Tips For Photography Competition...

[acearchie]

Well to start off I am no pro photographer however I understand pretty much all the functions of the canon 10d that I have been allowed to borrow.

There is a photography competition at my school and I hope to have a decent shot at winning! The only condition is that the picture must be taken of or on school grounds. All pictures below are clickable and there are more on my Flickr account!

I have done the usual of pictures of the school during twilight using a long shutter and f11 on a low iso however the skies have been pretty full of clouds and produce not a very aesthetically pleasing picture!




I have also taken a fairly ok-ish pic of my friend throwing a dart with the dart fully in focus and everything else blurred.




Another option I went for is the crazy effects you can get with the long shutter time. These two are probably my best examples!




After recently getting a Diana F+ for my birthday I also have several black and white film photos available of my friends which has some nice charismatic shots!




If you have a few spare moments please check out my Flickr account which has a the full set of pictures.


So basically I am asking for some advice of any pictures people think I should take or try out or just wondering if you think any of the current shots should be retaken or have any merit to them!

Thanks

 

[jackerin]

I have no experience with photo contests, but if you seriously want to win then I would say think about who is doing the judging. If it's students then they might go for the cool effect photos of extra-curriculur activities, but if it's teachers or older people they might want the more 'classical' look.

 

[M-5]

Yeah, the effects are interesting in that I'm curious as to your process for receiving such results, but I don't think those photos are necessarily appealing photos to look at in terms of composition.

 

[maddagascar]

how the heck did you get the dart in focus as he's just throwing it? pretty cool in my opinion..

and the other one of the face being in multiple spots of the room is pretty cool, i take it you just turned the light on long enough for each face then moved around the room?


off topic- but can anyone explain AI SERVO or AI FOCUS?

its a camera setting, but no idea what it means..lol.

sorry for the off topic!

 

[acearchie]

I have no experience with photo contests, but if you seriously want to win then I would say think about who is doing the judging. If it's students then they might go for the cool effect photos of extra-curriculur activities, but if it's teachers or older people they might want the more 'classical' look.

Cheers for that, I'll have a look today to see who is marking the whole thing!

 

[jampat]

how the heck did you get the dart in focus as he's just throwing it? pretty cool in my opinion..

and the other one of the face being in multiple spots of the room is pretty cool, i take it you just turned the light on long enough for each face then moved around the room?


off topic- but can anyone explain AI SERVO or AI FOCUS?

its a camera setting, but no idea what it means..lol.

sorry for the off topic!

AI servo keeps updating the focus at the selected point. It is useful for tracking things like people running towards you or away from you. You need to have the correct point picked though as you can't focus and then adjust composition like you normally could.