This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Weekly Assignment

We finished off the food assignment last week, and boy did it make us hungry. There were a lot of pictures I wish were taken in my kitchen! And boy was it hard to pick a winner! Our winner was, however, zetson because that dessert really made our mouths water. Almond tart with raspberries, it looks like it’s straight out of a cook book! Our first runner up was Miss Mae for her blue and red bubbling berries. Those bubbles just made everything look so fresh and delicious, we couldn’t help but love this shot. And last but not least, a contrast to all the sweet foods, was Mic for the onion shot. The nice clean lines really drew us to this shot. In fact, it looks like you could pick it up right off the screen!

As usual, there is also a new assignment this week, and it is Ten Minutes from Home. Not 9 minutes, not 11 minutes, 10 minutes. Get on your favourite mode of transportation, whether it’s feet, a bicycle, a car, a bus, a plane, a segway, whatever, and head 10 minutes from home. When you get there, stop and take some pictures. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest associated with this week’s assignment, your photo needs to have been taken between 16 -30 July 2008, the exif must be intact, and you must include “Assignment: Ten Minutes from Home” somewhere in your post or post title to show that you want it included in the judging. Next week’s assignment is “x-tychs”. The goal of this assignment is to create a image made up of between 2-7 images that’s meant to be viewed as a single image. For example, a diptych consists of 2 pictures. Check out this week’s assignment for some tips on how to create your own x-tychs.

Weekly Poll

This week, we asked a post-processing related question for our weekly poll and wanted to know which kind of files you save when post-processing? And surprisingly a lot of people out there save their files at every step!

Especially Heidilyn, who said “LOL I save everything (I never know when I might need it). I shoot in jpg – ALWAYS save the original. I save any changes (naming it under a diff name, so it doesn’t over write the original) And I also save the .psd. ( I do this for all of my photos, and also my web design work that I do)”

And windrider86 was one of the few who said “I always shoot in raw but hardly ever keep the original”

The weekly poll will be back next weekend, so keep an eye out in next week’s weekend write-up for what the question is.

Hot Threads

• Do you have a “specialty” that you photograph?: Well, the thread title seems to say it all, but have you ever considered whether you’re more of a “shoot everything” sort of photographer or whether you have a niche? Well, either way, why not come and discuss it in the forum! Come tell us whether or not you have a specialty, and of course, what it is.
• I heart DPS: We love it when people like DPS, we like even more when they *heart* DPS, so, when this picture was shared, well, we couldn’t help but share it with everyone else.
• Hel Cleaning Camera – I have spots on images: No matter how hard you try, no matter whether or not you ever change lenses on your camera, if you have a SLR, you’re almost bound to get dust spots on the sensor. So what do you do when this happens? You ask for advice in the forums of course, and then find out several different things you can do to try to get rid of those pesky spots.
• What Would You Do (#61): Time for another WWYD thread, our weekly post-processing thread where you can practice your skills or show them off using a photograph from another DPS member.