Every so often your weekly photo assignment will be open choice. This means you can choose the topic, technique, or theme of your shoot. Below are 100 ideas that can help kickstart your photo creativity.
1. Your Grandparents: Photograph one of your grandparents extensively. Might sound boring, but I assure you it will be profound. If you’re lucky enough that your grandparents are still with you, spend an entire day–or better, a week perhaps–photographing your grandma or grandpa. Portraits, close ups of her eye, her hands. Fill the frame with her face. Photograph her in her home or wherever she lives, those places tend to be visually wonderful and strange at the same time. Amazing still life’s everywhere… You’ll connect with your grandma in a very deep way and you’ll have made some amazing photographs.
2. Flood: Find a shallow flooded space, or flood a space with an inch of water. Have a dancer perform, or some sports stuff, shoot from overhead. Capture an ethereal moment of where it looks like someone is performing on water. Shoot any, some, all of this from a tall ladder. Or flood a tennis court and shoot some crazy cool shots. Logistically this isn’t as tough as it sounds, but make sure have the proper permission before going ahead. You’ll need the right space, some visqueen and sandbags, and a good bit of water, but this could be a portfolio opener. Some really cool post production will take this shot to the moon. 3. Roadtrip with a twist. Take a trip with 4 of your best friends out to the coast camping in the summertime, or the desert in the autumn. Tell them to bring interesting clothes and props. Whatever they can dig up. Seek the strange. Stop off at a thrift store and buy some strange stuff that will act as muses for you. 4. Find a huge trampoline on a perfectly blue-sky day. Get a couple models–friends. Dress them up really interestingly…fashion, sports, whatever. Wait till just before sunset then hose them down–I mean soak them– and have them bounce on the trampoline, over and over, high into the deep blue sky. Photograph them from your position on the ground so they’re floating in a sea of blue. With some interesting post production and the rich light of sunset, it’ll seem like they’re underwater, but not. It’ll read very surreal. 5. Strangers: One of the most interesting pictures you can take is of people. I’ll let you in on a secret. Most people love having their photograph taken. Many photographers are very shy about asking people if they can take their photo so they end up trying to sneak a shot. This is just something you have to get over. While most people like having their photo taken, they also like to know it is happening. I have found that 9 out of 10 people will say sure and give you a big smile or pose of whatever you are looking for when asked. The approach I have taken that seems to work is being genuine and I simple ask ‘Do you mind if I take your photo?’. Often I will ask them to continue doing whatever they are doing and I take my shot. 6. The Moon: *Special Equip required* How to photograph the moon: Shooting the moon is actually much easier than you might think. Here is how I approached it: Focal Length: First you need a focal length of ~300mm. I actually talked myself out of not buying new camera equipment (there is a first time for everything) and got away with a 200mm with a 1.4 telecoverter giving me a focal length of 280mm. ISO: You want to put your ISO as low as possible. In my case I used ISO100. I actually tried ISO 50 but the 100 shot looked better. Aperture: You’ll want to set your aperture at f/11 to make sure you capture all of the details in the moon’s surface. 7. HDR: High Dynamic Range: This is the process of taking multiple bracketed exposures (e.g. -2, -1, +/- 0, +1) and then blending these imagines together with software to bring out detailed you otherwise would not have been able to capture. Have you ever showed a picture to someone but it just didn’t rely to the viewer what you were seeing and you ultimately left the conversation with the statement ‘well you had to be there’? This experience sucks, especially when you were trying to capture an incredible view. There is a difference between what your eye can see and what your camera can capture in terms of range of light. Your eye will look at different parts of the image, your pupil will dilate and record the brightness of a white t-shirt at ‘proper exposure’, then adjust to capture the the rich colors of the green grass at ‘proper exposure’ and the deep blue sky above all of it also at ‘proper exposure’ and present it as one imagine to your brain with each part properly exposed. The issue is your camera lens can’t continue to ‘dilate’ to capture the varying ranges of light. Enter HDR. Tutorial at http://www.stuckincustoms.com/ 8. Macro Jewelry, Candy et: Open up the jewelry boxes and play around with everything from cuff links to necklaces. Jewelry, both natural and synthetic, can be made into beautiful artwork. 