Confinement and photography!

Article updated on : 18 February 2021

Are confinement and photography incompatible? Like the vast majority of people on this planet, we've been under lockdown for several days now because of this plague of COVID-19! What on earth can we do during this confinement?

Some of us are catching up on tidying up, others are gardening or doing DIY that can be done without having to go to the DIY shop, not forgetting homeschooling for parents etc... in short, habits are being turned upside down! But you have to stay at home!

But what about photography enthusiasts? If you're stuck at home, you might say to yourself: "It's too late to do a bit of photography!

As far as I know, every photographer, whatever his or her level in photography, goes back to training from time to time! Especially now with digital photography. Whether it's to deepen your knowledge of software (which is constantly evolving), of shooting, or to open up and develop your artistic skills, the world of photography is big enough to be constantly studying.

At the moment, if you subscribe to various photo newsletters, you should be receiving offers of webinars, tutorials and discounts of all kinds... With a bit more time on your hands, this could be an opportunity to delve deeper into certain subjects, or to take a closer look!

I'm also convinced that many of you have PDFs, video tutorials, books and other sources of information to hand that have never been fully read or finished! Now might be a good time to go all the way!!! 😊

Enhancing your skills in software development, retouching on Photoshop, or testing and seeing if certain software would be more practical and effective in optimising your production workflow. Ultimately, this could probably improve the quality of your renderings or prints?

And why not take a look at online photo sites, online galleries are a great way to get your mind off things (I invite you to have a look at my galleries), it's also a bit of a dream: a great escape for a few moments!

Sometimes so busy, as photographers we especially like to shootWhether we're on the move, on location or in the studio, we don't always take the time to sort through our photos in our heads, and we have folders and series of photos for projects all over the place on different hard drives, or even on the computer desktop! Now's the time to regroup and archive them properly, and maybe even take advantage of the opportunity to improve the production flow, and be more efficient at least in terms of tidying up once we're back in business?

Or why not do something about the disorganised photographer syndrome? Wouldn't it be a good time to sort through your photos? 😭

I agree, for many it's the black spot of photography! Sorting again and again, how much time can be spent sorting! That's for sure! But at the same time, unsorted photos are lost photos! In other words, they're useless, impossible to find and take up a lot of space on your hard drive(s)!

So if containment isn't an opportunity to tidy up this mess ( or 1/2 a mess 😜 ) it'll never be done!

So let's get to work! Plus, it's great to look back on all those moments! To take the time to analyse your photos, to take stock of where you need to improve. A few notes, a few colour labels ... a cup of herbal tea or a coffee now and then and you'll have everything neatly filed away in no time ... and that time will pass more quickly!

And don't forget to make back-ups, before and after, of the hard disks where the photos are stored and of the catalogue(s)!

You can never be too careful!

This may not be for all photographers, but many of us who work on multiple subjects simultaneously, travel photographers, art photographers etc., or those who publish their images online, on banks etc., still need to use keywords! And the more photos you have in your catalogue, the more you'll have to assign, arrange, sort and so on. So now's the time to get started! As I said earlier, the higher a photo's ranking, the more likely it is to be used!

If you're lucky enough to have a photo printer at home, you could use it to make a few prints. Print out a few souvenir photos that you've just sorted? Do a bit of redecorating around the flat or house (DIY is going to wear thin after a while!).

Or do as I do, swap the photos already in the frames with the latest prints!

Even better, it's perhaps the perfect time to start (or finish) the photo album, now that everything is in order. From experience, there are always a few images that come to the surface and regain interest!

So experimenting with your first album or finishing one you've been working on for years can be a great way to spend your time!

Ah, so confinement and photography have already been reconciled!

And why not try out some new capture techniques? If you're an outdoor photographer, now's a good time to try your hand at food photography ( read my article on this subject ) or macro? or culinary macro? 😂 or to play around and look for different lighting effects.

Practise taking photos from other, unusual angles, practise correcting the mistakes you've found in the photos you've just sorted! (Finally, there's something to be said for tidying up your photos, printing and improving... )

And what about photographing passing birds outside your windows or in the garden?

Whether we're outdoor or studio photographers, our equipment needs a minimum of maintenance. Using vacuum cleaners, rags and cotton buds, it's time to go through all our equipment. We all hate getting dust and smudges on our images from our dirty sensors and this is a great opportunity to get stuck in and have a deep clean. However, be sure you know what you're doing 🧐 !

Here are a few ideas to make confinement, curfew and photography compatible and useful!

I wish you all courage and creativity,

see you soon

David