Tag: photography

2020 Photo Challenge #38

September’s theme / technique: What’s the POV?

The phrase ‘point of view‘ in photography simply means the position from which the camera sees the scene. It refers to the angle or place from where you shoot. Try different ways of photographing the same subject rather than looking at it from front on.

      • Use your feet and move around the subject looking for an optimum angle.
      • Don’t be afraid to get down on your stomach or climb a tree.
      • Look for different and dramatic angles that will make your images more striking.
        • Shooting from eye-level helps your viewer connect with the subject.
        • Look up – the subject will seem more powerful
        • Look down – the subject will appear smaller, inferior.
      • Indirect – focus on the shadow rather than the subject
      • Abstract – Spin around or tilt the frame
      • Take a photo with something between you and your subject
This week's assignment - Shoot your subject from below. Looking up will give the illusion of smallness (the viewer). An upwards angle will make the subject seem much more important.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #38

2020 Photo Challenge #37

September’s theme / technique: What’s the POV?

The phrase ‘point of view‘ in photography simply means the position from which the camera sees the scene. It refers to the angle or place from where you shoot. Try different ways of photographing the same subject rather than looking at it from front on.

      • Use your feet and move around the subject looking for an optimum angle.
      • Don’t be afraid to get down on your stomach or climb a tree.
      • Look for different and dramatic angles that will make your images more striking.
        • Shooting from eye-level helps your viewer connect with the subject.
        • Look up – the subject will seem more powerful
        • Look down – the subject will appear smaller, inferior.
      • Indirect – focus on the shadow rather than the subject
      • Abstract – Spin around or tilt the frame
      • Take a photo with something between you and your subject
This week's assignment - focus on the shadow of your subject rather than the subject

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #37

2020 Photo Challenge #36

September’s theme / technique: What’s the POV?

The phrase ‘point of view‘ in photography simply means the position from which the camera sees the scene. It refers to the angle or place from where you shoot. Try different ways of photographing the same subject rather than looking at it from front on.

If you want to see what this month’s assignments are in advance then please click here. All the assignments are available from the menu on the left under the 2020 Photo Challenge / Assignments.

      • Use your feet and move around the subject looking for an optimum angle.
      • Don’t be afraid to get down on your stomach or climb a tree.
      • Look for different and dramatic angles that will make your images more striking.
        • Shooting from eye-level helps your viewer connect with the subject.
        • Look up – the subject will seem more powerful
        • Look down – the subject will appear smaller, inferior.
      • Indirect – focus on the shadow rather than the subject
      • Abstract – Spin around or tilt the frame
      • Take a photo with something between you and your subject
This week's assignment - take a picture of a frequently photographed subject like a flower or a person's face from an unusual POV. How can you create an out-of-the-ordinary shot?

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #36

2020 Photo Challenge #35

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This month's final assignment - Experiment with using two or three Complementary colours. Try to make one or two colours the focus of the image, and use the other colour to enhance the overall image.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #35

2020 Photo Challenge #34

August’s theme / technique: Colour Theory

Colour plays an important part in what we see. Our brains interpret colour far better than our cameras do. Anyone trying to photograph a red rose will know how often the photograph is very disappointing.

Successful colour photography means learning to use colour as a compositional tool – a form of visual communication – rather than just reproducing a scene that happens to be in colour.

Colour theory is not just knowing what colours are: primary, tertiary etc and how to make them, but understanding cool and warm colours, complementary (next to each other) and contrasting colours (opposites), neutral and bold colours and how colours can affect our emotions or perceptions of a scene.

      • Don’t overdo it. Too much colour or too many clashing colours can be confusing to the eye and create a chaotic scene.
      • Consider the time of day and the type of light which can affect how different colours appear.
      • If you are not happy with the colour in your image then try adjusting the saturation in post-processing. An image with lower saturation seems softer, dreamy and idealistic. An image with high saturation seems bright and exciting. Think about the feeling you want to convey with your image before deciding how much or how little saturation would best suit the scene.
      • Pay attention to the way you frame colour and use light to enhance it.
This week's assignment - Take a photo of a subject that you like in colour and then convert to Black & White. Show both images for comparison. Which is best? Does the image rely on colour for impact.

If the colours in your photograph are tonally close the image will lack impact when converted to black and white. Colour can be essential to the success of an image in this case.

Continue reading 2020 Photo Challenge #34