52 photography projects: a great technique to try every week of the year
52 photography projects: a great technique to try every calendar week of the year
Our choice of the perfect weekend photography projects
(Image: © Sue McArthur / Shutterstock)
Looking for photography projects to stimulate your creativity? Whether you're a beginner who's but learning the ropes or a seasoned snapper in demand of inspiration, trying out a new technique tin can aid you lot abound every bit a lensman. That's why the list below features our pick of the best ideas to try with your camera.
From painting with lite trails to capturing twilight landscapes, in that location are endless creative means to use your camera and its lens. This round-upward of our favorite weekend projects features suggestions to suit every skill level – whether you're shooting with a smartphone or a 'proper' camera like a DSLR.
Some yous can do from the comfort of you home, while others volition have you lot heading out in search of specific scenes. Whether it's a novel technique or an inventive proffer for finding fresh subjects, every idea beneath has 1 thing in common: information technology should challenge you to try something unlike and find a fresh perspective.
Virtually of the projects can be attempted using the equipment yous already own. Those that do require boosted materials should all be achievable with pocket-money purchases – and if in that location'southward whatsoever crafting involved, it should exist well worth the effort when yous see the results.
We've shared 52 of our favorite suggestions to do in 2022 beneath. Endeavor them all and, in a year'south time, there's a good chance you'll be a better lensman, with a keener understanding of your camera and what information technology's capable of. Plus y'all'll be all set to attempt the final project: self-publishing a photograph volume.
The best home photography projects:
ane. Water drop art
The bones idea with this projection is to suspend a container of liquid and permit drops fall through a pocket-size hole, then capture the resulting splash. Timing the shutter as the splash is created is everything. We accomplished good results using two flashguns set to their lowest ability (1/128th), an aperture of f/22 and water mixed with Xanthan glue to make a more viscous solution. We too used a SplashArt water drop kit from PhotoTrigger, which helped to regulate the size and frequency of the drops.
2. Indoor splash shots
For this project you'll need a flashgun that you can fire remotely, a container with clear sides for your h2o, a coloured background and a tripod. Set up the container and backdrop, then position the flash over the container. With the camera on a tripod and set to transmission focus and exposure - f/8, ISO200 and the fastest shutter speed that volition work with your flash - drop the object into the water and burn down the shutter every bit it hits.
iii. Shapes of bokeh
Out-of-focus orbs of light can add together magic to whatsoever image, simply the bokeh effect needn't exist limited to standard circles. From love hearts to stars, a simple cutout filter can transform groundwork sparkles into brilliant shapes.
Using your lens cap every bit a guide, draw a circle on a slice of card. Cut out the circumvolve, score a small shape in the middle using scissors or a craft knife, then button the bill of fare onto the forepart of your lens (or attach information technology with an elastic band). When you next shoot a scene, any unfocused light volition take the form of your shape.
Use a broad aperture to maximize the event and think that, equally the filter restricts the amount of calorie-free inbound your lens, you lot'll want to gear up a longer exposure or higher ISO. Effort simple shapes such as triangles to get started, before progressing to stars, hearts, crosses and more.
iv. Create fume fine art
Smoke trails are a firm favourite among notwithstanding-life photographers. But how about taking it to the side by side level and using the shapes in a creative Photoshop project. In one case you've taken a few good fume fine art photos, make a blank document in Photoshop, and then copy and paste one of the smoke images into it. Fix the blending manner to Screen and use Warp Transform to reshape it. Continue the procedure to combine a range of fume shots into a new image.
5. DIY lightbox
Lightboxes are used to illuminate objects evenly against a plain groundwork, oft for the purposes of product or food photography. Luckily, you lot don't have to have a pro upkeep to make ane at home. All you need is a cardboard box, some white newspaper and a table lamp.
