Mixing art and photography: how to make a simple abstract sequence

Create an arty abstract masterpiece with a tub of black paint, as we show you how to mix photography techniques with traditional art.

Abstract art and photography have a close relationship. Since cameras were invented, painters and photographers have combined both media to create stunning results.

If you’re not much of a painter, don’t worry: you don’t need any painting skills to try out this simple project, only a little creativity and imagination to get the ball rolling. You’ll also need to get hold of a tub of black paint (we found ours in our local supermarket) and a white dish. Other essential items are a tripod, flashgun and a jug of water.

If you fancy a more colourful result, don’t feel restricted to just black. Think of colours that mix well: for example, yellow and blue to make green, or yellow and red to make orange.

For our final image, we assembled 16 shots in Photoshop to show the sequence of the changing of paint from start to finish. It helps to shoot a few extra shots so you have more to work with at the editing stage.

It’s also worth shooting in raw so you can batch-convert your images to black and white in Camera Raw, and also make any final tweaks to exposure and contrast.

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How to shoot a sequence and assemble it in Photoshop

01 Camera and flash set-up

Mount your camera onto a tripod and frame the dish from a bird’s-eye view. Place a flashgun next to the dish and angle the head up to bounce the light for an even distribution. Put your camera into its Manual shooting mode. Set the shutter to 1/250 sec and the ISO to 100, then balance the aperture setting with the flash intensity.

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02 Mix paint and water

Take an image of the dish empty. Keep shooting as you add some drops of paint, and then a little water. Pour the water away  and place the dish back, then use a pen to disturb the paint blobs, shooting all the while. When you’re done, open the shots in Camera Raw. Click Select All and then Convert to Grayscale. Open all your files in the main editor.

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03 Combine the images

Create a new document and use the Rectangle tool to create a 4×4 grid. One at a time, import each image then position its icon in the Layers panel so it’s above a rectangle. Right-click the image icon in the Layers panel and select Create Clipping Mask from the menu that appears. Press Ctrl/Cmd+T to make the image fit the space.

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