9 creative photo ideas to try in October

As part of our ongoing series to help you get more creative with your digital camera, each month we publish some fun, seasonal, creative photo ideas to help inspire your imagination.

Along with some amazing images, we’ve also provided some quick photography tips by both amateur and professional photographers who are experts in these fields.

We’re kicking off September with a new list of exciting photo projects like indoor flower portraits, using flash to freeze action, airshows, robins and much more!

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Photo ideas for October: 01 Light paint a car

Light-painting can be used for lots of subjects. While it’s a popular technique for lamdscapes and buildings, it can also be employed to create stunning shots of cars and other vehicles.

Light-painting specialist Cristian Serrano gets great results with just a single light, as he doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on strobes.

As you can see from his shot of a beautifully lit VW Beetle, the results are impressive considering the limited kit he is using, and wouldn’t look out of place in a glossy car magazine or blog.

“I start off by working out what I want the final image to look like,” he explains. “Once I have the concept in my mind, I will move the car around until I get the right angle on it. Then I simply wait for the sun to go down, until it’s dark enough that I can start to use light-painting.”

Once the ambient lighting conditions are right, Cristian brings out a 22 x 28-inch 1,000 watt continuous softbox.

“I’ll put my camera on a tripod with a timer and set an exposure of 5-10 seconds. This enables me to walk around the car with the softbox on, and light up the vehicle nicely. I do this a few times at various angles and heights, in order to get as many options as possible.”

As well as showing off your beautiful-looking ride, this simple technique would also be a great way to create stand-out shots of any car you wanted to sell…

SEE MORE: Night photography ideas – how to light paint your subject over ultra-long exposures

How to put it all together

During post-production, Cristian brings the images into Photoshop and selects a suitable assortment to start masking.

“I use about three to six images for each final project, and stitching in the images reveals a perfectly lit car,” he explains. “I mask out the background to a solid black to hide the light trails and any other background objects.”

Photoshop’s Lighten blend mode can be useful for combining frames in this way, as it reveals only those areas in a layer that are brighter in colour than the ones in the layer below.

SEE MORE: Car photography – simple, creative ways to make your Toyota look like a Ferrari!

Photo ideas for October: 02 Get creative with paper

Here’s a great technique to try on a rainy day. Dan Comaniciu takes gorgeous images of coloured paper, which he teases, curves and crimps into pleasing photo compositions. It’s important to use paper that is in perfect condition, or clone out imperfections later.

Dan uses a Hasselblad H3DII-50 with the HC 120mm macro lens. He then places a 100 x 80mm Hensel softbox behind the paper to provide just the right illumination.

Not everyone’s budget can stretch this far, but you can get similar results with an SLR, a macro lens and a window.

Experiment with colour effects in Photoshop or similar software. Here, Dan colour-toned the image using a colour gradient and Soft Light blending mode.

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How to set up your camera

Your camera’s autofocus may struggle to work out where to focus, so it’s easier to use manual focus to be sure of sharp still-life shots. Zoom into the image in magnified Live View and use depth-of-field preview to check for sharpness.

SEE MORE: Fine art photography – everything you need to shoot creative projects at home

Photo ideas for October: 03 Shoot and edit a portrait on your phone

You don’t need a fast 50mm lens and weapons-grade SLR to take stunning portraits, as Ade Santora’s creative headshots, shot and edited on an iPhone, prove.

Ade begins by working out a concept, then edits the image with his arsenal of apps. “I use ProCamera for normal colour pictures and Hueless for black and white. Hipstamatic or Oggl are used for moody effects.

“My editing apps include Superimpose or iColorama for blending and masking multiple layers; Mextures and Stackables for adding textures, and also Snapseed, Photo Power and Afterlight.

“I also like to use Noir Photo to create dramatic black-and-white effects and AfterFocus to create a blurred depth of field.”

How to avoid ‘phone shake’

Having the latest iPhone and powerful apps is one thing, but ‘phone shake’ can be even more of a problem. A good solution is to mount your phone on a tripod. Joby’s GripTight GorillaPod range is another option, but there is a wide range of other supports available.

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