This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums

Weekly Assignment

It leaves us sad to know that the Leaves assignment is over. But we were very happy with some of the lovely pictures that came out of it. Our winner this week was KodiakStar’s Leaves You Can Eat. The vibrant, primary colours along with the different look at the subject made it really stand out. duna’s Leaves in Water was our first runner up because it was sharp where it needed to be and smooth everywhere else, really making the autumn leaves stand out. And last, but not least, our final runner up was gabrielh’s Autumn Leaves for how nice and vivid the golden leaves were. Great job everyone!

This week’s assignment is Headshots. So the pictures this week need to be only from the neck up, making the face the feature of this shot. The picture can be of yourself or someone else, but make sure that the face is the subject. In order to be eligible for the mini-contest, your photo needs to have been taken between 15 – 29 October 2008, it must include “Assignment: Headshot” somewhere in the post, and the exif must be intact (it’s also useful if you include the main points like shutter speed, ISO, aperture, lens, and date taken in your post).

Next week’s assignment will be slightly different since there is a sponsor for the contest. The assignment will run for 2 weeks instead of one, and the winner will be chosen by thinkTank, the contest’s sponsor. The assignment is “What’s in Your Bag” and the winner will win a thinkTank Rotation 360. Good luck!

Hot Threads

• DPS Scavenger Hunt – 1st Challenge: KodiakStar started out this challenge by asking forum members to suggest 25 items that other members could find and photograph. Now the challenge is on to find those 25 items. Come read about the scavenger hunt, and add your photos in the forum thread, and in the Flickr Group.
• “Free” photo session and model release or contract form?: What is the sensible thing to do when you do a free photo session and you want to use the photos? Should you get a photo release? And for that matter, how do you go about advertising these sessions? If you have any advice to offer, come join us in the forum thread.
• A post processing guru: Do you ever feel discouraged by the fact that everyone seems to be a post processing guru? Don’t be disheartened, our forum members have some good suggestions about how to make post-processing photos feel less like a trek up Mt Everest, and more like a walk in the park.
• Low-cost marketing ideas?: Well, maybe you’ve decided to give out those free or cheap sessions, but now you want to figure out how to advertise your services without spending an arm and a leg. Come join the discussion about low-cost marketing ideas for help getting the word out there.
• What Would You Do (#74): What Would You Do is our weekly post-processing challenge for people of all skill levels and post-processing programs. So whether you use Picasa, the Gimp, CS4, or anything else in between, if you want to try your skill at post-processing someone else’s image, come join us in the What Would You Do thread!

Other Threads to Note

If it wasn’t enough to have the competition for the camera bag going on next week, don’t forget about the contest to win a DSLR over at Photrade, which ends on 31 October 2008. There are lots of great entries over there, but there’s still a few days left to get your entry in. Good luck!