Hi!

Hope all is well with you! This week, I have a few items to share (including something new that I’m extremely excited to share with you):

• The dPS bi-weekly challenge
• More photo critiques
• The AMAZING Photography Virtual Summit (where I’ll be an instructor!)

So without further ado, let’s get to it:

The Photography Virtual Summit (with a discounted VIP pass!)

On March 13th and 14, 5DayDeal.com is hosting its first ever Virtual Photography Summit - where you can learn how to improve your photography from some of the best instructors in the world, including Serge Ramelli (the ultra-popular photographer and YouTuber), Aaron Nace (the founder of Phlearn), and Katrina Brown (the insanely talented night-sky photographer). 

Also, if you click over to the Virtual Summit website, you might notice a familiar name on the list of instructors: mine! I’ll be sharing in-depth advice on how you can capture stunning macro photos (no fancy equipment required!), and I couldn’t be more excited! 

But even if you’re not into macro photography, the Summit will have plenty of other sessions to keep you engaged, including:

• Photoshop AI: 7 Powerful Techniques to Transform Your Edits
• Lightroom Portrait Editing: Professional Techniques for Stunning Results
• Smartphone Photography the Pro Way
• Milky Way Panorama
• So much more!

What’s especially cool is that you can choose between a free pass and a VIP pass. The free pass allows you to watch all of the Summit presentations for a 24-hour period, while the VIP pass gives you lifetime access to each and every Summit presentation, as well as an array of fantastic bonuses (including extra videos and presets!).

And if you purchase your VIP pass before March 13th, it comes with a huge discount (just $47 USD, versus the $197 USD standard price!). 

Basically, if you’re interested in improving your photography - whether you like to shoot landscapes, macro images, portraits, travel scenes, or something else - this Summit is practically guaranteed to help you out. 

So head on over to the Summit website and register for your pass!

The dPS bi-weekly challenge: Electric

From Sime:

'Electric' is a pretty broad theme, and we're leaving it to you to interpret it as you would like. 

Make sure you include the hashtags #dPSWeeklyChallenge and #dPSElectric in your post, in the comments of our official weekly challenge page, or over on social media. You can tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!

And you can also share your image(s) in the dPS Facebook group!

Critiquing your images

As usual, I have a couple more critiques to share with you this week! And as usual, thanks so much to everyone who sent in images (and for those of you who would like to see your images critiqued, feel free to hit Reply to this message and send along a file or two!).

First, a very cool architectural photo from Sam:

Things I like:

• Sam, I love the juxtaposition of the structure on the left with the tower in the background on the right - it’s a great way to give the image a more creative, graphic feel. And I like how the the lines of the nearer structure curve up in a sort of sweeping motion; it adds a touch of dynamism to the frame.
• You’ve also done a great job of rendering all that gorgeous detail in the tower - and you’ve retained some detail in the darkest part of the foreground structure, even as you captured detail in the sky.
• I really like how both the foreground structure and the structure in the background are relatively sharp - with this type of foreground/background juxtaposition, using a narrow aperture (and therefore achieving a deep depth of field, with sharpness throughout the frame) can provide a sort of visual playfulness, as the viewer initially struggles to tell whether the elements are next to one another, or if one is closer to the camera. (If you were to shoot this with an ultra-wide aperture, therefore ensuring that the foreground structure were out of focus, this visual playfulness would disappear - it would immediately be clear that the tower is in the background!)

