I’m a big fan of assignments and challenges. I’ve found that they help me to grow as a photographer, and I think that they can do the same for you.
When you get an assignment, you’re forced to explore new ideas, techniques, and styles. You have to research your subject matter, plan out your shoot and deliver the results on time. All of these things make you a better photographer.
Here are some photography assignments that will challenge and inspire you:
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Challenge Yourself to Shoot in Black & White
In order to create striking black-and-white images, you need to learn how to use light effectively. By shooting in color first, you can then apply what you’ve learned later when converting your images into black and white. This is an easy way to get started with your photography assignments!
Advertising
This is one of those assignments that can be both challenging and inspiring at the same time. Advertising photography is usually more art than science, which makes it more fun for me as a photographer because it allows me to express myself creatively in ways that other types of assignments don’t allow me to do so easily.
Portraits
Portraits are one of my favorite types of assignments because they allow me to capture someone else’s personality in a single image. It’s also great when the subject has a sense of humor, which makes portrait sessions even more fun for both parties involved!
Still Life
Still life photography is one of those things that can either be very easy or very difficult depending on how much time you want to spend on it and how much detail there is in your subject.
Landscape Photography
Shoot a landscape from the same spot but using different lenses. This will help you understand how different focal lengths affect the look of an image and give you some practice with different lenses.
Find beauty in everyday life
The first thing to do is take a good look at your surroundings. Start with your own home and find something beautiful there — maybe it’s the way that sunlight falls across your living room, or the way that a flower blooms on your windowsill. Then take this outside and see what inspires you on your daily walk to work or school. You’ll soon find yourself noticing things that have been there all along — but that you never really noticed before!
Other Photography Assignments
- Find some subjects that don’t interest you at all and take photos of them anyway. Another way to help broaden your vision is to seek out subjects that aren’t normally interesting to you and take photos of them anyway. You may be surprised at how much fun you have doing so!
- Take a photo every day for a month using the same subject, lighting, camera settings, etc., but changing something about the setup each time (e.g., focal length, aperture, ISO). You’ll quickly learn how different combinations of settings affect the look of an image and which ones work best for each situation — or not!
- Photograph Your City
- Document Someone’s Life
- Take pictures of people doing everyday things like eating lunch or brushing their teeth
- Go out at night and take pictures of the stars or city lights
- Take pictures of things that you might not normally photograph like food or flowers
- Photograph an object at different angles so it looks completely different each time
- Take pictures during sunset or sunrise and use different techniques like HDR (High Dynamic Range) or Long Exposure.
- Go on a photo shoot trip
- Photograph your family for an entire year
- Take photos at night, using only artificial lighting
- Create a series of portraits based on one theme (for example, “people who work together”)
- Document an event
- Photograph strangers
- Create an abstract photo
- Capture movement in your photo (sports, dancing, etc.)
- Try out infrared photography (or long exposure photography with a flashlight!)