Meticulous Photography

Meticulous; meaning to show great attention to detail; very careful and precise. In this series of lessons you will learn how to take really cool meticulously arranged photographs of everyday objects that can be found around your home. This theme is in three parts:

  • Part 1 - What is meticulous photography? An introduction to the work of Emily Blincoe.

  • Part 2 - How to take a meticulously arranged photograph.

  • Part 3 - How to edit your meticulous photograph using Photopea.

WAGOLL:

Below are some of the meticulous photographs that you will be able to create following these tutorials. Click on the 'student examples' link to see real student's creations.

Part 1: What is Meticulous Photography?

Meticulous arrangement of objects then photographed have long been used in creative Media products. In this topic you will learn how to create a meticulously arranged photograph of objects. These will look really cool in any Media product you use them in such as on websites and magazines.

  1. Watch the YouTube video above or click here: https://youtu.be/oADIh9z7i8E to see real examples of this in magazine publications.

  2. Before we take photographs I want you to spend some time looking at the work of a fantastic photographer called Emily Blincoe. She is a master of taking a meticulously arranged photograph. Go to her website and look through all her photographs by clicking on this link: http://www.emilyblincoe.com/arrangements

  3. Choose your favourite Emily Blincoe photograph and save it to your device.

  4. Write a short description explaining why you like it so much. Include a brief summary as to how Emily Blincoe uses the rules of design to create her perfect shots. Remember to think about her use of contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity.


Part 2: Taking Meticulous Photographs

By now you should have explored the photographic work of Emily Blincoe. In this lesson you will learn how to take a similar photograph.

  1. watch the YouTube video https://youtu.be/zQBPn1Etpz4 in full.

  2. Search your house for a variety of objects and items that can be used to create a meticulous arrangement.

  3. Find a suitable location to create your arrangement. It must be in a well lit area. Preferable outside or at least near a window. Don't rely on your house lights. They appear bright, but they will take a dark grainy shot. Natural light from a window is best. Never take your photographs in the evening using the internal lights. Wait until it is daytime and set up near a window. YOU MUST DO THIS OR YOUR PHOTOGRAPH WILL LOOK AWFUL!

  4. Find a suitable background. This could be plain pillow case, large piece of paper or anything that is large enough with no pattern. White is best but actually dark background colours can also work really well.

  5. Set up your arrangement. Be meticulous! Use a ruler if you need to. It will pay off in the end if you put the effort into this stage.

  6. Take the photograph. Go as close as you can but make sure that your image is in focus before you take the shot. Take it again at least 20 times! Never rely on a single shot. Look at it on your phone. Is it too dark/blurred? Fix any problems and then take the shot again. Then take it again!

Part 3: Editing your Meticulous Photographs

In part 2, you took a variety of photographs of meticulously arranged objects. In this lesson you will learn how to edit the photograph using a free online image editing software called Photopea.

  1. look through your photographs and choose one the one that is the most in focus. Don't worry too much if it is slightly dark. We will fix that with editing in this lesson.

  2. Watch the following YouTube video in full. It will teach you a variety of ways that you can edit your photograph to make it perfect. You will learn how to adjust the brightness/contrast, gradient map, vibrance, photo filter and threshold tools https://youtu.be/kuXbAbaCtOs or this one if you are using your mobile phone to edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR6sDAjKpmE&t=3s

  3. You can access and edit your photographs using the website Photopea on your phone, but it is slightly easier to do this using a laptop/desktop computer. One easy way of transferring your photographs is to email it to yourself from your phone as an attachment. Then log onto your email using your laptop/desktop computer and save the photograph to your device. Then go to https://www.photopea.com/ and follow my YouTube tutorial above.

Lesson Resources

Right click on the images below to save them to your device. The images are the ones I used in my YouTube video above and you can use them to practice with. Or could start with your own meticulous photograph to edit. It is entirely up to you.