It's time to have some fun and get out of the daily routine that you may not even know about. It's time to create images based on color, light, emotion, without worrying about sharpness and detail.
It's time to experiment with abstract photography.
In this photography tutorial you will get 6 practical advice how to take abstract photos!
Abstract(adjective): the expression of ideas and emotions through elements such as color and line, without the intention of creating a realistic picture.
You already have all the tools you need (a camera or even a smartphone), so let's look at some ways to create impressive abstract images.
Techniques for shooting abstract photographs
1. Move the camera
The most in a simple way creating an image filled with color and lines is to blur everything. For most of us, this is a great approach. I can hear you exclaiming, “I can move the camera and not have to worry about its stability? Oh heavens!
All of these techniques are learned through experience, but I can give some tips on where to start.
First, slow your shutter speed down to 1/10th of a second or more. As with panoramic blur, this is where the fun begins. You can use Shutter Priority mode, or if you know how to set your camera to Aperture Priority or Program mode, then use them to get the same shutter speed. It will also help you with this low values ISO, such as 100 or lower.
Secondly, look for objects in the shadows. Such long exposure will require a small amount of light, otherwise the photo will be overexposed.
Third, take a few test shots, moving the camera in one direction or another. I know this sounds like bad advice and very simplistic, but that's how it all starts. You need to see what happens to the scene in front of you when you move one way or the other. Then start moving in a circle or randomly.
Sometimes objects with straight lines look the best way, when you work with their structure and direction. Sometimes round objects (flowers, for example) look great in chaotic rotation. This is your official permission to display any frames in photographs. Some images will be, to put it mildly, unsuccessful. But you might end up with some really eye-catching shots.
2. Move item
I didn't like the markings on train cars until I realized the magic of random colors traveling at 40 mph (65 km/h).
Now I often look for colored objects just for the sake of their color. The shape, object or purpose may not be what I want, but if I can use a color and make it move exactly the way I want...I can capture the essence of that color.
This is somewhat similar to the light painting technique, but without the object emitting the light. Consider what items can be moved and look for bold colors.
ATTENTION: be careful with white, yellow and other very bright colors. Their properties are such that they fill the sensor too much big amount information and displaces any other color in the photo.
3. Remove context
The zoom lens will be yours best friend V in this case. Wide-angle shots, even with just the right amount of blur, often allow us to define the scene rather than focus on colors and emotion. Abstract images will benefit from something that is impossible to recognize.
Let me give you an example. What do you see here (below)?
Now I'll show you the context.
The more you choose individual parts, the more abstract the image turns out!
4. Shoot through items
I'm still experimenting heavily with shooting through objects, but there's a lot of interesting stuff here. It's very convenient to have a way to hold items or mount them on a studio light stand. Or start with everyday objects and work through colored glass, a glass block, or even apply various gels or liquids (Vaseline, olive oil etc.) onto clean glass or organic glass.
5.
Multiple exposures for abstract photos
Using multiple exposure techniques sometimes leaves too many original, recognizable items. I set my Canon to medium settings to work with composite shots. If you want to get scared, start with dark settings and be prepared to take a lot of test shots.
My method is to take one shot mostly in focus. Then I take two more from different angles out of focus. Sometimes this results in simply soft focus, and therefore the image cannot be considered abstract enough. That's why I prefer to use zoom and decontextualize the subject.
6. Post-processing as a platform for experimentation
You know how people tend to complain about a large number of post-processing in the works of some photographers? It's time to push the boundaries and have fun. You can soften the scene to make it even more airy.
Or you can try different versions the same image, but in a completely different color presentation (in this case, I simply changed the White Balance and Tint temperatures in Lightroom).
Once the image hits the computer, give yourself permission to do whatever you want with it!
Conclusion
What I love most about abstract photography is that it plays on the “I like it, but I don’t know why” nerve in all of us. I can analyze each of these images and tell you why I chose it, but in the end it doesn't matter. It's about about creating art for art's sake. It's about getting back to the basics of engaging with the arts. It's about being surprised by what you see on the LCD monitor, while you break a few rules that you're used to so carefully adhering to.
Both you and I have repeatedly heard from people who are quite knowledgeable, if not in photography, then in culture, that abstract photography is “not for them,” that it contradicts the nature of photography, that abstraction is meaningless, abstruse, cold, and the list goes on negative qualities, which we usually endow with what is incomprehensible and distant to us.