Remove the top flaps, stand the box on one terminate and cut window holes in either side. Line the box with a unmarried, seamless piece of white paper and cover the holes with thin paper or fabric, taped in identify. Then it'due south as simple as positioning a desk-bound lamp on one or both sides: the paper volition diffuse the light, evenly illuminating whatever object you put within.
Or for an even simpler setup, use a single piece of paper as the backdrop, with one white wall fabricated from card, and position most a window (as pictured). Experiment with discontinuity and shutter speed to shoot subjects with totally white backgrounds or some shadow for a sense of perspective. Then mix things up with colour backgrounds. If the quality is high enough, you could list your images for sale on a stock photography website to earn some lockdown pocket coin.
half dozen. Lubricate your lens
Want to give your housebound portraits added glow? If you take a spare lens filter lying around, try an quondam Hollywood fob: smear a layer of Vaseline on the glass to give your images a soft, dreamy look, keeping aperture broad to emphasize the ethereal result with a shallow depth of field.
Get experimental by leaving the eye of the filter gratuitous from Vaseline to create a halo effect, with the center in clear focus but the outer elements blurry and soft. Don't desire to sacrifice a filter? Stretch cling-moving-picture show tight across the lens and go on it in place with an elastic band, before using the Vaseline in the same way. If you're not into portraits, try the effect when shooting a light source for a unique style of improvidence.
vii. Make your own filters
Information technology's no secret that colour is a major element of any epitome, but yous don't need expensive filters or editing software to experiment with saturation. In fact, you don't even demand to leave your home: all way of household objects tin office as color filters to bring new hues to your photography – and to transform mundane moments into brighter snaps.
Attach tissue paper to your lens with an elastic band for an instant modify of scene, or endeavour shooting through thin fabric with a light source placed behind. Too easy? Take a snap through a laundry capsule for a liquid tone adjustment or use a whisky canteen for sepia shades with a hint of distortion. Petals are pretty effective, too, as are translucent sweetness wrappers.
viii. Endeavour cross-polarization
This fun project exploits the event that polarised low-cal has on some plastics. You lot'll need two polarising filters - ideally ane of these should be a canvass of polarising moving picture. You tin pick up an A4 sheet of Lee 239 polarising film for £50 (endeavour www.robertwhite.co.uk or www.pnta.com). The canvas of film should be placed on a lightbox or in forepart of the merely calorie-free source. An iPad screen and most calculator screens accept a polarising filter built in, so if you don't have a sheet of polarising moving-picture show y'all can always experiment by creating a white document to fill the screen. Simply attach the round polariser to the camera lens and rotate it to make the colours appear in clear plastic items
9. Food landscapes
Spice up your food photography! All you lot need is a gear up of model figures - Hornby 00 estimate figures are perfect, as they're available in a wide range of poses. Preiser has a swell range too. The virtually important attribute is to plant a sense of narrative. Here you can see that in that location's a conversation between the characters, with the mountaineer on the 'mash face' being helped by his colleagues on the basis.
10. Fine-art food
Try turning your dinner ingredients into photo fine art using only a lightbox and a very sharp knife. Slice fruit and vegetables as thinly and evenly as possible, then identify them on the lightbox. With the camera positioned directly above, use Live View to focus manually on the details. Ready an aperture of f/viii to requite adequate depth of field, and punch in some exposure compensation of +1 to +3 stops as the bright light can fool the camera's meter into underexposure.
xi. Flowers in water ice
A relatively inexpensive way of taking 'kitchen sink' close-ups that look smashing blown up as wall art. Freeze flowers in plastic containers of distilled or de-ionised h2o (bachelor through your local car or hardware store). The flowers volition float, so try to weigh them downwardly or fasten them in place so that they freeze nether the water. Place the block of water ice on top of a clear bowl or glass in a white sink or plate, so that the light tin bounce through from beneath. Position a flashgun off to one side, angled down towards it, and shoot from the opposite side.
