Assignment #1

[100214]

I am so excited to get started on this course! The “beauty” picture turned out even better than I thought with the natural light:)

[Duncan Rawlinson]

I have moved this post into the correct forum. It was posted in the “read first” area of the site. 😮

I will critique this in a few days. 🙂

Thanks.

[100214]

Oh shoot! Sorry about that. I wasn’t sure what I was doing when I submitted it. Obviously hey;)

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Thanks for submitting your first assignment.

No worries on putting it in a different place… I moved it for ya 😉

This was your first assignment and you’ve submitted two images.

The assignment reads as follows:

Lesson 1: Assignment Assignment Title: Beast to Beauty

We want you to find something particularly boring in your home. It could be a doorknob, a remote control, a garbage can, a plain couch, tiles or anything else which you would rarely notice around your home. Something totally forgettable and uninteresting.

Now what we want you to do is to take 2 pictures of the object. Take one picture of it as you normally see it. Stand back and take the picture of the object with disregard for its relation to other things or any interesting elements within the object itself.

Now, I want you to get close to the object and see it with fresh eyes. How can you make this object interesting? What if you changed the lighting? What if you added something to it? What if you zoomed in? What if you blurred your camera to make it more abstract? What if you put it in close relation to something else to make it more interesting? These are all just ideas, but the possibilities are endless. Now Take a second picture and turn this ordinary object into something much more visually pleasing.

You’ve understood the assignment and done exceedingly well for your first go on the assignment forum.

Your first photo is your ‘beauty shot’ and your second photo is your ‘beast’ shot.

The shelf of a a houseplant in the corner is quite ordinary and boring so that’s the perfect kind of item to shoot. Your beast shot shows just that, a standard houseplant and it’s not very interesting.

However, by shifting your point of view and getting extremely close you’ve shot a nice abstract photograph.

A couple of elements that work well in this photograph are as follows:

1: off center
You’ve shot the focal point of the image off center and in the most natural place.

2: shadows
The shadows on the wall add another dimension to the image and the interplay between the foreground and the background here is quite nice.

Now for what you could have improved. The photograph has an odd sort of color to it and I suspect that’s because there are mixed light sources in the room. But for your first assignment you needn’t worry about that. But just be aware of the light going forward.

Get even closer. You we’re on the right track but you could have been even closer. If your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough… Always keep that in mind. Get closer than you think feels right and then get even closer.

Great work on your assignment and I look forward to seeing you progress through the course.

Thanks!

[Author]

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