But it happens that a work of “abstraction” suddenly catches the viewer, opens up to him, and bewitches him with itself. As a rule, people who suddenly appreciate abstract photography continue to peer into other works of abstract art, waiting for the opportunity to once again relive that sharp and profound experience of discovery. Do they become abstractionists? Those who have had a deep experience most often do not want to shout about it at every corner, like people who have had a deep experience. spiritual experience: inside, deep inside a person, something happens that is previously unknown to him, which is difficult to define and which is difficult to express in words, which remains as an important memory, a treasure, they are silent about it in order to preserve it.
Encyclopedias unanimously state that abstraction (abstractionism) in art is a non-figurative direction, without a clear plot, formal, abstract (exact translation from Latin), stylizing reality (some go further, calling the process of stylization simplification). Is this possible in photography? why is this in photography? How does this relate to general processes in culture in the era of development of our media 1?
Abstract photography is a phenomenon whose cultural awareness has only just turned a hundred years old. But as a form, as an image created for other purposes, but at the same time completely fitting into the idea of abstraction, this photograph is much older, probably almost like all subjects (let’s call an abstract subject “incomprehensible”), it has existed as long or almost as long as the photograph itself exists. What, if not abstraction, are the first shadows on the salted papers of Talbot 2, where only the inventor himself and the viewer, who was told that there is an image there (a) and that this image means the view from the window of the house (b), can see something? But when the category of abstraction appears in the culture of the twentieth century, when it begins to be used to determine the nature of images, then the old Talbot photograph, and much else that was taken before the “age of abstraction,” begins to fit into the new context.
Abstraction (image form) is as ancient as art. But abstraction as a definition for abstract (and iconic 3) images appears only in the 1910s in connection with the painting and theoretical works of Wassily Kandinsky 4 . From high today, peering at the first images of the human hand in caves, in cave drawings, where scenes of hunting and shamanism are interspersed with ornaments and disordered (at first glance) lines and dots, we exclaim: abstraction! But she was not like that for primitive man. it was full of meaning lost through the centuries. ancient images are proto-writing, an attempt at a visual story where space and time are connected; what has already happened (a hunting scene) becomes a fact of the present for the viewer “reading” the image, and the lines may have been a way of clarifying place and time, quantity, etc.
So is art. Far East, and monochrome painting, and calligraphy for the European eye, not trained in that Eastern system of “reading” images, is an abstraction. we evaluate it in the aesthetic categories of form, but stop, unable to step over the threshold of these visual texts.
To understand the abstract art of the 20th century, many theories of perception have been created: this art affects “pure form”, it can influence the viewer (if he is ready for that at the moment of contact with the image), his emotions, figurative memory, even physiology. The clearest example- painting by an American artist originally from the Vitebsk province, a classic of modernism by Mark Rothko. Some types of abstraction (for example, the works of Kazimir Malevich - literally a pictorial expression of his theories) are not an illustration (for the understanding of which the accompanying text is necessary, without it the illustration is meaningless), but an image in which the theory finds visual translation. Is knowledge of the artist’s theoretical heritage important for a deep understanding of such works? yes, but not only. Being an image, abstractions influence the viewer directly with their entire form, however, as in the case of the art of the ancients or the art of the East, which are alien in the language of form, they remain objects with a closed depth of meaning. Researchers of Kandinsky's work (and after them theorists who generalize theories of abstraction in art) emphasize that an abstract image is initially concrete, the artist, when creating it, relies on his experience of contact with reality, that abstraction is a form of interpretation of reality, which is not always visible, sometimes this is an interpretation of the artist’s internal images, his reaction to reality (biographical facts, literary works, summarizing conversations with other people or books read, reactions to nature, urban landscapes, even to light). In this sense, abstraction is a coded message. Its code is known to the artist, but he does not always consider it important to convey the key to the viewer literally, as, for example, in the title of Kandinsky’s painting “St. George”, or in the form of diary entries... I repeat, the abstraction will remain the author’s cursive writing, notes for personal use, if it does not carry an image. This is the finest matter that can easily be broken through by wrong words. When the viewer demands an unequivocal answer from a work of abstraction in the visual arts (painting, graphics, photography, cinema, sculpture, etc. 5): what is depicted here? - it deprives the work of depth, just like the question: what is it written about? what is the music about? or what is the dance about? - deprives poetry, music, modern ballet of meaning.
