mental block - DPChallenge Forums

03/22/2006 07:46:35 AM · #1

can anyone tell me how to get out of a creative mind block???

well, photography block... i've got an ssignment to do and i just pick up my camera and i just can't take anhything decent...

i've lost all insppiration, browsing over the images on DPC just depresses me even more because i can't pick up a camera and do the same

i can do my photo manipulations, and have managed to express my mind block mind block

but... i can't take anything new. It's horrible and frustrating and its really pissing me off and depressing me...

any ideas anyone!?!? i keep thinknig "if i can produce photo manips then i should be able to produce new photos" ... but i can't.

any one else ever had a mental/artistic block... what if i can't get my talent back... photography is the only thing that keeps me going at the moment, and now thats failing me too

please help

Regards,

a desperate photographer :(

03/22/2006 08:09:51 AM · #2

I always find that I need 1-3 of 3 things to help me get past a mind block.

#1 A passion about some thing or idea.

#2 A deadline.

#3 Input from a friend.

My recent "Amazing" picture from the Lit Adv. challenge was like that too. I wanted to make that picture for 2 months, but didn't get around to it seriously until I had a deadline. I was passionate about it because it was a fairly original idea of my own, but it was the boisterous silliness of a friend of mine that helped me make that expression on my face.

Indeed, this is probably a bad way to work, and it's the scariest thing for me about going back to school in September.

However, maybe our input can help you out. Do tell us, what is your topic?

Actually, input from friends has been of benefit to me, not as a literal help, but as a springboard from which I can pull some energy to form my own ideas.

I used to do home schooling and when it was time to write the 10 page essay in English, it took a totally unsuitable (for me) idea from my family to get me started.

03/22/2006 08:20:59 AM · #3

I think i'm lacking passion for anything, maybe its because im in a life rut, but usually i can pick up my camera and everything feels ok again.

erm..

deadline for assignment - april the 30th.

the assignment is on light, i have to involve everything i've learned in the course so far to producee 15 - 20 images of one object, different lighting and framing in each shot. supopsed to use technical lighting, but don't have any and can't afford any

im just lacking complete inspiration. and i was in tears when i picked up my camera yesterday and just couldn't take a photo of anything.

i've not done the run up to the assignment either, i've just elft my course dejected on the floor because its horrible knowing that my mind and heart arn't in it.

so yeh, its on Light and framing and positioning, and colouring... all graphic build up of an image, but mostly lighting. but probably need to do the exercises for the unit, before doing the assignment

03/23/2006 02:56:15 AM · #4

Wow, Rough stuff.

What have you actually learned so far in your course?

Could you list what you have learned in 15-20 different areas?

Are you allowed to change the subject at all (like different interpretations) or does it have to be the identical subject?

If it were me, I would choose a still-life subject. Something simple, common and available.

Maybe a leaf, a marble, a glass, a coin, a pencil, a crayon, a cell-phone? These are good subjects for academia.

You aren't about to take a 15-20 picture project that is all art, so you just need to take 15-20 pictures that are stylized. There is a bit of a difference here.

I'm going to assume that this is about the act of taking pictures and not photoshop work here.

Styles to take a picture in:

1 Lighting:
2 Backlighting
3 Toplighting
4 Multiple lightsources
5 Single source dramatic lighting
6 Product Display lighting (directionless - with that floating in mid-white look)
7 Product Display lighting (with specular highlights)
8 Product Display lighting (directionless with a black background)
9 Product Display lighting (warm with visible background and setup)
10 Product Display lighting (cold and sterile)
11 Colored lighting (creating two-tone pictures with lighting alone)
12 B&W with color filters (maybe a triptych?)
13 Sepia filter
14 *Normal lighting with wild colors done in Post-Pro (may not be an option)
15 Multiple exposure technique (within a single exposure)
16 Stop-Motion (by flash)
17 Stop-Motion (stop motion by panning)
18 Long-exposure (to show motion of the subject)
19 Long-exposure (with the subject stationary, but parts of a scene moving)
20 *negative color (print or digital)
21 Negative space (white BG)
22 Negative space (black BG)
23 Window light (moody)
24 Window light (clean)

