Photography Challenges

Challenge #1: Patterns

DUE: 1 Photo highlighting a pattern, 2 comments on others.

What to do: Look for patterns and take a picture. They could be in nature, in doors, you could notice them outside or make them youself. They can be color or black and white. They can be taken with your good camera or your smartphone. Use post-processing in any app like photopea or photoshop too, if you like. 

Why you should do it: Patterns are everywhere – in nature, in everyday objects around the home and yard. They are in cities – in architecture and roadways. The human brain is attracted to lots of different kinds of patterns. So, to make your photographs more interesting to look at, find ways to create patterns to gain more attention for your photography!

Challenge #2: Nature

We will take a day this week to head outside. We will check on the weather! Any photo about nature, in nature, or with nature goes.

Here are some tips for working outdoors:

• Ever heard of the golden hour? 1 hour after sunrise and 1 hour before sunset if the best time for outdoor photography. The light from the sun cast dramatic shadows and creates a beautiful golden glow. Find out more here.

• This is my mindset when going on a shoot: "For every 100 shots, you might get 1 good one."  So take lots of pictures!! Pull them up on a computer screen (bigger than your phone) and some might surprise you.

• Don't be afraid of cropping your photographs to help the viewer focus on what's important.

Challenge #3: Self Portrait

• ---> Cindy Sherman and Examples <---

• What to do: There is a big difference between self portraits and selfies? Explore the different perspectives ;) here

• -Post your photograph below and comment on at least 1 other for full credit.

Challenge #4: Food

• What to do: Take a thoughtful photo with food, production of food, or consumption of food as the subject. Post and make at least 1 comment on someone else's photo!

• Consider color contrast, texture, and composition. Will you take the image from the top down, from the side of the plate, extremely zoomed in? Can we see the background? If so, what does the background inform us about the food?

• Tips & Tricks

Challenge #5: Shadows

What to do:  

• Take photos of various things, but really focus on the shadows.  You could photograph their own shadows or a group, make shadow puppets, or play with silhouettes. Play with lace or other objects with holes to see how they cast a shadow against something else.

Why do it:

• Shadows make a huge effect on our photographs composition and are often overlooked. If you notice the shapes that shadows are making, you can make more unique photography and make better choices cropping and editing afterwards. Shadows also can make great conceptual subjects for storytelling in photography.

Challenge #6: Capture Your Favorite Movie

• Capture Favorite Movie - Using Only Photographic Imagery.

• Think of the game Pictionary. This challenge is a reasonable facsimile but using a maximum of 3 images/photography to identify the movie. The images cannot be from the movie but rather utilize photography to represent the title or subject of a movie. Needless to say, the images cannot contain the actual word. Each student will present their images and the class will have 3 minutes to guess what movie is being represented.  Use the existing Creative Challenge Template attached.  Open the PDF in Photoshop and add your images by going to File > Open & Place > browse your computer for the file and place it along with 1 or 2 other images (maximum of 3 images).

Challenge #7: Action

  What do to:   Photograph a subject in action. Please comment on others in the discussion!

To take good action photos, you first need to understand the exposure triangle (ISO, aperture, and shutter speed). That’s because most action shots require a short shutter speed like 1/1000 second. This fast exposure can capture a split-second moment, but it also changes the lighting of your image.

If your image is too dark because of your fast shutter speed, you can widen your aperture and/or bump up your ISO speed to increase your lighting. Widening your aperture is typically better because increasing the ISO will also increase the noise of your image, but if you want a specific depth of field, you’ll need to change the ISO instead of the aperture.

Of course, you don’t want to make these adjustments while the action is happening, or else you’ll miss the shot. That’s why professional photographers take time to plan their action shots beforehand. They consider where the action will probably be, then set up their camera accordingly.

For example, if you’re shooting a basketball game, you can plan for shots near the basket. If you want a nice photo of someone jumping into water, you can predict where they’ll jump and adjust your camera for that shot. Simply focus your camera on the empty spot where the action will be, and experiment with your settings until you get them right.

Finally, be sure to shoot in burst mode. Taking a series of shots will save you the frustration of missing the perfect image by a millisecond.

 Why do it:    According to google, it's "a great genre to try out if you want to broaden your photography skills. Practicing action shots can deepen your knowledge of your camera, open up more creative possibilities, and make you a more effective photographer overall"

Challenge #8: Contrast

Contrast in photography can mean a lot of things. 

Technically, it's the light and darks in a photography. Without contrast, photographs tend to look dull and flat. Find out more about contrast "in that light" here.

But I want you to look for contrast in other ways. Contrast can be between light and dark yes, but also in other things; texture, color, size, shape, expression etc.  Look for photographic moments that represent differences or opposites. This can be posted as 1 photo or 2.

Remember to consider your composition and to make at least 1 comment on someone else's photograph.

Challenge #9: 

Improve your composition skills and try the frame-within-a-frame technique. This occurs when you use a visual element in the image to frame the primary subject. The purpose of using a frame within a frame is to help move the viewer's eye toward that subject.

Composition: noun

• 1. the nature of something's ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up.

Challenge #10: Faces, Not Faces

Challenge -  Look around you. Do you see faces in your  surroundings? When you look at the front of a Nissan Xterra do you see a face? Find at least 2 faces in the environment that surrounds you. THESE CANNOT BE PHOTOS YOU FIND ON THE INTERNET YOU MUST TAKE THE PICTURES YOURSELF. Once you have found your 2 faces, respond to the discussion thread.