10 Fun Photography Tricks Anyone Can Do

Photography Tips

There’s so much you can do with a little bit of imagination and a camera. COOPH proves this again and again with their simple tips for creating awesomely unique images. And, they’ve released another video with even more great ideas. It’s time to get creative using just a few everyday items you can find around your home:

1. Make Your Own Glitter

This one’s super easy. Just cut up some tinfoil into little squares (or circles, or triangles, whatever you want) and make your own shiny confetti. Sprinkle it over someone as you take their picture to give the image a snowy look.

2. Go Close (Really, Really Close)

Shoot macro with a magnifying glass.

3. Hack Your Flash

This one puts your arts and crafts skills to the test. Make your own little hood for the flash with some black construction paper or cardboard. Give it two front flaps that the flash has to shoot through so you can limit and control the amount of light coming through.

4. Try an Underwater Selfie

Use a waterproof camera, like the GoPro HERO5, and a fresh micro SD card for this trick. Get a big bowl or tank of water and place it in a splash-safe area. Attach the camera to a selfie stick and set the burst mode to 30 frames per second. Dip the camera into the water as you shoot to get a new selfie perspective.

5. Shoot with Fruit

Arrange some fruit in the bottom of your shower or sink. Use a high shutter speed and drop a glassful of water on the fruit.

6. Create Lens Flare

Add a vintage look to the picture by creating your own lens flare. Just hold a lighter or little flashlight up to the side of the lens as you shoot. Be careful not to burn yourself or your equipment!

7. Warp the Perspective

Find something with distinct line patterns (paper, wallpaper, curtains) to use as your backdrop. Put a full glass of water in front of it and see the perspective change.

8. Fake the Background

Have kids? Or maybe you still have your own collection of toys? Find some nice scenic pictures in a book or on posters and set the toy figurines in front of the picture of your choosing.

9. Shoot Through Water Droplets

Choose your subject—here, they use candy. Set a Plexiglass sheet over the subject and add little droplets of water over it. Get up high and shoot down through the Plexiglass and water into the subject.

10. Remember to Back Up

Not really a trick, but definitely a wise tip. Always create a backup of your images. Save them to an external hard drive and check the results.