9. Try a new lighting technique. 10. Look 360 When you walk, you are always looking forward, right? As a photographer you should get used to looking sideways, up and down. You'll be amazed at the amount of photo opportunities you can find on ceilings, second floors, looking down the escalator. 11.Reproduce Art by the Old Masters All the old masters are not called masters for nothing. They had it when it came to lighting, composition and posing. Trying to make an image like the old masters did it, is not an easy task. You can learn allot by trying to produce a very similar image. You can also learn allot from trying to homage art made by one of the great ones. The image on the left is a great example of such reproduction of Rene Magritte - The Lovers by Mister Rad. 12. Shoot your favorite food 13. Shoot a family event. 14.Tell a Story in 5 Pictures Telling a story is a difficult task. It is difficult when you are unlimited with words and images. It is even harder to try and tell a story in five pictures. You need to know what you want to tell; make up an interesting way to tell it; find a beginning, a middle and an end and sum it up in five pictures. 15.Feet 16. Doorways 17. Spooky 18. Vehicles 19. Silhouettes 20. Landscapes at twilight 21. Long exposure of moving water (waterfalls) 22. Multiples 23. Fisheye lens 24. Monochromatic scene/still life 25. Animals 26. Old and new 27. Playground shadows 28. Spiderwebs 29. light through fog/smoke from an extinguished candle 30. People in costumes/masks 31. Bridges 32. Games 33.Squiggly lines 34. Bubbles 35. Amusement Park 36. Hats 37. Hair in Motion 38. Clotheslines 39. Art in the cemetery 40. Butterfly museum 41. Decay 42. Messages/Signs 43. Streeting 44. The elegance of less 45. Personification of mini toys (like toy animals - plastic horses, etc) 46. Rain/ Raindrops (especially on windows while looking out) 47. Seating 48. Rust 49. Polaroids 50. Library stacks/books 51. Domes/Church interiors 52. Floral Drama (very high contrast) 53. Balloons 54. Umbrellas 55. Take a hike 56. Americana 57. Snow days 58. whimsical bird cages 59. bicycles 60. Arrows 61. Spirals 62. Panning and blurring 63. Abstract christmas lights 64. Concealed portraits 65. Cupcakes 66. Blocked/Locked 67. Jump and Sky 68. Night shots 69. Fireworks 70. Reflections 71. Phone booths 72. Two's company: Pairs of people 73. Dance 74. Facepaintings 75. Outside looking in 76.Mini Diorama Scene 77. Reading 78. Grafitti 79. self portrait 80. Musical performance 81. bokeh light shots: Bokeh is determined by the focal length of your camera, the distance from your camera to the subject, the distance from your subject to the background, and your aperture. Technically, the best bokeh is achieved with a long lens (85mm and up) with a wide aperture (under f/3.0) with a short focal distance from the subject and long focal distance from the subject and background where the light points are. 82. Sports/action 83. sunsets in the city 84. Watch it grow: True time lapse photography can take a long time and require specialized equipment. You can do an easier version with just a tripod and your camera, to create a unique collage of pictures. An opening flower bud, growing sprouts, etc. Or do the reverse and watch it decompose! 85. Shoot from the hip 86. Think big: Take pictures in small parts and assemble into a montage later! 87. Fences 88. Boats 89. Candles 90. Fingerprints 91. Autumn 92. Telephone Wires 93. Farms 94. Attach a camera to a [fill in the blank]. People are trying all kinds of things these days. From sky divers to hula hoops to skateboards to seagulls and shark-braving poles. Or how about rigging your Hasselblad to your bike? If you don’t have a Go-Pro, try an old point-and-shoot and a cheap weather proof case. 95. Cloud Formations 96. Shoot into the light 97. Soap Bubble Planets: Take macro photos of soap bubbles on a black background! tutorial: http://www.photoradar.com/techniques/technique/photo-ideas-soap-bubble-photography 98. Golden Hour: "golden hour" refers to the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. The light is usually beautiful, there are fewer harsh shadows, water is usually still, often there is a lovely fog. The golden hour isn't just for sunrises and sunsets or silhouettes (we have threads for those!). Portraits, close-ups, macros, landscapes facing the other way or in the woods, even naturally lit indoor photos (with light streaming through the window) are all better taken during these hours. 99. Tilt Shift Photography: Tilt-shift photography is a creative and unique type of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model. http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/16/beautiful-examples-of-tilt-shift-photography/ 100. Photoshoot idea generator: http://viljo.marrandi.ee/inspiration.html |
Open Choice Photo SubmissionsOne Day Open Choice Print: Edit one of your favorite photos from the first open choice shoot; make sure to:
|