Looking for assignment for a newbie!

[ChristianGrattan]

I have to admit something. I am having a love affair with the histogram. We first met on the back of my camera over 10 years ago, and it had been getting stronger ever since.


I love the histogram so much that I can’t imagine I world without her. She is my secret weapon for perfect exposure.


I was shooting a job on Saturday with a second shooter. I was reviewing his shots and one looked a bit off. I asked to see the histogram, and he said “you’re one of those histogram people” with disdain. I was shocked. Who doesn’t LOVE the histogram?


After I calmed down I realized that he might not know the true magic of the magic mountain. If you are like him, please indulge a fool in love.


I first fell for the histogram when I learned that the LCD on the back of my camera was a liar! I would review a shot on the back of the camera and it looked great. There was detail in the shadows and all was right with the world. When I got home and looked at the same file on a calibrated monitor it was another story. There was a walk of shame so to speak. The darks would be muddy and detail free. I would have to work to get the file to look something like it did in that LCD.


I learned not to trust the playback, but when a door closes, a window opens. In this case the window was only a press of the “info” button away. This got me to the histogram, and all has been right in the world ever since.


But what is the histogram and how do we read it?


The histogram shows how many pixels there are in different parts of the image. These parts are the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. The higher the mountain is in a part of the graph the more information there is in that part of the images. So an image with lots of dark areas will have a histogram with the peak of the mountain in the shadow section of the graph. The shadow section is on the left side of the graph, the mid-tones are in the middle and the high lights are on the right.


In the image below we see both the preview of the image and it’s histogram. You can see that there are no bright whites or very dark areas in the shot. The histogram is concentrated in the middle of the bottom axis. This tells us that the information in the images is mostly in the middle with a slight elevation in the shadows on the left side. This corresponds to the dark sweatshirt and shadows in the foliage in the background. This is a perfectly exposed image and the histogram shows that.

Depending on the general lightness or darkness of the scene we are shooting, a properly exposed image will have a different looking histogram. A light image like the dog on a beach below, has more information in the highlights and the mid-tones than the image above. In a darker image, say one with lots of shadows, the histogram will have more information on the left side of the graph. Perfectly exposed images will have different histograms depending on the scene being shot.

There are times however when we don’t get a perfectly exposed image. What does the histogram look like then? Well, before we go deep into this, we should stop and say that learning how to read a histogram takes a bit of practice. With these guidelines, you will be up to speed in a short time.


You need to take your scene into consideration when analyzing the histogram. However if you look at the image below you can see that the mountain should reach both sides of the graph. The under exposed image can be worked on in PP to make it acceptable but it is not an optimal situation. The over exposed image is trickier.

When the mountain goes past the edge of the graph it means that there is no more information being recorded. The right edge of the graph corresponds to where the printer is not putting out any more ink on the paper. This is paper white. The far left is where the paper is getting the maximum amount of black ink it can get. Going past the edge means that information is lost. See below.

This loss of information is called clipping. This is why the camera has the highlight alert. This is when the light parts of the scene flash black and white during playback. The highlight alert tells us that there is no information in that part of the image. I always shoot with the highlight alert on. There are a couple of times when it’s OK that the highlight alert is going off, say if you have the sun in your scene, or a candle.


Generally I like to have the mountain come up from sea level on one end of the graph and then return to sea level on the other end of the graph. Even if it’s only for a little bit of the graph.




By looking at the histogram you can see if your image is properly exposed for the scene you are shooting. If it is not she tells you and you can adjust till you get it right. I love her for this. This has saved me more times than I can count.

 

[Skyclad]

Here you have a few I got from this very same forum

#1
1. make a photo that ask a question that hasnt been asked before
2. make a photo 20 years into the future
3. make a photo which makes the ugly beautiful
4. make a photo of the world the way you want it to be
5. make a photo of something never seen before
6. make a photo that reflects a fear
7. make a photo that makes the familiar unfamiliar
8. make a photo that takes you to a place you have never been before

#2

Viewpoint - look up at subject to imply respect, look down to diminish subject: "worms eye view", "birds eye view", skewed angle
Rule of Thirds - keep subject out of the center of the picture, strongest point of interest is 1/3 of the way into the pictures, don't divide the picture in half with the horizon line
Rule of Odds - frame subject with even number of elements on each side
Simplification - eliminate distracting information, keep focus on subject, have a clear center of interest, use narrow depth of field isolates subject, get close to subjext
Symmetry - balance arrangement, equal visual weight on each side of image
Repetition - use an element over and over again within the picture to create movement, pattern or texture
Color - create an emotional impact, warm colors suggest aggressive and advance, cool colors suggest calm and recede, monochromatic
Framing - look for the picture within the picture
Leading Lines - create a visual path into the picture with lines, mover the viewers eye around the photograph, imply action with direction of line, imply emotion with type of line
Lighting - use light to your advantage, time of day produces different color of light, use flat light, dynamic light, high key light, low key light


