9 creative photo ideas to try in December 2015

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 December with 9 fresh and creative ideas to try, from vertical panoramas, light-painted still lifes to macro abstracts.

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Creative photo ideas for December: 01 Shoot a starry selfie

Few photographers enjoy shooting self-portraits. But why not follow nature photographer Manish Mamtani’s example and disguise yourself in the dark?

“I was in the Arches National Park in Utah on a mission to shoot landscapes at night, but the clouds moved in,” reveals Manish. “I sat in the car for about two hours when finally the sky cleared.

“After quickly setting up my Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 lens on a tripod near a cliff, I climbed up to what’s known as the Windows section, then used a remote shutter release to take a long-exposure selfie. I had to stand still for the exposure time of 30 seconds.

To balance the exposure of the foreground with the starry sky, Manish used two torches. “I positioned one on the ground and adjusted the beam so that the light wasn’t too harsh on the rocks, and kept the other torch in my hand to show that I was light-painting.

“Obviously I couldn’t move during the long exposure, so I angled the torch away from the arch to avoid creating a hotspot.”

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Creative photo ideas for December: 02 Shoot a portrait with props

Bringing props to a portrait shoot can give your pictures an added dimension. In fact, they can become the entire creative basis for a shoot, as photographer Jodie Mann explains.

“The idea here was to recreate a figurehead from a 19th-century ship, with a slight fashion-editorial edge,” she says. “Bringing all the right elements together on the same day is always a challenge, so research and preparation were key.

“I knew I wanted a derelict, industrial setting to provide a sense of abandonment, and my stylist used a variety of suppliers to obtain the props.

“The netting, the ship’s wheel (very real and very heavy!) and the miniature ship used in the hair were sourced from a nautical antiques shop, while the outfits came from a vintage clothing warehouse. The ropes were borrowed from a performance artist.”

Jodie used her camera tethered to a laptop for this shoot, as the larger and more detailed display made it easier to spot where adjustments to the set-up were required.

She also introduced additional features to the pictures during post-production. “To enhance the eerie feel, I used Photoshop brushes to add layers of mist and even create little cobwebs on the ship’s wheel.”

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Creative photo ideas for December: 03 Light paint a still life

You don’t have to be in the middle of a rural or industrial scene to start a light-painting project. Giovanna Griffo keeps things closer to home, and uses a small torch to illuminate still-life arrangements instead.

Giovanna typically creates these images in one take.“My set-up is very simple,” she says. “I use an SLR – a Nikon D800 in my case – and a standard zoom. It’s then a case of working in darkness and keeping the torch moving during a long exposure of one or two minutes.

“It can be hard to judge the amount of light required to create a good exposure,” she adds, “so you have to rely on your instinct, and be prepared to repeat the process until you get the desired result. But I would say that’s the beauty of this technique: unpredictable results that lead to unique images.”

Giovanna always shoots in raw, which allows her to fine-tune the exposure and, in particular, the white balance when she processes an image.

“Sometimes I also shoot more than one exposure and blend them together in Photoshop to achieve a more sophisticated quality of lighting.”

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