Digital Camera World » photography projects

9 creative photo ideas to try in April

jmeyer — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:36 +0000

As part of our ongoing series to help you get more creative with your digital camera, each month we publish some fun, seasonal, creative photo ideas to help inspire your imagination. Along with some amazing images, we’ve also provided some quick photography tips by both amateur and professional photographers who are experts in these fields.

This month our list covers fun projects like shooting out of focus, experimenting with humorous still life photography, wildlife long exposures and looking for faces where they don’t normally belong!

On each page you’ll find a stunning image and an explanation from the photographer on how it was made.

If you attempt any of these photo ideas, don’t forget to share them on our Facebook wall!

We’d love to see how you get on.

01 Shoot twilight portraits

Now that the clocks have sprung forward, evenings arrive at a more civilized time. Make the most of this opportunity by shooting low-light portraits in the fading light of dusk.

The soft light and cool color temperature at this time of day can add incredible mood to your pictures.

Although the quality of light might be softer, it will also be lower. This means that your pictures may be blurred unless your technique is spot-on.

You’ll need to select wider apertures and higher ISO settings if you’re shooting handheld, and you’ll need to be accurate with focusing if you’re forced to use the widest aperture on your lens.

Select a focus point that corresponds with one of your subject’s eyes, or use the centre AF point and lock the focus on their eyes before recomposing.

To emphasise the cool, blue quality of the light, use the Daylight white balance preset. If you rely on Auto White Balance to make adjustments, it’s likely to try and warm the scene up too much, removing some of the mood as it does so.

Of course, you can always shoot in raw and make adjustments later – although dialling in the Daylight white balance will give you a more accurate impression of colour on the rear screen.

Get started today…
* Use focal lengths of 50mm and above to create more flattering portraits.
* Shoot in Aperture Priority, but keep a close eye on the shutter speed in the viewfinder – it needs to be the equivalent of 1/focal length of the lens for sharp handheld pictures (so 1/50sec for a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera).
* Use the camera in continuous drive mode, and fire in short bursts in order to capture any change in expression from your subject.
* The soft light of dusk can lead to low contrast pictures – you might want to boost the shadows and highlights later using Levels and Curves.
* Consider using an off-camera flash with the power dialled down in order to add a catchlight to the eyes.
* This style of portrait works equally as well early in the morning, with the advantage that you won’t be working in fading light.

PAGE 1: Shoot twilight portraits
PAGE 2: Shoot still life photography with personality
PAGE 3: Shoot a film noir style
PAGE 4: Shoot quiet landscapes
PAGE 5: Shoot out of focus
PAGE 6: Shoot faces in unusual places
PAGE 7: Shoot pictures of weather
PAGE 8: Shoot wildlife with long exposures
PAGE 9: Shoot baby sheep

DIY Photography Hacks: make a table-top studio for easy still life photography

jmeyer — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:16:56 +0000

In our latest DIY Photography Hacks post, find out how to use a few common items from around the house to make a simple table-top studio that’s perfect for still life photography.

This week in DIY Photography Hacks we’ll take you step-by-step through a project that’ll help you unleash your creativity.

Using nothing more than a camera, a flashgun and a sheet of black velvet, we’ll reveal how to make the perfect table-top studio for your still life photography and other creative photo projects at home.

We’ll take you step-by-step through the process of setting up your mini makeshift table-top studio, which takes no time at all once you identify the items you need.

For our project we shot smoke trails, but you can tailor your table-top studio to shoot just about anything!

How to set up your DIY table-top studio

Take control
For ultimate control over your exposure, switch the camera and flash to Manual, and shoot in raw format. When you’re working in a controlled environment there’s no need to rely on your camera’s automatic and semi-automatic modes. In fact, they can get in the way and start trying to alter your exposure when you don’t want them to.

Manual focus
Switch your lens to manual focus. It’s really difficult to focus on moving smoke against a black background, as we were trying to do, so autofocus will search backwards and forwards for something to lock on to. We got the best results by switching to manual focus (MF) and pre-focusing on the point where we anticipated the smoke would rise – using the tip of the incense stick as a starting point. If you ensure there’s no draught, the smoke should rise fairly evenly.

Secure your flash
We used tape to secure our off-camera flash, which, due to the short length of the remote cable, wouldn’t stay in the correct position on the table-top. It’s always a good idea to carry some kind of tape in your kit bag – it has some surprising uses!

