This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Weekly Assignment

This week we finished the Clashing Colours assignment. There were a lot of really interesting shots showing how colours that we may not usually think of as going well together, really can stand out. The choice was difficult, but we managed to find 3 shots that really stood out to us. The winner this week was alfenner who took her fake pear downtown to a store that she knew had some “awesome blue paint”. Even if her hubby was a bit embarrassed, we think he’ll be happy to know that it was all worth it! Our first runner up was tenille for her shot of Federation Square in Melbourne where the red umbrellas clashed with the green of the glass. Our final runner up was hlngre23 for the shot of the blue and orange teeth locked together which created a very interesting clashing abstract. Well done to everyone who participated!

This week’s assignment is Sharp, so watch out. This is one of those topics that has a lot of different ways to interpret it, so as always show us how creative you are. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest, your photo must have been taken between 4 – 18 June 2008, the EXIF must be intact, and your post must include “Assignment: Sharp” in order to show your permission for it to be included in the contest. Next week’s assignment is Natural Framing. For more information on this you can read the DPS blog article or check out this other article called Frame Your Picture.

Weekly Poll

This week we were curious what setting you change first (most often) when you’re trying to get a better exposure. A lot of people said they changed the aperture first.

Matthias099 was one of those people and said “I usually have my camera set to aperture priority. So that’s the first thing I change to get the desired shutter speed.”

Seltzer, however, said “Wait, we are supposed to change those things? Hmm.. I’d have to say I usually go with shutter speed, depends on what I’m shooting, then aperture.. I don’t often touch my ISO.. I’m on the lazy end of if it looks decent enough and gets the idea it’s fine with me.”

corry said “i guess i change the ISO first for where i am, indoor/outdoor etc.”

And last, but not least, Sime, well… “Oh No Darling, I just get my assistant to “make it work”…POOOOOF – Sime wakes up…”

This week, thanks to some of the answers, the question is which mode do you shoot in most often?

Hot Threads

• Have you ever shot yourself in front of a mirror?: Come on, admit it, have you done it? ditch_azeroth wants to know how many people have taken the proverbial photographer head shot where you’re in front of the mirror with your camera.
• How do I take good lightning shots?: Spring is in full swing, and summer storms are coming up too. Lighting is one of those elusive things that often makes you want to grab your camera and capture a shot or two. But how do you actually do it? Check out this thread for some hints and tips, and if you have some shots of your own, why not share them in the thread?
• DPS Business card?: Seltzer had an idea that often you see people with cameras that may not know quite how to use them (or you may just need a quick reference card yourself), so he thought, why not create a small wallet size card that has some basic information and a link to DPS on it. Now he’s looking for help and input from the forum to know what people would actually want on that card. Come join the discussion.
• Tags and Tagging: Another new feature of the forum is that you can now add tags to your threads. This makes it even easier to find threads on the topics you’re looking for because sometimes titles and searches don’t quite match the topic. In fact, why not have a look at the current tag cloud if you want to see some of the popular topics being discussed at DPS.
• Fun with Flickr Tags (Wordle): Speaking of tags, if you tag your photos at Flickr, there’s a fun way to view your tags visually at Wordle. There are directions in this thread on how to make your own wordle, and if you do make one, why not come back to the thread and share your wordle art.

Other Threads to Note

What Would You Do is back for another week. This is our weekly post-processing thread where you get to practice (or show off) your post-processing skills on someone else’s photograph. The goal is to edit the photograph in the first post in whatever way you would edit it, then come back and play show and tell. Show us what you did, and tell us how you did it. The game is open to anyone with any level of skill, so don’t think that you can’t play just because you don’t have a fancy piece of software. If you can edit it, you’re more then welcome to join in.