Do you want to take creative photographs, but you’re unsure about where to start? Have no fear! We’re here to help. This article will provide you with creative photography ideas even if you’re a beginner photographer.

The projects are designed with minimal gear and should be fun for anyone interested in photography or creative arts. So, without further ado, let’s get started with the first project!

Flat Lay Photography

Creating a flat lay is one of the easiest creative photography projects for beginners.

A flat lay is an arrangement of objects that creates a compelling photograph. A flat lay, by definition, should be photographed from a 90-degree angle, with the camera directly over the arranged objects.

You can create creative compositions with almost any object around your home, as long as you find the right combination to make a compelling photo.

You can also experiment with lighting styles, shadows, and modes. If you are creative enough, your flat lay photography could look so stunning that you want to frame it!

Anyone could create something similar to the flat lay image above. All you have to do is to choose a background. We suggest something simple so it complements your composition instead of distracting it. (E.g. patterned backgrounds usually don’t work that well.)

It’s always a good idea to decide on a theme or story you’d like to tell. The flat lay above represents the struggles of a creative process, for example.

Typography

Typography is the use of typefaces as creative elements in photography. And it is actually a niche within flat lay photography.

Many beginner photographers do not realize how easily typography can be used to create interesting photos. But once you try this project, you won’t be able to get enough of it!

As with flat lays, it’s a good starting point to decide upon a story you’d like to create with your typography photography.

Do you love gardening? Great! Why not play a bit with the soil next time you plant something and create a masterpiece like this…

While this project might look intimidating at first, once you see how easy the steps are, you’ll have all the confidence you need for this creative photography project.

Take a look at the step-by-step process below:

Easy, right?

Just create a template – you can go with more simple fonts. Collect some matching props. And take a photo of your creation from above.

For this project, we recommend that you use a tripod – or anything stable – to avoid unwanted camera movement.

You can see that this is a project that you can do with any kind of camera or even your smartphone.

Levitation Photography

While most magicians never reveal their secret… Photographers, luckily, do. You can create fascinating and mind-blowing levitation photography with only a few household items:

• Cookies
• A transparent surface (e.g. glass table, glass/Plexi in a picture frame, etc.)
• A plane sheet of paper (for the background)
• A tripod (optional but will make your job easier)

Place your ingredients on the transparent surface and create your composition. You can adjust your items so they look like they are in balance (like on the picture above). Or you can go off-script and create a form, a letter, etc. without caring about balance at all.

You are now ready to take the shot with your hand included. This is the part when the tripod will be very handy.

The best part is that you won’t even need any post-processing tool to achieve a stunning final result.

Waterdrop Photography

If you’re looking for abstract results, and you have some colourful candies at your disposal… The creative waterdrop photography project is for you!

You’ll need to have a camera set to manual mode to take these photos. But the results are so eye-catching that it’s worth the extra effort.

For this project, you’ll need:

• A bag of colourful sweets or stones;
• A glass surface (table, picture frame, etc.);
• Water dropper or sandwich bag with a tiny hole;
• Tripod;
• A camera in manual mode.

Arrange the colourful items under the glass surface and then you can create your waterdrops on the glass. Expert tip: you may arrange your waterdrops to form a heart or star shape, spell a name or any word, etc.

You’ll have to play with the focus a bit to get the waterdrops in-focus. When choosing your setting, go for a wide aperture (like f/2.8) to create a blurred background. And choose a longer shutter speed (like 1/200). Your ISO settings will depend on the light conditions you’re shooting in.

Chances are that you won’t need to post-process your shots in Lightroom. But to make your colours really pop, we recommend boosting the exposure and adding some contrast. (And, of course, if necessary, cropping the image.)

Smoke and Steam Photography

Capturing images of smoke or steam might sound super simple to you. And while it’s true that such a photo project belongs to the easier ones, you have to be aware of a few tips and tricks to achieve the results you want.

The first thing to pay attention to is your chosen background. In order to add contrast and make the smoke more visible, pick a darker photo backdrop – the best choice is usually black.

