This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Well, let’s get into what’s been happening this week on the forums

Weekly Assignment

This week, we finished Self Portraits II. According to the other mods, I’m only allowed to announce the winners if I state just how difficult it was to pick our winners this week! You guys have done a fantastic job with this assignment. So, ummm, we have a 3-way tie this week. Plus I’m also going to mention an honourable mention. So, in no particular order, let’s get started. Paddy faced the assignment head on. There is just something about a photograph where the person faces the camera without shying away. It really bares the soul. Now Inn on the other hand shied away from the camera, only showing off her face behind her. And finally, Thingy… well, he claims he’s only half serious in this one, but I think that’s because he’s only half in (or half out of) the photograph. And finally, I want to mention our honourable mention because he only received 1 less vote than the winners this week, Tenjed and his shot of leaving the past behind him.

We also started a new assignment this week, just for Sime. It’s all about coffee. So, for all you coffee drinkers out there, here’s an easy one. In order to be considered for the mini-contest, you need to put “Assignment: Coffee” somewhere in your post, the shot must have been taken between 3-16 October 2007, and the exif must still be intact. Next week’s assignment will be Water, so watch for that on Wednesday.

Weekly Poll

This week was all about how long people have been photographing for. Considering the number of new members to DPS, I thought it would be interesting to see the different levels of skill that people bring to the forums. It’s a pretty good distribution actually. It’s good to know that we have people of all skill levels contributing to the forums.

Here’s one story from Teewinot about how long she’s been photographing: “I got my first plastic cheap film camera when I was about 8 (it was purple) and I actually got serious pretty much right away. I remember my dad teaching me about using trees to frame pictures. My photos were horrible quality due to the fact that the camera was probably about $10, but many shots were framed nicely. I went through a few more cheap film point and shoot cameras over the next few years. My photo collection grew and I began to really be serious about composition, even with my limited equipment. When I entered college I bought a Minolta X700 film SLR on eBay, got a bunch of lenses from my dad, and began shooting a lot more. A couple years later, digital photography got me curious so I borrowed my dad’s 2.1 megapixel Olympus p&s. I was hooked. And it was a good thing too, because I had been rapidly filling up way too many albums and spending WAY too much money on film development. In 2004 I bought a high-end point and shoot digital camera (my current camera) and bigger hard drive. I am currently on the look-out for a digital SLR! I love photography more and more everyday!”

Check out this week’s poll on Tripods.

Hot Threads

How to find places to take pictures: Just because you enjoy taking pictures doesn’t mean you don’t sometimes run out of ideas of where to go to do it. crazzy88ss asked this question and got some interesting answers about people’s shooting habits.

Shall I add a watermark?: How do you decide whether or not to add a watermark to your pictures? And if you do decide to add one, what kind of watermark do you decide to apply? It’s always a tricky question, so if you’re still struggling to decide, maybe this will provide some help.

Colour – Safari vs Firefox: This one is kind of for all the Mac users out there, but it also applies to people who actually use colour profiles in their photographs when they upload them. Have you noticed how different they can look when you view them in your browser? For Apple users this can be especially noticeable since Safari is the only browser to use colour profiles. So, for some answers to why your photos look different, try this thread.

Photo collage software: What do you do when you want to make a collage of photos? What happens if you’re interested in digital scrapbooking? Well, this thread discusses a few ways to do both.

Other Threads to Note

We’re only a week away from finishing the alphabet, can you believe it? This week, Y is for… things that are yellow, people who yell, and since it’s October, maybe even things that make you go “yikes!” And as usual, we also have another week of the What Would You Do post-processing threads. This week’s efforts are already looking really good. Finally, another reminder that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so stop by the thread and share your pink pictures.