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A few months ago, we ran a little tongue-in-cheek piece in the PhotographyBB Magazine about the best way to back up your digital photos – print them. It’s true, as digital storage technologies change (how many of you still own a CD-ROM?), the fine art of printing our images truly do make them stand up to the test of time. Not unlike the craft of …
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Photo challenges (or photo “assignments”) are a great way of helping us to step out of our comfort zones with the camera. We post one new challenge to our forums monthly, were everyone is welcome to push themselves in coming up with spectacular photos based on the theme which we assign! Remember, the name of the game here is not only great photography, but having fun and thinking creatively. And your assignment theme is…
Assignment #61 Theme: The Shadow of an Object
Timeframe: Jan 16th to Jan 31st, 2012
Entries are to be submitted here: Assignment #61: The Shadow of an Object (PhotographyBB Forums)
The challenge is to take a BRAND NEW representing the given theme.
We’ve done shadows before, but this time we’re doing it with a twist – the shadow must be of an inanimate object. Working with shadows are a great way to improve both composition and your skill with light. Will you use a flash, or natural lighting? Shadows are a great subject as they are devoid of detail, and thus challenge you to work with form and shape. Will your object’s shadow be instantly recognizable or abstract? All is fair game, and everyone is welcome to participate. Be creative and have fun.
Important (Please Read): With all of our photo assignments, the object (besides having fun) is to learn something new, even if that means learning how to see the world around you in a different way. Therefore, we only accept entries for new photos which have been taken during the assignment time frame (see above). You may submit up to 3 entries in total, and the top 3 photos will be selected and published (with image acknowledgments) in an upcoming issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine.
In our efforts to help photographers grow and improve, our photography assignments are designed to test and push your creative bounds to the limit. These photo assignments are intended to encourage our members to see the world in different ways, try new camera techniques, and photograph subject which you may normally shy away from. We feel that in doing this, you will ultimately find new challenges for yourself which will help us to all grow as photographers. Our photography assignments are open to everyone at all skill levels and are to be submitted through our assignments section in the PhotographyBB Forums. Membership is completely free and you can register in seconds, so feel free to join our community of photographers where we participate in assignments, share photos, and discuss photography all day long. We have a supportive and friendly community of photographers and beginners, and this is a great way to get to know one another. Have fun, and happy photographing!
We look forward to it all year long and now Christmas is just a few short days away. Each year brings new precious memories, and as photographers, we enjoy preserving those memorable moments as best we can in photo. Our skills, techniques, and vision improve year over year, and I felt that these 8 tips would help to provide a solid base for capturing some great images this Christmas.
Christmastime is one of the trickiest times for white balance control. If you’re outdoors shooting snowy landscapes, all of that white snow can play tricks with your camera’s metering and white balance. The best bet is to set a custom white balance as soon as you go outside to shoot. Alternatively, you can shoot in RAW and adjust the white balance in post process. We also have some great tips for snow shooting and white balance control in our December 2011 Edition of the PhotographyBB Magazine (Vol. 47).
If you’re not going to be braving the cold, there will be plenty of indoor moments to capture also. Take care to set your camera’s white balance based on the indoor lighting so that your images don’t come out looking too warm (although a little is nice this time of year).
Capture Moments, Not Faces!It’s not always about getting everyone to sit still and pose with a big smile. Memorable moments are all about creative spontaneity. One way to capture such photos is to shoot the Christmas Day action without your subjects knowing. Try photographing your children from the back as they open a present. Look for ways to capture the festivities while purposefully not including faces. It can be challenging, but the results are worth it.
As with the previous tip, make photos of your family/friends that are not posed. This time, look for expressions of wonder, excitement, laughter… In the beginning it can be difficult with everyone being aware of the camera, so keep shooting throughout the day. People become less aware and you’ll be able to grab some great shots of natural moments and pure expressions. Posed photos of loved ones are great, but candid shots that capture reality in a frame can be timeless. Shooting in burst mode with a fast lens is ideal in these situations.
