Photography Project: Creating Abstracts from Plain White Paper

Who knew that six pieces of laser printer paper could keep me entertained for hours? When I saw this project, I thought “really”? I mean how much can you do with plain ole paper? I can honestly say this was one of the most fun, and creatively stimulating projects I have done.

I am sure there are many more possibilities than this straightforward approach, textured paper, color paper, paper with faint designs…….I may just have to dedicate more time to this one.

Equipment

6 pieces of plan laserprint paper
Stapler
Tape
Plain white background that curves onto the surface (I used a studio cube, but you could get some flexible poster board and curve it against the wall
Something to prop the paper against

Capture

It took a bit of frustration in working with the paper before I found my wave. Be careful when you bend the paper that you don’t create a crease. I think smooth curves are key to the bends; I found at times I had bent the paper too much and it disrupted the curve….which was distracting. I tried using my handy desk lamp to throw more light, but it created stark shadows which I didn’t like. I would also increase the shutter speed and ISO to make sure it freezes any motion from paper movement.

Processing

Processing was simple. I pushed the exposure as far right as possible, but took care not to lose too much detail. The blue triptych was processed using Alien Skin’s Exposure 5. The black triptych was processed using Silver Effects Pro 2. The single images were processed directly in Lightroom (and I have no idea where that purple tone came from, it was in my last few frames……)

Visual Toolkit Project

I just completed Week 3 of my year-long endeavor. The assignment was to capture movement, so I figured it was a great way to combine two of my favorite things: chocolate chip banana bread, and Peter cooking it. I also pulled out a couple of my Hot Rods – which prompted Peter to say “why on earth do you have those………where do you keep them?”