In photography, the conscious creation of abstraction begins after the First World War - when in Europe and Russia, artists who had already mastered the territory of abstract art began to be interested in the media of photography. Moholy-Nagy, Rodchenko, Man Ray - for them photography becomes one of the tools with which the artist translates the experience of his communication with modern world. Those. finds those forms of interpretation that will be consonant (here is the transition between image and music, between different types arts, synthesis of creativity of the twentieth century) to modern man.
Recently, the Chekhov Festival brought to Moscow the work of the famous French choreographer Joseph Naja (he himself appeared on stage in this ballet) “Sh-bo-gen-zo” 6. The reviews said that this is the story of the relationship between a samurai and a traditional Japanese lady. On stage, in modern trouser suits, in angular, distorted poses, two figures, male and female, moved, as in a Sufi dance. There was a plot that is difficult to retell - in any word you risk falling into inaccuracy; there were chapters (parts of the ballet); there was piercing music, like in Japanese traditional theater. But it was more than the story of the relationship between a samurai and a Japanese lady: male and female? or yin and yang at once, especially since the classic text “Sho-bo-gen-zo” is a collection of Buddhist koans, interpretations of the term “Sho-bo-gen-zo”: “the vision of the meaning of things by the wise Buddha’s eye.” There was silence in the hall, the kind that happens when you fall into a trance; some spectators also silently cried. Was this evidence that they had been captured by exotic history? Or was it an extrapolation personal experience to a dance reduced to the utmost abstraction?
In the late 1920s, when abstraction became in everyday language contemporary art, the famous American photographer Alfred Stieglitz creates a series that went down in art history under the name “Equivalence”. The sky and branches, just clouds, neither up nor down, all parts of the composition are equal in meaning, hence the “equivalence” in the title, hence the bridge to post-war American photography of the second wave of abstract art. And this same series by Stieglitz is an affirmation of the value of personal experience, personal revelations: the sky is revealed to the artist not as a plot, but as infinity, to which the artist is equal. Shortly before the creation of Equivalence, the photographer opened Intimate Gallery, a personal gallery. Researchers, infected with practicality, explain the strangeness of the name by the size of the small room allocated for the gallery. But the point is different: Stieglitz, a gallery owner with 20 years of experience (his past brainchildren were the magazine and gallery Camera Work, later 291 gallery in New York), representing the latest experiments in contemporary art on both sides of the Atlantic, comes to a new understanding : art is a very personal thing, it doesn’t need much space to talk to the viewer. In essence, the new gallery is a meditation room, like in a Japanese house, where you can sit in front of a unique work, look, reflect, and live with it.
Abstraction in photography is the path of personal, slow or sudden, like a gust of storm, penetration into the depths of meaning. This is not just a photographed fragment of a surface (object), not just a recording of light. This is an experience. And the collaboration between photographer and viewer.
Even experiments in formal composition, for example, the search for a “rotating composition” (where there is no top or bottom, everything is so balanced that it works both vertically and horizontally - some kind of ideal compositional solution for the new illustrated press) by the classic of the Soviet photo avant-garde Eleazar Langman, require “ skill of the eye,” and from both, the one who found the composition and the one for whom it was found. In general, it is necessary to speak specifically and leisurely about the abstractions of Alexander Aleksandrovich Slyusarev, he managed to collect so many of his particles of “koans”.
Different art for different viewers. Of course, abstract art is most often presented as the art of intellectuals, spectators who know ideas, and not just those familiar with the experiences of the outside world.
You can say it another way: abstraction is the lot of people of writing. I want to emphasize the difference between people of writing and literature-centric people. The first are ready to perceive signs, read individual signs down to their symbolic or historical depth and are ready to create a new writing - which, in fact, is what artists of abstract art (abstract photography) do, each developing their own writing. The second, literary-centric ones, perceive the plot, understand the meaning of the work in an extended statement; for them, a sign is part of a system, but not a “well of meanings.” This does not mean that there is an impassable boundary of difference between people of writing and literature, as between psychological types personality. Everything is changeable, and a person who grew up on the soap operas of the ruins of literature can be struck by the lightning of abstraction and become an adherent of a teaching that was previously alien to him.
