How to Stay Creative During Quarantine

Self-isolation is the hot topic of 2020. When you’re obligated to stay in your house, you might feel like your creativity is evaporating, especially when you can’t experience new things and are stuck in an endless loop of identical days. Don’t let quarantine bring down your love of photography! We’ve prepared a few tips on how to fuel the fire of creativity even when you can’t leave your house to take photos. Read on to find out how to make the most of this situation.

Webcam portraits of friends

Staying at home doesn’t mean you can’t communicate with others. Challenge yourself to snap stunning webcam portraits of your friends. A lot of portrait photographers are using the situation to their advantage and exploring the possibilities when shooting through video calls. Give your friends directions on how to pose and use light. You can also advise them on flattering outfit choices. Don’t forget to edit those photos in Luminar using AI Portrait tools to make your friends even more beautiful and to crop out unwanted details such as the app interface. 

More self-portraits

Quarantine is the perfect time to focus on yourself. And what better way than with self-portraits? You can now become your own model and experiment with different versions of yourself. Use make-up or accessories to give yourself a new edge. Or create whole new dimensions by placing a few mirrors together and manipulating your reflections. Finally, add even more of a story to your portraits with one-click Looks in Luminar. Black and white, dramatic, bokeh, romantic — the possibilities are endless.

Explore the light

Now that you’re locked down 24/7, you can see how different the light is in your house based on the time of day. You can wake yourself up early to enjoy the golden hour light without having to travel anywhere. You can also take spooky pictures with flashlights in the dead of night without leaving the house. Find some old lamps you might have stored in the attic and see what kind of light conditions they bring to the table. You can also order some colored light bulbs to bring unexpected wonder to ordinary photos.

Abstract photography

Another creative way to spend your time is using the double exposure technique to produce fantastic illusions. Develop new sides of your photography by combining two photos. You can make compositions using different objects around the house or locate some of your old photos to tell a story about how you feel during this uneasy time. 

Focus on family or roommates

Who are you staying safely at home with? Be it family or roommates, there’s a lot of space for creativity. Entertain your family by involving everyone in a fun levitating photos project. For starters, you won’t need much: just a willing model and a stool that you can make disappear in Luminar. By the way, your roommates also include pets. Pets are incredibly hard to position and handle, so prepare your camera settings and light beforehand. Consider bribing them with snacks! And if you’re all alone in your apartment, don’t get sad. You can always experiment with exposures and create scary photos of ghosts who live with you.

Use improbable things

Many self-isolation tips include cleaning up your house and getting rid of clutter. Cleaning up can indeed lead to astonishing findings. You can make amazing compositions from objects all around you: kitchen utensils, books, paintings, or anything else. Think about new ways to use those items to tell a story through your photos. You may also discover some hidden treasures in your old things and decide to create time capsule photos of a certain period of your life. 

Try macro photography

Even if you don’t have potted flowers or a backyard garden at your disposal, you can always explore the amazing tiny world around you with the help of macro photography. Use your phone or a macro lens to focus on the little things. Whether it’s detailed coins, droplets of water on your cup, or miscellaneous tiny objects, you’ll be amazed at what results you can get without even stepping out of your room. 

Outside your window

Not going outside doesn’t include not looking outside! You might have some blossoming trees growing near your window that will look stunning in your photographs, and you might even spot a bird or two in the branches. Focus on the empty streets, the occasional delivery person, or the differences you’re noticing during quarantine. Also, this is a great time to photograph stunning skies. The new AI Augmented Sky tool in Luminar will give you endless creativity to compose unique photos from ordinary shots.

Dig up old photos

Not in the mood to actually take photographs right now? No problem. You can let your  creative juices flow by simply digging up your old photos and editing them in new, exciting ways. It’s common to take thousands of photos on vacation and forget all about them afterward. Instead, use Luminar's free trial, to bring old pictures back to life and process them quickly and easily to recall your great memories. 

Let's all focus on pleasant moments and find hope for the future through photography!