This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

This week has been a very busy week in the forums! Let’s start the weekend update by going over some of the things that have happened. First, we reached the 10,000 member mark (Congrats to member 10,000, Somerslea). Who would have figured that in just over a year we would have so many people on the forums. Next, we started an overhaul of the forums in order to make things more user friendly for everyone. We added a section for people to share shots in when they aren’t looking for critique, and totally revamped the critique section into 7 separate sections. And to help us out in the new critique section, are 8 new Critique Moderators. So lets give a warm welcome to them. There are plenty of other things being worked on as well, so make sure to check out the thread to see what’s coming and see how you can help us out with the changes. Believe it or not, there were still things going on in the forum this week, so let’s see what there was.

Weekly Assignment

This week we finished the Good Use of Depth of Field assignment. We saw a lot of use of very shallow depth of field, but there were also some really good assignments that used a very deep depth of field. Either can be used effectively depending on what you’re photographing. Our winner this week was MattSoave, however, and his shallow depth of field shot of a flamingo blew us away. Our runners up this week were mac_man_luke for his use of a very deep depth of field when he photographed the rocky coastline and zillygal for her use of a shallow depth of field when photographing her grandson and focused on his eyelashes.

We also started a new assignment this week, and the theme is Minimalism. Minimalism makes the subject of your photo the strongest part of it, but if you’re looking for some more information on what minimalism is, Japaslavin wrote a great post on it over on the forums. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest, your minimalistic shots need to have been taken between 16-30 January 2008, the exif data must still be intact, and you need to include the words “Assignment:Minimalism” somewhere in your post. Next week’s assignment is eyes. Good luck!

Weekly Poll

This week we asked forum members how many of their shots they considered to be “keepers”. Most people said that it was under 50% of their shots, which isn’t too bad considering Ansel Adams said that 12 good pictures in a year was a good crop.

rajah sulayman answered that he considered a relatively high percentage of his photos keepers, saying “This was a tough call. I answered 51-75%, but it’s really much closer to 51% than 75%. And even then, of that 51+% that I keep, there are maybe only 10% that I’m truly proud of. Not that the rest are bad by any means, just that it’s usually only maybe 5-10% of my total number of shots that I say “Boy, I really lke that one.”"

reyjinn however, said that the percentage of shots they keep is lower and provided us with a definition of keepers, saying “I decided to understand ‘keepers’ as pictures when trying to achive something in particular so I voted 0-10%. But when the quality is less important (holiday shots, candids of friends/family, party shots etc.) then I guess I’m in the next bracket (11-25%) might even be a little higher when luck is favouring me.”

This week, we’d like to know if you 365/threesixtyfive.

Hot Threads

Vultures sunning themselves: Our first thread is one from the new Share Your Shots forum. Kirbinster shares some of his shots of turkey vultures that were sitting on chimneys trying to get warm.

Water droplets: There’s something about freezing water in motion that makes for some really interesting photographs. Snapdragon shares her technique of how she managed to catch water mid-drip as it splashed down on to an apple.

Fun with LEDs: vishi shows us how to take pictures of LEDs using a unique setup… attaching the LED to a ceiling fan to give it motion! Of course, I’m pretty sure the ceiling fan wasn’t on at the time, but who’s to say that wouldn’t make an interesting photo too.

Do you delete or keep “bad” pictures: Well, the title kind of says it all, but what do you do with your “bad” pictures? Do you keep them? Do you delete them? Do you only delete the really bad ones? We found out how many of your pictures you considered to be keepers, but what do you do with the rest of them?

Other Threads to Note

Another week in the form also means another chance at our weekly post-processing thread, What Would You Do. In this thread, forum members get a chance to process someone else’s photograph and show them how they would fix it. One of the great things about the thread is that often times a member is shown a new way to take a photograph and make something they weren’t thrilled with into something that they really enjoy looking at. So make sure to stop by the thread if you want to participate. We also have another week of the Classic Rock Challenge. This week, the album to interpret through your photos is Tesla’s “Five Man Acoustical Jam. The goal of the classic rock challenge is to interpret either the album title or a song title through your photographs. So throw on some rock and show us what you’ve got.

Finally, make sure to keep posting in the forums this month, since every genuine post you make until February 14, 2008 enters you into a contest where one person will win a new camera and 5 runners up will win either a book or a set of rechargeable batteries.