Thanks for yet another great State Fair Social Shoot!  The event went very well with a large turn out…  not to mention the fair was PACKED with people, which added to the challenge.  From early reports, it sounds like everyone had a wonderful time and if nothing else, got to enjoy the State Fair for an evening!

For those of you who are wondering what the event was all about, here are some background details:

• The IPC Student “Social Shoots” are a perk of being an IPC student, current or past.  Put simply, we get together and photograph something interesting (an event, location, project, etc.).   An instructor is usually available for questions and advice.  Students learn from each other and pick up techniques by observing their peers.  Past events have included the Indy Cultural Trail, several parks, Mass Ave, Race For The Cure, and many more.

   

• The IPC State Fair Social Shoot took place on August 17th.  It was a 24-hour competition.  Participants were introduced to the competition specifics and categories around 6:30pm.  The deadline for their photo submissions was 8pm August 18th…  just over 24 hours later.  The event was designed to mirror an actual photography assignment with a strict deadline (ie: a client with a contract).  Prizes are awarded for 1st place in each category, along with one “Best of Show”…  a total value of over $350 in prizes.

Without further delay, here are the judging results from this year’s event:

Best of Show: Lisa Weartz

Prize: $50.00 cash and an Indy Photo Coach Private Lesson

Category 1: Year Of The Pig

First Place: Katharine Jensen

Honorable Mention: Kate Bordenkecher

Category 2: Red, White & Blue

First Place: Kate Bordenkecher

Honorable Mention: Lisa Rooney

Category 3: Lights

First Place: Nathan Rhoades

Honorable Mention: Katharine Jensen

Category 4: Creative

First Place: Lisa Weartz

Honorable Mention: Matthew Carroll

Full Results

Slideshow of all entries (Click here)

Entries were scored by 5 judges, based on:

• Artistic Merit & Composition (1-10 points)
• Technical Quality (1-10 points)
• Originality (1-10 points)
• Level of photographic challenge (1-10 points)
• 10 = Perfect, 5 = Average, 1 = Below Average
• Total: 40 possible points per judge, 200 points total
• Total scores: 200=Perfect, Above 100 = Above average, Below 100 = Below average

If you’d like to view all the entries, click here for a slideshow. Again, thank you to everyone who participated. Awards will be mailed to the winners within a week.

If you’d like to participate in our next Social Shoot events, remember, these are a “perk” of being an IPC student! Join our community!

"I used to hate doing color. I hated transparency film. The way I did color
was by not wanting to know what kind of film was in my camera."
-Helmut Newton

News

Social Shoot
The next Student Social Shoot is the IPC State Fair Photo Competition on August 17th. If you’ve take a class or lesson with us, mark your calendar! Look for a separate email with more details.

Action Shots
Sports Photography Workshop with Walt Kuhn.  

New Class Announced!
IPC is excited to introduce a new class: Exercising Creativity in Digital Photography. Taught by instructor, John Perez.

Featured Class: Wedding Photography Course

So you’ve been asked, volunteered, drafted or possibly cornered into shooting a friend or relative’s wedding. Or maybe you’re thinking about doing it as a wedding present. Photography can be one of the largest expenses for a wedding, especially in the high priced metropolitan areas.

If you are an amateur with single friends or relatives and have a decent eye for photography, sooner or later you will be asked to shoot a wedding. This class is intended to be a "Survival Guide" for the non-professional who will be shooting a wedding for the first time. If you’re not at least a bit scared by the prospect of being the "official" wedding photographer, you should be. You only get one shot at it!

Weekly Assignment: Great Shots w/ Cheap Cameras

Photographers like to tell new photographers "you can take a great image with any camera" and while that’s true they seldom are as enthusiastic about telling you how. This week I’m going to do that and if you can bare with me as go over some of the nuts and bolts of your digital camera, you will understand the basic strategy required to improve pictures taken with less expensive digital cameras.

