10/08/2012

How To Start Photographing Beautiful Textures

By Amy Renfrey


There is very much to learn in photography. Not only do we require to master our camera but we must appreciate how light manifests as a photo. We need to realize how lighting works in photography because we can employ this information to shoot stunning pictures. Beautiful images refers to clarity, power, vibrancy and better lighting.

A most ideal way to turn out to be expert in photography is to start photographing different textures. Types of textures may include timber, steel, foliage and brick. These things can really accentuate strength and an interesting light very rapidly and without difficulty. We can learn a lot from shooting these surfaces of different things. Once we get the true lighting to draw attention to these textures our images suddenly pick up and come to life. You can check these textures a variety of ways. I suggest shooting these appealing different textures with well-balanced light spread evenly across your photo. If you can't get well-balanced lighting then shadows may work to an advantage.

A very good photo that has interesting textures are dried leaves across a wooden exterior. You can wait until the sunlight has reduced in the sky to get some shadow below the leaves. You will find that your shadow will become part your placement of subjects within the photo. What this means is that the shadows can work to your advantage.

A rustic appearance and feel is a good place to start. Taking photos of aged wood fence posts with rusty nails and wires can really bring wood as a texture to life. You see what we want is make the wood and the nails look so they look authentic. In other words make it look powerful by improving the depth of the photo. We would like the viewer to feel like they can lean in and touch the texture.

In order to create this reality in your photos you need to construct a small list of things to photograph. The fence line and rusty nails are a good starting point. You may also like to take photos of differences in textures such as metal and wood. A steel band wrapped over a wood fence can make for a wonderful picture. A distinction in textures such as this can be shot in an antique tone and monochrome for extra drama and interest. They can also be shot in a selection of other tones that you can invent yourself in Photoshop or Lightroom.

What is a tone? A tone relates to light and colour. Saturdated colour, deep tones mean that your shot may have a lot of black and grey tone, shadowy yellow and deep orange to it. Light tones may mean that your photograph has lots of colors of pale colours. In rustic photography, where we want to shoot wonderful different textures, we often find that dark tones are a factor.

Deep tones can emphasize the shadow. In order for your photographs to look like they have bona fide live texture then we must draw attention to the depth and light range within your shot. You may choose a deep or shady tone to give that nail more oxidation or that metallic band around the wood more shine.

When we use more contrast in our rural photography we get a superior looking texture. This is since the contrast in the light brings up the detail of the surface of the textured subject. The lighting works to bring out the detail in the lighter parts and deepen the shadow in the dark areas.

A means to creating thriving textured subjects is to keep your composition uncomplicated. Natural textures, such as foliage and timber, work most ideal when there is nothing to muddle the scene. Simply shoot the main subject and make sure there are no distracting things in the environment or the forefront. Once you've taken this you can work to raise the contrast, perfect the light and intensify the tones. There is nothing more distracting than a messy photograph.

Old abandoned vehicles are an example of how you can capture wonderful textures in your photography. When my spouse and I were traveling to a country town we accidently came across an long forgotten abandoned utility. This automobile was from either the 1940s or the Fifties. It looked like it had been left for years and years. As soon as I saw this car I got very excited. The minute I saw it I knew I wanted a antique looking photo.

I knew that the steel, oxidation and washed out paint would look absolutely brilliant in sepia. Once I took a series of images of the old utility I then viewed the image the photo in Lightroom. I increased the white and highlights, boosted the blacks, and experimented with the tone curve. What does this imply? It simply states that I manipulated the tone of the shot to emphasise the appealing points of the car. I wanted to enhance the bright metallic against a muted, natural setting. Once you alter the lighting all of a sudden your textures come alive.

Depending on how you want your different textures to look, you can use bright or filtered light. Filtered lighting is naturally better to use as it offers us more options in the long term. Strong light can create highlights and shadows that emphasize contrast. This can actually work to your advantage.

Soft light can work very well for surfaces of different things because it highlights the detail. it can give your texture a more three dimensional look. If you are taking photos of an old fence post then the absence of intense brightness will bring out the finer details of the timber. You will get to see the patterns, lines and shapes of your surface a lot more in subdued light. In tough bright light you may lose these fine points completely.

If you want to take pictures of stunning textures and not be concerned about the small detail, then a country scene with excellent contrast may work beautifully. A fence line sitting in dense grass can be a wonderful textured image to begin with. Once you position the camera so that the fence line is running into the distance you not only have beautiful different textures but you have great composition.

There are a lot more things you can do to emphasize your textures. There is a mobile phone app identified as Instagram. It has just joined forces with Lightroom. This is a marvellous thing! Instagram is an app that produces antique, sepia, black-and-white and the whole other selection of tones for your photos.

Instagram gives you the selection of antique tones. In other words if you employ an antique tone over your photo it looks like it was taken in 1977. Once Instagram meets Lightroom, you have the alternative of producing a different look and feel over your textured photographs.

Instagram also offers you the choice of various borders. You can have a stark black border to put emphasis on the de-saturated tones in a photo of dried golden leaves. Or, you can have a smooth ivory border to match the muted tones of a photo of a car park. Or you might have no border at all.

Remember that making different textures is simple. Once you have captured it then the joy begins. Make sure that you choose contrasting things like dead leaves or steel. Photograph them at the same time. Then try changing the contrast and lighting of the image once you open it up in your prefered editing software program.

I recommend that you let inspiration and curiosity be your guides. Open up your shot in your favourite editing program and try a variety of various things. Boost the contrast, decrease the yellow, reduce the blue, modify the white balance etc. These are just illustrations of things that I attempted when I was learning how to enhance my textures in my photos. I got to a place where I knew what I loved and designed many different alternatives for myself.

These different alternatives I created gave my shots a look and feel that I loved. Some were greatly saturated in deep yellows and warm tones. Some were a slight sepia, and some were a very sharp contrast in the monochrome medium. These lights, colours and looks, applied over rural subjects, made my textures come alive. Rusty fences took on a powerful presence. Metallic bands wound tightly over timber fence posts seemed interesting and from the past. Hanging metal bells looked classic and ageless.

Just think about texture and light to begin with. Then your photo editing comes afterward. Think about the light and how it forms a relationship with with your surroundings to emphasise textures. Think about how light acts and makes things seem different at various times of the day. Photograph unique natural and man-made textures together. This will permit you to explore differences between light and dark within your textures. The exploration of light will allow you to bring out the strength and the features within the photograph. Then apply some simple photo editing. This will allow you to modify the tone. Adjusting the colour and light gives you the opportunity to create some very imaginative pictures.

This is an exercise in inventive pursuit. This is not about winning awards or being better than anyone else. This is about how this makes you feel. You can impress people later on but first learn to interpret your light on how it works with the textures in your background. Once you've done this you can shoot extraordinary textured photographs. Have fun and happy shooting!




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