1 We are not talking about photography for the media (media photography), but about photographic media, or medium - about the totality of the concept of photography as a tool and photography as a way of expression (both the author’s and the entire era).
2 This refers to the first surviving image, taken by Henry Fox Talbot in 1835 (The Barred Window at Lacock Abbey) and kept today in National Museum photography, film and television (National Media Museum) UK.
3 Signs - striving for the form of a sign and for fullness hidden meaning, which is inherent in the sign.
4 Evidence that the idea of “abstraction” was already “in the air”, was not “invented” by Kandinsky, but was grasped by him, is the fact that in the second half of the twentieth century there was a battle between historians and heirs of the Lithuanian artist Mikalojus Ciurlionis and Wassily Kandinsky for the right of primacy in the use of the term “abstraction” in its artistic understanding.
5 I mean new types of art that are born on the platform modern technologies in the last half century.
6 “The House of True Treasure for the Faithfully Trained Eye,” a monument of Chinese Buddhist literature, by Eihei Dohui, 12th century.
When we think of abstraction in terms of art, great artists such as Jackson Pollock or Piet Mondrian come to mind, but painting is not the only artistic field that abstraction enters. Since the world's first photography in the 19th century, fine art photographers have experimented with manipulating the camera—ostensibly used to capture reality—to provide a different view of the world around us.
But what exactly makes a photograph abstract? It may seem difficult to define exactly, but there are many characteristics that make up abstract photography. Most often, abstraction occurs when a photographer focuses on a fragment of a natural scene, isolating it from its context.
By nullifying the color, texture, line, shape, geometry, symmetry or reflection of a scene, this photographer distorts our perception real world and familiar objects. For example, if you take a photo of a green apple, but only enlarge the drop of water running down the bright green crust, so that the viewer does not immediately recognize the object, but to a greater extent governed by sensation, then you take a snapshot of abstraction.
History of Abstract Photography
The genre was given a boost by surrealist Man Ray and Bauhaus leader Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, but really brought the practice to new level American photographer Alfred Stieglitz. It is generally accepted that his series Music – A Sequence of Ten Cloud Photographs” – this is the first intentional set of abstract photographs. Created in 1922, it lasted for twelve years, during which Stieglitz took hundreds of photographs of clouds, which he eventually called "Equivalents".
Alfred Stieglitz "Equivalents" Bringing practice into theory, in his 1929 essay on the history of photography, Walter Benjamin astutely observed that abstraction and photography are not mutually exclusive. “It’s a different nature that speaks to the camera, not to the eye.” This gave further permission for artists to push the boundaries of photography by using it for other purposes outside of realism.
Abstract photography today
Currently, it is a widely known artistic genre. Photographers such as Aaron Siskind and Minor White are known for their work that borders on painting. In fact, Siskind worked closely with Pollock in the 1950s and 1960s.
Aaron Siskind 
Minor White On this moment Thomas Ruff and Wolfgang Tillmans are two leading names in abstract photography. Ruff, in particular, explores the possibilities of manipulating web images into unrecognizable forms. He also often takes material from scientific sources, for example in his series "Cassini » , which arose from NASA images.
It is interesting that Tillmans uses the process of creation itself in his works, such as his series “ Silver"uses the reaction of photographic paper to light to create abstract photographs.
Below are the works of other famous abstract photographers.
Armand Dijcks 
Brandon Mike Danae Falliers 
David Johnson 
Kevin Saint 
Kevin Saint 
Kim Keever 
Roland Fischer 
Roland Fischer 
Simone Sbaraglia 
Sylvie de Burrie 
Thomas Lohr 
Thorsten Scheuermann 
Thorsten Scheuermann 
Zack Seckler 
Zack Seckler We will be happy to see the names of your favorite abstract photographers in the comments, and even better, along with photographs! :)
Photography includes many forms and incorporates many styles, most of which fall into the category of documentary or artistic arts. Abstract photography falls specifically into the second category, a means of visual expression whose purpose is not to inform the viewer, but to touch and excite.
Step 1 - What is abstract photography?
In reality, there is no precise definition what abstract photography includes, but at the same time, in abstract art the content does not play a significant role, and is sometimes ambiguous. This type of art prioritizes shapes, colors, lines and textures within the composition to create a piece that is visually stimulating. To create abstract photography you don't need any special equipment, just a camera, any camera of your choice, and your imagination.
