The last few weeks of Photography 102 class I’ve been customizing the lessons and homework a bit. I asked each student 3 questions:
What have we learned that you found particularly pleasing? Perhaps it was something you really enjoyed or found that you had a knack with.
What have we learned that you didn’t care for? Something that you don’t like and you know you still need some work on.
What haven’t we learned that you would like to cover?
Questions 1 and 2 were then used to create homework assignments specific to each student. I have a small class, so this works out well.
I think it’s important to work on skills that we aren’t that great on and by combining photography that we like with photography we don’t like, perhaps it makes the assignments more palatable.
When is the last time that we purposefully shot something we weren’t that good at? Or something that we didn’t really like? It’s real easy to get caught up in only shooting what we like and calling that our “style,” while ignoring the skills improvement opportunity elsewhere. Don’t sit back and relax because you’ve got one skill nailed. Nail them all. One at a time. It will take a while to do it, but this should be your goal.
Personally, shooting at a 3:1 ratio is a challenge for me. Not because I can’t do it – I can nail the light arrangement and settings, but to me, my instinct is to start adding in reflectors and bounce that lovely soft light all around until the client is practically flat lit, thereby destroying the light ratio and the shadowing and depth it creates. So, I’ve been forcing myself to adhere to classic lighting setups more often.
Okay, that’s your little nugget of thought-provocation for the day.
Have a good one. And go nail something. 😉