Back in 2002 I purchased a digital camera for my company and distinctly recall how we all marveled that we were only paying $100/megapixel ($400 for a 4MP dSLR). Today my cell phone has a higher pixel count and costs a fraction of that but is still a less capable camera than the eight year old Kodak by design. The main reason being despite my phone’s camera having more pixels, the size of each pixel has to be so much smaller than what you’d find in a dSLR in in order to fit them all into my compact mobile phone.

The "more megapixels are better" trend seems to have finally reached the end of it’s life. Many photographers began to see that the total number of pixels was actually less of a factor for image quality vs. the size of the actual pixels. This is the reason you can spend $149 on a Nikon Coolpix S570 or $5,699 on a Nikon D3S (body only) while both cameras deliver 12MP images.

This chart below illustrates sensor sizes for today’s cameras (the smallest on the chart is what you have in your cell phone. The APS-C sensor is what most dSLR’s on the market have).

Small sensors tend to have smaller pixels and those have a more difficult time catching light. That beyond any other reason is why under the exact same conditions a point-and-shoot can have poorer results than a dSLR. That does not mean an inexpensive camera is less capable in the grand scheme of things — which is what those more experienced photographers were trying to tell you.

To put it simply, pictures taken with cheaper cameras need more light and a few setting adjustments to look good.

Here are some suggestions:

• Shoot outdoors. Even on a cloudy day the quality and intensity of outdoor light will be better than most conventional types of indoor lighting. You can even put up a backdrop and make it look like you’re indoors if you want to.
• Get out of Auto (A) mode. Every point-and-shoot camera I’ve ever used seems to favor exposure over everything else even if it leaves you with giant yellow blur. When borrow my wife’s Canon PowerShot A520 (4MP) camera because I don’t want to carry mind these are the first things I do and while the results aren’t masterpieces they turn out much better with the tweaks than without:
  • Switch to Shutter Priority (S or Tv) mode
  • Set the shutter speed to 1/125
  • Set the ISO to 100

Assignment:

1) Using the tips above capture an image with a point-and-shoot or cell phone camera.

2) Try to get the highest quality image you can by ensuring your shutter speed is high enough and you have sufficient available light.

*Pictures submitted by 8/17 may be featured in next week’s newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!

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"Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and
mind are the true lens of the camera." -Yousuf Karsh

News

Social Shoot
The next Student Social Shoot is the IPC State Fair Photo Competition on August 17th. If you’ve take a class or lesson with us, mark your calendar! More details to come the week of August 9th.

Action Shots
Sports Photography Workshop with Walt Kuhn.  

Gaming Fans
you headed to Gen Con this weekend? Visit instructor John Perez’s basic photography SPA event.

Featured Class: Sports Photography

Instructor Walt Kuhn is a professional sports photographer with years of experience shooting for the Indy 500 and Brickyard races, as well as multiple basketball, football, baseball and soccer organizations.

Learn on-location in a workshop focused on how to improve your sports photos with equipment you already own. Topics include: lighting, shutter speeds, sport-specific anticipation and of course, hands-on practice!

The concepts you learn can be applied to any sport!

Weekly Group Assignment: Shooting Through Windows

Windows can be photographed in all sorts of creative ways. They can be the subject of a photograph or they can provide interesting visual effects that augment the subject of a photograph. This week we will do the latter and capture an image through a window.

Shooting through a window can be tricky. Reflections can be difficult to overcome and the different amounts of available light between indoors and outdoors often exceeds what the camera is capable of capturing. Here are a couple of tips for how to deal with those challenges:

Tips:

• A "Polarzing" lens filter can greatly reduce reflections in glass.

• High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques can be used to compensate for the dramatic differences in available light indoors vs. outdoors. Even on a cloudy day, the light outside is much brighter than indoors making it nearly impossible to see both an indoor room and the outdoors through a window without utilizing a technique like HDR.

