This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Weekly Assignment

Circles has us spinning around in them this week. There were lots of great entries, and yet we managed to pick 3 that we thought really stood out. Our winner was amy-rose for her picture of a baby in a basket which really stood out for the black & white and simplicity of the shot. Our runners up were AKG83 thinking out of the box and not only showing what a circle is, but defining it at the same time, and liliann for her picture of the little boy blowing the seeds off a dandelion that used to have a perfect circle.

Whether it’s 90, 180, 360, or something in between, this week’s assignment is Angles. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest, your exif needs to still be intact, the image must have been taken between 16-30 April 2008, and your post must include “Assignment:Angles” to show your permission for it to count in the contest. Feel free to include other shots, but if they do not meet the contest requirements, do not use “Assignment: Angles” in your post. Next week’s assignment will be Converging Lines.

Weekly Poll

Wow, I think this has been one of our most popular polls and it’s great to see so many people participating in them. This week we asked if you started with film or digital.

BlueSage started out with film and shared this story: “I started photography as a kid with point and shoot cameras and my parent’s Pentax 35mm. I took photography as a 4-H project and learned some basics like framing and the rule of thirds. In college I took a basic photography class and learned a few dark room tecniques. In 1996 I bought a good film camera of my own. I’ve always been the family photographer, taking tons of pics and getting everyone together for photos. My Dear Husband had a good Canon film camera, but after dropping it in water for the second time (while taking pictures of the fish he was catching) it was unrepairable. About 5-6 years ago, DH and I purchased an early digital camera (used) from a friend.”

Canadian Mum shared this story about how she considers that even though she started with film, her real start was digital “because it is only since I have had my current digital camera that I have started to take a true interest in photography as an art-form… not just a way to capture my family history. I have always enjoyed taking pictures. When my children were little, I was always taking pictures. As they are getting bigger, I still take a lot of pictures. With my current camera though… I have started to take pictures of other things. I have been trying to develop my photography as a hobby and a way to express myself. I have started to learn about what goes into composition, exposure, ISO, Depth of Field, Macro… all those things. I find myself seeing the photographs that are out there… things seem to present themselves in different ways.

Photo by Saralonde

Check later this weekend for a new poll.

Hot Threads

• Getting your subject(s) to relax?: If you’re taking pictures of people, one of the most difficult things has to be getting your subjects to relax. You know the guy who always looks like a smile is beyond him or the woman who’s smile couldn’t possibly look more fake. How do you get them to actually relax so you can get those natural looking portraits?
• What’s up with this horizon?: We’re all used to seeing posts about getting the horizon straight, but what about when it’s curved? No amount of rotating the picture can fix that. So what causes it and how do you fix it? Find some answers in this thread.
• How to get a starshaped sun: While this post is aimed at showing you how you can get a star shaped sun, the information in the post works for any bright sources of light. See how you can get your photos to have starbursts in them without any special equipment other than a camera that let’s you change the aperture.
• Orphan Works Act: While this discussion has come up before in the forums, in the last week the US Congress introduced a bill called the Orphan Works Act which had previously failed in 2006. Read a little about it in this thread and how it may affect you and your copyright.

Other Threads to Note

It’s time for another week of What Would You Do, our weekly post-processing challenge. In this thread, you use the picture in the first post, edit it, and come back and post your results along with what you did. Whether you’re new to photo editing or you’ve been doing it for years, it’s all about how you would edit the picture, so don’t be ashamed, come participate! It’s lots of fun. There’s also another week of our Classic Rock Challenge where you try to interpret one of the song titles using a picture. This week’s album is The Cars “Complete Greatest Hits”. Good luck!

Finally, this week is your last chance to be in to win a Nikon D60. All you need to do to be in to win is to be a member of the forum and be an active member of the forums between now and the end of April. Every time you post in our forums in any way (asking a question, answering someone else’s, sharing an image, critiquing someone else’s, posting a review of a camera or book etc) you enter this competition. The more you post the more chances you have to win (make one post in April and you have one chance to win, make 200 posts and you have 200 chances to win).