360Photography

Tag: challenge

  • The dPS Weekly Photography Challenge – Going Buggy

    Last week’s challenge featured landscape photography. In keeping with the theme of getting outside, this week we’re going to focus (pun intended) on the smaller creatures in Mother Nature’s world – the bugs.

    Here’s a few images to inspire you for the weekly photography challenge – bugs!

    Photograph The Katydid by Steve Passlow on 500px

    The Katydid by Steve Passlow on 500px

    Photograph Next to you... by Yvonne Späne on 500px

    Next to you… by Yvonne Späne on 500px

    Photograph yummy :P by bug eye :) on 500px

    yummy :P by bug eye :) on 500px

    Photograph Locust by Matteo Senesi on 500px

    Locust by Matteo Senesi on 500px

    Photograph Spider by Thomas Forysiak on 500px

    Spider by Thomas Forysiak on 500px

    By Rovanto

    By Vinoth Chandar

    Share your Going Buggy images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    Need help? How about some articles on macro photography like these:

    • 6 Tips for Near-Macro Photography with a Telephoto Lens
    • Reverse Lens Macro: Close Up Photography Lesson #3
    • Macro Photography for Beginners – Part 1
    • Macro Photography for Beginners – Part 2

    The post The dPS Weekly Photography Challenge – Going Buggy by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge Landscapes

    Yesterday I shared a collection of stunning landscape images and asked a question at the end of the list. If you missed it, you can see the collection and my question here.

    By Eric Bryan

    If you haven’t figured out the three things that I think make all, or most of those images a cut above – let me help you out:

    1. The light – having the right light in landscape photography is crucial to creating an image that is better than good, it’s great. Light is everything and what landscape photographers drool over when they find the “good light” or they wait hours and hours, or sometimes even days to get it.
    2. Simplicity – look at many of the images in the collection again. See how some have very few elements in the image? More is less. Keep things simple and draw the viewers attention.
    3. Going the extra mile – getting off the main road and beaten track is another key to great landscape photography. Anyone can stop at the “viewpoints” along the highway and get the same shot. But if you really want to take it up a notch it’s being willing to hike into the back country and camp overnight just to get a shot of the sunrise in a remote location. Or even getting up for sunrise in the first place (see not on light above again). Are you willing to stand in the creek and get wet if it’s going to add more drama to your image, or climb a mountain, or freeze your butt off in the cold? Those are the things that the best landscape photographers do that most of us don’t and therefore they get the images we all wish we had.

    Now it’s your turn! The weekly photography challenge is of course, landscape photography. 

    Here’s a few more example which exhibit some of those qualities:

    By Trey Ratcliff

    Camped overnight on the great wall – go read the full story about this image on Trey’s blog (linked to from the image on Flickr)

    By skoeber

    By James Jordan

    By Yasin Hassan – ????? ???

    By Eleder Jimenez Hermoso

    By Trey Ratcliff

    Willing to risk life and limb on a rickety, questionable boat/raft on a river in China, in the pitch black darkness, to get this shot above. To read the story of the making of the image – click the image to go to Flickr.

    Share your landscape masterpiece images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    And don’t forget to share the story of your image as well. Did you do #3 above and go the extra mile? Tell us about it!

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge Landscapes by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Flora

    Earlier today I shared a collection of spring flower photos to brighten your weekend. So can you guess what this week’s photography challenge is?  You got it – flora!

    But I want you to get creative with it. Think outside the box and do something different. 

    • Try some macro flower shots
    • Read about How to Photograph Flowers or get some tips on improving your flower photos
    • Shoot some wild flowers if they’re blooming in your area
    • Use some dramatic backlighting for effect
    • Seek out and find some bold colors and use them in your composition
    • Try a shallow depth of field, or focus stacking to get a wider focus range.
    • Shoot some using a slower shutter speed to add some motion
    • Convert some to black and white
    • Put them in reflection
    • Try out hand coloring in Lightroom
    • Using a flashlight or flash and paint with light at night or in a dark room
    • Shoot one flower
    • Shoot a whole bunch of them or a field full

    By Paul Reynolds

    By Flower’s.Lover

    By greg

    By Louish Pixel

    By @Doug88888

    By Deborah & Kevin

    By Srdjan Stojiljkovic

    Getting some ideas?

    Share your floral images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Flora by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge Sunset Photography

    Earlier today I shared some stunning, and colorful sunset images, including one of my own from my recent photo tour to Nicaragua. Even if you can’t get to exotic locations like that, I have a few tips for you to help you take better sunset photos. Then off you go as sunset photography is this week’s photography challenge.