Blur is Good, Bokeh is BetterWe all love beautiful bokeh, but Christmastime has to be one of the best times of year to experiment. Throw your camera out of focus and aim for those Christmas lights. Indoor or out, a whole new world of creative opportunity opens when you bypass detail for shapes and colours. Set your camera/lens on manual focus and have a ball. This works great on lights, but try it out with some of your candid shots of people too.
When shooting indoors at Christmastime, flash can be a tricky thing to use. Too much flash and you’ll overpower any lights from your tree, and without a flash your portraits may wind up looking too dark. If you are shooting with a flash unit, aim it up towards the ceiling or facing a wall at a low power, and use the bounced light instead of directly flashing your subjects. You can also try using rear-curtain sync mode to capture some ambient light from the room. If you are shooting with a point-n-shoot camera, try using the “indoor” or “night mode” presets to work the flash while still grabbing some of the ambient room lighting. If the flash is too harsh, you can hold a small piece of tissue in front of it to diffuse the light further.
In many cases, simply increasing the ISO to around 800 will be enough to shoot without a flash. Flash is good for any posed family shots, while you’ll want to stay flash-less for those candid photos as it is less distracting, and produces more natural looking images. Again, in both cases (flash or no-flash), remember to set your white balance!
This is one of the coolest little tricks I’ve learned over the years. Craft stores sell hole-punchers in different shapes (such as hearts, stars, etc…). Get a thick piece of black construction paper, and punch out a shaped hole. Next, open your camera’s aperture as wide as it can go (shoot in Aperture Priority mode for this), while holding your punched out card over your lens. This allows light to enter through the shape you cut out, and the resulting bokeh takes on that shape. It’s a cool effect that can add some kick to those light-filled backgrounds.
On the subject of apertures… Shooting in Aperture Priority mode is a good bet on Christmas Day, so that you can keep adjusting as necessary. Wide apertures (such as f/2.8) are good for single subjects and even those up-close, detail shots. When shooting images with depth, such as a dinner table shot with family seated, you can close down the aperture to f/8 or even f/11 to widen the depth of field and keep everyone’s face (and all that delicious food) nice and sharp.
It’s All About the DetailsThere are plenty of great photo opportunities to be found in the details of Christmas Day. Get up close and personal with decorations, wrapping paper, and let’s not forget – food! Our loved-ones (and ourselves) work hard to put up decorations, strategically place ornaments, and cook that amazing food. It’s all about the details, so look for things like patterns, repetition, and textures. A few detail shots will add interest and life to your Christmas photo collection this year.
When shooting indoors on Christmas Day, it’s important to be aware of the background whether you are shooting posed or candid shots. Backgrounds can be especially busy at this time of year, especially with all of the lights, decorations, wrapping paper, or even people (if there are many around). Great photos are ones that draw the eyes of your viewer to a particular subject (or point-of-interest). You can minimize distracting backgrounds and isolate your subjects by shooting with a wide aperture to play with the depth of field.
I hope you find these tips helpful to your Christmas Day shooting. As always, Happy Photographing. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
Gear is Good, Vision is Better. When David duChemin released “Within the Frame”, he went from world-renowned humanitarian photographer, to best-selling photography author almost overnight. The reason – his mantra: Gear is Good, Vision is Better. Today, “The DUCHEMIN” releases Vision is Better 2: Free the Mind, Free the Camera. Again. which is a follow up to the first in the series on lessons learned in life, the hows / whys, and the craft of photography. The first Vision Is Better is one of Craft & Vision’s best selling eBooks, and this one is sure to surpass the previous. Want to talk exceptional value? This eBook is a gargantuan 95 page spreads of pure insight and brilliant imagery from the man himself.
Let’s be clear about one thing… This is not a how-to photography book, yet the teachings in here will absolutely elevate the way you perform with your camera, and yes, even the way you look at the world. A quote from David reads, “What can I say? After flogging the concept of vision for a few years now, I still remain unrepentant about my overuse of the world.” And why not? This is precisely what separates the great from the good. Learning how to see differently, interpret differently, relate differently, and create differently are exactly what great vision is all about. When you arm yourself with a strong vision straight from the heart, your gear matters less, and your photography becomes better.
