Sometimes when you need a low cost way to create photographs, you need to look no further than your own home.  With the things you can find around the house, you could find a new subject matter or create a new effect without spending lots of money.

Here are 5 ideas that you can try.

1.    Using fabric with lights

Whether you are using studio lights or natural light, it’s quite easy to create interesting patterns in your photographs.  Fabric which is interesting, for example, has an unusual pattern or weave can be placed over a light to create a shadow.  This looks especially good in black and white moody portraits, where the shapes are thrown onto the models face or body.

You can also use paper with cut out shapes to do this, although you need to be careful if you are using hot lights to not burn yourself or cause the fire!  If you have gel sheets around the house or acetate, you can temporarily place these over the light source to create a colour filter. You can of course use the fabric, paper or gel sheets directly over your camera to create some dramatic looking shots.

2.    Backgrounds

There are plenty of things you can use around the house as backgrounds – fabric, paper, and cloth – why not experiment?  Instead of going for a boring white or plain black background, find something unusual.  It doesn’t have to be something flat either – for example, if you were photographing a child, could you stack up some cubes or other toys as a background?

Same goes for old retro wallpaper styles that are quite popular – you can find these 70s style pattern papers in the bargain basket in homeware stores, and you only need one roll to use as a background. Look out for things that are on sale or that you can pick up for free to use!

3.    Use the kitchen!

The kitchen is a great place to find interesting tools for your photographs.  Apart from the objects inside a kitchen, think of the things you can actually do whilst you are in there – you can cook, chop, fry or freeze things.

One way to create very pretty and interesting shots is to freeze items! It can be something conventional or something quite unusual – for example have you ever froze flowers?

Whatever you freeze make sure its safe to do so and that it’s not something you will miss too much if it’s damaged in the process! The matches for example would defrost and be unusable afterwards!

A macro lens is ideal if you want to focus on the ice particles in particular.

Remember you can also freeze things inside a block of ice too – more on this in a future post.

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