8 creative photo ideas to try in December
by Jeff Meyer December 1, 2014 1 Comment
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As part of our ongoing series to help you get more creative with your digital camera, each month we publish some fun, seasonal, creative photo ideas to help inspire your imagination. Along with some amazing images, we’ve also provided some quick photography tips by both amateur and professional photographers who are experts in these fields.
We’re kicking off December with a new list of exciting projects like making a naturalistic portrait, creative still-life photo ideas, film effects in Lightroom and many more.
SEE MORE: 77 photography techniques, tips and tricks for taking pictures of anything
Creative photo ideas for December: 01 Make naturalistic portraits
Creative photo ideas for December 2014 Jessica Drossin
Shooting a good portrait is a challenge in itself, but the work doesn’t stop there. How you finish the image is important too. Skilful retouching in Photoshop or Lightroom can make a good portrait great.
LA-based fine-art photographer Jessica Drossin has some useful tips through her experience in this field.
“The key to creating a great portrait is capturing the subject’s personality while documenting their appearance in a flattering and interesting way,” she explains.
“To ensure that the focus is where it belongs, decrease the saturation of a bright background object, blur unimportant details, and clone out distracting elements.”
When it comes to retouching the face, Jessica insists that subtlety is all. “I like to reduce the appearance of pores, soften any discolouration under the eyes, and clone out any stray hairs from the face. Resist the temptation to get carried away – plastic skin and glowing eyes will distract, and all anyone will notice is your retouching.”
Jessica is clear that getting the right colours (when you’re not shooting in mono, like the shot from Jessica shown here) is also important.
“Your colour choices do a lot to determine the mood of your portrait. Warm tones will imply happiness and health, while cooler tones will create a moodier, more complicated interpretation of your subject.
Adjusting colours can help to pull an image together, creating an overall consistency of tone.
For most portraits, I recommend increasing the saturation of skin tones to add more vibrancy. But be careful not to overdo it.”
SEE MORE: How to retouch portraits like a pro
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* A wide-aperture lens is essential to capture blur out distracting backgrounds.
* Use single-point AF and carefully set the AF point over the eyes.
* Experiment with crops in Photoshop to make your compositions even stronger.
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