To emphasis the smoke’s shape and intriguing details, make sure you use a fast shutter speed. Experiment with 1/30 s to 1/8000 s shutter speed settings to preserve the details. If you go slower than that, you’ll only captured blurred and washed-out smoke trails.

You’ll most likely need to post-process your smoke images to make them really pop. If you’re using Lightroom you should increase contrast, shadow, and black (if that was your background color).

You can even an extra splash of color to your smoke photos with the brush tool like product photographer Chad Verzosa did on the image below.

Crystal Ball Photography

The creative idea of photographing a crystal ball is one that has been popular for quite some time. A photo with this prop involves taking pictures at different angles and lighting styles to get the best shot possible.

Good news is that you may take these fascinating photos with nothing more than your smartphone camera. However, if you’d like to enhance your shot – like the image below – we recommend you to tweak the colours in Lightroom.

You may purchase your own lens ball if you click here.

Composite Photography

Composite photography uses multiple photos to create one final image. It is actually more about editing than taking the photos themselves. Nonetheless, you’ll need good photos for a good composite project. A convenient solution may be to use stock images. But you might find that even photos you took with your smartphone are suitable for composite projects.

Powerful composite photography is all about storytelling.

One of our favourite creators in the niche is Joel Robison. Joel is not just a fantastic storyteller via his visual arts… But also an educator and mental health advocate.

Joel bends reality by riding giant snails into adventures… flying through the sky with umbrellas… taking shelter from falling coffee beans under mugs…

Composite photography is, however, somewhat an advanced creative project, it is learnable. With some patience and improved editing skills, you’ll be able to create images like these:

Because these processes are rather complex and consist of multiple steps, we recommend that you check out Joel’s video course, Fantastic Photo Adventures.

Use Paint in Water for Awesome Liquid Photography

The image below sure looks impressive… maybe even mind-bending. However, as you might have already guessed, the ingredients to this photo are super accessible. Paint, syringe, and water.

So how do you create liquid photography?

Step 1. Take a syringe filled with some paint (acrylic paint, ink, or food dye).

Step 2. Inject it into some water (a vase or tank).

Step 3. Take photos of the paint disintegrating in the water.

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

The finishing touch is, of course, post-processing the shot. You’ll want to remove the syringe to achieve the mind-bugging effect. Even if you’re new to Photoshop, it’ll be super easy with the ‘Clone Stamp Tool’. Just choose the area you’d like to remove.

And there you have it. Your own amazing photo of a disintegrating or exploding fruit or any other cool object!

Shoot Light Painting Photography at Night

First of all, you’ll need a light source to do light painting. This can be a fluorescent Led stick, a flashlight, a toy lightsaber, or even your phone in a hanging case. Do as you please with these sources. Write your name, draw hearts, or any other shapes… Or just spin the object around to create a spiral effect.

To achieve these light painting results, you’ll have to switch to manual mode. First, adjust your ISO to a lower value – we recommend 100-800. If you go as low as 100, you’re likely to lose your background. Higher values will make the background still visible, like in the picture above.

The aperture setting should be between f/8 – f/22. A higher aperture will let more light go through your lens. We suggest that you start experimenting with a smaller aperture setting and only adjust it if you’re not happy with the result.

Your shutter speed should be relatively long. Remember, it’ll take time to create the shapes you’d like, and write your letters in the air.

Fairy Light Photography

Another “after dark, play with the lights” project with a prop that you probably already have at home – if not anywhere else, then in your Christmas decorations box. Fairy lights come in different colors and shapes and can be used as versatile photo accessories.

Fairy lights can be your main lightsource. You’ll need to experiment with your settings in order to capture well-exposed images. For a test shot, set a wide aperture to let more light in and your shutter speed to around 1/80 s. Don’t overexpose the areas with lights. If you are using an 85mm lens or longer, watch out for camera shake.

If you find your images to be too dark (i.e. you don’t see details on the face) set a higher ISO. As usual, setting a higher ISO should be your last resort as it can result in noisy photos.

You may include them just in the background to create an enchanted atmosphere, make your subject or model interact with them… Or combine both, like child photographer, Iwona Podlasińska did with her image below. (The settings she used: f/1.4; 1/80 s; ISO 500.)