Use a flashgun
We used a Canon Speedlite 580EX flashgun attached to our Canon via a dedicated flash cord, rather than our SLR’s pop-up flash. This way, we could light the smoke from one side, rather than from straight on, and the cable kept the camera and flash synchronised.

Control the smoke
As we were shooting smoke trails, it’s nearly impossible to control the pattern that smoke makes, so we needed to experiment. If you, too, are shooting smoke trails set up your DIY table-top studio in a room free of draughts, because even the slightest air movement will interrupt the flow of smoke. We used a fly swatter to manipulate the smoke while looking through the viewfinder!

Take plenty of shots
Because capturing the perfect smoke pattern is going to be a little hit and miss, it’s best to shoot as many images as possible, leaving you with plenty to choose from. Ensure you’ve got lots of space on your memory card and try different techniques to get the smoke to behave in different ways.

9 creative photo ideas to try in March

jmeyer — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:00:27 +0000

This month our list covers fun projects like using bargain lenses, experimenting with ‘wrong’ white balance settings, going underground and playing with your food.

On each page you’ll find a stunning image and an explanation from the photographer on how it was made.

If you attempt any of these photo ideas, don’t forget to share them on our Facebook wall!

We’d love to see how you get on.

01 Shoot a single colour

As the weather begins to change for the better, take this opportunity to set yourself a single-colour challenge.

For instance, looking for ways to isolate red subjects in the urban environment is a great way to develop your creative eye, and the perfect ‘pressure free’ photography project.

Neutral and cool colours, such as greys, blues and greens recede in pictures, while hot colours like red and yellow are said to be ‘advancing’ colours.

This means that your eyes are naturally drawn towards red areas when you look at a photograph, even if they occupy only a small part of the frame.

This property can be enhanced by careful composition. Use the rule of thirds to place a single red object at a point where the lines of a 3×3 grid cross, and you will have a ready-made high-impact shot.

Get started today…
* Use a standard zoom to give you a range of framing options when shooting on the street.
* Check your camera’s RGB histogram to make sure detail in the red channel isn’t being clipped on the right-hand side of the graph. If it is, reduce the exposure or choose a cooler white balance setting.
* Selectively boost the reds in a scene using Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation controls.

PAGE 1: Shoot a single colour
PAGE 2: Shoot light trails
PAGE 3: Shoot with a bargain f/1.8 lens
PAGE 4: Shoot the moon
PAGE 5: Shoot with the wrong white balance
PAGE 6: Shoot close-ups of bubbles
PAGE 7: Shoot the Venice Carnival
PAGE 8: Shoot the urban underground
PAGE 9: Shoot inspiring architecture

How to make a photo planet from an old baking tray

jmeyer — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:46:04 +0000

Believe it or not, this photo planet was made entirely from a shot of a grubby old roasting tin and a simple but cunning combination of Photoshop effects!

If you’re into spacescapes, the core skills in this walkthrough will add to your sci-fi repertoire of techniques, and you’ll be able to incorporate planets, moons and other heavenly bodies into your scenes. Let’s see how it’s done…

Draw a selection
Open you starting file (a close up shot of an old greasy baking tin works well). Take the Elliptical Marquee tool, and draw out a circle covering the width of the image; if you hold down Shift while making the selection you’ll be able to draw a perfect circle. Go to Edit > Copy to copy the selection. Next press D, then X to set the background colour to black.

Create the background
Go to File > New > Blank File. Set Width to 10 inches, Height to 8 inches, Resolution to 300 pixels /inch and Background Contents to Background Colour. Go to Edit > Paste to paste the circular selection into this document. Click Show Bounding Box, and drag a corner handle to scale the selection down. Select the black background by clicking in it with the Magic Wand tool, then press Ctrl+Shift+I to invert the selection, so that the circle is selected.

Get some perspective
To give the planet some perspective go to Filter > Distort > Spherize. Enter a value of 100% and click OK, then go to Filter > Spherize to reapply the filter. Create a new layer, and draw another circular selection that’s roughly the size of the planet. Go to Edit > Fill Selection and fill with black. Hide this layer for now by clicking the eye icon to the left of the layer thumbnail.

Add an atmosphere
Click on the planet layer and go to Layer > Layer Style > Style Settings. Check Glow, then check Inner. Set Size to 25px and Opacity to 75%, then click the colour swatch and choose a light blue. Next check Outer, set Size to 80px and Opacity to 75%, and choose a slightly different shade of light blue.