ASSIGNMENT
Create 1 image that illustrates each of the principles (there are 10)
Pick a minimum of 5 strategies to explore in-depth and take an additional 5 pictures using that principle


This assignment will result in at least 35 images. Out of the 10 pictures, that illustrate each of the principles, post your 3 best/favorite.


#3
Pick 3 songs, develop 3 concepts for each song and photograph 4 pics per concept.


#4
30 Day Photography Challenge
Day 1: Self-portrait
Day 2: what you wore today
Day 3: clouds
Day 4: something green
Day 5: from a high angle
Day 6: from a low angle
Day 7: fruit
Day 8: a bad habit
Day 9: someone you love
Day 10: childhood memory
Day 11: something blue
Day 12: sunset
Day 13: yourself with 13 things
Day 14: eyes
Day 15: silhouette
Day 16: long exposure
Day 17: technology
Day 18: your shoes
Day 19: something orange
Day 20: bokeh
Day 21: faceless self-portrait
Day 22: hands
Day 23: sunflare
Day 24: animal
Day 25: something pink
Day 26: close-up
Day 27: from a distance
Day 28: flowers
Day 29: black and white
Day 30: self portrait




#5 (this one is actually taken from a book I read)

The most fundamental overhaul of design theory in the 20th century took place in Germany in the 1920s and its focus was the Bauhaus. Founded in 1919 in Dessau, this school of art, design, and architecture was a major influence because of its experimental, questioning approach to the principles of design. Johannes Itten ran the Basic Course at the Bauhaus. His theory of composition was rooted in one simple concept: contrasts. Contrast between light and dark (chiaroscuro), between shapes, colors, and even sensations, was the basis for composing an image. One of the first exercises that Itten set the Bauhaus students was to discover and illustrate the different possibilities of contrast. These included, among many others, large/small, long/short, smooth/rough, transparent/opaque, and so on. These were intended as art exercises, but they translate very comfortably into photography. Itten’s intention was “to awaken a vital feeling for the subject through a personal observation,”
and his exercise was a vehicle for plunging in and exploring the nature of design. Here is an adaptation of his exercises for photography.


The project is in two parts. The first is rather easier—producing pairs of photographs that contrast with each other. The easiest way to do this is to make a selection from pictures you’ve already taken, choosing those that best show a certain contrast. More demanding but more valuable is to go out and look for images that illustrate a preplanned type of contrast—executing shots to order. The second part of the project is to combine the two poles of the contrast in one photograph, an exercise that calls for a bit more imagination. There are no restrictions to the kind of contrast, and it can be to do with form (bright/dark, blurred/sharp) or with any aspect of content. For example, it could be contrast in a concept, such as continuous/intermittent, or something non-visual, like loud/quiet. The list in the box below is from Itten’s original Bauhaus exercise.


A passionate educator, Itten wanted his students to approach these contrasts from three directions; “they had to experience them with their senses, objectivize them intellectually, and realize
them synthetically.” That is, each student had first to try to get a feeling for each contrast without immediately thinking of it as an image, then list the ways of putting this sensation across, and finally
make a picture. For example, for “much/little,” one first impression might be of a large group of things with one of them standing out because it is in some way different. On the other hand, it could be
treated as a group of things with an identical object standing a little apart, and so isolated. These are just two approaches out of several alternatives.

Nothing new with these assignments, but if you're a beginner like me, you'll find these very useful and have material for a while

This should definitely be a sticky. How else to better start off a newbie photographer than that!

 

[caseysrt]

Try this:

Make the alphabet using different things. Like for a stop sign you can get a photo and crop out the letter S, T, O, or P... you can NOT use more than one letter for each thing you photograph.

A-Z, crop out each letter, and let us see what you come up with!

 

[Skyclad]

Try this:

Make the alphabet using different things. Like for a stop sign you can get a photo and crop out the letter S, T, O, or P... you can NOT use more than one letter for each thing you photograph.

A-Z, crop out each letter, and let us see what you come up with!

Excellent idea. But im sure theres many like me who don't yet know how to blend different photographs (or parts of) into one just yet (if thats what this idea implies).