    Group from my photo tour to Nicaragua getting ready to shoot some fire spinning on the beach. I turned around and shot them against the last bit of light in the sky.

    Group from my photo tour to Nicaragua getting ready to shoot some fire spinning on the beach. I turned around and shot them against the last bit of light in the sky.

    Sunset photography tips:

    I give these in my travel class, they are easy to do and make such a dramatic difference in coming back with a boring sunset versus one that has your friends drooling.

    1. Put something in front of the sunset – just a gorgeous sky at sunset is not enough to make a great photo. It needs something of interest, a focal point. So basically the sunset becomes a stunning background for something. Ideally pick something with a recognizable shape such as: a tree, a person, birds, animals, a city skyline, etc. Just make sure the outline is clean and doesn’t overlap something else, watch for people standing together that look like one person with three legs, horizon going right through a person’s head, and so on – in a silhouette they will all blend together and be a messy blob. Lastly, focus on the item, NOT the sky!
    2. Wait (or hope) for some clouds – sunsets with clouds can be even more incredible as the colors move and shift across the sky, almost as if they are alive. Keep shooting until it’s dark, use every bit of light there is and see how the colors change over the whole time period.
    3. Expose for the sky, meaning underexpose according to your camera’s meter – often when you shoot a sunset your camera’s meter will read the light and try to make it brighter. But if you want more vibrant and saturated colors, and to create a silhouette of the lovely subject you’ve placed in front of the sky – you will need to override the camera and tell it to under expose, or make it darker. This is subjective so you might want to bracket your exposures when shooting and choose the best ones later.
    4. Adjust your White Balance – using Auto White Balance most of the time will give you a decent result. For sunsets if you really want to bring out the color though, try switching to one of the presets that adds warmth such as Shade or Cloudy. If you have K as an option play with the entire scale – shoot one image at 2500K and another at 10,000K and see which works best for that scene.

    By Theophilos Papadopoulos

    By RayMorris1

    By Jeff S. PhotoArt

    By Bo Nielsen

    By Milivoj Sherrington

    By esther**

    By Angela Sevin

    For some articles that might help with this challenge, see these:

    • 12 Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunsets
    • Using Sun Flares and Starbursts to Create Stunning Images
    • Do you pack up and leave after sunset and miss the fun of night photography?
    • Getting Great Portraits At Sunset
    • How to Use a 10-stop ND Filter to Take Long Exposure Sunset Images

    Share your sunset images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

     

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge Sunset Photography by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Up in the Air

    Earlier I shared some images of Identified Flying Objects. People or things that have become airborne is our theme this week for the weekly photography challenge as well.

    Weekly Photography Challenge – Up in the Air

    Surely you can find something in your area that gets some height, that you can go photograph. Be it:

    • airplanes (real jumbo jets, remote control, or paper ones)
    • balloons (hot air or helium)
    • people (skydivers, skateboarders, parasailers, etc.)
    • dogs, cats, or horses jumping
    • birds, bats or insects flying

    Get out and photograph something in the air. How you go about it is up to you. Photograph from the ground looking up? Get up there with them (be safe). Or climb a mountain or get on a rooftop and look down. Get creative with it.

    Here are a few ideas:

    By Difusa

    By carterse

    By JD Hancock

    By Ford in Europe

    By Zach Stern

    For some articles that might help with this challenge, see these:

    • An Introduction to Bird photography
    • 10 Bird Photography Tips for Beginners
    • 8 Tips For Photographing Birds
    • Mastering Panning – Photographing Moving Subjects

    Share your Up in the Air images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Up in the Air by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Fast Cars

    Now that I have your attention you might be able to guess what this week’s photograph challenge is right?

    Weekly photography challenge – fast cars!

    You may be thinking, “I don’t live near a race track”, so I’m way ahead of you. Just to clarify this challenge a little, the goal is to make the cars look like they are going fast. They don’t actually have to be doing so!

    How to add motion

    So how do you add motion to your car images? One way is panning. Another is to shoot from inside a moving car – just please make sure you are NOT the driver! Safety first. Here’s some tips if you need a hand:

    • Showing Speed: Using Panning When Shooting Action
    • 13 Places to Practice Taking Beautiful Motion Blur Shots
    • Mastering Panning – Photographing Moving Subjects
    • 3 Tips for Creating Dramatic Images using Motion

    By Takashi Hososhima

    By Brian Gaid

    By Jim Sher

    Share your fast car images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Fast Cars by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge – What Floats Your Boat?

