GDS 73 - Digital Photography Online - Assignment 9

Back to Canvas

Assignment 9 - Still Life OR Portraits using Hard and Soft Light

You have 2 options for Assignment 9.
You can do EITHER option.
You COULD do both, but I will assume you didn't read the intructions ;)

You will turn in 5 total images. The 5th image is different depending on the option you choose from the 2 below. It should also be pretty obvious which images used soft light, and which used hard light. Make sure to watch the videos at the bottom of the page for tips on using hard and soft light.

OPTION 1
Assignment 9 - Still Life

Requirements:

To Turn in(Please read carefully):

  • Pick Your 4 best images and process them in Camera Raw and resize your images to a maximum dimension of 1500 pixels wide or 1500 pixels high(watch the videos on image processing and importing/exporting in Lightroom.)
  • Save them as jpegs with a quality setting of 7 for the image processor in Photoshop, or 70 in Lightroom.
  • Please DO NOT turn in your Raw files. They are too big and may cause problems for Canvas.
  • Make sure your images are named like this:
    firstname_lastname_imagenumber.jpg
  • Make sure your name is on each image.
  • Put your 4 best portrait images AND the extra image of your reflector or diffusion in the folder, put your name on the folder before zipping it, zip the folder and drop them into Assignment 9 in the weekly module.

OPTION 2
Assignment 9 - Portraits: Do new outdoor portraits

Requirements:

  1. After watching the video Bounce for Portrait Lighting, and others recommneded on the instructions page, shoot new images of a person using both hard and soft light. The video shows ways of doing the assignment.
  2. Make sure to use hard light for 1 image, and soft light for 3 images. Soft light usually looks better for portraits, but not always. The 5th image is a shot of your reflector or diffusion that you used. This can be a white card used as a reflector or something something translucent, like a sheet, used for diffusion.
  3. Shoot at least some of your images using a reflector or diffusion(or both) to bounce or diffuse the light as in the video below. Add 1 image of the reflector or diffusion you used. This is your 5th image.
  4. Make sure to watch both videos at the bottom of the page for tips on hard and soft light.

Tips

  • Again, try out some of the techniques in this video.
  • Try to position the bounce or diffuser higher that the subjects head, instead of below.
  • The underlighting position(where the board use under the subject) is probably less useful.
  • You probably could use a third person to hold the bounce/diffuser.
  • The images can be posed or candid.
Shoot at least 20 images of the person, probably more if possible. Lighting can can be natural or artificial, but try to use the ambient(existing) light as much as possible. You can also use flash if necessary to supplement the existing light(fill flash). GET CLOSE for at least some images.
Required:
Shoot at least some of your images using a reflector or diffuser of some kind to bounce or diffuse the light as in the video above. You can use a reflector like this from Amazon, or it can just be a piece of white foam core board from someplace like Michaels, or a sheet used as diffusion. To show you used it, include an extra photo of what you uses during your shoot. This would be your 5th image.

Download examples from the portrait assignment here.

To Turn in(Please read carefully):

  • Pick Your 4 best images and process them in Camera Raw and resize your images to a maximum dimension of 1500 pixels wide or 1500 pixels high(watch the videos on image processing and importing/exporting in Lightroom.)
  • Add 1 more image of the reflector or diffusion you used.
  • Save them as jpegs with a quality setting of 7 for the image processor in Photoshop, or 70 in Lightoom.
  • Please DO NOT turn in your Raw files. They are too big and may cause problems for Canvas.
  • Make sure your images are named like this:
    firstname_lastname_imagenumber.jpg
  • Make sure your name is on each image.
  • Put your 4 best portrait images AND the extra image of your reflector or diffusion in the folder, put your name on the folder before zipping it, zip the folder and drop them into Assignment 9 in the weekly module.