9 effective ways to add creativity to your photography

Every now and then we get to have lackluster images, tired of same routine over and over again, our creative juices have dried up and we are point blank. I think every creative has this what we call “creative block’ every once in a while when we want to grab our camera and shoot but we know we will just create an image that don’t fulfill our creative soul, so ending will just procrastinate or just make tons of excuses and reasons for us not to take the shot. I know, I’ve been there that’s why I’m going share you a short and simple  ways on how to how spark your  creativity and get your creative juice flowing, shooting and creating images that you would be proud of, and you will tell yourself “I created this”.

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  1. Multi exposure:

I learned this trick when I was fiddling with my camera, most  DSLR camera’s out there has this feature called “ double exposures” you can set the camera to record two or more images simultaneously. Key here is to have the first image more contrast and have the second image to have more texture or shapes, try shooting silhouette on the first image and then next would be up to you, I recommend elements of landscape so you have portrait and landscape images overlay to each other in one frame.

multiexposure

  1. Panning:

A technique often used in sports photography. Panning is really tricky this takes to practice to get it right, but it’s such a fun doing it!  All you need is to be out there where the action is, yes the street! The more subject that comes and go the more you can practice, set your shutter speed around 50 and work from there depends on how fast usually the subject moves in front of you,  key here is  that the faster the subject the faster your speed, the faster you need your panning would be. This video from Mike Browne will give you more help.

Photo courtesy of Mike Browne

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  1. Grain:

There’s something about shots with lots of grain that adds an element of mood into an image, it never fails to give you that retro and classic effect on it,  makes you feel like you were once  upon a time a student of Ansel Adams, boosting your ISO to the maximum the higher the more grain you will get.  Photographers in the 60’s and 90’s are not afraid of grain and noise in fact they love it. One way of achieving this is shooting in RAW then add grain on the post using Lightroom or your preferred Raw processor, It is proven that this technique is great when shooting black and white to achieve more timeless touch on the image.

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  1. Out of focus:

One of the common issues of an image is out of focus, either the photographers point is at the back or in front of the subject. Why not take your focusing problems and make them worse by some creative focusing where you don’t just get it slightly wrong – but make your shots obviously out of focus.  This technique is best when you want to create a dreamy image, you wanted your viewer to imagine what your subject is all about, and this is also perfect on human figures with lots of contrast.  Try having a plain background and be out of focus by focusing either at the background or focus in front of the subject so both background and the subject are blurred just like the example below.

out of focus

  1. Shoot from your shoes:

Shooting down low can bring a whole new perspective on your photography, an exquisite point of view, this technique will give your imagery a photojournalist style, how cool is that huh? And can make your viewer feel that the world is really is a big place.

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  1. Adding elements on your photo using photoshop

Using photoshop to create a more artistic image is not cheating, as long as you produced the image that you envisioned and you are happy with it that what matters the most. On the image below it was rainy at the beach and I asked friend to pose as if he is being attacked by birds, of course there’s no birds around but that’s when Photoshop comes in. I’ve search free stock images online, and installed rain brush can download here cloud brush here. A little twist and turn and voila! A dramatic suspense image!  If you need a step by step guide on this please comment below and will blog about it later.

photoshop

  1. Over expose your shots:

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What?! Really? I know right, boost your exposure and levels intentionally! By doing this you are creating a bright and minimalist image.  This really works specially on bright colored subjects and plain background. Go experiment you’ll be surprised with what you will come up with.

Photo courtesy of Mike Browne

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  1. Shoot high key:

No white background? No problem, shooting hey key is one trick you can do to have a nice white background, key is to position your subject on a brighter exposed background so the camera will read more contrast, One perfect way of doing this is when you are in a room on bright day, place your subject by the window and set your metering mode to “spot meter” focus on your subject by shooting against the light in this instant you might see them from being silhouette to being exposed correctly, this will make the background over exposed and give you a nice sweet white background.

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  1. Look at others work for inspiration:

It is human nature that we love feeding our eyes, as a photographer this is a well-known solution for “creative block” by looking at someone’s work. When our brain neurons are stimulated and gives us excitement that turns into inspiration and create our own version of others work, nothing is bad with that as long as you “create” your own approach. Clickasnap is great one stop shop, not only it pays you whenever someone looks at your images, it is also a great platform that showcase your creations. Different levels of photographers now enjoy their new home on Clickansnap, with helpful forum that helps you reach out with other photographers it is also a great place to browse images that can inspire you to grab your camera and create and hang out with the greats.

Now this is just a shortlist that I know, if you have more, please do comment below, I would love to hear from you.

 

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