2020 WEEK 28: Outdoor - Straight out of Camera - The 2022 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge

This week’s challenge is to take an outdoor photograph, without performing any image editing. I.e., your image this week must be straight out of camera.

Many (most?) of us like editing our photos after we take them. I quite like editing my photos– I often spend more time editing the photo than I spent taking the photo itself. While there is nothing wrong with this, it sometimes allows us to be a bit sloppy or careless when taking the photo, knowing that we can just fix any imperfections later on. As such, we’re not necessarily starting out with the best photo we could have taken.

As such, the main reason for this challenge is to get everyone to take a great picture up front, rather than fixing it later on. Since we know that we won’t be able to edit our photo this week, I want everyone to pay careful attention to the composition, lighting, exposure, etc., before clicking the shutter. By getting in the habit of getting everything as good as you can up front, it helps you take the best pictures you can.

The actual choice of subject is up to you, as long as the image is taken outdoors. As above, the main rule this week is to submit an image straight from the camera, without any edits. (Some rules about what is / is not allowed are listed below.) Good luck and have fun 🙂

The Rules

What is allowed:

You may use any type of camera you like, including mobile phones, point and shoot cameras, DSLRs, etc.
You may set your camera to either color or black and white mode. However, your camera should be set to the “default”, “normal”, or “neutral” picture style settings for either of those modes.
You may adjust any of the capture settings, including aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation, color temperature, etc.
You may use any physical filters (i.e., glass, plastic, etc) that you might like. I.e., as long as it goes in front of the lens, it’s fair game.
You should capture your photo in JPEG, so that it can be submitted as-is. (If you prefer to shoot in RAW, you can set your camera to shoot in both RAW and JEPG. However, the submitted image should be the unedited JPEG.)
You may perform a simple image “downsize”, if needed. I.e., if your original image is too large to upload to Facebook, etc, then you may downsize it before uploading. However, no other edits are allowed.

What is NOT allowed:

You may not use any sort of software to edit or modify your picture after it has been taken. (This includes anything in your phone, camera, or computer.) This means no Photoshop, no Snapseed, no filter apps, no editing on your phone, etc. No cheating! 🙂
You may not crop your image after it has been taken. Instead, try to get your composition right in camera.

The Challenge

Take an outdoor image, and submit it without making any edits or changes. Focus on getting your image perfect in camera.
Post your newly taken photo during the week of Sunday, July 5 through Saturday, July 11.
Please remember to comment on at least FIVE photo submissions this week by answering the question “why?” in your comments. In other words, “why do I like (or not like) this photo?” or “why did this photo catch my eye?” Thank you!

The friendly community guidelines are pretty simple:

Take a new photo for the current weekly theme, not something from your back catalog or someone else’s image.
Post your photo each week to our active communities on Facebook or Flickr (or both). Tag the photo: #2020photochallenge #photochallenge #tempusaura
Don’t leave home without your camera. Participating in the 2020 Trevor Carpenter Photo Challenge is fun and easy.