    Earlier today I shared some fabulous images of boats – all sizes, types, and colours.

    Now it’s your turn. Show us your best boat images for the weekly photography challenge. Even if you don’t live near the ocean or large body of water, try something creative. What about a toy boat in the bathtub?

    Winter got you snowed in? How about the antique store where they have boats in bottles!

    Think outside the box . . . or bottle, and show us your boats! Here’s couple more images to get you started. The first two are even my own images, just to show you I can do challenges too!

    By Darlene Hildebrandt (yup my image)

    By Darlene Hildebrandt

    By Moyan Brenn

    By Adrian Berg

    By Steve Wall

    By Alan Bruce

    By mjtmail (tiggy)

    Share your boat images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – What Floats Your Boat? by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Winter Sports

    If you guessed by the post earlier today of images of winter sports that the challenge this week would be the same – you’re right!

    This week’s photography challenge is – winter sports!

    Here’s a few more images of winter sports to get you inspired to get out into that cold and go shoot something. Don’t worry I’ll also give you some links to articles that will help you prepare for shooting outdoors in the cold.

    By kmichiels

    By der Knut

    By Jen Rossey

    By Shay Haas

    By Sangudo

    By Visit Greenland

    Share your winter sports images!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    Tips for shooting in inclement weather:

    • Winter Photography Tips | Bendy straws and Ziploc bags?
    • Tips to Protect your Gear in Harsh Weather Conditions
    • How to Protect your Camera in Extreme Conditions

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Winter Sports by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Photography Challenge – Portrait of a Child

    Over the last couple weeks we’ve featured several articles on photographing people and doing portraits. Our newest eBook on How to Pose Portraits is a smash success – grab it here now!

    The weekly challenges have also been portrait related, so to continue that theme and finish off our portrait deep dive, this week’s challenge is Portrait of a Child.

    By CIFOR

    Last week we had Portrait of a Man as the challenge – you can see the great submissions on that post, and some manly portraits in The Essence of Masculinity – Portraits of Men.  The previous week it was the ladies in the challenge, well ladies first you know right? See some Inspiring Portraits of Women here for ideas.

    Here are a few children’s portraits to get you started:

    By Ahdieh Ashrafi

    By Barbara Piancastelli

    By Kalani Odum

    By cheriejoyful

    By Marcos de Madariaga

    By Alexandre Baron

    By Elizabeth Donoghue

    Share your Portrait of  Child images!

    Whether it be a posed portrait in the studio, or a candid shot of the child in action. Show us your Portrait of  Child images in the comments below!

    Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    Need more tips – try these articles:

    • 7 Tips for Photographing Kids
    • Cut the Cheese: 5 Tips for Photographing Kids
    • How to go Beyond the Regular Composition Advice for Getting the Best Shots of your Kids
    • 5 Photography Rules Moms [and Dads] Can Ignore

    The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Portrait of a Child by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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  • Weekly Challenge – Portrait of a Man

    Earlier today I shared an image collection of The Essence of Masculinity – Portraits of Men. Now, of course, it’s your turn!

    First – go look at the image collection if you haven’t already done so. I tried to choose portraits that jumped out at me on Flickr for one reason or another. Usually it was lighting or an expression that caught my eye.

    But there two  things that I think all of these images have in common is connection to the subject, and storytelling. There is a story in each one of these images and men. What stories do you see? What stories do you tell with your images?

    So your challenge this week is to make a portrait of a man, perhaps someone you know, or maybe a complete stranger on the street. But dig a little deeper than just taking a photo of their face. Make a portrait of their essence.

    The say the eyes are the windows to the soul. What better way to truly capture a person’s soul than through the eyes. Expression does not come from the mouth – it starts in the eyes. Go back again and look at the eyes of the men in those portraits, without looking at their mouths. Can you still see the expression? Can you feel them more deeply?

    Here’s a few more portraits to get you inspired:

    By Elvin

    By StefaniaVS

    By Joe Martin

    By Randi Scott

    By See-ming Lee

    Sorry I thought this image was too funny, I couldn’t resist! Notice, humour is good too!

    When you’ve created your stunning portraits please share!

    Once you’ve taken your “portrait of a man” we’d love to see them in comments below. Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section as pictured below) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them.

    Need more portrait help?

    Try one of the articles from the last two weeks (there’s been one every day) or start here:

    • Portrait Tutorial Feast – Best of dPS 2013
    • The Secrets of Great Portrait Photography – Great Video from Brian Smith
    • How to Make a Portrait of a Stranger in 8 Easy Steps

    The post Weekly Challenge – Portrait of a Man by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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