This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (30 Aug – 5 Sept ‘09)

Weekly Assignment

Whether the weather was warm and sunny or rainy and frightful, we saw all kinds of it in our Weather assignment this week. It seemed like everyone had some weather to show off, which made our choices difficult. But we were still able to pick some favorites. Our winner this week was MatthewBotos‘ Foggy Sunrise. What we liked about this shot was that it almost looked like Mars rising in the sky with the red ball of fire. This contrasted nicely with the fog which just barely illuminated the landscape really bringing the attention to the red sunrise. Our first runner up was DigiCosmicAngel’s rainy diptych. You can almost feel the desire to get out of the house or in this case, the desire to go out and enjoy the rain after months of dry, sunny weather. Our final runner up was another black and white rain shot, but one by Ram-Z. We liked the shot because of it’s simplicity and effectiveness. It shows that you don’t need to have drama to create a well done weather shot. It was also very nicely timed with the frozen water drop.

As kids in the northern hemisphere are heading back to school, we decided to make this week’s assignment School Days. So whether you have kids in school, kids starting school, or no kids at all, show us what school days mean to you. As usual, we have a few rules for those who want to participate in the mini contest. First, your photo must have been taken between 26 August – 9 September 2009. Second, your post needs to contain “Assignment: School Days” and the date that the photo was taken. If it doesn’t have both of these things we will not include it in the judging. And last, your EXIF should be intact and it’s useful if you can include some of the main points such as the camera, lens, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Next week’s assignment will be “Seven Deadly Sins” so lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride are all eligible for the next assignment. Stretch your imagination and show us how you would interpret one of these sins.

Hot Threads

• Objection to being photographed: When photographing people in public there is always the risk that they may not want to be photographed. Depending on your country there may be various laws that govern photographing people without their consent, but that aside, how do you do when people don’t want to be photographed, especially if they confront you?
• You know you’re getting into photography…: There are certain signs that you’re really getting into photography. Like when you spend more time looking at the photographer’s gear than looking at the bride or when you go to movies to look at the lighting rather than to watch the movie. So what are those things that make you think that photography may be becoming just a little too important?
• Slightly different light painting (still life): One of our forum members not only shared an excellent explanation of a lighting technique this week, but also shared a link to a video explaining the technique. Instead of using speedlights or constant light to light a subject, this post explains how to use light to paint the subject to create depth and shadow in just the way you want it.
• Hyperfocal or Point in distance: Hyperfocal distance is a way to determine how much of your subject will be in focus. It’s often mentioned along with landscapes, but can also be used on other subjects. But how many of us understand hyperfocal distance and even more importantly, how many of us actually use it?
• What would you do: As the weekend rolls around again, it gives us all another chance to play with editing a photo in our weekly post-processing thread. So whether you’re a novice or an expert, or just interested in learning a little more about the post-processing aspect of photography, come drop by the thread and try your hand at editing this week’s photo.