You may not know this but photography is one of the most flexible and virtually unlimited art mediums. There is absolutely no reason you should ever feel limited to shooting what’s in front of you or documenting reality. Like with any art form, there is lots of room to influence and create your own unique photographs. The same holds true with how you want to display your picture as there are countless types of picture frames from classic silver leaf picture frames to simple wood to exquisite jeweled picture frames that will influence your picture. So with so many ways to be creative, let's talk about several fun things you can do when taking your pictures that you may not normally consider.
1.Find a New Angle
One of the things that almost every photograph you’ve ever seen of your family or friends has in common is that it’s taken at the same height as your head. While this makes perfect sense, it may not necessarily be the best angle for what you’re shooting or the statement you want to make.
Spend an entire day shooting entirely from the ground (get down on one knee or crouch) and see how getting below your subjects changes how reality appears to your viewers. If you're feeling lucky, try taking a group of pictures from your waist without checking the focus or the frame and see what you get.
2. Increase Your Films Development Time
All film has a recommended development time based on a specific temperature. For instance, when developing 400 speed film in chemicals that are 70 degrees, you would allow the film to soak for 7 minutes before rinsing it (this is in no way a recommendation or a standard, check with your developer and film manufacturers for the recommended times). What many people don't realize is that the longer the film develops, the more stark the contrast becomes. The darks get darker and the lights get lighter.
If you’re fortunate enough to develop your own film, try pushing your film an extra two or three minutes and see how it affects the final product. While it’s certainly possible to push your film into an over-contrasty oblivion, a little extra push can sometimes create incredible results and help draw the important parts of your images out.
3. Use the Bulb Setting
Any film (and most digital) cameras with manual settings will give you the choice to set your shutter speed to bulb or “B.”. Simply put, this setting will make your camera shutter stay open for as long as you have the button pressed and is a terrific way to capture some images you may not have thought possible. Unfortunately the bulb setting won't work in daylight since it will overexpose the image, but in a dark environment it can create lots of new photo opportunities.
Set your camera on a tripod facing the night sky and use a cable release to leave your shutter open for five minutes – you’ll be able to see the stars moving as the earth rotates. You can also hold the camera shutter open and have someone spin around holding a flashlight and then snap the flash and you'll have a shot of them encircled by light. This setting takes a lot of practice but can produce incredible results.
The next time the urge to shoot takes over, keep these fun suggestions in mind. You don’t need any additional equipment for most of them (besides a cable release, which you can pick up for a few bucks) and you can use almost any SLR or DSLR camera. Just remember that you should only experiment with pictures you're willing to lose. At the end of the day all that matters is that you have fun and create images that are beautiful, truthful, and important to you.
Tags: creative digital photography, creative photography, photography experiments