Macro Photography

Trying out this niche comes with some technical challenges but once you overcome those, you’ll find a whole  world of photography inspiration – easily accessible in your home, backyard, or local park.

By definition, macro photography means that the size of the image on your sensor is equal to the size of the item. If you’re enlarging the subject, that is what is called micro photography – e.g. when you see the hair on a fly’s body. There’s also close-up photography which means that you don’t get a life-sized or enlarged image, just one where you’re closer to your subject than usual.

The most popular items to capture with either close-up, macro, or micro photography are flowers and insects.

While there’s specialized macro gear that you can buy, if you’re only just starting out, you can experiment with this niche without significant investment.

Check out the video below about cheap ways to turn your lens into macro lens:

Conclusion

If you ever find that you’re having a creative block, just hit this article up. With all of these creative photography ideas and tools at our fingertips, you’ll never be short of inspiration for the next photo project.

And now it’s time to get up and create something beautiful!

Click the following link to learn how to create a street photography project.

Do you really need a good camera to capture beautiful images? This question will be on the minds of many people who are looking to buy a new camera or those who are planning to start photography.

Let’s dive deep into what “good camera” means and whether you need one to be successful in what you are looking to achieve in photography.

The question of whether you need a good camera depends on what you are looking to achieve, what type of photography you will be performing, who you work for (if anyone), and whether there are specific image requirements. You do not necessarily need a good camera since you can use your skills to achieve exceptional images without a fancy camera. Not all good cameras are expensive.

Nowadays, we are seeing smartphones that come with 3 or more cameras that have multiple capabilities like macro, telephoto, wide-angle, portrait lens, etc. So, are these cameras capable of replacing the existing digital cameras and DSLRs?

There are numerous pros and cons of using a dedicated camera as well as a smartphone camera. We will see the various factors that will help you decide whether to use your smartphone camera or a DSLR/mirrorless camera for photography. Let us get started.

Good camera vs professional camera

If you are doing photography as a hobby, then any camera capable of capturing good pictures will be good for you. But, if you are going to take up photography as your profession, you will have to invest in professional cameras and lenses. When you are selling your pictures to your clients, you need to ensure that they are of great quality. So, a professional camera is a must. Also, when a client comes to book your photography service, he/she will inquire about your camera gear. You will get the work only if you own professional camera gear.

Are good cameras expensive?

Good cameras have a camera sensor with good noise performance. It allows you to capture beautiful images in any lighting conditions. Such cameras will have a good dynamic range. It allows you to capture the correct colors with good tonal details in the scene. Camera manufacturers would have put lots of effort and time to develop such cameras. So, these cameras tend to be a little expensive.

Do you need a DSLR/ Mirrorless camera?

There are different types of cameras out there. DSLR and mirrorless are the two popular camera types now. The decision to go with a DSLR/ mirrorless camera or not depends on a lot of factors. If you just want to capture some family pictures during your trips or vacation, you don’t have to invest in a DSLR camera. A normal digital camera or a smartphone with a good camera will be good enough to do this job.

If you are serious about photography and are interested in a photography genre like wildlife, landscape, birds, macro, etc, then it is a good idea to get a DSLR or mirrorless camera. If you want to capture beautiful bird images, then you can’t do it with a normal point and shoot camera or a smartphone camera. You will need a dedicated telephoto lens to capture bird images.

If you are interested in buying a DSLR/ Mirrorless camera, you need to buy the lens and the camera body separately. If you are interested to shoot multiple subjects like people, landscape, wildlife, you need to invest in dedicated lenses for each of these types of photography. You must ensure that you have a sufficient budget to invest in all this camera gear. You will also have to invest in camera accessories like a tripod, remote triggers, camera bag, etc.

Recording in RAW format

Another advantage of a DSLR/ mirrorless camera is the ability to capture the images in RAW format. It allows you to capture the maximum details in the scene. As you all know, JPEG is a lossy compressed image format. If you try to edit a JPEG image, you will end up losing more details. If you retouch a RAW image, then you can record more details in your final image. Professional photographers prefer this RAW recording capability of the interchangeable lens camera.