Assignment:

1) Capture any subject through a window.

2) Be creative in your presentation taking into account some of the pitfalls mentioned above.

*Pictures submitted by 8/10 may be featured in next week’s newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!

Know someone who would like this newsletter?
Forward this newsletter to a friend

"Hitchcock makes it very clear to us. There’s an objective and a subjective camera, like there’s a third- and a first-person narrator in literature." -Manuel Puig

News

Social Shoot
The next Student Social Shoot is the IPC State Fair Photo Competition on August 17th. If you’ve take a class or lesson with us, mark your calendar! More details to come the week of August 9th.

Action Shots
Sports Photography Workshop with Walt Kuhn.  

Last Call!
Beyond The Fundamentals with Sarah Newman.  

Last Call!
Fundamentals of Photography in Indy, August.  

Photographer Wanted

An Indianapolis couple looking for a wedding photographer for June 18, 2011. Feel free to contact them if you are interested in shooting their wedding!

Joshua Moriarity & Miranda Sweeney
Phone: (317) 804-9439
Email: mnsweene@butler.edu

Featured Class: Beyond the Fundamentals

This course is designed for students who have taken the IPC Fundamentals of Photography class who are interested in learning more advanced techniques.
Using the our hands-on teaching technique, you will cover:

Join other IPC students as you gain hands-on experience in 4 different photography genres over the 4 weeks.

Weekly Group Assignment: Summer Cuisine

There are foods and drinks we only seem to have when it’s summer: corn on the cob, watermelon or anything barbecued — iced tea, lemonade, you get the idea.

This week I want you to capture some of the cuisine at a summer gathering.

Tips:

• Use a macro lens or the lens with the widest aperture possible. If you don’t have a macro lens be sure to set your camera to Aperture Priority (A mode), then select the lowest number available (e.g. 2.8, 3.5). This will help give your image a smooth and pleasing background.
• Use a tripod if possible. When trying to capture fine detail a tripod will generally give you the best results. Even at high shutter speeds there can still be a noticeable difference in sharpness between a handheld image and one where a tripod was used. If you don’t own a tripod any stationary object will work. To prevent your camera from moving when you take the picture you can set the timer or use a separate shutter release cable.

Assignment:

1) Capture any kind of summer food or drink
2) Use natural or available light to give images a softer appearance
3) Use the widest aperture setting available and an uncluttered background

*Pictures submitted by 8/03 may be featured in next week’s newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!

Know someone who would like this newsletter?
Forward this newsletter to a friend

"Most people think they can play tennis, shoot, write novels, and photograph as well as any other person — until they try." -Emerson

News

Just Announced
Sports Photography Workshop with Walt Kuhn

Dates Added
Fundamentals of Photography in Indianapolis, Wednesdays in August.

IPC Photographers Receive Press Attention
Sarah Newman and David Scott to be featured by the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Click here!

Featured Class: Beyond the Fundamentals

This course is designed for students who have taken the IPC Fundamentals of Photography class who are interested in learning more advanced techniques.
Using the our hands-on teaching technique, you will cover:

Join other IPC students as you gain hands-on experience in 4 different photography genres over the 4 weeks.

Weekly Group Assignment: One Hundred

100th Assignment!

In honor of our 100th Group Assignment, this week our assignment is (you guessed it) "One Hundred."

Assignment:

1) Capture something with one hundred or more objects.

2) Think about how patterns you encounter everyday that blend together until you get up close or illuminate it with a lot of light to reveal it’s intricacies.

*Pictures submitted by 7/27 may be featured in next week’s newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!

Know someone who would like this newsletter?
Forward this newsletter to a friend

"All I need is a camera and I’ll make things happen."
-Keenen Ivory Wayans

News

IPC Photographers Receive Press Attention
Sarah Newman and David Scott to be featured by the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Click here!

Improve Your Editing
Adobe Lightroom for Photographers Seminar July 24th. One day only!

