UPDATE: assignemt results are posted here.

Welcome to the first assignment of Studio @ Home.

As I promised in the first post of the series, Studio @ Home will be accompanied with a series of assignment (or exercises if you will) that will put some structure on the evolution of your home studio. Those assignments can also be used a motivation leverage – and provide some great opportunities to win great prizes. Read on for the full details.

The Challenge

As this is the first assignment, I am going to keep it simple from a technical perspective, yet open from the creativity side.

We all have our bad days. And with current economics, I’d guess that bad days are closer apart then what they used to. That and the darn weather can really make you feel bad. This is why I thought to take this assignment to an optimistic place.

The idea is simple, to remind you of the things you love and to get a smile going on your face in the morning. So the first Studio @ Home assignment is designed to leave you with a picture to post on your cork board. The idea is to shoot something (or someone) you like. Really like. Something that will make you go big-smile when you just take a glimpse to the left and catch it on the cork board.

To make this relevant to what we’ve done so far with Studio @ Home, you’ll have to take it using your home made backdrop (Either big or small), and include the setup shot as a link in the captions.

You have What It Takes

Sounds complicated? Not one bit! Come to think about it there’s a good chance you already have all the stuff you need to make this happen. Here is a quick check list:

Backdrop

If you’re gonna shoot a small thing that makes you happy (and after all it is the small things that make us happy), you’re covered with a small Bristol or paper, as we discussed in the small backdrops & backgrounds post. This is by far one of the easiest setups to create, in terms of obtaining equipment. Any paper will do here.  

If you’re gonna shoot bigger, say, a full portrait of your wife or kids, any bedsheet will do. More ideas are here, where we discuss big backdrops.

However, don’t feel confined to the ideas above, anything and anyone that makes you happy can be shot using any homemade backdrop.

Light

It is all around you. As we’ve discussed on the last post, going with available light is a great option if you are not yet stocked with any dedicated lighting gear.

If you’re a Strobist at heart, and have a small flash or if you want to use any other type of light – go for it.

Subject

This is where you can come up with anything you like (pan intended). Anything that will make you smile. Even cute pets are included as long as they’ve been shot against a DIY backdrop.

Family members, welcomed. Wives, hubbies and kids are definitely welcomed. Pets welcomed. Mascots, welcomed. You get the point.

Simple Or Wild – Your Choice

While we’ve only covered easy natural lighting so far, you have a choice on the full lighting spectra.  You can keep it as simple as available light, use a strobe, or pour 10000W/S of fotoflex lights into this shot.

Submission and Deadline

Submissions for this assignment will be made using Flickr. You can open an account here. It’s free.

To enter, send your image to the DIYP Flickr pool and tag it with “studioathome” and “firstassignment” .If you did it right, you’ll see your photo here a few minutes after adding the tags and submitting it to the pool. If you need help/consultation on how to submit images to this assignment, you can use this Flickr thread. (Thanks DH, for this idea).

To qualify, you have to include a link to the setup where the backdrop is shown. Something along the lines of: “and here is a link to the setup“. Of course, there is some extra credit if you describe how you made your backdrop.

Deadline is July 19th, end of day. Your day.

Winners

Comes the deadline, there will be one winner selected from the qualifying photographs. The winner will receive:

– One NastyClamp, which will enable you to mount your flash just about anywhere.

– One deck of Strobist Trade Secret Cards

Copyright and Fine Print

Not much of that, really. As will any other photo submitted to the pool, I may pool it up to discuss on the blog. Nothing more. Photographers will retain all rights to their images.