Winter Photography Projects: Shoot a Photo Project

13. Shoot a Photo Project About Your Local Community
The history of photography is filled with the names of photographers who have created an in-depth, photographic record of a specific geographical area at a moment in time, ad whose work is now considered of great historic value. Why not start your own project, either of your own town or one nearby? You could focus on the buildings the people or a combination of both. There doesn’t need to be a time limit on this project, indeed it could be the start of a life’s work, but its value in years to come could be enormous. 

14. Create a Photo With Shallow Depth of Field
As an exercise try to create a photo with really shallow depth of field. You’ll need a lens with a fairly wide maximum aperture, and ideally a telephoto focal length. Getting in close will also narrow your depth of field. Although some would call it cheating you can also exaggerate a blurred background effect using Photoshop or similar software. 

15. Go on a shoot using only f/22
You’ll almost certainly need a tripod for this one, because you’ll be forced to use slow shutter speeds, but just think how sharp your pictures will be, from the foreground all the way to the horizon (above).

16. Create a Collage
Photobox is one of several online labs offering an templated collage-creation service, but it really isn’t that difficult to do yourself, using your preferred photo-editing package.

17. Try Time-Lapse Photography
Time-lapse photography is the art of photographing a very slow-moving event (such as the opening of a flower or the passing of clouds over a landscape) in a speeded-up sequence. The trick is to set the camera up on a tripod so it won’t move, then to take a single picture at set intervals (eg every 10 secs, or every 30 minutes, depending on the subject). These can then either be presented as a fast-transition slideshow or, better still, joined together in a video-editing application to make a time-lapse movie.

18. Hire a Model
Bring out your inner Rankin by hiring a professional model and studio for some portrait, fashion or glamour photography. You’ll be amazed at the quality of the results you’ll find yourself achieving with some proper studio lights, a plain background and a trained model who knows how to pose. Some hire studios offer tuition in lighting and posing, while many others have someone on hand to help if you get stuck. Sometimes the models themselves run their own studios and can offer guidance. If the cost is out of your price range, why not club together with a couple of mates to share the cost?

19. Shoot and Stitch a Local View Panorama
Few things impress like a really good panoramic image.

20. Learn a New Photoshop Trick Every Day
Photoshop is far too big a program to digest all at once, but taken in bite-size chunks, over time, you can become an expert. You can do this either by buying a book and reading it a chapter at a time, or by reading the on-screen tips that you can set to come on every time you start up the software. Alternatively watch the videos at www.wikivid.com/index.php/Photoshop