I am looking for structured assignments which will help me improve my photography. I’m an experienced enthusiast - over 20 years of shooting - but I feel a bit stale recently like I’ve not learned anything new or looked at anything differently. Is there any assignment you have done which you felt moved the dial for you?
The low paid/unpaid first few commercial jobs I did. Sky high expectations on a minimal budget. It literally changed my brain and made me consider my photos as a product to be delivered rather than just art or just accepting what was in focus or whatever. It was a good learning experience even if I would never do that type of work again.
I was teaching continuing Ed to seniors on digital photography. I gave them this assignment. You’re going to the “old country” to visit relatives. Before you go, take pictures of your area of things you would show them if they came to visit you.
An exercise I did in a digital photography class in college that I still think about frequently (and maybe would be a good idea for me to do again, as I want to get back into noticing unusual mundane things around me): find the entire alphabet in your surroundings. It was a fun exercise in framing but also in paying attention to little details everywhere.
I did a timelapse project of my local city, starting not long after I’d just got into photography. I learnt SO much about when to shoot, how to shoot and how to edit. If I did it again now I feel it would be even better. Link on instagram
I disagree about the comments on weddings, I’ve done a few of close friends and family and loved them…but I hate the culling after.
You got to be creative, curious and assertive. At first, you got to set your assignments yourself. I got 3 assignments I set myself as I am getting back into photography.
Got a few here, and each of them teached me and leads me into the world. https://www.tumblr.com/bb95vie-photography
I would go with a documentary story project. Not only do you have to come up with the idea, research and communication for it all, you need to look at architecture space, portraits, details and establishing shots, et al - could even be published!
Really like this one, thanks
Getting a bunch of vintage lenses of different focal lengths and physical aperture settings and spending time studying depth of field with focus peaking. Sadly much more expensive since vintage lens prices have spiked but more worthwhile than any class.
Posing. I shit you not, posing.
Most of what I learned when it comes to photography, from composition to lighting, was learned in a photoshoot as a model.
I kept an eye on how the photographer was working. How he told me to pose. The angles. The lighting. And in the end, he allowed me to watch as he edited the shoot in Lightroom.
I didn’t know much about photography before that. Just the basics. After? Oh. Man.
When shooting anything with kids, send releases home with the kids before the shoot. Then only shoot which kids’ parents have signed the releases. I mistakenly obtained releases after the shoot, many parents got cold feet, and I couldn’t use the images with kids. It was an architectural shoot of a school.
Any assignment where you have an editor, because someone objectively looking at your photos and critiquing them in a paid position will know what’s good and what salable versus the other photos you’re taking.
The time I had a magazine cover photo shoot but forgot my SD cards.
You know that scene in limitless where Bradley Cooper is panicking to remember where one last pill could be. That was me, it was so similar I actually remembered that scene as I was running to the car, hoping and preying that for some reason I may have left a card near my charger.
Magazine cover was taken and everything worked out fine. To this day I have a spare card in every new car I own.
Nothing major but:
Finding out there is no such thing as “compression”. I was long under the impression, that something like a 135mm can’t be replaced with cropping and a long lens can’t be replaced.
Well I was wrong. A photo with a 24mm can be cropped to look just like one from a 135mm (or more). obviously we would need enough megapixels and would need an appropriate aperture to match the look, but the “compression” would be the same.
Since then my shooting style changed. Favouring high megapixels and worrying even less about the Tele end
Product photography of mirror finishes:
Mission: photograph polished chrome and brass biometric locks. They’re mirrors, so everything surrounding them shows. The reflections ruined the first test shots.
1st revision: I built an igloo of white foam core (and softbox) around them, which fixed the reflections but there was no contrast and the form of the locks was indistinct.
2nd revision: I moved the camera aside and shined a laser pointer on the lock where I wanted to see shape and looked to see where the dot reflected to. I taped black felt in a pair of stripes inside the igloo where the laser directed me to. The metal looked liquid and the lock looked great. Success!Grab a photo from a photographer you like and replicate it exactly. Model, background, lighting, styling, postproduction, lens choice, cropping.
Literally try to make it so when you see the photos side to side it’s hard to distinguish them.
It’s hard but very fun and will force you to really master the technical aspects. It will change your future jobs forever.