuck on how to get started critiquing an image, drop by this thread for some handy hints.

Experimenting with Softboxes: Lighting is one of the most important aspects of photography because without it, you’re going to have a really hard time taking pictures. Softboxes are one way to diffuse light onto a subject. ToTom explains how he made and used a set of softboxes to take a portrait.

Lighting…Where do I learn: Another lighting thread has also been popular this week. Where do you go to learn the very basics about lighting? If you’re just getting started with using extra lights, then stop by this thread and share some of what you’ve learned or ask a question or two.

Other Threads to Note

Well, last week, the alphabet threads came to an end, but feel free to keep contributing to them since they don’t close. The What Would You Do post processing threads are still going strong though. So if you’re interested in testing out your post processing skills, stop by these threads every Tuesday for a new picture to edit. Also, Halloween is coming up next week, so if you’re looking for a way to give your pictures a bit of Halloween flare, stop by this thread for some spooky post-processing tips.

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