Create the dark side
Show the black circle layer at the top of the layer stack, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set Radius to 70 Pixels to create the effect of a shadow. Select the Move tool, click Show Bounding Box, resize the circle if need be by dragging a corner handle, and position the shadow roughly as shown.

Add a sunrise and stars
Go to Layer > New > Layer. In the dialog set Mode to Hard Light and tick ‘Fill with Hard Light-neutral colour’. Go to Filter > Render > Lens Flare, and set Brightness to 100% and Lens Type to 50-300mm zoom. Click OK, then use the Move tool to position the flare on the planet’s horizon. Take the Brush tool, set Size to 5 pixels, hardness to 100% and the foreground colour to white, and click to dot a few stars around.

9 creative photo ideas to try in February 2013

jmeyer — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:53 +0000

This month our list covers fun projects like using ink to create colourful abstracts, shooting portraits without including the subject’s face, winter infrared and making a photo A-Z album.

On each page you’ll find a stunning image and an explanation from the photographer on how it was made.

If you attempt any of these photo ideas, don’t forget to share them on our Facebook wall!

We’d love to see how you get on.

01 Shoot abstracts using colourful ink

Here’s an indoor project that’s guaranteed to brighten up a bleak winter weekend. You don’t need a lot of kit either: a close-focusing or macro lens plus a tripod – and some colourful dye, obviously.

“I usually create this type of image by dropping some basic food colouring into a glass of water,” photographer Andreas Stridsberg reveals.

“Because the ink doesn’t sink rapidly, it shouldn’t be too hard to freeze the action using daylight or some constant lights. However, for these pictures I used a Sigma EF 500 DG flashgun, which was manually set to 1/32 or 1/64.

“In terms of the exposure settings, you need to ensure you get a balance between a shutter speed that’s fast enough to freeze the movement of the ink and a small aperture that gives enough depth of field to keep everything sharp.

“For these images I used Manual mode with settings that varied from 1/160 to 1/200 sec at f/14 to f/20.

“You’ll get different results depending on where your light source is placed, but I find that I get the best pictures by placing it directly at the side or slightly behind the container of water.

“As well as using different coloured ink and backgrounds, using gels for your lights or simply bouncing the light off some sheets of coloured paper is also a great way to get different looks.”

Get started today…
* Check the glass to make sure the light isn’t being reflected in it.
* Before you add the ink, place a pencil in frame and focus on it, then switch to manual focus to lock the setting in.
* Experiment with a range of lights, gels, liquids and white balance settings – you’ll get different results every time, so all your photographs will be unique.

PAGE 1: Shoot abstracts using colourful ink
PAGE 2: Shoot a winter infrared
PAGE 3: Shoot a storm
PAGE 4: Shoot in dreary weather
PAGE 5: Shoot snowdrops
PAGE 6: Shoot all four seasons
PAGE 7: Shoot a photo A-Z
PAGE 8: Shoot winter monochrome
PAGE 9: Shoot portraits without faces

Still life photography ideas: how to instantly age props

jmeyer — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 11:30:54 +0000

There’s no better place for great still life photography than your own kitchen. However, the problem with using utensils and other items from your kitchen is that they’re often too shiny and new to give your image that nostalgia that works so well with still life photography. In this tutorial we’ll show you a quick way to instantly age your props. And this isn’t a tutorial for kids or the feint of heart.

Unusual utensils and battered cooking items can make perfect subject matter for a still life photography project. Obviously, the scissors in our shot were fairly new and shiny so, as they were a spare pair, we decided to give them character by ageing them.

However, our baking tray was well past its best and ready for the dustbin – perfect for use as a fine art background.

There wasn’t much thought about how we’d shoot the scissors apart from we wanted then to be slightly open in order to give the illusion of action.

The addition of the red thread was an afterthought and we shot it both intact across the open scissor blades and also cut into two halves, as pictured here.

We didn’t bother using any fancy lighting set-up for this shot as most of the art was injected afterwards in the digital darkroom.

In fact, the whole process was very organic because without including the red cotton we wouldn’t have been inspired to post produce the image with the colour only remaining in the thread.

Instantly age still life photography props

It’s simple to cheat and age metallic objects by years.

Obviously safety is paramount so do this bit outside in the open!

Stick your props on an old metal baking tray, squirt on some lighter fluid and carefully setting light to it.

