During my first year participating on the DPChallenge website, I have learned quite a bit. I look at things differently now. I see things that I didn’t see before. I have participated in a lot of discussions on the site and in chat that have helped me create a formula for improving my photography.
I have learned, through my own mistakes and others, that there are certain requirements involved in making great photographs. Learning to make great photos is a ‘from the ground up’ process just like anything else. Learning the basics first seems to be important. Once the basics are mastered, you can use that knowledge to expand your photography to higher levels of image quality and subjective excellence.
Lesson 2: Choosing Your Subjects
Choosing your subject is a tough lesson to discuss. You can photograph absolutely anything you like. The possibilities are endless. What you choose to photograph is completely up to you.
I believe it is always a good idea to choose subjects in which you have a personal interest. If you go out and simply take random photographs, you are less likely to be inspired by the results you bring home. If you go out with a mission in mind, your results will be more pleasing.
Step 1: Make a list of 5 different subjects that interest you.
These subjects could include flowers, pets, kids, cars, motorcycles, trains, buildings, people, road signs, farm animals, et cetera. It doesn't really matter what you choose as long as you have a higher-than-average personal interest in your choices. These subject choices that interest you at a higher level will help keep you focused on creating better photographs.
Step 2: Select the most emotionally appealing item from your list.
After you have selected at least 5 subjects that interest you, choose the subject from your list that has the most emotional value to you. This will be the subject that we work with first.
Step 3: Make 25 photographs of your chosen subject.
You can take this step and do whatever you like with it. All you have to do is make 25 different photographs. Why 25? This will be explained in the next lesson.
Have fun making these photographs and take your time... there is no rush :)
John, when you say 25 different photos, do you mean different perspectives, lighting, exposure, of one sample of the item or 25 different flowers/pets/kids? Or am I being too literal about this? I guess why I ask is I often use the 3 burst mode when I shot and that means 25 shots happen in about 8 shutter clicks...
Edit because even I don't understand my question as stated above :)
is this like an assignment? How much time do we have? Are there crib notes available? What if you lost your manual? Can you explain the first part again..? ;)
thanks for starting out the lesson, John. I guess I should go out and do some homework now!
The idea behind taking at least 25 photos of the same subject is to force the photogrpaher to look from perspectives that may have otherwise been ignored.
Doing this over time will steer you towards automatically looking for interesting perspectives.
