Digital Photo Assignments

Projects for All Levels of Photography Classes

Steve Anchell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317638490
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Digital Media

This collection of more than 40 photo assignments is designed to help all students—from beginning freshmen to experienced seniors—improve or reinvigorate their work and reach their full potential as photographers. Whether you are building a syllabus for your first photography class, revitalizing assignments for your students, or looking to add DSLR video, workflow, or color correction to your class, you will find a wealth of ideas in this wonderful working guide. The assignments begin with using the camera, and progress through learning composition and lighting, working in genres, building a portfolio and more.

Section 1
Beginner

Freshman

Assignment 1
Significant Photo

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place . . . I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

—Elliot Erwitt

Purpose: This Assignment is Meant to “Kick Start” Your Photo Career.

You should begin your career in photography photographing things that interest you in a way that makes them interesting to other people. Once you are able to do this consistently, the next step is to find things that are inherently uninteresting to you and make them interesting to other people. For this assignment, find things that are interesting to you to photograph.

The inspiration for this assignment came from the example set by photographer Harry Callahan, who would walk his neighborhood every day returning with a photograph of something he had not previously photographed or something he had previously photographed but this time photographed in a new way.

This assignment is deceptively easy—but don’t be fooled. This may be the single most important assignment you will ever do. I have used this assignment with students for more than twenty years and have found, even with experienced photographers, it changes their relationship towards their photography and image making.

Set your camera on “P” for Program (some cameras have two Program modes—for this assignment it doesn’t matter which one you use). As you progress in your study of photography you will want to take your camera off Program and use one of the other settings that allow more control over the image—but for now use P.

Beginning today, make it your goal to make one photo every day that is significant to you. At the end of the day go through every photo you have taken, whether it is one or 500, and select the one that you want to remember that day by. Even if you have taken one hundred good photos that day, limit yourself to choosing the “one” (don’t delete the others, though). Save your “one” photo in a file called Significant Photo.

Do this assignment for thirty days, one full month (a leap year doesn’t count). Harry Callahan did it for at least thirty years—don’t feel as if you need to stop at thirty days!

Make it a habit to always save the Original File Number as part of the image name. Regardless of what else you may name the image, if you preserve the original file number you will always be able to find and identify it—unless you delete it from your hard drive, in which case it no longer exits.

An example of how to name a file would be:

Original File Name and number: _DSC0134.NEF
Saved as: [Custom File Name]-0134.NEF

Aaron Davis made the following seven photos as part of his Significant Photo assignment.

FIGURES 1.1–1.7 The seven images in this collection were chosen from those submitted by Aaron for his significant photo project. Photos by Aaron Davis.

Assignment 2
Shutter Speed

“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.”

—Elliott Erwitt

Purpose: To Provide a Visual Understanding of How to Use Shutter Speed to Either Freeze or Blur Action.

If possible, perform these exercises out-of-doors in open shade. If you live in a rainy area, such as the Pacific Northwest, and cannot go out-of-doors from September until August, see if you can perform these inside a well-lit gymnasium at your school.

• Use a normal to moderate telephoto focal length lens (50mm to 135mm with a full-frame sensor).
• Set your Shooting Mode to Shutter Priority (S), or Time value (Tv) for Canon.

Shutter Speed

1. Focus on a friend’s hands from about three feet away. Have them spin or shake their hands. Set the shutter speed to 1/8 and allow the in-camera meter to set the aperture for correct exposure. Make two exposures.
   NOTE: If the ambient light is too bright, try reducing your ISO as far as it will go (e.g., ISO 50, ISO 100). If the ambient light is too low, try increasing your ISO (e.g., ISO 400, ISO 800).
2. Double the shutter speed to 1/15 and repeat the exercise.
3. Double the shutter speed to 1/30.
4. Double the shutter speed to 1/60.
5. Double the shutter speed to 1/125.
6. Double the shutter speed to 1/250.

FIGURES 2.1–2.6

Review

1. What difference do you expect to see between the first two images and the second two images?
2. At which shutter speed do you first see any sign of stop action?
3. At which shutter speed do you see your friend’s hands frozen?

FIGURE 2.7 Kimberley Anchell, Nikon D700, 120mm, f/10 at 1/400.

Assignment 3
Horizontal Motion

“Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.”

—Anonymous

Purpose: To Demonstrate the Effect of Shutter Speed on Moving Subjects.

• Set the exposure mode to Shutter Priority (S), Nikon, or Time value (Tv), Canon.
• Do each of these as many times as necessary to get the hang of them.

• 1. Set your shutter at 1/30 and instruct your partner to run past you at a moderate speed. As they enter the frame, take a photo.

FIGURE 3.1 Th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• SECTION 1—BEGINNER (FRESHMAN)
• SECTION 2—INTERMEDIATE (SOPHOMORE)
• SECTION 3—ADVANCED (JUNIOR)
• SECTION 4—GETTING NOTICED (SENIOR)
• Contributors
• Software
• Photo Credits
• Index