The result is tarnished and sooty old scissors – voila!

Setting up your still life shot

Simple set-up
Create your studio using a couple of desk lamps angled at your subject. Use plain white paper as a diffuser to avoid hotspots. Crumpled tinfoil makes a great reflector. Set your scene on the floor and shoot vertically downwards for a more comfortable shooting position.

Camera settings
Choose Spot Metering and shoot in Manual mode to retain full creative control. Use the lowest ISO your camera permits and shoot in RAW file format. Set the White Balance to Sunny for a warm feel and use your self-timer to fire the camera’s shutter.

PAGE 1: How to age props for still life photography
PAGE 2: How to fine-tune your aged props in Photoshop

Fine art photography: what you need to shoot amazing photo projects at home

jmeyer — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:56:07 +0000

Why shoot fine art photography? Easy. It’s the sheer pleasure you get from creating, shooting and post-producing fine art photos at home, especially as the weather gets colder and the nights draw in.

In this fine art photography tutorial we’ll show you how to find, set up and shoot amazing still life photography subjects at home at no cost.

Images by Ben Birchall

A loose definition of fine art photography is any image that’s taken for the pure purpose of viewing pleasure. Not for commercial or editorial use and not for illustration.

Fine art is total voyeuristic photography and the end product, whether you use it on your website or get it printed and hung in your living room, will be a powerful statement of your own original interpretation of photographic art.

The best way to approach fine art photography and the main difference from most other disciplines is that there’s no brief to fulfil. You’re in control of the shooting environment and it really does inspire completely original creativity.

The easiest place to start looking for ideas is the garden shed or kitchen. There you’ll find unusual objects and props that will inspire creative thought.

Why not spend a morning at a charity shops or garage/car-boot sale, looking for inspiration? Even rusty nails can become fine art using the camera tips and photo composition techniques you’ll see here. Try basing your composition, lighting and even your post production around your props – and you’ll find the process is really much more fun!

What makes a great fine art image

Interesting subject matter is vital, along with careful attention to clean and balanced composition. Visual puns can raise the fine art bar, such as the ‘nutcracker’ shot at the top of this page, along with artistic, textured layers and mono work in the digital darkroom.

Why this shot works

Simple subjects in an uncluttered for frame for maximum artistic impact.
Placing an object outside its usual use can inject an artistic dimension.
Consider contrasty or complementary backgrounds for the subject matter.
Toning and textures feature heavily, giving an instant arty appeal.

PAGE 1: What makes great fine art photography?
PAGE 2: Essential gear for shooting fine art photography at home?
PAGE 3: Best props to use for your fine art still lifes
PAGE 4: Best Photoshop treatments for fine art photography

13 awesome photography projects for 2013

dcworld — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 01:00:25 +0000

With every new year comes the perfect excuse to start a brand new photography project to really sink your teeth into. To help you along in 2013 we put together some of our best photo ideas and spoke to some of the best photographers working today. Below, Amy Davies of our testing team rounds up 13 of the most awesome photography projects you should shoot in 2013.

Having a dedicated project to focus on can help your photography in all sorts of ways. It gives you an excuse to practice, which can only help you improve your skills. That in turn can build your confidence, and gives you a sense of achievement.

As the creator of a long-term photography project myself, my ongoing Cardiff Arcades Project, I’ve found that having something to consistently work on has been a real boost, both in terms of my photography but in all sorts of associated way.

It’s made me more confident in speaking to strangers, forced me to try out new techniques, given me the opportunity to try new things (such as creating a business card), and happily even won me an award in 2011.

I’m now working on a book of my project, and can heartily recommend taking up a photography project in 2013 that you too can really be proud of. Here are some photography tips for getting started, and some ideas to get you thinking.

Got any of your own? Share them in the comments box.

Tips for photography projects

1. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
It’s all too easy to get yourself worked up when taking on a photography project – you set yourself all kinds of strict targets and feel miserable if you can’t keep up. Remember, it’s your project and you can do what you want. And if you decide you want to give up on it unfinished, that’s OK too.

2. Have several projects on the go at once. 
To help take the stress out of a big project, it can be a good idea to have a few smaller projects on the go at once that you can dip in and out of when the mood strikes.

3. Share your progress
Having a way to share your images is a great motivator. Think about setting up a photography blog which you can regularly update with your latest images.