Things to improve:

• I think that you could enhance the composition even further by making sure that the different elements are staggered more evenly throughout the frame. Right now, there’s a stretch of sky to the right of the tower, but there’s not a whole lot of sky on the tower’s left. As a result, the space on the right feels a bit empty, and the area on the left feels a bit too closed off. I think this would look even better if the tower had a similar amount of breathing room on both sides. For instance, you could move slightly to the right, which would open up more sky between the foreground structure and the tower, and you could put the tower along a rule of thirds gridline. 
• I’d also be careful where the foreground and background subjects intersect - here, the foreground structure seems to cut off some design elements on the distant walls. It can be tough to find the right spot for the overlap to happen, but cleaner is often better!
• With architectural subjects (or really anything with vertical lines), I generally recommend doing a bit of perspective correction, and also making sure that everything is standing straight. Here, I’m noticing that the tower and the walls are leaning to the left; you could make the image look more natural by applying standard perspective correction in your editing program of choice.
• One more recommendation: When dealing with geometric architectural subjects, it can be a lot of fun to shoot when the sun is strong (whether that’s in the middle of the day or during the golden hours). A bright sun casts strong shadows, which can allow you to capture interestingly graphic images, as certain elements are shrouded in shadow and other elements are showered with light. Imagine, for instance, if you captured this image with a low sun coming in from the left - the tower would be bathed in gorgeous light, while the foreground structure would be extremely dark, and the result could be very striking! Of course, there’s nothing wrong with shooting architectural subjects on cloudy days, especially if you want to capture lots of well-exposed detail, but it’s just something to bear in mind, depending on the type of images you want to produce.

Second, a breathtaking landscape from Yadwad:

Things I like:

• First of all, Yadwad, you’ve chosen such a beautiful scene here, with that distant fog, not to mention the combination of a mountain, a reflection, and a lake!
• I also really appreciate the way you’ve managed to create a sense of depth, thanks to the careful layering of the foreground land, the lake in the midground, and then the sweep of the distant road toward the mountain in the background.
• Plus, you’ve created such a wonderful sense of scale by choosing to incorporate that huge mountain in the distance juxtaposed against those (relatively) tiny flags in the foreground. 

Things to improve:

• I like your overall compositional approach, Yadwad, with the edge of the lake cutting in from the bottom right-hand corner, as well as that nice layering effect. I’m wondering, though, if there might be a bit of an imbalance, with the simple geography on the right side, then a lot of complex, weighty elements on the left (ending with that mountain in the background and that bit of land jutting out into the water way in the distance). I think you could approach this problem a different ways, but I might be tempted to crop in from the left and/or to tilt the camera slightly toward the right so that you lose the edge of the mountain and the small bit of land that I mentioned. That way, you can keep things simple, and let the viewer enjoy the sweep from the right to the mountain in the back left. 
• I love the strong reflection in the water, but I do wish that it didn’t overlap so strongly with the land; that way, the viewer could appreciate it more fully. You might be able to get a better result by changing your vantage point slightly - if you were to move slightly downward and to the right, the mountain peaks would be more clearly visible in the water and wouldn’t feel quite so cramped. (Moving to the right might also get rid of that ultra-dark reflection on the right-hand side of the midground area, which draws the eye.)
• One more thought: the sky is pretty blown out. This may have been intentional, and I do think the look is interesting, but I’d be tempted to try to recover some detail there, even though I’m guessing it’s just clouds. If you shot RAW, you might be able to bring back the detail - though depending on your camera’s dynamic range, I might recommend bracketing the scene (where you capture one exposure for the sky and a second exposure for the land) and then blending together the two files for a detailed final result.

I hope that helps! Again, thank you to everyone who submitted images - and if you’ve submitted a file that hasn’t yet been critiqued, I’ll still try to get to it in the coming weeks!

Talk to you next Saturday,

Jaymes Dempsey (and the dPS team)

P.S. Just one more reminder that you can grab your Photography Virtual Summit VIP pass for just $47 USD (though the price goes up on March 13th!). 

So if you want to learn all sorts of photography and photo editing tips, tricks, and techniques from some amazing instructors, AND you want lifetime access to the sessions as well as all sorts of cool bonuses, make sure that you purchase your pass on the Summit website! 

As I mentioned above, I’ll be giving a presentation of my own - on macro photography secrets - and I’d love to have you attend!