Whether you are learning photography as a beginner, a hobbyist, or you are a professional, there’s no better investment in the continued growth of your photography for $5, although today thru Dec 21st, 2011, you get it for only $4 with the discount code: VIB4 or us the code VIB20 to get 20% off if you are purchasing any 5 or more eBooks (codes expires at 11:59pm PST Nov. 19th, 2011).
Click to view larger, additional page samples.
The downloadable PDF is just $5USD. (or only $4 today if you use the discount code: VIB4)
You can view some page samples or download the ebook here: Vision is Better 2: Free the Mind, Free the Camera. Again.
Happy Photographing folks!
We haven’t done a grab bag post in a while, but there’s just too many exciting things going on in the world of photography right now that I couldn’t resist putting one together. Let’s skip all the preamble and get straight to the good stuff!
We’ve just put up a new photography assignment in the forums. Our photography assignments are open to absolutely everyone. We know that it can be difficult to push ourselves creatively sometimes, and that’s exactly why we have these assignment challenges. The goal is to get you to break out of any comfort zones, try something new, and to push yourself – to grow.
This one runs from Dec 2nd to Dec 15th, and any submissions to the assignment must be shot during that window. The theme for the assignment is: Reflections. What I love about this particular theme is that it really forces us to look at the world a bit differently. Put your creative caps on, and have a ball shooting this one. We only have two simple rules to follow (which can be found in the assignment posting), and entries are to be submitted here. Happy shooting!
This is an opportunity to submit your photos and have them published in our magazine! We often feature different locations in our “Photography Around the World” column, and every December we do a “Christmas Around the World” feature article. Send us up to TWO photos that show us what Christmas looks like in your city/town. It can be of anything unique to your city – a parade, celebration, tree lighting, decorations, you name it… Here are the guidelines:
You may submit photos from previous year’s events, since I know many of them may not have taken place yet for this year. This isn’t a photo assignment or challenge, simply a chance to show off your town during Christmastime!
Free eBook from Craft & Vision – PSYCHE!So, yesterday was the launch date for the free ebook – Craft & Vision: 11 Ways to Improve Your Photography and umm… let’s just say, it was so popular that the server blew up. Twice. The downloading issues are all resolved now, so if you weren’t able to get your free copy yesterday, then definitely go for it again today. I promise it’ll be there (crossing fingers!).
Download it here: http://www.photographybb.com/free-ebook
Win a Drobo…AGAIN!That’s right! We had TWO Drobo winners for our October draw, and the generous folks at Drobo have ponied up another free Drobo for us to giveaway. You can only win if you ENTER so go ahead and click that green button to get your name in! If you entered previously, you must submit your name again to this brand new draw.
Of course, Drobo makes a great gift for any photography enthusiast. It’s one of the safest places you can store your digital image files, and they are just a breeze to setup. Finding Christmas presents can be challenging for “the person who has everything” and Drobo makes a pretty unique gift. So if you have someone in your life who you don’t mind spending a pretty penny on, check out some of the holiday specials at Drobo and give the gift of peace-of-mind this year.
Last year we put out a few Photoshop card templates, which I would like to bring to your attention again. There’s only three at the moment (I promise I’ll try to add more… quickly!). They are sized to 5×7 which so they can be output at your local photo printer, which is a nice size for a photo-card. Each one has space to drop in a photo of your choice, then add your own personalized text which can be different for each recipient. I do this every year for my extended family members, and each time it’s a hit! Download the Templates Here
Also, if you love to play around in Photoshop, try making your own card template using these AMAZING free Christmas brushes from one of my favourite Photoshop websites – Brusheezy!
So, that’s all for today folks. If you have any Photoshop templates or brushes links, or would just like to say hi – go for it in the comments section and spread the love. Stay safe while out there shooting for the photo assignments. I look forward to seeing all of the entries, and have a great weekend. Happy Holidays!
