There is a glorious moment in the life of every creator in which the save button is pushed.
It's the final strokes of a makeup brush as the model approaches set, the signature at the bottom of a painting or the literal saving menu at Word, After Effects or, in the case of photographer's, Photoshop. It's a moment in which you decide that anything extra would be overdone and everything that has been discarded was useless. Now it's time to share with the world.
But what happens after that? Does that image just sit on an IG feed and some obscure website forever?
Playing around with my photos after I have finished them has been a hobby I have developed over the years. Don't get me wrong, I'm not obsessing over the million ways I could edit them, but seeing if I can transform them into something else entirely.
I've already spoken out about how I believe every photographer today should not stop at mastering editing software, but figure out what other disciplines can he combine with his photos. In an intent of incentivizing creativity, I wanted to share with you some of the ways I continue to teach myself and find my personal style in mixed media art forms. Some of it is really bad, other is okay and a few selected pieces of this bunch I'm actually mildly happy with. What I'm saying is that these are not final works I'm presenting, just ideas on how one can stimulate the imagination and editing skills. After all we're in a time in which we're not allowed to produce new photoshoots, so it's a good way to turn the old ones into something new.
1. TYPOGRAPHY
Trying to combine letters and photos can always bring amazing results. It's also a good opportunity to create some a-typical editing. It's a great way of experimenting with styles that you would normally never do, because only very specific clients would ask for them: artists, directors, luxury brands.
There is no limits to how far one can take this: designing fake magazines, real magazines, movie posters and album covers. After all, if you design the cover of Vogue enough times you might eventually get it right? Right?
There are some good apps to do this with, such as Photoshop Mix, but it has no comparison to what can accomplish through Photoshop on your laptop. Once you've purchased one of the Adobe products, you gain access to Adobe Fonts, where one can instantaneously download any of the available fonts on all Adobe software.
Some photographers that I admire who are also extremely skilled at doing this are photographer Loli Laboreau with her strange characters (Be a Tilinga) or Seb Xavier with his fake japanese movie posters.
2. FAKE ADVERTISING
This might sounds like a very strange thing to do with your time, but regardless of the final product it's a good exercise. Understanding the overall look a brand would want can really help you polish your editing, specially your color grading abilities.
The other day I was doing some adjustments to the Zero Waste piece we did in collaboration with youtuber Mary Cherry. This led me to think about all the mobilization there's been about the environment, and how its always good to check the responses these claims are getting. We sometimes focus so much on what our planet is lacking, that we forget about the teams of people who are doing their part and struggling to develop the technology that will allow us not to go extinct. This is how I found out that Coca Cola had released the first bottle of water made out of 25% oceanic plastic waste, a win for the environment.
Somehow that chain of events culminated in being motivated enough to do a fake add for Coca Cola in celebration of their accomplishment. I'm not happy yet on my level of harmony there is between all the elements, but that's what practice is for. It's not like this is going to fail me a class. It was also interesting trying to give a photo I had previously taken an opposite message of what it originally represented.
Needless is to say Photoshop is the best tool for doing this type of activity, but a lot could be said about using normal collage apps such as Pic Collage.
3. GLITCH OUT
It's almost a crime to be a content creator and not be taking advantage of the amazing app known to be used by photographers like Nick Knight and brands like Diesel: Glitché. The app makes adding strange effects very easy, leaving lots of room for letting the imagination fly. I end up using every tool in a different way each time I end up going down this path. You do have to pay to have access to high quality saves, but I honestly believe it's worth it.
It also has the possibility of creating gifs and even editing videos.
4. COLLAGE & COMPOSITION
I've found myself doing this on a regular basis now that I've taken over some Facetime Photoshoots. Being previously uncomfortable with the level of effort the model had to do following all the instructions, I've found this part of the process to be extremely powerful. It's also a way of compensating (maybe even overcompensating) for the repetitiveness that these types of shoots seem to currently offer as an art-style.
Photoshop mix is the app I usually go to when it comes to doing these types of arrangements. I also download royalty free high quality images from Unslpash to use as backgrounds. Pic Collage also stands as a possibility for faster arrangements but promises lowers quality (and an annoying watermark unless you pay for Premium).
5. DIGITAL PAINTING
Last but not least one of the most relaxing things to do is digital drawing. Don't get me wrong: I both appreciate and practice physical drawing and understand the complexity that digital drawing actually represents. But casually drawing on a photo with the knowledge that any mistake can be deleted in an instant is very stress free. It's also a good way of fusing poetry and calligraphy with photography.
The app I use to do this is called Procreate, and it has an infinite amount of different brushes and effects to choose from. To be fair, these drawings I'm showing you are like the drawing of a toddler when you look at what some digital artists can accomplish, but we all start somewhere. The app is for tablet and it really helps to have a digital pen.
One of my favorite photographers, Haris Nukem, takes this concept one step forward by drawing on printed acrylics and the results ended up being even better than his normal photographs (which is a lot to say). Haris was a painter way before he ever picked up a camera, and it's glorious to see how there is no point putting yourself in a box.
So basically what just happened is I've taken you on a journey through the weirdest files on my computer, most of them born out of boredom in a time I could've been scrolling pointlessly through social media. I don't really consider myself particularly skilled on any of the formats I've suggested in this posts, like I said it's all constant learning and practicing.
We're going through a strange time as a worldwide community and I find it absolutely necessary that we keep pushing and redefining the boundaries of our profession. This is why I wanted to challenge photographers and creators out there to choose one of these activities and tag us on your final creation #thegaragephotostudiosydney We'll be sharing our favorites on The Garage's Photo Studio IG on the following weeks. The truth is all of these different exercises could easily appear on a photography university degree curriculum, so why not use them to practice? It's our duty to constantly teach and train ourselves, because nobody else is going to do it for us.
Stay safe and happy creating! Leave me know in the comments if you found this useful and if you felt inspired to take your photos to the next level.
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