This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (20-26 Sep ‘09)

Weekly Assignment

This week’s assignment was Contrast. Contrast can be found in visual design in colour as well as black and white, and it can also be found in textures and subjects. Our winner this week was villafane928’s Cowboy shot. The black and white of this shot had excellent contrast. The deep blacks in the shirt and pants along with the dark hair really made the subject stand out. Our first runner up was another black and white shot. beverlykaytw’s Walking up the Hill had a nice balance between the land and the sky and also brought the dark and light together creating a sense of contrasting parts of the land and contrast in the black and white. Our final runner up was madfox1’s Pencil shot. With this shot there were several kinds of contrast. The red and green are contrasting colours on the colour wheel. Then the different black and white patterns provided contrast between each other. The overall shot really just caught our eyes.

We also started our Shadow assignment this week. When we take our shots we often want to eliminate shadows. But shadows can also be a powerful element in the composition of a photograph. There’s only one extra rule for this assignment: No pictures of your shadow on the ground (too easy!). In the mean time, our standard rules for the contest apply. You must take your photo between 16 – 30 September 2009. You must include the date the photo was taken and the words “Assignment: Shadows” in your post. And the EXIF should be intact and it’s useful if you can include some of the main points in your post (e.g. Camera, lens, ISO, aperture, white balance, etc). Next week’s assignment will be Collections.

Hot Threads

• Post your best beach photos: As summer comes to an end in the Northern hemisphere and prepares to start in the Southern hemisphere, there’s no better time than now to show off your best beach photos. Come over and join us in this Share Your Shots thread where you’re welcome to share your best beach photo.
• Wide angle lens tips: Wide angle lenses can produce some great shots, but they can also be challenging to use. If you’ve ever wondered how you can improve your wide angle shots or if you have some tips and suggestions for how people can improve, come share in this thread.
• Which settings affect RAW?: Everybody talks about how you can really push your post-processing when you shoot in RAW. But what are the settings that cannot be changed after the fact, and which ones are more flexible? If you’ve ever wondered just how important it is to get it right in the camera is, this is the thread to read.
• What can I do with old flashes?: What do you do with your old flashes once you no longer have the cameras or when they’ve been sitting around unused for a while. Don’t throw them out, these old flashes can still be useful. Have a look at this thread for some suggestions about how to breathe some new life into those old flashes.
• What would you do?: Each week we run a thread where you have the chance to edit another forum member’s photo. Whether you’re a post-processing pro or new to the world of image manipulation you’re more than welcome to show us what you would do.