Today’s Photography Cheat Sheet is all about keeping you motivated to go shoot.
Fact: the world is in a very down mood right now amidst all that’s going on. But you can find it in yourself to be creative and channel your emotions into art. We continuously bring you new photography cheat sheets, and today we’re sharing one of our own creations. It’s designed to help motivate you to go shoot and put a smile on your face. At the same time, we recommend that everyone shoots safely and with sound discretion so that they can continue to create unimpeded. With this cheat sheet, we’re also bringing you a few fresh ideas that we hope will help!
Double Exposures and Multiple Exposures
Double exposures and multiple exposures can be incredibly fun to work with. You just need to have a concept in mind and play along with it. And who cares if it’s cliche, you’re having fun! Here are a few ideas:
- The traditional person in a shadow and a background that bleeds through them.
- A person doing the same thing over and over again in a room
- Show the stages of emotions that someone has. Are you a restless sleeper? Take a photo of yourself in bed, toss, shoot, turn, shoot, toss and turn, shoot. Let the layers come together
- Keep a few elements consistent in the scene
- Be careful when using flash. Try to get consistent lighting
In-Camera Paintings
One of my favorite things to do is to shoot an in-camera painting. The world is highly focused on image stabilization and getting images to be so clinically perfect. But take your pictures by the horns and create something totally different than what everyone else is doing. The idea of in-camera paintings has been done by landscape photographers for many years, but can be applied to many different fields. You can turn an image of a pear into something that looks like a painting. The trees in your backyard work well too. Bob Ross would be proud, we’re sure.
To do this:
- Use a narrow aperture
- Use a low(ish) ISO
- Shoot with a slow shutter speed of 1/15th and slower
- Autofocus on your subject and then start by pointing your camera above, below, or to the side of your subject
- Pull your camera in an angle
- Halfway through the pull, release the shutter and keep pulling through
- Voila!
Hide a Flash for a Special Effect
Years ago, I did a unique project involving hiding flashes and creating cool effects with them. Now, you can do this without a flash and just use a constant light source that is bright, like your phone. But either way, try to play with lighting in creative ways. The image above was shot to show how everyone feels about pizza. It was part of a series I pitched to various publications and got shared across the web. Part of this comes with connecting your emotions to your images. Further, watch a lot of movies. The inspiration for this was taken from Pulp Fiction’s briefcase scenes. So why not try it yourself?
We made our Infographics with Visme.