Lockdown Practise

COVID-19 has affected every individual across the world. Our regular lives have been disrupted and some lives have changed beyond imagination. While this life seems like it is straight out of a Stephen King novel, there are a few very unexpected advantages of this. Many are working from home, distancing ourselves from each other in a bid to stay healthy and safe. Whilst you are forced to stay in many have been experimenting with recipes or learning a new skill.

Without wanting to put myself out of a job, one way to spend your time productively is to try practising your photography.

You can experiment with your camera and challenge yourself to click a few unique photos around your house. The best part is that you do not always need a professional camera to do this. Your phone camera would be sufficient to practice.

So if you are bored or proud of your new skill, here are a few things you can practice.

Shoot Your Food

This lockdown has given you a lot of opportunities to learn and experiment with new dishes. I don’t know about you, but I challenged myself in Lockdown 1.0 to prepare 30 meals in 30 days. So, this time, it’s time for you to get them Instagram ready. If you want to try photography at home, then plate your food beautifully, take your camera out and get snapping!

To make it more interesting try to photograph the preparation stage and not just the finished products. The messy kitchen counter with your prep going in full swing can be the premise for some beautiful clicks.

When attempting this type of photography at home, try to get good and even lighting to minimise shadows.

26 Letters and 26 Photos

For some challenging photography at home, this idea will truly test you as a creative. Here you must find subjects around the house that correspond to each of the 26 letters of the alphabet.

Photographing the obvious subject might be easy, but finding unlikely subjects are challenging to spot and truly test your “photographer’s eye.” The best part about is to see what you come up with for the more difficult letters like Q, X, and Z.

Go Monochrome

Taking black and white photos is a unique challenge. Black and white photography means you must look for elements such as textures, lines, patterns, shapes, as well as light and shadow.

In the absence of colours, all these elements become essential tools for creating great photographs, whether it is black and white or colour. Small details are relevant and go a long way in making your art look breath-taking.

Learn Photoshop

If you use every filter going on your phone camera then this might be the course for you. There are many free ‘photoshop’ style software’s out there. Download one and get practising. YouTube tutorials on how to do something more advanced. My style of photographer is pure, no filters no photoshop but that’s not for everyone, go for it, you have the time right now.

Get Some Practice in

Of the various things to do in a lockdown, practicing with your DSLR can significantly improve your skills. Master the technique of shallow depth of field, an important skill in portrait photography that helps you blur out the background and put all the focus on your subject.

When practicing DSLR photography at home, you need to open your camera’s aperture as wide as possible and place the subject at a significant distance from the background. Then, place your camera close to them and take a photo. This is guaranteed to give you that blurred background and focused picture.

Most of all, have fun. If you get frustrated. Stop as the more frustrated you become, the worse the image. Get friends of family to constructively give you criticism so you can learn and grow.

If, at the end of the day, it just isn’t your thing. Well you tried and you can just hire me for the job!

Happy shooting