Why no people?
this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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Photography
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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.
This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.
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I may be able to get ppl to stand but I want to have that as a last resort
Why as a lay resort?
Look at some William eggelston and Stephen shore photographs
What you mention (angles, oof, composition rules, etc.) aren't really themes, they're just tools to achieve a goal that you've set yourself before.
If I were you, I'd try to find a guiding topic, a theme, a common idea. What do you find interesting about the school, visually? The architecture of the school? The harsh flourescent light and the colours? The eery weirdness of an empty school building (I always find empty schools creepy, e.g.)? What about the traces your fellow students and the teachers leave behind? Chewing gum under the seats, confessions of love carved into school desks, traces of the last lesson on the whiteboard, etc. The possibilities are endless.
If this is a school project, talk to your instructor if you have hit a roadblock. Nobody else should be doing your homework for you. How will you learn? Hopefully, that is your goal here.
There is no instructor, and it's a slightly competitive project. I do want to learn, but also to get the best photos at the moment as well.
Check out Simon D'entrement YouTube channel, he has a couple of vids about composition so you can see examples.
Some typical composition tips:
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Make sure your photograph has an interesting subject. Common mistakes are having no subject, or too many subjects. The photo should have a clear subject so we know who the main actor is.
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Avoid harsh midday sun. Colors are better in the early morning or late evening. Usually you get about 5-10 minutes of truly spectacular sky colors in the morning and the evening, and you need to be set up in the right place at the right time to get it.
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If you must shoot in the midday sun, use shade to your advantage. This mellows out the harsh sunlight.
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Choose interesting angles and perspectives. Everyone takes snapshots from eye level at 24 mm (1x on phones). Get high, get low, and use different focal lengths.
Thanks for these tips, they're really useful.
Try at least to not take boring photos. If you really have no ideas, go and do something crazier than the other kids would do. A little idea would be using high aperture and fast shutter speed plus a flash, as you'd creare a sort of fake night time effect. Other kids will all have photos during the day, you on the other hand will stand out for having them 'at night'. The flash creates cool results. Another somewhat non boring idea that I guess no other kids are going to have is using the other competitors as your willing/unwilling subjects. You just shoot them while they're trying to take their pictures or whatever. Story with objects, you can shoot the shoes of your peers while they're walking around, or their cameras, or their bags.
I think here's a tutorial on the flash thing (you just use the one that comes with your camera) https://fstoppers.com/lighting/using-flash-change-your-photo-day-night-598896
For out of focus you could do a long exposure of people going between classes