Perspective:
25 Macro (tight)
26 Abstract Macro (ultra-tight with a focus on texture)
27 Macro/ultrawide with whole subject
28 Macro perspective (use of background to highlight a common theme)
29 Macro perspective (use of background to highlight a contrasting theme)
30 In a natural setting.
31 Naturally framed (strict and proper)
32 Naturally framed (artsy and obtuse look)
33 Out of focus with effects (maybe grain/high contrast?) Or soft focus (nylons/vaseline on a filter)
34 Odd setting (in/under water)
35 Odd setting (in mud)
36 Odd setting (in some other liquid)
37 Odd setting (in a highly colorful BG (smarties, M&M's, Skittles)
38 Odd setting (in sand or FengShui sand garden?)
39 Odd setting (in a costume of some sort?)
40 Odd setting (interacting with an animal of some sort: mouse, cat, insect)
41 Odd setting (physical impossibility illusion)
42 Through different mediums (through glass)
43 Through different mediums (though a water drop)
44 Through different mediums (through glass of water)
45 Through different mediums (through strange-shaped glass)
46 Through different mediums (through a tube, circular)
47 Through different mediums (through a tube, square)
48 Mirror shot (1:1)
49 Mirror shot (1:many)
50 Mirror shot (strange perspective, or with a mirror reflection illusion trick)
51 Mirror shot (broken mirror)

Ok, that's around 50 ideas. Maybe there's something you can come up with that's useful in there

EDIT: added numbers so I can go back and use this as a checklist.

Message edited by author 2006-03-23 13:13:14.

03/23/2006 07:49:42 AM · #5

thanks :) thats extremly helpful. i'll look through the specification of the assignment and see what i can come up with with the help you have provided...

i will post up the pictures that i take for the assignment and you can give feed back?? if that's ok...

bit rusty with the old photography at the moment

my tutor advised, for a mental block, to just go outside within 100 yards of my house and take pictures of anything and everything, doesnt matter if they're any good or not, the point is that if ui outlet everything, it should clear.

you've given me some pretty decent ideas. Thanks :D (<--- see that, a smile :))

03/23/2006 01:02:12 PM · #6

Sounds good. I almost considered putting together a photo study on a pencil as an empathy shoot. I still might.

I got a lot of ideas just compiling that list off the top of my head.

Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, is your assignment based on film or digital?

Do you have a limited number of outtakes?

A friend of mine told me that when he was shooting pro portraits and stock that he was given 2 shots per pic to make it *happen*.

He said that other places would allow up to 3 in most cases.

He felt that it really forced him to challenge himself.

I told him that I would start working like that after I made the move to having a real viewfiner... Checking focus in the EVF blows.

Message edited by author 2006-03-23 13:04:44.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

03/24/2006 08:30:54 AM · #7

still do the study on the pencil in empathy, probably could do with it :)

i forgot to look through the assignment specification, i just put my course file in the drawer under the bed because i have someone coming to stay tonight, so i tidied it all up.

and i fell asleep before picking it up again too.

no limited number of outakes, i think fo rmy first assignment i took about 200 photo's for one image idea.

film or digital, im using digital but might use film for a bit of variaton. although the battery on my film is drained and doesnt work (still half a roll of film in the camera too)

so.... please do the project on the pencil... i'd like to see how you interpret it

i ahve to go back to work now.

thanks

lo

bluenova

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

03/24/2006 09:26:33 AM · #8

Great list eschelar, thanks.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

03/24/2006 10:02:39 AM · #9

i might just have to do that...

hey bluenova, wanna join the fun and do a project with? I will probably post it in a Yahoo page.