Looking For An Excuse To Shoot?
Join the Experience Builder class beginning July 20th.

Now Enrolling August Classes
Fundamentals of Photography, Beyond the Fundamentals

Student Photographer Opportunity

An Indianapolis resident has contacted IPC requesting a photographer to shoot her child’s first birthday party. If you are interested, please contact:

Caty Wiegman
Phone: 317-379-5488
Email: catyschoene@sbcglobal.net

Featured Class: Experience Booster

Looking for an excuse to get out and shoot? If you’ve conquered the Fundamentals of Photography and are craving the opportunity to put your learned skills to work, this class is for you!

Join other IPC students as you gain hands-on experience in 4 different photography genres over the 4 weeks.

Weekly Group Assignment: Architecture

Architectural photography is a very broad genre that ranges from real estate snapshots to dynamic abstract art. Despite the many variations, one thing most architecture images do attempt is to highlight the grandeur of subject.
Sometimes the historical/cultural significance is what draws you in and sometimes it’s simply the uniqueness and intricate details of a structure (particularly modern architecture).

Tips for Capturing Architecture:

• Use a telephoto lens to prevent odd perspective effects (unless that’s what you want). A "longer lens" will minimize those effects preventing situations where front door of a house appears to be twice as large as the roof.

• Think about whether the overall scene is important to represent the structure. For example, if photographing a country estate the surrounding landscape could be vital to communicating the context of the image. In contrast, the presence of a skyscraper in and of itself tells the viewer you’re in a city. Then if the building’s location isn’t crucial to the image using a tight composition can help to minimize distractions and highlight the more intricate details of the building.

Assignment:

1) Photograph architecture in either an urban or rural setting.

2) Try different ways of composing the (i.e. more or less of the surroundings) to see which has the most impact.

Written by Trevor Warren

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"There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are." -Ernst Haas

News

Student-Hosted Shoot
Connie E. is hosting a social gathering / pitch-in on Sunday, July 11th in Martinsville, centered around nature photography. RSVP to her via a Flickr post here.

Improve Your Editing
Adobe Lightroom for Photographers Seminar in July.

Looking For An Excuse To Shoot?
Join the Experience Builder class beginning July 20th.

Last Call!
The July registration window closes tomorrow for: Fundamentals of Photography (Carmel, Indianapolis)

Featured Class: Experience Booster

Looking for an excuse to get out and shoot? If you’ve conquered the Fundamentals of Photography and are craving the opportunity to put your learned skills to work, this class is for you!

Join other IPC students as you gain hands-on experience in 4 different photography genres over the 4 weeks.

Weekly Group Assignment: Right At Your Feet

Often when someone commissions you to take a photo there are several specific parameters to which you must adhere. Bearing this in mind, this week imagine you’ve been hired to provide the photograph for a new shoe line.

Assignment:

• Take an close up image of shoes that best accentuates them.
• Use some aspect of story-telling and style to help the viewer know that their demographic is who these shoes are for.

*Shoes must be the significant focus of the image. A designer would not want their product distorted or take the backseat to anything else so it must be the main focus.

**Pictures submitted by Tuesday July 13th may be featured in our weekly newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

Know someone who would like this newsletter?
Forward this newsletter to a friend

“There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.” -Ernst Haas

News

Improve Your Editing
Adobe Lightroom for Photographers Seminar in July.

Looking For An Excuse To Shoot?
Join the Experience Builder class in July.

Featured Class: Experience Booster

Looking for an excuse to get out and shoot? If you’ve conquered the Fundamentals of Photography and are craving the opportunity to put your learned skills to work, this class is for you!

Join other IPC students as you gain hands-on experience in 4 different photography genres over the 4 weeks.

Weekly Group Assignment: Independence

This weekend there will be parades and ceremonies across the country celebrating Independence Day.

For this week’s assignment, show us how your definition of independence!

