This composition contains a single focused area, surrounded by circular, glowing ‘bokeh’ – shimmering orbs that appear when a camera lens attempts to record unfocused points of light. This technique takes practise, but can generate some spectacular results.ĭeliberately unfocus lights to create ‘bokeh’, as in this beautiful landscape by Takashi Kitajima: Takashi Kitajima stands on high-rise buildings and photographs Tokyo city at night, capturing radiant semi-abstract urban landscapes. Sam Hurd has used this technique to create a strong focal point: a magical environment with attention swiftly focused upon the two figures in the centre. A hand-held glass lens or prism enables you to quickly add variety to an image, bending and directing light and colour from the scene itself. The results are unexpected and unpredictable, often creating beautiful abstracted shapes and colours that are not easily replicable using Photoshop. Use a hand-held glass lens or prism, to create blurred, abstract forms, like this photograph by Sam Hurd: A convex lens or prism held in front of your camera lens can create stunning reflections, distortions and ‘bokeh’ (see below) within and around your image. You can experiment with using marker pens to colour the plastic or increasing the number of layers of plastic. The intention is that the middle of the image remains well-focused and sharp, while the edges become misty. He places the ring of plastic around his camera lens, secured in place with a rubber band, leaving rough, torn, slightly crunched edges visible through the viewfinder (but not obscuring the image completely).

Jessy David McGrady achieves this effect using a plastic sandwich bag, with a hole torn in the side. Wrap torn plastic or other materials around the edge of your camera to create hazy edges, as in the photographs of Jesse David McGrady (via PetaPixel): This clever photography trick produces soft, hazy edges around with a photograph, helping to create a seductive, ethereal or other-worldly atmosphere. Stitch photographs together, like Lisa Kokin: Lisa Kokin takes found, unrelated photographs and stitches them together, fabricating a relationship between them creating an imagined life from the nostalgic shots. Note: Although Anzeri sews directly into found vintage photographs (often from flea markets and car boot sales) it is usually recommended that most high school students use their own photographs for this purpose. The brightly embroidered patterns and delicately stitched veils cross the faces with sharp lines and dramatic glimmering forms. Sew or embroider photos, as in the stitched vintage photography of Maurizio Anzeri: Maurizio Anzeri offers a wealth of inspiration for students who are looking for portrait photography ideas. This is a great example of how creative photography techniques can (and should) be driven by the subject or theme that is explored. Over time, the surface begins to degrade, creating images that are relics of this process. He then soaks the c-prints in water from the location that the image represents.

After photographing lakes or reservoirs from around the United States, Brandt collects samples of water and brings them back to his studio. Stain, smudge and erode photographs using water, like Matthew Brandt: Matthew Brandt has created unexpected and dramatic running of coloured ink by submerging printed photographs in water. The techniques listed here are created using a range of different cameras and devices, such as a digital SLR/DSLR camera, traditional camera, pinhole camera and/or camera phone. These approaches may or may not be relevant for your own photography project and should be chosen only in conjunction with advice from your teacher. Note: The creative photography ideas listed in this article should not be explored haphazardly within a photography course, but rather selected purposefully, if appropriate for your topic or theme.

Easy photo studio theme