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10 Creative Photography Ideas
This is a letter on how you can be more creative with your photography– practical ideas.
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1. Why creative photography?
Primo, why make ‘creative’ pictures?
To differentiate– there is a difference between a ‘unique’ photograph, and novel photograph.
I think generally when we call someone ‘creative’ as a photographer, it is someone who:
Sees a unique perspective of a scene, or a person– that nobody has really thought of before. For example, photographing a common object from a very low angle, very close up, or from a very high angle looking down at it.
Another idea:
A photographer who is ‘creative’ is able to find beauty in ordinary, ‘boring’, or ‘mundane’ subject-matter. Therefore, a creative photographer is more OBSERVANT.
2. How to be more observant
To be a more observant photographer means to notice unique things — that other people might overlook.
Practical ideas:
First of all, slow down. When you’re out taking picture, walk 25% slower than you’re used to. By walking slowly, you tend to notice more things that you might overlook when you’re running around too quickly.
Another way to be more observant– turn off your distractions. That means, turn off your phone, or set your phone to airplane mode. Don’t listen to music. The fewer distractions you have, the more sharp, perceptive, and aware your senses are. The problem in today’s world– we are constantly over-stimulated with external stimuli. Kind of like how we add too much sugar and salt to all our food, and our palette becomes jaded– and we constantly need stronger and stronger spices to entertain our tongues.
The same things with our eyes: our eyes are jaded. They are jaded, because we over-stimulate our eyeballs with junk-food images via social media, and blinking images on our phones.
Even a simple assignment: sit down wherever you are, close your eyes, don’t listen to music, and just allow yourself to do nothing for 5 minutes. Take a nap if possible. By removing external stimuli — you can let your senses become more perceptive to the world.
3. Look down, and look up
When you’re walking on the streets (25% slower than you normally do) look down at the ground. Photograph interesting things you find on the ground. Look for gum on the floor, or interesting textures. Shoot some pictures with a flash, shoot some with natural light.
When you’re walking around, also look up. Look at the clouds, look up at the trees, look at birds flying above, or look at skyscrapers and buildings.
4. How to make more creative compositions
With composition, you can make more ‘creative’ or unique compositions by NOT MAKING SYMMETRICAL PHOTOS. The most boring type of photography is perfect symmetry.
My suggestion– tilt your camera. Force more diagonals into your compositions.
Even another idea– make more blurry pictures. Slow down your shutter speed, and even use a flash. Make pictures that aren’t an accurate representation of reality. Make pictures that are surreal– photos that reflect how you see the world.
5. Cross-pollination
One of the best ways to be a more creative photographer– cross-pollinate between various fields of art.
For example, ask yourself:
How can I combine my passion for painting, drawing, engineering, architecture, sociology, and psychology with my photography?
Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate cross-pollinator. He studied the patterns of water, swirling whirlpools. I noticed that a lot of his paintings of women’s hair looks like spiral whirlpools of water. Even his dissections of human cadavers and muscles have helped him paint more realistic paintings– he really understood how neck and facial muscles worked. Therefore his paintings have more life and realism than other painters in history.
6. What philosophies do you believe in?
Personally, I like Zen, Simple, Minimalist aesthetics. I try to apply this in my photography by making my photos less cluttered, more simple, more direct.
I also studied sociology, and I am fascinated by human beings. Therefore, shooting street photography is an opportunity for me to do visual sociology — using my camera as a research tool.
What personal interests, philosophies, or fields of knowledge are you interested in? How can you combine that with your passion of photography — to secrete your own unique visual honey?
7. Creative photo assignment: Music x Photography
A creative photography assignment:
Listen to your favorite music album, and see how you can make pictures which follow the same mood– the same rhythm, the same tempo, and the same undulation between the trebles (high notes) and the bass (low notes).
Another idea:
Listen to a certain genre of music while out shooting pictures.
8. Make a slideshow
Another idea: make a simple musical beat using Garageband (or just download Instrumentals to your favorite song). Make a slideshow of your pictures with a certain song — and try to time the rhythm of your pictures with the music.
Experiment with different times for your pictures (for example, the duration of your pictures from 1 second to 3 seconds for each picture). Experiment with different tempo songs.
Ultimately when making a slideshow of your pictures and with music, follow your gut. Make pictures and music that makes you want to dance.
9. A creative photographer is prolific
Above all, to be a ‘creative’ photographer is to MAKE LOTS OF PICTURES.
The word ‘creative’ should mean to CREATE A LOT — not a ‘state of mind’ of somehow being more visually-talented than others.
All great artists have worked hard, hustled, and constantly evolved. Leonardo da Vinci wrote thousands of pages of observations, sketched, and only showed his best paintings.
10. Never stop shooting
Give yourself permission to make bad pictures. The more risks you take in your photography, the more chance you have to make a good picture.
Don’t rest on your laurels. Never be satisfied with your pictures. Let your dissatisfaction with your photography drive you forward to make NEW PICTURES that bring NEW LIFE, NEW JOY, AND NEW EXCITEMENT with your photography!
Can you make a new type of picture, to bring a new type of joy to your viewer, for new eyes of future generations of photographers?
Never stop learning, innovating, creating, playing, and shooting!
ERIC