Step 2 - It's all about the approach
So how do you take abstract photographs? The first thing to remember is to be constantly alert and choose interesting and exciting subjects to photograph. Whenever I take abstract photographs, I rely on my instinct; Something catches me and captivates me, but with itself. The reaction to the subject should be emotional, consider what attracted you to it, how it makes you feel, this will tell you how to shoot it correctly. Spend time observing the object, think outside the box and try to perceive it in a way that you have not perceived it before, look at it from different angles, regardless of its usual purpose.
As such, there are no specific camera settings to make every subject and circumstance look great, don't be afraid to shoot in manual mode and try different shutter speed and aperture settings to bring out the full potential of your subject.
Step 3 - Break the rules!
It is important to consider the elements of the subject that you want to capture in the photo. Use your imagination, don't think about the object literally, forget all concepts and get creative. This can be a real challenge to established photography concepts, rules of composition and exposure, but instead use the subject as an artistic medium, as if you have a blank canvas for self-expression. Now is the time to think about how to maximize features and details within an object, line, texture, color and shape.
Step 4 - Pattern and Line
The first thing to pay attention to is the patterns and lines of the object. Look carefully at your subject for repeating shapes and themes, and use them to your advantage. I prefer to shoot the subject straight and symmetrically; to get a sense of the clinical structure, which in my opinion increases the effect of the sample, but you can try shooting from different angles to vary the patterns. Also look at the lines and edges of the object, whether they are straight or curved, whether they fit within the boundaries of the photo or go beyond them. Lines can be used quite effectively in photography as the eye follows them from start to finish, so decide how you want to captivate the viewer and where you want to take them.
Step 5 - Shape
The shape and figure of the object will play a decisive role in how you present it to the viewer. Evaluate the shape carefully and consider what aspects of the object you want to use, for example, is the object straight and patterned, does it have a lot of curves and hidden movement, or is it a natural object whose shape will change over time? Decide for yourself whether you want to capture the entire subject or whether you want to focus on one area of interest. Additionally, consider if it has recognizable shapes that you can work with, be it circles, triangles or hexagons, use them to your advantage!
Step 6 - Color
Color is perhaps the most powerful visual element in an abstract photograph, it draws the viewer in and immediately tells him what he is looking at, painting the shape and mood in his mind. Try to use color as an expression, this is the best and easiest way to make a photo appealing to the eye, and just like when painting, think carefully about how to use colors to highlight certain aspects.
Step 7 - Working with the Architecture
Architecture is an extremely interesting abstract subject, especially commercial buildings and modern structures, designed for public use, because they often have unusual shapes and lines that are easy to use. Older buildings are more structured and symmetrical in nature, but this can be used to encourage imagination if you want to use patterns in your photos. Newer buildings are probably more varied, with strange angles, curves, large colored slabs and lots of glass. Spend some time with the building, explore it inside and out (you may need a permit to shoot inside) and take advantage of the architectural design in your work.
Step 8 - Abstraction and Macro
Another great technique for creating abstraction is macro photography. There are many abstract objects that are easily visible in photographs from a distance, but photographers like to shoot only certain areas, perhaps because of the texture or color of the object. In this case, make sure you fill the viewfinder with the subject; you don't want any spaces in the shot. Again, think about the angle at which you shoot, for example, the most common way to shoot a flower is from above to see the details in the center of the flower, but you can try shooting it from the bottom up towards the light and see what happens.
Step 9 - You are an artist!
As I wrote above, abstract photography differs from many other types of photographs because... it focuses on the photographer's artistic expression, which must be taken into account, especially due to the fact that it is not always immediately obvious what you are photographing. Don't expect people to see an abstract photo the same way you do. I love it when people ask me about the content of a photo or mistake an object in a photo for something else, because they see photos completely differently than I do, their approach to work is very intriguing. I find my abstract work very personal, I choose the subject, the approach, the angle, the exposure and its beauty is that few people will approach it in the same way, it is a very personal expression.