12. Abstracts in oil
Oil floating on the surface of water is a great way to make striking abstracts. This tabular array-top photo project exploits the refractive quality of oil and bubbles to accentuate and distort colours. All yous need to do is place a few drops of cooking oil on the surface of water in a glass dish. Make sure the dish is supported almost 25cm about the table top, and so place coloured newspaper under information technology and utilise an anglepoise lamp or flashgun to light the newspaper.
13. Play with burn down
It doesn't take a pyromaniac to see the photographic potential of burn down, but it does take patience, skill and plenty of precautionary measures to capture a stunning action shot of a friction match igniting. If you'd rather not chance singeing your fingertips, try a different type of flame photography.
Shooting by candlelight alone can pb to magical results. As with any unmarried source of lite, it allows y'all to experiment extensively with shadows – particularly if y'all're capturing a portrait – while the soft, warm tone and flicker of the flame both contribute to an especially ethereal effect.
In a darkened room, effort shooting with a medium-high ISO and a relatively deadening shutter speed. Beginning with merely a candle and your subject area, earlier introducing additional elements and playing with positioning. A nearby wall, for example, will throw the candlelight back in unlike ways, while glass will add to the magic with fiery reflections
Tweak shutter speed to affect the forcefulness of shadows or try adding further flames – though yous might demand to accommodate the white residual if things wait more than yellow than mellow.
14. Repaint the walls with camera obscura
Familiar with pinhole photography? That technique relies on camera obscura – a natural optical effect that occurs when a modest hole in an otherwise sealed infinite (such as a box) projects an inverted image of the world exterior onto the opposite wall. You could make a pinhole camera as an at-home project, or y'all could become even bigger: with the right setup, you tin can create the camera obscura phenomenon in an unabridged room.
First, you'll need to black out a room – for example, past taping opaque sheets over your windows. Then you'll need to make an aperture through which calorie-free can enter; the smaller the pigsty, the sharper just dimmer the image. Camera obscura works best in small/medium rooms, with an aperture of around 10-15mm diameter. Let your optics to adjust and decide whether you need to burnish the image by making a larger hole, then marvel as an inverted version of the outside globe appears on the wall.
Capture the entirety of this remarkable natural effect using a wide angle, a relatively long exposure and a tripod, or focus on specific elements of your room to emphasis the result – such as houses appearing to float upside down on your mantelpiece.
15. Camera tossing
Chucking your precious photographic equipment into the air might sound like something designed to void the warranty, but – provided you're not too clumsy – photographic camera tossing can deliver some truly spectacular results. Try it in a night room with a single low-cal source. Set up a shutter speed of around one second (roughly the length of fourth dimension it'll be in the air) and, equally the timer hits zero, launch it upwards. Catching it is the important part, merely once you're comfy with the technique you tin experiment with multiple light sources, dissimilar colors and fifty-fifty spinning your camera every bit you release information technology.
sixteen. Psychedelic soap film
This is a wonderful project that makes for vibrant desktop wallpaper or abstract wall art. You'll need liquid soap mixed with glycerine for long-lasting soap film, plus a wire loop, a black cloth background and a macro lens of at least 100mm. The colours created by lather pic only appear when hit past lite from a certain angle, and then set near a north-facing window and shoot from around 45 degrees.
17. Refractive art
Light bends when it passes through h2o, causing the objects behind to change advent. This is chosen refraction, and y'all'll make use of this phenomenon in this arty photo project. All you need is a few glasses, a flashgun, a tripod and a blackness-and-white blueprint print. Only identify the pattern in the background with the glasses in front. Fill them with different levels of water and move the blueprint backwards or forrard to fine-tune the outcome.
eighteen. Kitchen close-ups
Your kitchen is an ideal location for shooting a macro project. Its reflective surfaces can exist used to create interesting backgrounds for your shots, and a shallow depth of field can transform the most mundane of objects you'll discover there. Creating a triptych of images can result in a piece of fantastic wall art for your kitchen besides, although it'south important to think most how they're going to work together before you outset shooting. Here, 3 objects - a fork, a basin of cereal and coffee granules - were all shot from a similar bending, with the impression of height linking the sequence.