If you have recorded the image in RAW format and you have some minor exposure issues like blown highlights or crushed shadows, you can easily fix it during the post-processing stage. Sometimes, the white balance of the picture can go wrong in tricky lighting conditions, especially when you have set it to auto white balance. You can easily change the color temperature of the picture shot in RAW format. These RAW images will occupy a considerable amount of space on your hard disk. You will have to invest in external hard drives to store your images.

Camera settings

A DSLR/ mirrorless camera gives you more options to control different parameters of the image. Thus, it will help you to shoot in any lighting conditions for example, even ones the eye has trouble with. You must use the manual mode in the camera to gain access to all the settings. Once you master the manual mode in a DSLR camera, then you can capture images in any tricky conditions. It will help you to become a better photographer. If you want to take your photography to next level, consider investing in a good DSLR or a mirrorless camera with appropriate lenses.

You would have seen many images where the subject is in focus with a blurry background with beautiful bokeh. It is possible to capture such images using a DSLR camera. You can vary the aperture in a DSLR camera. A lower f-number that corresponds to a larger aperture opening helps to get a nice background blur provided there is some distance separation between the subject and the elements in the background.

If you want to capture birds in flight, you will have to use fast shutter speeds. The manual control of shutter speeds will allow you to set a higher shutter speed that can freeze any action. You can also use slower shutter speed to get the typical silky smooth landscape images that have the sea or any other water body like a waterfall in the scene.

If the scene is dark, you can increase the ISO in your camera to get a good exposure on the subject and thereby capture a properly exposed image. If you are doing long exposure photography like capturing star trails or light painting photography, you can easily set a slow shutter speed in your DSLR camera and get the desired effect on the image.

Nowadays there are smartphones that support background blur features. But, the background blur in these smartphones is generated by the software and not by the camera optics. So, it will not look that pleasing or real to the human eye.

Dynamic range factor

You can get a mirrorless camera with up to 15 stops of dynamic range. You will not be able to get the same dynamic range in a smartphone camera sensor. The dynamic range of a camera is its ability to capture the maximum light intensity as well as the minimum light intensity. If you are using a camera that supports a higher dynamic range, you can capture more tonal details in your image. Also, the dynamic range of the camera decreases when you increase the ISO levels.

Cost

When it comes to the cost factor, a DSLR or a mirrorless camera does not come that cheap. You will have to spend at least $300 to even get an entry-level DSLR camera with the basic kit lens option. Higher end cameras and lenses will cost you more. If you are planning to purchase one, you must ensure to have a real interest in photography. Otherwise, it will end up unused in your drawer.

You can watch this video to see whether it is still good to invest in a digital camera:

Are lenses more important than the camera?

When you consider an interchangeable lens camera like a DSLR or a mirrorless camera, there are two parts: a lens, and a camera body. As you know, the camera exposure is controlled by three parameters, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. The aperture part originates in the lens and the shutter and ISO comes in the camera body.

The sensor inside the camera records the reflected light falling on it. It records the light for the duration in which the shutter remains open. So, most of the activity happens in the camera body. But, the amount of light entering into the lens is controlled by the aperture, which is in the lens part. The aperture does it with the help of the glass elements in the lens. The quality of these glasses will have a great impact on the image. If your lens is made up of high-quality coated glasses, then the phenomenon of refraction will be minimal. Hence, you will get the best quality images. Thus, the camera lens is as important as the camera body. If you check the price of a high-end camera lens, then it will cost more than the camera body. More importantly, camera bodies age very quickly and lose value pricewise whereas lenses hold their value.

Dedicated camera vs phone

When it comes to selecting a camera these days, you can have two options, you can either go with a dedicated camera or use the camera in your smartphone. Both have got their advantages as well as disadvantages.

Two devices vs One device

With the rapid advancement in smartphone camera technology, it is possible to capture high-quality pictures using a high-end smartphone. If you are using a dedicated camera, then you will have to carry it with you all the time when you plan to take pictures. On the other hand you carry your smartphone all the time anyway. It allows you to take good pictures anytime if the phone is equipped with a good camera. Thus, you can avoid the burden of carrying an additional camera.