Step 10 - Go and let it out
Now it's time to go and do everything I wrote about above. Plan several photo trips to places you haven’t been before and carefully look for objects that will attract your attention. In a new location you will be surrounded by new photographic opportunities, so take your time and really work with the subject you want to shoot. For outings like this I use a 50mm lens simply because it is very comfortable and has a wide aperture which helps a lot in achieving beautiful artistic results. Finally, I would like to say, make sure that you have a camera with you whenever you travel so that you can capture interesting things!
Photography has long ago achieved its original goal: to learn to record reality. Nowadays, thanks to improvements in the process, she is able to reflect and analyze everything that happens in a way that would have seemed like a miracle to our ancestors. Many photographers, brought up on this desire for extreme realism and accustomed to believing that the less bewilderment a photograph causes, the better it is, enter the mysterious field of abstract photography with great distrust. They believe that photography cannot be abstract, at least not the kind of photography they studied. You need to turn some kind of key in your brain, maybe even a wrench, in order to force yourself to recognize a pointless photograph as having the same right to exist as a conscientious depiction of familiar reality. But whoever turns the key will probably end up going into abstract photography, as more and more photographers are going into it, enjoying the freedom there from everything that bound and bothered them before.
« Non-subject photographer“,” says Ernst Haas, who himself has long been immersed in abstract art, “the subject of the photograph is not at all interested in: the content of the photograph is the photographer himself - his feelings, his reaction to visible world. He expresses his feelings in colors and forms.” Let us add to his words that you can choose any path to express feelings. One can resort to the ingenious use of special lenses and complex manipulations in a laboratory equipped with last word photographic equipment, you can work with standard equipment, or you can abandon the camera altogether.
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy- Hungarian theorist of photography and film art
Abstract photography, despite its apparent avant-gardeness, is not a new matter. In fact, it is more than a hundred years older than the camera: back in the 1720s, the German scientist Johann Schulze, experimenting with light-sensitive mixtures of silver salts, covered them with stencils with cut out words and exposed them to light.
Two artist-photographers are usually considered the fathers of modern abstract photography: the American Man Ray practiced it in Paris, and the Hungarian Laszlo Mogoly Nagy in Berlin. In the 1920s, their experiments included techniques that have not been forgotten to this day, such as shadow photography, multiple exposures, photomontage and solarization; they sought to study the “pure” action of light in space, considering this the main task of photography.
Less well known is the pioneering work done in England a few years later by the American Alvin Langdon Coburn.
Inspired by the paintings of abstract artists of the 20th century, Coburn expressed his views in print: “Why not photos not to throw off the shackles of representation and try a fresh, untested approach? Why, I ask quite seriously, are we obliged to habitually continue to take only those photographs that are conveniently classified as portrait, landscape and genre photography? Just think how joyful it will be to create something that defies classification; you won’t even be able to tell where the top is and where the bottom is in the photograph!”
But the interest in abstract photography that arose after the First World War quickly died out in the turmoil of the 1920s. He awakened again after the Second World War. Just like the first time, cynicism-tinged disappointment in common system values led to a revision of established canons in art. “The center of gravity of the image has shifted from how the world looks to how we perceive it and how we understand it,” said Aaron Ziskind in the 1950s. At first, the new abstract artists, like their predecessors in their time, encountered resistance both from other photographers and from the mass audience. In 1951, the famous photographer Bernice Abbott wrote with caustic irony: “Imitating abstractionism in painting, photographing the elements of form as such, means, in my opinion, the death of photography.” Even a decade later, the venerable critic Helmut Gernsheim denied objectless photography the right to exist, seeing in it only “a denial of the very essence of photography, in short, its suicide.”
Now in abstract photography they see new uniform photographic art.
This change occurred partly because realism did its job too well. The image as a means of conveying ideas has almost replaced the word: we are so accustomed to catchy, dynamic images in magazines, newspapers, posters, advertisements, films and television that we have learned to easily separate, that is, abstract, an idea from the concrete image that embodies it. Therefore, the appearance of already abstract paintings does not surprise anyone.
Abstract photography, now recognized by both critics and the masses, is entering the mainstream.
To the venerable number of professional photographers who have been working in this field for years are added countless numbers of young people who do not care at all about the canons and traditions of photography: they see a tool in a camera, and a canvas in photographic paper. Such photographers do not recognize any restrictions creative process, no rigid boundaries and resolutely refuse to submit to what the honored master of photography, Minor White, once called “the tyranny of visible facts.”
