Spectacular Abstract Photos: How To Build Creativity and Have Fun
Abstract rendering from a flower in the Botanical Gardens in Kolkata, India.
Creating abstract photos is a fun way by which I’ve been able to build a more creative approach into the way I make photos. Whether it’s in-camera techniques such as macro or creative movement, or playing around with different renderings or techniques in Photoshop, there’s a few simple approaches to abstract photography that enables me to have fun and produce more creative photos, more often.
Taking an abstract approach to photography enables you to significantly change the way subjects are depicted and, by doing so, changes the way your photos are perceived. Abstraction is a creative approach photographer’s employ to have fun and produce visually interesting photos.
Understanding How We Perceive The World Around Us
The way our eyes and brain work together is to seek out the familiar, which for the sake of this discussion I’II can refer to as the subject, in what we see. This process helps us make sense of the world around us.
Likewise, when looking at photos, our eyes move quickly over the image to locate a familiar point of reference that enables us to identify primary subject matter (e.g., face, flower, building) in the scene depicted. Our brain then works to understand the context into which that subject has been placed.
However, by changing one or more elements in a picture we can significantly change the context by which those elements are understood.
Take a look at the above photo as a case in point. I made the original image in the Botanical Gardens in Kolkata, India. Needless to say it was an attractive and recognisable rendering of the subject photographed.
But back in my studio I decided to have some fun and, with the use of abstraction, turn the original photo into something else entirely. As you can see, the degree of abstraction achieved is so severe that the original subject matter is hardly recognisable in this particular rendering.
It’s really no longer an image of a flower. I’d say it’s become a study in color, shape, line, repetition and pattern.
While I rarely employ Photoshop for such extreme ends, in this case I think this image is a great example of how abstraction is a great way to build creativity and have fun with your photography.
Black and white photo depicting the rugged beauty of Iceland’s Central Highlands.
Abstract Black and White Photography
Photographs are not reality. They are two dimensional representations of our three dimensional world. But of course photographs offer so much more. They’re ways by which we can document our journey in life, explore our own creativity, learn about what’s going on in our world and provide a window back into history.
It’s important to understand that photographs are creations unto themselves and the power of the photograph exists in the hands of the maker, the photographer who created the image in question; and in the mind of the viewer, who brings their own understanding and meaning to the image based upon their own life’s experiences.
Perhaps the simplest form of abstraction for a photographer is to opt for a black and white rendering of the scene or subject in question. By doing so you further remove the subject matter depicted from reality, even in a reality straightforward rendering such as the above landscape photo from the Highlands region in Central Iceland.
I was exploring the region by car and stopped to photograph the scene before me. While quite a wild location, the light revealed a particularly evocative and brooding scene.
The strong shapes and textures evident in this scene made it a stand out choice for rendering into a black and white photo. I could just as easily have added a predominantly cool toned effect to suggest an uncertain, bleak or even dangerous future.
You could then easily read this image, possibly influenced by the inevitable doom and gloom of the day's media, as a metaphor for dark days ahead. I’ve written about the notion of Reality, Suggestion and Abstraction previously.
It’s a great read and a really interesting way to understand three quite different ways to approach your photography in ways that are fun and help build creativity.
Creative Photography Doesn’t Have To End In The Camera
One of the great things about applications like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop for today’s creative soul is that your photography doesn’t have to end in the camera. There’s no doubt that post processing opens up so many fun and interesting ways by which you can extend the communicative power of your photos.
With this in mind it’s important to remove yourself from concerns about how well your photographs depict reality. Art is not so much about reality, but about exploring your response to the world around you.
“Great photography is not about what you see,
but about how you feel about what you see.”
Frost on a car tyre provides perfect subject matter for abstraction.
Macro and Close-Up Photography
One way to move towards abstraction, and produce a more visually interesting image, is to move in closer and base your composition upon the design elements inherent to the subject.
In this case the viewer will notice the design (e.g., line, shape, texture, color, balance, shadow) before they think to identify the subject (e.g., face, feet, fence, tyre), thereby breaking away from their usual way of seeing, processing and understanding visual stimuli.
As a consequence the photographer has allowed themselves to think less literally and provided themselves, and their audience, with a heightened visual experience.
This is exactly what came about on the cold and frosty morning I made the above close-up photo of a tyre on my then Land Rover Discovery. I was running a workshop at the time and, before the day’s planned schedule was about to begin, I encouraged some of the participants to drag themselves away from the cosy fire inside to explore the fascinating details all around us.
The texture in the car tyre’s tread has been enhanced by the frost and the blue light of a cold morning in the middle of winter provided the emotion impact that further lifted the communicative power of the image.
Yes, great photos are made in Antarctica. But you’ll be well served learning how to do so in your own backyard. That way, when you get to your dream destination, you’ll have the ideas, techniques and confidence needed to produce truly spectacular images.
Circles of light abstraction made with camera movement during a long exposure.
Abstract Photography Will Dramatically Boost Your Creativity
But what happens to the viewing experience when there’s no recognizable subject?
Abstraction simply means presenting elements of the world in such a way that the viewer sees the abstraction before they begin to identify what has actually been photographed. By doing so the abstraction becomes the subject of the photograph.
Photography is a wonderfully creative activity and there’s no reason why the production of art can’t be fun. The journey into abstraction is one way by which photography becomes art. How much of this occurs in camera and how much on the desktop is dependent upon the scene itself, your approach to it and your own preferred workflow.
If creativity requires a little hocus pocus it’s my view that you should embrace it. And why not? It’s fun and the results can be spectacular.
