Project 1 – The Logic of Light ‘Onion’ Challenge

We're starting off simple. One onion, one light - no complicated setup. Just a chance to take it back to basics and actually see how you can control light and understand the effect it has on your images. 

We're not looking for perfect final shots, just for you to show that you can make small changes to your lighting and notice what happens when you do. 

Move the light, change the angle, adjust the distance, each time the image shifts. that's what this is all about! Give the class above a watch and then get going - start experimenting with light.

Project Kit List

Keep it simple - you probably have everything you need

  • Camera - Any camera, even a phone is fine.
  • Onion - 2 Brown Onions (prioritize dry, papery textures).
  • Small Surface - Any flat table, chopping board, or card.
  • Light Source -Studio light, Speedlite, lamp, torch or even a window.
  • Mirror - A small makeup or shaving mirror.
  • Card - A sheet of black and white card.

That's it, nothing complicated - just a chance to see what happens when you start taking control of light. 

We can't wait to see the images you take, share them with us through the upload form on the right of this page.

Deadline for Entries: 5th April 2026 
Review of Entries: 14th April 2026  

Project Members Gallery

Comments

  1. KHoinke

    You are fair. I’ll have to try harder to get all 9 badges. Thank you for your guidance. The feature badge is where you would talk about the persons photos, right?

    1. Hi Karen, thanks for taking part. The features badge means the image may be spoken about in our review but there were also people who received the ‘features’ badge which just indicates that it was one of the better submissions in terms of following what was requested and demonstrating a greater understanding than the ‘understanding’ project badge.

  2. Lewis Baillie

    Many thanks for the review and badges. Delighted to have been highlighted in my first ever submission!

    I feel the badges are a great indicator of what I’ve done well, but the lack of some also highlight areas in which I can improve, such as contrast and texture, and I completely agree!

    It would be very helpful if badges were unique to each project, as I feel this would provide a clear picture (pardon the pun) as to how well I’ve understood the individual lesson and executed its task.

    I look forward to submitting the spirit level competition and next project!

  3. Hello 🙂

    really enjoyed the project – since you asked for feedback I like to give you feedback on my work, shown in the “why” section. Been watching all the instruction video – sending these completely different images is a result of me experimenting around. When sending in the images I already suspected that it’s not what was asked for. I really like building compositions and spend a whole afternoon just making different compositions for each lighting style – challenged by just using one light, and reflective materials. When I then chose the images, I of course had different images.

    So, first of all sorry for creating irritation.
    1. I think your task was very clear – after watching the brief for the spirit level, it was even clearer to me => focus on the task and stick to it
    2. You still succeeded with your mission to teach and for me to learn in my opinion – spending time to get a result with the given objective to use only really made me try out alot of stuff
    3. I promise to keep the educational aspect in mind for future projects
    4. If it happens again, that any of my pictures are shown in some way – you can just call me Alexander/Alex (even where I live, the people have problems pronouncing my last name xD)

    Thats what I can say for my case – looking forward to many more projects 🙂

    1. Hi, thanks for the explanation and taking part. You’ll be glad to hear that our next Brief challenge after the Spirit Level will give you a lots of creative freedom to explore the concept in your own way.

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