Picture This

Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Graffiti: On the Wall,” and we asked readers to submit images that showed the best of a most decidedly urban and exterior art form. What we sought were mural artworks that by definition were mixed media, with the environment forming the canvas and the context often hinting at or defining content. We tried to avoid gang defacements and...

Most every camera sold has a built-in flash but many times we don’t make use of this handy item, keeping the flash on Auto (which with Auto ISO these days might just boost the speed rather than activate the flash) or turning it off for fear that it might ruin the natural light component of our images. The Picture This! assignment this month was using a touch of fill flash to add something...

Our Picture This! assignment for this month was “Shadows and Form,” images where the shadow plays an important role in the composition and point of view of the photographer. Shadows can redefine form, create volume and space, and can both echo and abstract form. Readers responded with images of landscapes, architecture, and even portraiture. In all cases the play of light and dark, of...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Night Moves: Time and Motion” and we asked readers to send in images that incorporated not only nighttime photography, which is challenging enough, but also a sense of movement through the frame. Of course, working in low light usually requires a longer shutter speed, so the challenge became creating a sense of motion through the dark...

Judging from the number of entries we received, readers really enjoy getting down…low, that is. We received images made in the middle of the road, on forest floors, and inside city parks and palaces. All the images share a low vantage point and look up at a world not often seen. This point of view can be quite startling, especially with deep depth of field employed.

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Our Picture This! assignment this month covered one of the metering patterns, spot metering. Spot is a great choice when you want to saturate a distinct color, or when you want to get the bright white highlight right, with compensation. Readers sent in a variety of images, some with color in mind, others when they wanted to open up shadow details that would become too dark using evaluative...

Our Picture This! assignment this month was “Water Flow,” and we probably received as many, if not more, entries than any number we’ve had for any topic thus far. This makes it clear that all of us are entranced by the magic of water as it moves and changes, and that we know that the magic of photography is a perfect way to capture our fascination with it. The general technique...