NEW Assignments Index and Rules

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Photographic Assignments

Photographic Assignments are a series of challenging tasks that you have to complete one by one. They are meant to be challenging and each one of them requires thinking and careful planning on your side. The difficulties you face in the way of completing an assignment are added to your photographic knowledge as valuable experiences. Your attempts are evaluated by our moderators, who are very strict about the rules of assignments and have high expectations from you. Sometimes even more than what you expect from yourself. If your entry is not accepted, you must retry until you do well enough to be accepted! It is a given that the camera used will be an A-mount digital or film SLR, and not any other type.

Important Note About Copyright: as with all photos posted on Dyxum the copyright remains with the photographer who took and posted the shot. However to make the idea of assignments working our Admins/Moderators/Alpha Eyes who are evaluating your work in here may need to modify posted shots for instructional/educational purposes. So by posting an image in Assignemnts you give Admins/Mods/Alpha Eyes  permission to post a modified version for instructional/educational purposes only. Such modified photos will be published exclusively in Assignments section on Dyxum and will be removed as soon as possible on your (copyright holder's) request.

Guidelines

Read your assignment carefully. Some of them might be hard to understand. It's your responsibility to comprehend the given set of rules and come up with a correct interpretation of it. 

Take your lessons. When you fail, make sure you understand the given reason. If it's not clear, discuss it.

Discuss. Ask questions about our evaluations, leave your comments about other dyxumers' attempts. Photography related discussions are always welcome in assignment topics.

Follow other attempts as well. See how people interpret the assignment. Learn why attempts get accepted or refused. If you are not in agreement with our decision, jump in and tell your opinion.

Try to use "quality" shots. Don't just post a grab shot that meets the criteria, try to use shots in line with your usual standard re. lighting, sharpness etc.

Assignments

Basic Assignments: 
Rule of Thirds and Golden Mean 
Leading Lines
Foreground Interest 
Perspective 
Shape/outline Silhouette 
Use of Fill-in Flash 

Intermediate Assignments: 
High Key 
Low Key 
Softness 
Primary Colour 
Symmetry
Pattern
Texture

Portrait Assignments 
Natural light 
Studio with multiple lights/reflectors 
Environmental portrait 

Advanced Assignments: 
Getting closer 
Macro w/o macro 
Use of flash with rear curtain sync 
Breaking the rules 
Self set goal/assignment

These can be taken in any order. But if you want to set yourself a personal challenge, you can still do them in the numbered order -- the prizemoney does not increase, but the satisfaction when finished will be greater. However you can only do one assignment at a time, and you can only move to another once after completion (passing) of the one you started.   

Rules

The general rules for the assignments are as follows (the specific instructions will be posted in the threads):
clean slate, all “old” assignments will be locked (over time as the new ones are created)
Photo's shot with A/E-mount cameras only, no other brands/mounts
no mining, shots must be specifically taken for the assignment (we trust you )
Provide shooting data, like camera, lens, exposure details, date taken etc. when there is no exif included in the picture file.
only one assignment at the time. Once started you can only take the next assignment after having passed.
one dimension crop and minor straightening allowed (to allow different aspect ratios, but don’t crop in both directions)
max 2 pics per post/try
you can do the assignments in any order, and repeated as many times as you want
at least one moderators or admin will comment on every post and determine fail/pass. This might include general C&C as well.
all members of Dyxum can also leave comments on the shots posted 
id of members that passed will be kept in a "pass post"
specifically good pictures or good examples of assignment passes will be kept in a new "assignment gallery"
instructions for specific assignments will generally stay as is (and we'll have to write new ones for new assignments). 
shots posted for the assignments are eligible for selection in the weekly exhibitions

If you have a suggestion to improve the Assignments, please post it in this thread.

Edited by pegelli - 18 February 2012 at 09:26

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