Stuck for photo inspiration? Try these five fun creative photography projects you can do with just your phone.
The following written content by Andrew Hoyle
Whether you’re trying to get back some creative inspiration after months of lockdown or you’re after a fun project to try at home with the family, there are loads of ways to get those photography juices flowing again. And the great thing is you don’t even need to leave the house. Whether you’re shooting on an iPhone 12 Pro Max, Galaxy S21 Ultra, Pixel 5 or another, older phone, these creative challenges can help kickstart your creativity.
Trying new creative challenges can not only help keep your mind focused, it can also teach you some new skills you can put to use later on. If nothing else, it might just stave off boredom a bit longer and may even offer some fun weekend activities to try with the kids this summer.
I’ve put together a few of my favorite ideas for creative challenges that you can do with your phone without needing to leave your own home. Don’t forget to check out our phone photography 101 section for more photography tips and tricks, as well as my roundup of the best photo editing apps for both iPhone and Android.
1. Make a creative composite
Composite photography means blending different photographic elements from multiple images into one finished shot. At a basic level, it can be used to simply replace a sky on a landscape image, but with some experimentation it can offer endless opportunities for creativity.
In my instance, I wanted to composite myself into the same scene multiple times — almost as though it’s showing all the different things I could be up to throughout the day in one image.
Putting it together was pretty straightforward. Here’s how:
1. Put the phone on a tripod.
2. Frame your shot as required using the lens options, if available.
3. Either set your phone on a 10-second timer, or use a Bluetooth remote.
4. Get into your scene and take an image.
5. Move into multiple positions, taking an image each time. Make sure the camera doesn’t move at all between shots.
6. Blend the images together in Photoshop by layering them on top of each other and erasing the areas you don’t want.
2. Practice portraits
Whether you’re taking a photo of a partner, a family member, a flatmate, or even your pet, taking portraits can be a great creative outlet. Live alone? No problem, flip that camera and use the selfie mode, or even put your phone on a tripod if you have one and start mugging for the camera.
Look around your house and see where you think could make for an interesting scene. Perhaps you have an old leather chair that someone could pose in. Maybe you have an unusual rug that you could have your subject lie on so you can shoot from above. You can also try some shots looking wistfully out of the window.
Experiment with the lighting too. Natural light coming in from windows is your best bet, so doing shots near them is a good place to start. But maybe there’s a cool lamp you could use as a single, moody light source to lend some artistic drama to the shot. You could also grab an LED light panel from Amazon and try adding your own lighting.
3. Still life scenes
Still life could include lots of different types of shots — from bright and airy top-down shots of a lovely salad or freezer meal you’ve made, to product photos of your laptop, games controller, new shoes or indeed anything you think could photograph well. You could even just grab a nice selection of things from around your house that, when artfully arranged, could make for a nice image. Read more from Cnet
