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5 Ways to Apply Artistic Expression for Memorable Photography

21 Dec

The post 5 Ways to Apply Artistic Expression for Memorable Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.

Rickshaw rider, Kathmandu, Nepal © Jeremy Flint

Photography can be a wonderful way to express your creativity and artistic flair. Artistic expression is all about you and allowing yourself the freedom in your photography to satisfy your visual curiosity. Fundamentally, it is a means to fuel your imagination and a way of being artful, according to your mood. The subject matter is entirely your choice, whether you decide to capture wildlife, landscapes, architecture or abstract scenes.

You can apply photography techniques that inspire you, from motion blur to creative arrangements. Alternatively, work with what you find.

Here are 5 ways you can use artistic expression in your photography to capture some memorable shots:

1. Sharpness and blur

Freezing the action of your chosen subject can be achieved with short exposure times and result in sharper images. Photography doesn’t have to be about capturing the beauty of a scene in its sharpest and most natural form. You can be playful in your creations and apply a bit of artistic blur from time to time. Adding artistic blur is a great way to put some art and movement into your photographs.

Sharp images are dynamic and provide an obvious and real static representation of a scene. However, using blur can make an image more compelling. Using a slower shutter speed helps to provide motion and movement to photographs while adding drama and vitality.

Hyena Pan, Tanzania © Jeremy Flint

2. Light trails at night

At nighttime, as darkness falls, lights come on and provide excellent subjects to capture. Roads become lit by light trails from vehicles that give unique patterns.

Fairgrounds are great for artistic shots. This is due to their unique atmosphere, as well as the fairground’s color and excitement. Be inventive and artistic in your approach to capturing these scenes. Look for elements such as the vibrant and attractive Christmas lights and car light trails as shown in the image below.

London Xmas Lights © Jeremy Flint

3. Shoot a silhouette

While many shots taken during daylight hours tend to show all details in an image, get creative by shooting a silhouette. You can achieve a silhouette by mainly photographing a subject’s outline and making it featureless against a bright background.

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK © Jeremy Flint

In the image example here, I have used the famous landmark of Stonehenge in the UK with a vibrant sky behind. Make sure you choose a strong subject for a silhouette such as the distinct shape of a person or animal. The best way to shoot a silhouette is to position your subject in front of a bright background and to expose for the background, rendering your subject dark and underexposed.

Silhouettes are an interesting way to convey drama and energy into your images and makes them stand out.

4. Shoot an abstract

Abstract photography can be made up of several characteristics. Usually, abstraction takes place when a photographer focuses on a section of a natural scene isolating it from its context. This could be a color, texture, line, shape, geometry, symmetry or reflection of a scene. The photographer changes our perception of the real and familiar subject or object. The viewer doesn’t immediately recognize it.

Abstraction facilitates a move away from the specific, the concrete and the obvious. You achieve abstraction by isolating, or eliminating an object and its texture, shape, and form. Color and tones can become strong elements in an abstract photograph.

Slot Canyon, Arizona, USA © Jeremy Flint

Details can be used to create abstract photographs by moving closer to our subjects. Alternatively, you can achieve abstraction through movement. Through subject motion, photographer motion, camera movement or a combination of any of these, information gets reduced, and impressions are created. For example, moving the camera upwards or downwards when photographing trees leaves behind colors, patterns, and lines.

5. Find patterns

Patterns are a wonderful way to add interest to your abstract photography. Our day to day visual life consists of patterns, shapes, and textures that evoke a certain mood or atmosphere.

We are visually drawn to patterns because they provide us with a graphic element that looks appealing and interesting.

Photographing patterns can make for good compositions. For example, you could show a small area of a broader subject. Macro lenses can be used to get in close and add more interest.

Conclusion

Learning to apply artistic expression in your photos can be a great way to create intriguing and unusual images that make a viewer stop and think about your image. Try out the 5 techniques outlined above and share your images with us below.

The post 5 Ways to Apply Artistic Expression for Memorable Photography appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jeremy Flint.

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Expression Over Perfection – Living With Limits

16 Nov

Subject First, Technique Second

I have been taking pictures on a serious basis for approximately three years now, and I would say that about two years of this have been consumed with learning about gear and technique. So much of the material you will read and be exposed to revolves around the need to get the right equipment and learn the right techniques. This is certainly a great place to start and pretty fundamental in being able to take decent pictures. There is however a point at which it comes time to put away the camera catalogs and start thinking about the mental tools and techniques needed to really take things to the next level.

“Pixel Peepers” will utterly hate the whole concept of a quality photo being dependent on something which cannot be assessed in terms of its physical performance, but I guarantee that an image which perfectly captures the moment will out shine a technically perfect shot which doesn’t. In essence a great image is not absolutely dependent on gear and to illustrate I’d like to share with you a picture and a story.

Taking the Shot

This is a photo from a friends wedding which I took of the bride and groom as they left at the end of the night. In truth I wasn’t planning on taking any pictures that day, however the father of the bride asked if I would, how could I possibly say no? Having left all the ‘right’ gear at home and having no idea as to what would be happening or when, I have to say I was slightly stressed as I didn’t want to disappoint but was pretty sure I would struggle.

The end of the party came and the happy couple started to make their way out of the venue. It was hopelessly dark and I knew that a decent exposure would be difficult. The only light available was from the sparklers and to make matters worse the lack of direct lighting meant that the autofocus was hit or miss. I quickly decided to shoot to the limits of the situation by shooting in aperture priority and dialing in a F stop which I knew would give me a reasonably forgiving depth of field without being too restrictive. I cranked up the ISO to 2000 (as high as I dared go) and flicked on the high-speed continuous shooting mode. The result was a shutter speed of about 1/30 which I know from experience I can just about hand hold.

I knew that I needed to shoot low as I wanted to frame the couple against the reception venue. I also needed time to get focused whilst doing all I could to ensure sure I had a clear shot. The action lasted less than a minute and I have to say I was fairly pushy with anyone straying into my line of sight. I would completely believe it if more than a few people wondered who the guy with the camera thought he was. Never the less I clicked away taking as many shots as I possibly could.

Straight out of the camera the images were grainy because of the high ISO and slightly out of focus because of the poor light. I have to say that when I first got the files off the camera my heart sank but on closer inspection, the bride has a fantastic expression and looks fabulous in her dress. The fact that groom is not completely in focus doesn’t detract from the story of the image and in fact adds to the sense of drama. With a little effort in post I thought it might be possible to get something decent. I won’t go into the full details but processing mainly consisted of correcting the basics (white balance, exposure and cropping) plus conversion to mono using Lightroom before using Photoshop to apply some curve corrections before finally adding a blurry vignette for additional focus. The image below shows the RAW image plus the major steps.

Crappy Shot, Beautiful Photo

Expression Trumps Perfection

I’ll leave it to you to decide if this is successful shot or not. When I showed this to the bride, she loved it but that said maybe she was being polite.

Personally I think that the mono conversion helps to compliment the noise and grittiness of the exposure and that the story combined with the beautiful expression on the brides face overcomes the technical shortcomings of the final image. The experience of taking this picture underlines the importance of “Expression over Perfection”, by shooting to the limits of the situation I was able to concentrate on the other more important aspects of composition, timing and telling the story of the moment.

Next time you are struggling with the technical aspects of a shoot or if you find yourself in a situation which is less than ideal, remember this saying, set your camera to the best possible settings and if it all goes really wrong .. there’s always Photoshop!

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Expression Over Perfection – Living With Limits