I hope for a minimum of 25 decent pictures, but will try to take as many of the above list as possible. I may not use a pencil. We will see.

UNCLEBRO

Canon EOS-30D

03/24/2006 10:13:54 AM · #10

yep, I had the mental block too.
Still do in fact.
//dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=361065

Just have to keep plugging away I guess.
Or give in to it.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

03/27/2006 07:30:31 AM · #11

its sort of clearing...

i've taken a few photos over the weekend... will post a couple up, i got a film back of photos in the snow and theres two gorgeous ones in there, and theres another film of snow (or half a film, my SLR has stopped working :'( so will have to emergency rewind my film)

but...

i just took photos of complete bollocks, i was starting a study on some daffodils in a vase that were opening up, and took a photo every 5 minutes and was going to make it into a flip book... but i got bored after an hour and ntohing happened.

still avoiding course though, 4 weeks to go.

will look at course tonight, i promise!!!!

UNCLEBRO

Canon EOS-30D

03/27/2006 07:40:34 AM · #12

at least you had the idea of the flip book.
you may have gotten bored taking the pictures, but at least you got passed your mental block.
now you need to overcome the "boredom" of taking the pictures.

03/28/2006 06:39:51 AM · #13

it was really my brothers idea, because we kept on noticing how they were coming out in a couple of hours... but christ alive i got about 200 pictures and nothing happened so i gave up

my assignment is acutally on - what i have learned so far - so i can pick any topic, produce 20 - 30 photos, pick out 8 - 12 that relate well to each other and complement each other.... thats a lot easier... and not so much a task to overcome when recovering from mental block.

:)

will use the ideas given to me for my next assignment though :)

please don't give in to your mental block unclebro. my tutor said "come on, taking pictures is easy" which didnt really help, but in a way he's right, you have the talent for it and so don't even think about giving into it.

03/28/2006 07:01:51 AM · #14

Heh. Sometimes you have to be creative about things Loweesee.

I believe temperature can affect the way cut flowers behave. Did you try to photograph it backwards? Find one that is fully expanded and get ready, put it in cold water and watch it close up? Similarly, warm water may force an opening.

Sorry that I don't have any more details, I'm not a florist.

Oh, but there IS another one for ya.

You could try the blue food coloring trick.

One lady I know who used to do flowers (she must be in her 80's or 90's by now YIKES) told me once that you can make a white flower turn blue by adding blue food coloring to the water. Eventually, it will suck it up. You don't need to do a white flower, a yellow flower will work too.

You could make a flipbook of that. For interest, you could put the vase on a lazy susan and rotate by 1-2 degrees per shot too. Or you could just rotate your camera around the subject by a couple of degrees at a time. You don't even have to follow a circular path... Shouldn't take too long to do the math for it. A square table might help. So would a digital egg timer or something.

I'd recommend a dark room for the shots and using a single light source to light the flower, possibly with the tiniest hint of fill flash from camera.

I don't know if you are interested, but I'm shooting for the Yellow challenge this week. I haven't decided my shot yet, but I kinda need to make sure I do it or else Pug-H will win a friendly competition.

I'd be happy to take on a little extra heat and go toe-to-toe with ya on Yellow this week. Still a few days left.

Message edited by author 2006-03-28 07:04:30.

03/28/2006 03:23:05 PM · #15

hmmm... cool, i'll have to try that yellow - blue thing. sounds cool.

i havn't decided what to shoot yet either... i'll think about what to shoot while at work tomorrow.

:P

put a lot of thought into it and still come up with something rubbish.

i'll get better i'm sure

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

03/28/2006 04:02:06 PM · #16

have just added some new images to my portfolio...

bit iffy cuz they're recovering from mind block photos

critique very welcome

moniepenny

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

03/29/2006 06:36:55 PM · #17

Flowers, especially tupips, die very quick and beautiful if they are exposed to very cold temperatures. I'm not a flower murderer or anything...it was an accident.