Getting Bored at Home? Here are Some Great Ideas For Photography When Stuck At Home (2020)!

Getting Bored at Home? Here are Some Great Ideas For Photography When Stuck At Home (2020)!

This article lists down some mesmerising photography projects that you can easily try at home during this stuck-at-home phase. We have also given detailed instructions that you can follow to perfect these projects. In addition, we have also recommended some cameras that you can purchase if you want to pursue photography as a hobby. Read on!

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Reasons to Love Photography

Photography Tells Us What is Important to Us

When people are asked what would they fetch from a burning house, the most frequent answers are photographs or a laptop that contains their images or their phones for the same purpose. Even in panic mode, people would probably like to grab photographs rather than their valuable jewellery. This impulse to protect our most valuable memories is a strong force that explains a lot about the interest of photography in our daily lives. We consistently desire to keep the most precious memories into photographs.

People keep the most important moments, events and other people in from of images. The weddings and anniversaries, the ceremonies of birthdays, holidays and trips, these are all recorded because they capture the most precious moments of your life. Images tell personal stories, and together, they represent the timeline of our life full of faces and places and moments that matter. They narrate the story of our lives which we can share with other people that may not be present in that moment but deserve to live it through the photographs.

Photography Boosts Your Creativity

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote a lot about inspiration and creativity in her book 'Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear'. She explains how it is healthy for us as individuals that the world is a great place because it has art in it. The feeling when you capture the perfect candid or an awesome sunrise photo, or whatever your passion is, that is a very precious feeling when you get to capture the perfect moment. It is what makes photography worthwhile.

As adults, we don’t tend to allow ourselves to be very creative. However, photography is a friendly form of creativity which offers us to add endless flexibility to our personality all over. Your personal style grows as you learn more and start taking photographs of random things. It eventually becomes a form of fun and offers a necessary stability against the stressful demands of the competitive world.

Photography Records Your Memories

Photography offers you to capture photographs of places, moments, or events. After you record those moments, you can share these with your family and friends, either on phones, computers, or even more permanently with photo books and prints. Photography allows you to take the special moments of your life or the memories of a special event forward with you, which further allows to remember it and share it with the people that were there with you. Those images become a part of your legacy. A very popular quote says - “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

10 Best Photography Projects to Try at Home

Work With Water

One: All you require for this plan is a jar of water with a tiny opening that enables little droplets to drop through, a great lighting source, a non-descript setting, and a camera positioned exactly accurate to capture the droplets mid-air.

It is a really simple approach but is a somewhat complicated method of getting the timing, the lightning, and the camera arrangements quite accurate. But this is a good thing for you because through this arrangement, you will learn different camera exposure settings, and that will enable you to take photos from different angles. This knowledge has extensive applicability.

Two: The primary idea with this plan is to suspend a jar of water and allow droplets to fall from a tiny opening, then capture the resulting sprinkle. Measuring the shade as the sprinkle is created is everything. Use two flashguns fixed to their minimum power (1/128th), an aperture of f/22, and any liquid combined with Xanthan gum so as to create more viscosity.

Frozen Items

This method is excellent with a macro lens, but will it work when the lens is at minimum focus. Freeze liquid in a proper clear vessel. When this liquid is frozen, place the vessel or white or any other colored surface so that it is visible through the vessel. If possible, put the container on the lightbox, so that the light illuminates from the bottom. If a lightbox is not available, then be innovative and use whatever accessories you have. All you need for perfection is a flash or lamp under the ice vessel.

The camera adjusted on the tripod with a 50mm micro lens will allow you to click the cracking ice when it melts, and the patterns that are developed in water. To melt the ice, gradually pour hot water on it by using a kettle to create cracks as well as to begin the melting process. Use viewfinder for beautiful patterns and capture it.

A twist in this technique is freezing objects like shells, flowerheads, pebbles, and leaves in the jar and capturing them.

Cross Polarization

One: It is an effect where you use a pair of polarizing filters - one on the light source which is behind the subject and one on the camera in order to show stress in plastic, which appears as a beautiful multicoloured design.

LCD computer monitor has a polariser built in it; thus, you can use it as a light source. A camera with a polarising filter is required, which is either placed or attached in front of the lens. Steady support and a monitor will be helpful in this process.Various plastic and hard products will also be required, and anything to hold the plastic product in a stable position in front of the computer monitor will also be helpful.

Two: To achieve this effect, the use of two polarising filters is needed. Put one filter on the camera lens and the other one on the source of light; you can also use an LCD monitor for this purpose. When you rotate the polarizer, rainbow colours will be visible on the plastic objects. It is an excellent way to practice photography at the house.

Capture Food

One: To get fantastic food pictures, a set of model figures is needed - Hornyby 00 gauge figures would be significant for this purpose because they are accessible in an extensive range of poses. The range of Preiser is also great. Establishing a sense of narrative is also essential.

Two: Practicing food photography in the house is the best way to improve photography skills. Cook an excellent meal, and then by using props, you can turn it into a fancy dish. A good source of light is needed; you can either use a flashlight, or a natural would be more preferred some props like flowers, utensils or dishes, and some styling would give a fantastic effect.

Oil on Water

One: Some things are just not to be together. For instance, oil and water cannot work together. This property of these products can be used to work best for our purpose, like to form a great photo with fantastic texture and shape, which would otherwise be a dull and ordinary image. This method is abstract photography at its most excellent. They make magnificent pieces of art, incredible wall pieces, and excellent conversation beginners. All you require is some water, oil, a spot to place them on, and some colour.

