7 Creative Ideas For Shooting IG Photos At Home During The Coronavirus Lockdown

Right now, much of the world seems to be shut down during the coronavirus lockdown. Businesses are closed, many people are working from home and we aren’t even leaving our houses very often. Many things seem to be changing and it’s overall a very uncertain time.

Whether you’re looking for something new to do while at home or if you’re itching for a new creative outlet, we have a few suggestions. Social media is becoming an even more important tool right now as people are using it to stay connected with their loved ones while they cannot be physically connected. Use this time to focus on or refresh your social media strategy and experiment with new types of photos for your posts.

We’ve found seven different types of photos you can take without leaving your home. Yes, with a few props you likely have laying around your house you can shoot creative photos even during a community-wide preventative lockdown. Let’s take a closer look at what they are and how you can take similar pictures at home.

1. Picture Perfect Puddles

Now these require a little luck – it needs to have rained in your area recently. But as long as there’s some water on the ground, you can easily take some puddle pictures to mix up your Instagram content. Technically, yes, you’ll have to be outside your house to do this, but hopefully you won’t have to go beyond your front yard! Puddle photography is a fun way to create some artistic shots.

How to Get the Shot:

Find a good, big puddle outside, and stand looking over it. You can choose if you want to focus on the puddle or include your feet as well, like each of the examples show. If you don’t want your phone or camera to be seen in the final shot, make sure you hold it directly in front of your face or body so it’s caught in the shadowy reflection. It’s also a good idea to make your photo black and white if you want to hide your camera. 

Strike whatever pose you like – or multiple – and snap away! If possible, choose an area that has trees or anything else that could also be reflected in the puddle to make the shot even more interesting.

2. Beautiful Bokeh

Bokeh is a neat word to describe the out-of-focus parts of an image. The easiest way to see this phenomenon is with light, although any object can be out-of-focus, especially if you’re taking a photo with subjects at various depths. These photos are visually stunning and can spark intrigue and discussions among your followers.

How to Get the Shot:

First of all, you can just start playing with this in your home. Experiment with lights in various rooms and add other objects (or pets!) as subjects. You can also try the depth perception type of bokeh photography, as well, by staging multiple objects at different distances away from your camera. Focus on one object at a time and take a photo of each. Compare them and see how the blurred portions look.

If you’d like to create photos like these, you’ll need a set of string lights. Whether that’s colorful Christmas lights or a single-toned strand, you can now set the lights wherever you want for your photo. You can place them artfully behind your pet, family member or product to draw focus to your subject. Or, like the second example above, you can create an artistic image by making the blurred lights part of the foreground.

3. Macro Magic

Macro photography is extremely close-up photography. Subjects can range from animals to plants to people and more. However, the most common macro photos have subjects that are very small. Because the photos are taken so close-up, in the photo the subject appears much larger than it is in real life. For example, this ring shown above appears much larger than a typical ring does, but you can also see the detail on it very closely.

How to Get the Shot:

If you have a DSLR camera and you have a macro lens that gives 1:1 magnification, this is the time to use it, and it will produce the best results. However, if you don’t have that type of equipment, you can still try your hand at macro photography. Pay attention to your depth-of-field and try various settings on your camera. This is a great chance to spend time during a lockdown experiment with the manual version of your camera and see what you can learn.

4. Phenomenal Patterns

Fun patterns make for incredibly interesting shots. If you have some origami or scrapbooking paper with detailed patterns, you can easily create a fun background or otherwise design a nice photo. Or, you can make your own pattern with some blank paper and markers for some extra lockdown entertainment. If you want to go even farther, you can match a background pattern with a clothing pattern and take some interesting photos that way, too.

How to Get the Shot:

For this style, it’s all in the setup process. Spend some time thinking about what you want your finished photo to look like. Lay out different patterns and see how they look with your subject. While having opposing patterns can be visually interesting, you certainly don’t want to cause anything to clash. Depending on exactly what you’re photographing, you also don’t want the pattern to overtake your subject. 

5. Light Rays Amaze

Yes, you’ll also need nature to cooperate for this one. If you have a particularly sunny day, taking light ray photography can be a lot of fun. Try pulling your blinds in different ways or take on an extra challenge and create a pattern for the light to shine through onto your subject. Take a piece of poster board and cut out a pattern so that you can control where the light passes through.

How to Get the Shot:

Light ray photography requires you to pay attention to what’s happening in your home. Are there particular rooms where you get harsh shadows at a certain time of day? If so, set up your shots in these areas around those times. Since you’ll be at home for the lockdown, you can watch the way the sun moves over the course of a day or two so you know when the best time to shoot is. Then, decide what you want to capture. Are you looking to take a dramatic photo for art’s sake? Or do you want the light rays to land on and draw attention to a product, person or pet? Keep these things in mind while designing your shot.

6. The Spelled Out Route

Alphabet photography is another neat way to capture your creativity. Have you ever seen those scavenger hunts where people have to find letters made out of everyday objects? This is your chance to play along. You might have a pre-existing set of letters in your house that spell out an inspirational word or phrase. Or maybe you need to go around and find objects that resemble letters, like the letter M above.

How to Get the Shot:

Again, the beauty of this type of photography is in the preparation. You can either come up with the word you want to spell out first, or you can start looking for letters and see what you find. Either way, try to be as creative as you can and find letters in different places. Then you can either lay the objects next to each other and take one photo, or you can take a picture of each letter as you find it and then edit the photos together. Either way can be very visually interesting.

7. Snap the Shadow

Shadow photography is almost like a mix between the puddles and the light rays, but you don’t technically have to go outside during the lockdown to capture these. Again you can play with the amount of light causing the shadow with curtains or a homemade light shield. These photos, though, don’t rely on nature. You can create shadows with any light – not just the sun.

How to Get the Shot:

For this type of photo, it’s easiest to have the subject taking the photo – especially if you want a straight-on look like in the examples. If you’re looking for an angled shot or even one that captures the subject as well as their shadow, then it’s helpful to have another person (or a good tripod and self timer). If you’re using sunlight to take these photos, you’ll want to move somewhat quickly so that the sun stays relatively still. Plan your photos and then snap them over the course of a few minutes. If you take a lot of time in between to look at the photos and make changes, the sun could move and you’ll have to set up your shot differently.

Shooting IG Photos During Lockdown

So there you have it: seven creative ways to shoot Instagram photos at home during a lockdown. Not only can this help you create visually interesting content for your followers, but you can also explore your creativity and see what new types of photos you can take. Which style are you going to try first?