19. Invert the world with a crystal brawl
Shoot through a crystal ball and, while you won't encounter into the hereafter, you will capture an inverted version of the scene behind the orb. Just equally light is refracted when it passes through the glass elements of a lens, the aforementioned thing happens with a glass sphere. In that location are defended photography assurance on the marketplace, merely the result tin oftentimes be achieved using a articulate marble or even a paperweight. Nada suitable? A water-filled vino drinking glass tin also work.
All sorts of subjects look good through an orb, from sunsets and cityscapes to abstract items and fifty-fifty portraits. Effort shooting with a macro lens to fill the frame with the sphere, or with a wider bending to include some of the scene behind. To really play with perspectives, rotate the paradigm with editing software then that the groundwork is inverted simply the scene in the orb is the right mode upward. You tin can also comprise elements that support the ball into the paradigm, such equally hands, bowls or miscellaneous objects.
xx. However-life bokeh
Something as simple as a crumpled piece of foil can be the basis for a creative photograph projection. Position a still-life subject field on a sail of glass with a piece of night cloth underneath information technology. Scrunch up the kitchen foil then shine it back out and place it in the background. Shine a table lamp or torch on the foil and, with a tripod mounted camera, dial in the lens's widest discontinuity to create some beautiful 'bokeh'. During the exposure, shine a flashlight onto the subject.
21. Play with shadows
Photography is fundamentally about capturing light, which is exactly why shadows tin be then powerful. They can create contrast with lighter parts of a composition or add texture to an otherwise plain bailiwick. They can fifty-fifty be manipulated to tell a story. Incorporating shadows into your images volition claiming you to think not just about the objects within a scene, just how things outside of the frame tin affect the calorie-free that falls within information technology.
To play with shadows, all you need is a light source and a solid object to block it. This could exist something natural, such as the shadow of a tree cast past sunlight. Equally, it could exist something man-made, such as the outline of a street sign created by a car'southward headlights. Or information technology could exist something you create yourself: try playing boob-master past shining a torch and dancing your hand in front of it.
You can as well invert this idea by shooting a subject field which is predominantly in shadow and experimenting with how splashes of light fall upon it.
22. However life light trails
Calorie-free trails can be used in all kinds of photography, but they're perfect for a artistic all the same life projection. You tin can use a regular Maglite torch, merely try removing the finish to reveal the bulb and brand the light more than directly. Utilize some electrical record to adhere a coloured sweet wrapper, which you tin apply as a makeshift 'gel'. Set up the canera's shutter speed to effectually xxx secs with an discontinuity of around f/eight, then start moving the torch within the frame earlier pressing the shutter. Go on the motion throughout the exposure. Hither, we suspended the torch from a slice of string and fabricated a gentle circular movement to create a spiral effectually the bottle.
23. Light spirals
Yous'll need to attach a torch, suspended by string, to an open area of ceiling. Fit the widest lens you have on your camera, and mount it on a tripod pointing straight up. With the light turned on, autofocus on the tip of the torch and set the lens to manual focus to lock the setting in. With an discontinuity of f/eleven or f/16 dialled in, use Bulb manner and a remote release to continue the shutter open for a infinitesimal or so equally you lot transport the torch spinning in the night…
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- Best macro lens 2018: shut-upwards lenses for Catechism and Nikon DSLRs
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Formerly News Editor at Stuff, Chris has rarely been able to resist the seize with teeth of the travel bug – so he now writes near tech from the road, in whichever Wi-Fi-equipped café he can observe. Fond of coffee kit, classic cars and sustainable gear, if in that location'due south one matter Chris loves more than scribbling, shooting and sharing his way around the globe, it's alliterative triplets.
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