On Feb 25, 2011, at 3:10 PM, Tim Øsleby wrote: >>> On Feb 17, 2011, at 9:54 AM, John Sessoms wrote: > >>> This sounds like our first assignment in small format class: >>> >>> Photograph 36 strangers "up close & personal" >>> ... 3 - 5 ft (with a "normal" lens, closer if you use a wide angle lens) >>> ... off camera flash (at arm's length) >>> ... 3 images of each person, different angles (108 total images minimum) >>> ... 3 - 36 exposure rolls of 35mm C-41 FILM (so you can't chimp). >>> ... record aperture & shutter speed for each exposure >>> ... record Name; Age; Where the person is from AND an *interesting fact* >>> about each person. >>> >>> Make an 8x10 print mounted on an 11x14 mat board of the best images of 5 >>> persons. Turn in contact sheets and the personal data about the persons >>> (personal data went into the shredder at the end of the semester). > >> From: Larry Colen >> Sounds like a great assignment. One of these days, I'll have to start a >> thread asking people for their most educational photo class assignments. > > A thread about educational photo class assignments? > > That's great idea Larry: So I'm hereby stealing it, or lending it ;-) > > Let the ball roll folks. I need some ideas on how to grow as a photographer.
Hang out with Ralf and Jostein. Or you could try the Bob Sullivan diet, I'm not half the photographer he is. :-) I often mention the book "light science and magic", each chapter has assignments and exercises. I tend to find some sort of imposed limitation to be very educational. One exercise that I found very helpful was spending a couple of weeks shooting (almost) entirely with my Sigma 20/1.8. It really taught me how focal length affects the relationship between both the subject and the background. So, the assignment would be to spend a period of time, shooting with only your widest lens (if it's a zoom, at it's widest setting). People often practice going out with only a single focal length, but I don't find that as educational as only using a single focal length that is almost always the wrong one. I'd follow that up with spending some time only shooting with 135mm. Much longer than that becomes too impractical for a walkabout lens. Or, maybe, you can use any focal length you want, but you have to be within 1m (500cm) of your subject. Another assignment could be that every shot has to have something in particular in it: The color orange (blue is too easy), someone's ear, a shoe. Or, you could have to take photos to represent a sentence, possibly in order. They could be words, or what is being mentioned, for example "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy sleeping dog". If I were in Redwood city, I could get both "the" and "fox" at "the little fox theater", likewise I could photograph something brown. Using my Argus at burning man was educational, just because of the different rhythm of photographing. It isn't enough that it is film, the fact that it didn't have a light meter, focusing and composing were separate steps, as were winding the film and cocking the shutter. I had to stop, and think, for every step of the process. Using a K1000 is too automated, you can compose and focus at the same time. You can see what the depth of field will be. For that matter, you can compose, focus and set the exposure all at the same time with a K1000. In a similar vein, but with more immediate feedback: Using your DSLR, you aren't allowed to use the automatic exposure, or the green button. You have to look at the scene, estimate the exposure, then correct the exposure based on the histogram. None of this, hit the green button, chimp and open it up a stop without even thinking what the settings are. As it turns out, this is how I usually shoot with strobes, and always shoot with my studio strobes. I hear that you can also learn a lot if you get a new and interesting job, such as being the cook on a fishing boat. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