Assignment:

1) Post your “independence” pictures here.

*Pictures submitted by Tuesday July 6th may be featured in our weekly newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!

"The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own."
-Susan Sontag

News

Cultural Trail
Social Shoot photos from June 10th have been submitted to the Cultural Trail. Look for updates soon!

Leaving On Vacation?
Brush up on your vacation photography skills with a private lesson!

Improve Your Editing
Adobe Lightroom for Photographers Seminar in July.

Looking For An Excuse To Shoot?
Join the Experience Builder class in July.

Featured Class: Beginning Adobe Lightroom

Instructor: John Perez

You have 500 photos from a shoot…Within a few minutes, Lightroom allows you to find the 10 best shots, make batch edits, nondestructive edits and work hand-in-hand with Photoshop.

This is must-have software for any photographer.

Weekly Group Assignment: Be Your Own Preview

In the first "Back to Basics" assignment we focused on planning how to compose, adjust your camera settings and produce a compelling image without relying on your preview screen or software after the fact.

This week we’re going back to what happens before even that, focusing on techniques that allow you to spot a potential picture before you even get your camera out.

We have all had the experience of taking a picture we think should be great only to see the end result fall flat. If you still find yourself standing there wondering where all of the drama went from your images here is a tip:

• Once you think you’ve found a good subject and before you grab your camera, close one of your eyes then look at it again. Now you’re seeing things more like the camera which doesn’t have the benefit of depth perception like our eyes do. This is a particularly useful trick for landscape photography when after closing one eye all of the rolling hills turn into one muddled mess telling you it’s time to find a better vantage point.

Assignment:

1) Use the technique mentioned above to capture an image on your next photography outing.

2) Post one image that you did not think would be a good image after applying this technique and one that still worked afterward.

3) Post your EXIF data if it’s not available by default.

*Images must have been taken after 6/22/10.
**Pictures submitted by Tuesday June 29th may be featured in our weekly newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!

"If I could tell a story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug a camera."
-Lewis Hine

News

Leaving On Vacation?
Brush up on your vacation photography skills with a private lesson!

Improve Your Editing
Adobe Lightroom for Photographers Seminar in July.

Looking For An Excuse To Shoot?
Join the Experience Builder class in July.

Featured Class: Wedding Photography

Instructor: Sarah Newman

So you’ve been asked, volunteered, drafted or possibly cornered into shooting a friend or relative’s wedding. Or maybe you’re thinking about doing it as a wedding present. Photography can be one of the largest expenses for a wedding, especially in the high priced metropolitan areas.

If you are an amateur with single friends or relatives and have a decent eye for photography, sooner or later you will be asked to shoot a wedding. This class is intended to be a "Survival Guide" for the non-professional who will be shooting a wedding for the first time. If you’re not at least a bit scared by the prospect of being the "official" wedding photographer, you should be. You only get one shot at it!

Weekly Group Assignment: Painting With Light

"Painting with light" is a fun thing to do with your camera that also teaches you about configuring your camera settings.
The technique is accomplished is by setting your shutter speed much slower than you would normally use it. For example a typical shutter speed for every day shooting might be 1/125 of a second. In the example image I set my camera* to 2 full seconds (i.e. 250 times slower than normal).

To set your camera’s shutter speed you must be in either Manual (M) or Shutter Priority (S or Tv) mode. With most cameras once you’re shutter speed is down to whole seconds at a time two quotation marks appear next to the numbers.

Assignment:

1) After adjusting your camera’s shutter speed capture an image that makes use of those settings. You’re not limited to direct light, there are many ways to apply this technique (see our previous Silky Waterfalls assignment).
2) Post your results here along with the settings used.

*Images must have been taken after 6/15/10.
**Pictures submitted by Tuesday June 22nd may be featured in our weekly newsletter!

Written by Trevor Warren

To Participate in Photo Assignments and Receive
Tips Like This Join Our Flickr Group!