Type of photography

You can’t use a smartphone camera to capture wildlife images. In the case of wildlife photography, you don’t have the luxury of getting close to the animals. You need to maintain a safe distance from the animal. It is for your safety as well as to ensure that the animal is comfortable with your presence. In this case, you will need a camera with a good optical zoom feature like a prosumer camera or a DSLR camera with a dedicated super-telephoto lens. Only then you can capture beautiful images of the wild animals.

Also if you download a cell phone image to a computer and open it to 500% or so zoom, you will see the difference in quality from a pro camera. Some cameras shoot at 50 megapixels. You can crop a small part of that photo and still print it large and sharp. You cannot do that with a phone photo.

Capturing selfies

Many people are interested to capture selfie pictures only. If you also belong to this category, then you won’t find a dedicated camera useful. It is easier to shoot a selfie using a smartphone camera than a standard digital camera. Most smartphones will come with front and back cameras. Thus, you can easily snap a selfie using any of these cameras.

Camera sensor size

A digital camera is specifically built for one purpose- to take good pictures. But, a camera comes as one of the features of a smartphone. Digital cameras come with a large sensor, unlike a smartphone camera. Unlike a digital camera, the smartphone is built to be compact and able to do a hundred different things. It is not possible to incorporate a large camera sensor into it.

With a large camera sensor in a digital camera, you will get larger pixels too. Larger pixels help to bring down the noise in the image when you shoot in low light or at high ISOs. If you capture the same low light scene using your smartphone camera, you can see noise in the picture visible in the form of grain.

Lens options

If you take the case of a smartphone camera, the lens options are limited. The high-end smartphones will come with 3 or 4 dedicated lenses for the camera, one for a basic phone. You can also get third-party lenses that can be the attached to the smartphone, which makes it bulky and the quality of an image produced by sticking a lens on top of existing lens and adding more glass elements (less light) is questionable.

If you take the case of an interchangeable lens camera like Sony a7iV, you can see that it supports a large number of lenses. You can get a portrait, macro, wide-angle, telephoto, super telephoto, fisheye lens, etc. You can get both prime as well as zoom lenses. Thus, an interchangeable lens camera gives you more flexibility.

Ease of Use

In the case of a smartphone camera, you can easily use it without referring to the manual. You can open the inbuilt smartphone camera app and start clicking pictures. In the case of a digital camera, you need to refer to the manual and see which are the buttons for setting different modes and parameters. You will have to learn the controls in the camera before taking photos. Once you learn the controls, then you can use them easily. Most digital cameras come with a user-friendly interface. If you compare these two cameras, then the smartphone camera will have a small upper hand when it comes to the ease of use factor.

But as phone camera creators try to add more features to their cameras, the software becomes more and more complicated and you have to really search to find all the features, they almost need a manual to read first. It is often easier to rely on physical buttons on a camera that have labels on them to set parameters.

Uploading/ Sharing with Friends/Social Media sites

Nowadays, most people take pictures to share with their friends through WhatsApp or to post on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram. When you use a digital camera for taking pictures, you will have to connect it to the computer using a data transfer cable or insert the memory card in the card reader and transfer the pictures to your computer for uploading. In the case of a smartphone, you can directly upload it. Thus, the process of sharing becomes much easy and simple with a smartphone.

Although as many people are finding out, the process of uploading photos from a phone to a computer via a cable is not that pleasant. Phones have many more folders than camera cards and your original/edited images may be all over the phone. It may even be difficult to sort them when you want to offload.

Well, thats a lot of comparisons. I hope i brought up some you were not thinking of and now you can make a better educated decision on whether you need a good camera for your purposes.

You can read the following article to know the different cameras that you can buy for under $300.

Today we’re going to look at how and when to use the HSL and Color tools in Adobe Lightroom. The HSL/Color controls are some of the most powerful color editing tools that Lightroom offers. These tools are relatively straightforward once you know how they work, but they’re easy to overlook. HSL/Color is my favorite tool for making subtle color adjustments within an image, although it can be used for making more dramatic color changes as well.

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