A skill is just like a muscle, if you don’t exercise it regularly, it will waste away. Learning a few tricks and techniques to enhance your experience with a camera is always beneficial, even if you’re already comfortable using one.
The art of photography is continually evolving, and you must adapt accordingly. A photographer’s craft never stops improving, even for the most experienced. The following challenges and inspirations are sure to stimulate your imagination and bring out the finest in your photography abilities.
Take a Photowalk
Explore new places by taking a Photowalk. Many are regularly organized worldwide, so you’ll never run out of opportunities. You can join by searching for events online and signing up. Plus, they’re mostly free. Make sure you pack light and bring only the necessary equipment since you’ll be walking a lot.
It’s not convenient to bring every piece of equipment you own on a Photowalk, so you’ll have to work with what you have. A Photowalk also allows you to practice taking photographs of almost anything – from architecture to people. It’s also an excellent chance to meet fellow photographers. You get to meet new people as well as learn about different techniques.
Photograph Strangers
Make an effort to approach strangers and ask them if you can take their pictures. Consider suggesting a pose or asking them to perform something interesting if they agree. Alternatively, take candid photos documentary-style.
Communication with strangers is essential in photography. Getting to know strangers will teach you how to deal with clients if you want to take your photography career to the next level. In the meantime, taking candid photos will enhance your awareness of the environment and help you recognize moments worth capturing.
Create a Photo Essay
You can use photographs to tell the story of your vacation or a story about your friends. A series of photos should tell a story, much like a comic book but without words. Put your mind in the shoes of a director and consider how to create a story through images. To convey different emotions, be sure to use creative angles, just as an auteur would.
Photography is all about sharing stories, and this exercise helps you focus on telling them well. Creating a cohesive narrative will be easier once you learn how to string images together. Additionally, you’ll learn how the camera’s perspective can affect the overall mood of the shot-for example, how close-up shots feel more intimate than long ones.
Create a Photozine
Follow a specific theme when taking photos. You can, for example, choose landscape as your concept and shoot different sceneries. After you have collected a reasonable number of images, you can describe your work in text descriptions. You can also use a minimalist approach, including only photographs.
A specific theme allows you to explore different ways of photographing the same subject. By using different approaches and angles, you will create unique images. The process of creating zines also teaches you how to layout your images. When you start designing your photo blog or website, you’ll find it useful.
Try Digital Pinhole Photography
The lens mount cap that came with your camera can be used to create a DIY pinhole camera. You just need to drill a small hole through the cap, screw it onto the camera’s lens mount, and you’re good to go. Take pictures by setting your device to manual mode, enabling the shutter, and then pressing the button. Keep gaffer tape over the pinhole when not in use to keep small particles out.
Since you have to operate your homemade pinhole camera lens in manual mode, you’ll learn to experiment with different settings to achieve the right exposure. This simple setup requires a lot of guesswork, but the results will surprise you.
Monochrome Landscapes
Rather than shooting an entire view in one frame, shoot a series of minimalist long-exposure landscapes. A square crop or symmetrical composition can enhance the simplicity of the framing. A Neutral Density (ND) filter will be necessary for creating long exposures during any time of day. Also, to ensure the camera is still throughout the exposure, use a tripod and a remote shutter release.
Panoramic Photography
To determine the correct aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings, switch your camera to manual mode for a test shot. A constant focal distance and lens aperture should be maintained across all frames for even results.
Keep a consistent perspective when composing by using a tripod to pivot around a fixed point. Using a tripod with a portrait orientation will allow you to crop more easily afterward. Each frame should be overlapped by 25% as you pan across the scene.
As soon as you’ve collected your individual images, you’ll need to stitch them together. The process of doing this manually is tedious. The good news is that there is a wide range of accessible software options available to you. These include Lightroom’s Panorama menu in the Photo Merge menu. A free option is Hugin’s Image Composite Editor.
Faces in Unusual Places
Learn how to spot ‘faces’ formed by everyday objects in an easy and fun photo idea. It is fair game to steal anything, including bathtub taps and manhole covers. For inspiration, check out the Faces in Places blog.
Puddle Reflections
Rainy days may not always be the most pleasant for taking pictures, but the resulting puddles can open up a world of possibilities. You can get different perspectives on familiar scenes by looking down instead of up after a downpour.
Using reflected traffic blur, for example, can combine nicely with the asphalt surrounding a puddle. An overcast sky would be a striking backdrop for a silhouette of a tree.
Standing water lends itself to almost any photography technique: long exposures that gleam in the rain, double exposures that blur the line between reflection and reality, or inversions that flip the world around the reflection.
You can reduce the glare on the surface of the puddle by using a polarizing filter.