4. Set yourself some simple guidelines  
In order to concentrate your photography, it’s worth setting yourself a few guidelines to follow. This can include how often you go out shooting, how many images you’re hoping to accumulate, and what kind of post-capture editing you want to do.

PAGE 1: Tips for successful photography projects
PAGE 2: Ideas for photography projects in 2013

9 creative photo ideas to try in December

jmeyer — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 02:00:32 +0000

For December we aim to have you experiment with some of the more abstract elements of photography, like bokeh effects, surrealist portraits and capture intriguing shapes in close-up still life photography – while revisiting some of the classic rules of photo composition, like the Rule of Thirds.

On each page you’ll find a stunning image and an explanation from the photographer on how it was made.

If you attempt any of these photo ideas, don’t forget to share them on our Facebook wall! We’d love to see how you get on.

01 Shoot a bokeh effect

Bokeh derives from the Japanese word ‘boke’, which translates as haze or fuzzy. In photography, it’s used to describe the creative abstract blur effect you can capture when shooting at wide apertures.

To shoot a bokeh blur, ideally you want to use a prime lens, or one that has the capability to open to an aperture of f/2.8 or wider.

To get the most effective results, shoot in low light or at night, and try to include glowing lights such as street lamps, car headlights or fairy lights, which will enhance the bokeh.

For really abstract results, shoot only the glowing lights, manually focusing your lens to knock the lights completely out of focus.

If you want your image to have some sort of context or foreground interest, include an object, like the jar in the image above.

Keep a sharp focus on the object and ensure there’s enough distance between the background lights and the object for the effect to take hold. The further the background lights are away from your subject, the more they will blur.

If there isn’t enough ambient light to illuminate the foreground object effectively, try adding a little flash to bring out the details.

Get started today…
* Use a prime (fixed length) lens for the  best results. A focal length of 50mm or 35mm is ideal for an image like this.
* Set your camera to Aperture Priority mode and open the aperture on your lens as wide  as it will go (f/2.8 or wider).
* Shoot at night or in low light. Distant fairy lights or street lamps will both create very effective bokeh blur.
* Keep the foreground object in focus and blur the background lights -– the more distant the background, the better the blur.

PAGE 1: Shoot a bokeh effect
PAGE 2: Shoot the city drenched in rain
PAGE 3: Shoot a studio portrait
PAGE 4: Shoot an abstract image – then rotate it!
PAGE 5: Shoot liquid still life photography
PAGE 6: Shoot a surreal portrait
PAGE 7: Shoot woodland wildlife
PAGE 8: Shoot – and stitch – a panorama
PAGE 9: Shoot with the Rule of Thirds

Double Exposure: a seriously simple method of combining images in-camera

jmeyer — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 05:00:01 +0000

Even in this Photoshop era of layers and composites your DSLR’s double exposure mode still has an important creative function.  It enables your sensor to record more than one exposure in the same frame and create a single image by overlaying them.

It’s great when you want to introduce movement, such as flowing water, but you can’t get your shutter speed slow enough in one exposure alone.

Another great feature of your double exposure mode is the ability to instantly create ethereal fine-art photos and creative images by combining all manner of subjects, textures and shapes into one image.

Of course, a double exposure can be achieved using Photoshop layers, but by performing the merge in-camera you’re introducing a margin for error, which sometimes can be a useful creative tool.

Aim to include subjects with lots of contrast in your double exposures and avoid composing bright subjects at the same place in each frame.

Begin by shooting the main subject, which should always be the brightest element, using your viewfinder focus points as a reference to avoid overlaying other bright subjects and ruining the effect. Go for two or three exposures for a subtle effect.

Using double exposures to record movement using traditional landscape photography, shoot around eight exposures fixed on a tripod and shoot the scene with ‘Auto Gain’ on: this prevents each individual exposure from collectively over-exposing the final image.

Step by step how to make a double exposure in-camera

01 Switch to multiple exposure mode
The multiple exposure feature is generally found in the menu system of most digital SLRs. Check online or have a flick through your camera’s manual to find out where yours is lurking.

02 Select the number of shots you want to combine
Some camera models may offer a wider range of shot options than others, but keep the number low. Any more than three or four and the composition is likely to become cluttered.

03 Set the ‘Auto Gain’ feature
For general semi-automatic exposure modes, you should leave the ‘Auto Gain’ feature switched on. For more creative manual exposures, however, you should turn it off so you have the ability to fine-tune the overall exposure.