If you told me 3 months ago I would be writing about a DIY abstract photography project, I may have given you the Scooby-doo dog face. For those of you who don’t know who that it is, check out YouTube for Scooby’s cartoon entertainment. (Note: this blog was originally posted in April, 2020)
Recent 2020 events changed many activities and norms for all of us.
As a landscape, travel, nature and wildlife photographer, most of my photography is outdoors. And now after being indoors more than usual, my dogs run to another room when they see me with the camera.
Time to shoot something new, different, but colorful. I live in Michigan! We need color this time of year.
Flipping through the web, an ad using colorful, backlit paper surfaced. It was beautiful! Just what the photography doctor ordered. A few searches later and a DIY (do it yourself) abstract project started to take hold.
The image above was my first subject. Fun, yet it looks like folded paper. More zing needed in my design. Let’s backlight the subject, add more curves and paper folds.
DIY Abstract Photography Project: Quick, Easy & Inexpensive
For this project, I wanted to spend my time shooting not recreating wheels. Plus, I didn’t want to buy anything new. I’m also not very creative with my hands, so it needed to be easy to create. Here’s a look at my four DIY Abstract photography project steps.
- Supplies: Determined for a simple abstract with color, this DIY project included white printer paper, colorful tissue paper and a moveable light that I could easily manipulate. I also used tape and paperclips to secure my designs.
- Setup: I started with folding paper in different ways. A circle, a fan and oval circles. These were placed vertically on a white sheet of paper on top of a glass table.
- Positioning: Underneath the table, a light covered with colored tissue papers illuminated the shapes. I used single colors, layered sheets of color and also overlapped colors as in the image below and featured inset above.
- Shooting: With a tripod placed over my paper designs, I used my Nikon 105mm macro F-mount at the time with f/stops ranging from f/5.6 to f/9. The intent? Focus on the lines, shadows and color.
- Post Processing: At first, I didn’t like my images. Then, bam. When cropping, turning, working with contrast, hue and saturation the images started to pop. Holy smokes, this was fun!
Recapping the Setup:
Here’s a quick pic of the setup. Materials listed above are more than likely already in your house. Paper, paperclips, colored tissue paper, a flashlight and a glass table top.
Under the glass: lay the tissue paper on top of the light source to illuminate the background with color. On top of the class: position your folded paper on top of the glass. I use copier printer paper and laid it on top of the glass under the design. The flat paper minimizes light hotspots.
Recent events stalled my productivity and for others too. It’s up to us to get things going.
For additional ideas you can do at home, check out I Lost My Photography Groove, How I got it Back.
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