Two: Using some props that you can find easily around your home, you can make exquisite abstract images of oil on water. You are going to require a light source, tripod, a camera with a close focus facility, a transparent dish, oil, water, and anything like a card, a t-shirt, or a paper to add colour to your shot.

Smoke

One: Shooting smoke is an enjoyable way to test yourself. The overall plan is quite simple, but achieving that specific appearance, form, or shape is a challenging part. You can use this technique for dramatic product photography. Occasional food photography and atmospheric greeting cards are also excellent ideas. Many products can be used to produce smoke. Matches, Incense a well as unlit candles all work fine. Join them all for an exciting image.

Two: Shooting wisps of smoke is simple to accomplish if the lighting is appropriate. To achieve this look, flame an incense stick in front of a dark background and place it properly. Put the off-camera flashgun on the manual mode to get it lit up from one side only. Also, make sure that it does not scatter onto the lens or the backdrop. Adjust the focus on the tip of the stick, then shift to manual focus to lock the focus distance.

Painting With Light

To record ethereal streaks, move a little light source in the frame during a long exposure. Light a torch from different angles by using a torch beam to outline the subject, or you can also use moving string lights in various colours behind it for a fantastic background.

Adjust your camera on a tripod stand, and frame up and make the subject your focus. Now shift to Manual Focus to set the focusing distance, and adjust the mode to Manual. Dial-in an ISO of 200 an aperture of f/16 and a shutter speed of 8 sec. Set the Self Timer to 5 sec. Now turn the lights off.

Fire the camera, get into position, and when the shutter opens, you have the duration of the shutter speed to make your light painting. To keep it from having hotspots keep the torch in constant motion, you may dial in a more prolonged exposure if required. You can paint a complete subject in a single long take or can divide the work into separate pictures and combine them into one in Photoshop.

Rainy Day Portrait

While shooting a portrait picture, the main focus should be on the eyes. But you can also capture evocative portraits without any of the faces in focus. On any rainy day, take your camera, select a window, and you will observe some droplets of rainwater on it. With your main object placed on the opposite side of the windowpane, these droplets can be used as the main focus and capture a sombre, reflective portrait that is almost as efficient as a standard headshot.

Capture inside-out to communicate the meaning that the main object is out in the cold, or shoot outside-in to give the sense of someone longing for a break in the weather. To create the shot really efficiently, you require a very low depth, so just the particles of a liquid are captured in sharp focus. In order to do this, use a lens with a fast maximum aperture, for instance, a 50mm f/1.8 prime. In Aperture Priority mode, dial in the lowest f/number, and frame up on the subject. Concentrate on the beads, and click the shot.

Refraction

One: Exciting twists of compositions can occur when you put them at the back of any transparent vessel with water. Next time, whenever you want some stuck-at-home-photography plans, just grab a glass of liquid and various patterned backgrounds, fix your camera on a tripod stand, and begin testing. You can move the glass or the background to achieve the accurate effect you need.

Two: Light, when passes through water gives a bending, resulting in alteration in the appearance of objects. This phenomenon is known as refraction, and you will be able to use it in this artsy image project. All you require are some glasses, a tripod stand, a flashgun, and a black-and-white design print. Just put the design in the backdrop with glasses at the front. Move the designs in backward or forward motion to enhance the effect, but before that, fill it with various levels of water.

Frozen Flowers

One: You can also shoot the delicate and passing attraction of flowers by freezing them. By using a freezer-friendly vessel and distilled water, you can achieve this look. Ensure to weigh them so that they don't float on water. Take flowers out of the vessel and wait for them to melt.

Two: Wrap the bottom of an ice-cream box with almost 2cm of liquid and place it in the freezer. Once it's frozen, place a bright flower on the ice, and add enough liquid to cover it. Put it in the freezer again, and the ending outcome will be a beautiful flower encased in a cube of ice. Set your camera on the tripod stand, place the take out the frozen cube from the carton and put it on a draining board. To get different highlight texture and colourful patterns, use a torchlight on it from different angles.

Best Photography Cameras

Sony A7 II

Source www.cnet.com

This is a very reasonable choice for photography lovers who want the quality of their videos and photos to be better than that of a full-frame camera. It is very small in size which makes it very portable and you can get a good lens with it for $1000.

Nikon Z6

Nikon Z6 is just a year old yet it is still one of the best cameras. It has all rounder features and can be handled easily. There is no other camera which offers better versatility, affordability and usability than Nikon Z6. It combines both 4k quality of video and unreal stills with other features which is considered to be the key for a mirrorless full-frame camera. That means Nikon Z6 has a compact body, and hence, lightweight, which can be handled smoothly and has a substantial grip.

Olympus Tough TG-6

Olympus TG-6 has very fun and strong features hidden beneath the lens. It is a very simple camera in terms of point-and-shoot. You can excess a reasonable range of zoom and a very convenient macro-mode for beautiful close-ups. It has a light-painting mode which is great for trips as it offers fun features for young generation.

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From our editorial team

Cellphone Photography

Who says you have to own a camera in order to be a good photographer? In today's world even cellphone cameras come equipped with amazing features that you can totally exploit and click mesmerizing photographs. When on a trip and you want to pack light, taking a camera can be cumbersome. In such a situation, a cellphone with a good camera saves the day. Happy clicking pictures!