Practice makes perfect Take a photo every week

Yosef Adest, framer-in-chief of 52Frames, explains why you should take up their weekly photo challenge

Do anything once a week, and you will get better at it. About to begin its seventh year, 52Frames is an online group of photography enthusiasts from around the world, seeking to improve their camera skills through a weekly challenge that encourages creativity, inspiration and learning.

Centred around a different topic each week, some challenges take on the technical aspects of photography – such as the rule of thirds, leading lines or fast shutter speeds – while others take on a more creative approach, with themes such as love, the colour red and the crowd favourite, a chair.

The point of a weekly photo challenge is not to take your best photo, but rather to take a photo. Every week. To be comfortable with whatever level you are at and, despite whatever else you’ve got going on during your busy week, to carve out a slice of time to do something creative for yourself.

Although 52Frames is not a contest, we choose three photos each week for our Top Three honour, and one photographer’s photo is chosen as our album cover photo.

In choosing these stand-outs, the 52Frames committee looks for photos that are technically superior, have the most powerful story, and are unique and creative. We also try to avoid choosing a photo that is too overly processed.

Hidden in each challenge is a learning opportunity. Levitation Week invites the photographer to learn layer masking in Photoshop, or to try a fast shutter speed to freeze someone jumping in the air. Portrait of a Stranger Week teaches us that even if our palms are sweaty, most strangers on the street are very friendly.

The challenges force participants to step out of their comfort zone each week, to learn new aspects of photography, and to experiment with editing techniques that they may have been too intimidated to try. Looking back after 52 weeks, participants find that not only has their photography improved, but the world around them will never look the same. www.52frames.com