This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Another week in the forums and things have been busy! We’d love to see you drop by if you haven’t already.

Weekly Assignment

We completed another assignment this week, Everyday Artifacts. So we saw lots of everyday items in a new light. In fact, this was why pictures were selected this week was because of their ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Our winner this week was peeperita for her coffee filter picture. Wulf said that they looked like clam shells at first. Our runners up were neonfish3 for an incredibly abstract CD stack that really caught our eyes for looking so different than the ordinary CD stack, and tekla for an umbrella with beautifully composed colours, patterns, and lights. Well done everyone!

This week we also started a new assignment: Fragility. In order to participate in the weekly mini-contest, you need to include “Assignment:Fragility” somewhere in your post, the picture must have been taken between 7-20 November 2007, and the exif must be in tact. Next week’s assignment is “Movies”, so feel free to start shooting those entries any time now.

Weekly Poll

This week we asked if people used filters in their photography, and which ones they use. Most people actually said that they do still use filters. The most commonly used filters were UV filters, Polarizing filters, and ND filters. Coming in with a few results were also IR filters. Most people felt that the filters that they used were the ones that could not easily be replaced in post-processing, or the ones that provided protection for the lenses.

This week we would like to know if you do your black & white photos in camera or in post-processing.

Hot Threads

External Monitor for Digital Camera: Darryl asked a question about whether there was some way to view his pictures on an external monitor directly from his camera, rather than removing the memory card all the time. This thread offers a discussion of the possible drawbacks and ways that you can view your pictures.
Lady Godiva: In this critique thread, peeperita shows off some portraits that she took of what else? A lady and a horse. One of the discussions that came out of this thread was how to create more dramatic light and how to get an appropriate depth of field.
JPEG File Size: A technical question about JPEG file sizes after converting to RAW. prrs4me noticed that the file sizes for the JPEGs seemed very large. This thread attempts to answer the question and balance the question of quality or file size.
Please Critique my Composition and my Editing Skills: Night photography is difficult, and it can be even more difficult to see what the “magic point” is where you’ve done enough editing to make the scene something wonderful rather than going overboard and losing the mystique of night shots. This thread offers some suggestions on both the editing and the photographic process.
A Count to a Thousand!: Welly started a new thread up to see if we can get the numbers from 1 to 1,000 posted in pictures. Right now the thread is up to #16, so if you have a picture of a number, check out this thread and post it when the number comes up.

Other Threads to Note

Another week means another What Would You Do thread. This week, we reminisce on Pirate Day and have a seaworthy photo to edit. If you want to practice your post-processing skills (or show them off), then drop by this thread and have a try at editing this week’s photo. There’s also a new Classic Rock Challenge this week, and the album of the week is Don Mclean’s American Pie. So, if you’re feeling up to a challenge, drop by the thread and show a photographic interpretation of one of the album’s tracks.