I Spy…Taking Photos for Screens

What do you see when you look through your camera’s view finder?  Are you trying to frame a scenic landscape?  Are you zoomed in on flora or fauna?  Are you finding patterns in architecture or hotel carpeting?   Once you start taking photos with the intent of creating images for screens, you will start to look at objects in a different way.  And once you start using your own images in your artwork, it is difficult to return to using images other people have created.  If you are not proficient as a sketcher, which is another way to create images, but like to take photographs, you can create screens from your own unique photos.

Here are some tips that may help:

• What kind of images do you like to work with?  Nature, graphics, people, animals?

• Search through photos you have already taken for something that you think will make a strong black and white image.

• Remember that you don’t have to use the whole photograph; crop it down to just the part you want to use.

•  Learn a few basics about Photoshop or whichever photo editing program you choose to work with to convert your images from a photograph to a black and white image with high contrast and no gray.

• Learn to apply filters to your black and white photo to create different effects.

• When taking photos with screen images in mind, zoom in to your subject to eliminate as much background as possible.

• Another way to eliminate background is to angle your camera so that perhaps the sky, if you are outdoors, or a mostly solid color object, if indoors, is your background.

• If you are photographing natural elements such as plants that can be cut, you can stage your photo against a white or black background.

Here’s a photo of a zinnia and how it looks converted to black and white, with 5 different filters applied.

 

There are lots of options and once you start playing with images, it's hard to stop!