This is your first photo assignment. We'll start with something important, the people in your life. During this course we'll learn about lighting, composition, camera options and photo editing but none of those skills alone can make a great photograph. It takes YOU to make a great photograph. Enjoy your first lesson!
Assignment:
Senior Photo Shoot
You have seniors in your school who will enjoy posing for this assignment. Consider everyting you're learning about light, lines, texture and composition and you'll end up with some great photos.
#1 Tip: USE A TRIPOD. Nothing ruins a great photo like camera shake. Don't risk blurry photos. Use a tripod.
Look around and you'll find interesting patterns and lines everywhere around you. One of the best places to look is in the school parking lot. Use your macro setting and get up close to shoot some tail light lenses.
What is the perfect background? Most are sized at 1024x786 pixels and have interesting shapes and patterns. Some are landscapes or funny scenes. Find yours and you can upload it to Flickr's collection.
A still life is a portrait of a thing as opposed to a person. The good news is that things don't complain when you pose them in odd positions for long periods of time. Be sure to explore shooting from different angles under different lighting conditions.
We're not talking about the framing that holds up the walls of a house and we ARE talking about more than picture frames. Framing in photography can be around, behind and/or in front of the subject. See the framing tips resource for some good examples.
Backlight, sidelight... In this lesson you'll explore how to take advantage and even create interesting lighting for your photographs. It doesn't take expensive equipment to make a lighting studio. Just borrow the livingroom table lamp and use a tripod to eleminate camera shake.
Panoramic photographs were popular 100 years ago. Take a look at the fill-size version of the photo above and you can see there are lots of ways to have fun with these kinds of photographs.
Your final project will be a photo essay. First we'll take a look at photo essays from other photographers. Then you will create your own photo essay. Your work in this assignment will showcase much of what you have learned in this course.