What is creativity?
The believable answer my senior told- it is something your 3rd eye or 6th sense says. Being able to apply your inner decision to make a solution that is unique- that’s what creativity is.
Photography is one of the most creative works. Learning photography skills will definitely improve the ways of work and change the perspective towards creativity.
If you are a graphic designer, this is way more than important for you. Both graphic design and photography are visual works and require applying creativity.
In this post, you will know-
1. How are these 2 connected to each other?
2. Importance of Photography in Graphic Design
3. 10 ways to improve graphic design through photography skills.
Let’s get started!
What is Photography in Graphic Design?
Graphic design means to help someone visualize an idea through imagery and textual terms. In other terms, it is a medium to deliver a meaningful message.
Relationship Between Graphic Design and Photography
Photography is a language that anyone understands. The reason behind this can be attributed to visual insight. The same goes for graphic designing. That’s why the relationship between graphic design and photography is very relatable.
Images that coordinate well with graphic design can convey vivid messages to the viewers. It is like a way to input realism into words and pictures. Graphic designers can have some knowledge of photography which can help them to achieve an effective outcome.
On the other hand, professional photographers know the graphic design works for colouring their stories of the photo in a more artistic manner. But involvement in the profession requires them to work hard, and so they rely on photo editing services from professionals.
The Importance of Photography in Graphic Design
They say, “A photo can tell more than a thousand words”. When it comes to engaging people with any visual content, photography is one of the most connecting options.
Graphic design is also about communicating through visual means. If a graphic designer has basic photography ideas, it will help them catch the viewers based on their feelings & emotions. Photos are the best to convey messages that graphic design alone can hardly do.
When these 2 are blended together in an artistic manner, it becomes eye-catchy, and the efficiency increases. And that’s why a graphic designer should have some knowledge of photography skills too.
10 Ways Photography Skills Can Improve Your Graphic Design
As a graphic designer, it is a great idea to develop some photography skills along with designing. As you will be working in this field, why not add some value to it.
Learning some photography skills will open that door for you, and it will come in handy to strengthen your skills as well.
There are many ways, but these 10 are considered effective.
Review Your Cameras Functionality
So, have you made up your mind to do it?
You need a camera, right?
I would recommend you to go for a normal functionality one, as you are at the beginning stage.
You can check out reviews for the best camera for beginners.
Once you have one, learn different functionality. Check YouTube for that.
Learning camera basics will be a time-investing matter.
Composition and Balance
Composition is the arrangement of the subject and other objects in a frame.
And balance is the part that helps compositional work to perform well.
How you arrange your subject in a frame that must count in. Why?
Having a good understanding of photography will help you apply the compositional tricks in graphic design too.
Both fields work with visuals, so if you already have a sound sense of composition in photography, it’ll be easier for you to utilize that in graphic design.
For instance, you can use tricks like the point of view, rule of thirds, patterns, rule of odds, negative and positive space, etc.
Photography makes visual sense better, and that can be the strength of a graphic designer.
Light and Dark
Balancing lightness and darkness to create contrasts in selective portions of a photo is a critical photography skill.
This is done both for aesthetic beauty and for photographic composition.
Such a skill is quite important for graphic design.
As a designer, you need to understand how to blend light and dark with either a product, a text, a product infographic design, or all of them combined.
Having this skill naturally ingrained in your mind through photographic experience will help you easily implement it into your graphics.
Depth of Field
Depth of field is dependent halfway on the photographer and halfway on the camera. Changing the aperture changes the focus, and depending on how you place your subject with background elements, you achieve a sense of depth.
You have digital tools like photo editing software to achieve these effects. But these tools won’t help you if you don’t understand how depth of field works.
Additionally, in graphic design, you have to scale objects to make them appear near or far, blur selective portions of these objects, understand that foreground and background are two separate spaces within the same frame – skills a photographer naturally acquired by testing the DOF in their shots.
These skills will help you inject the 3D feel into a design. When designing for mass-marketing products, depth of field and the 3D effect are especially needed, making the image appear hyperrealistic.
Big brands value this skill tremendously, as viewers are naturally attracted to digital designs with a photographic depth of field and a hyper-realistic 3D feel.
Without prior knowledge of this, one may need hours of learning, practice, and training to get there. And that does happen to non-photographer graphic designers.
But with this knowledge and skill, it won’t take long for any photographer to catch up!
Color Contrast Theory
Simply put, colour theory is a principle of colour appearance.
It explains the human perception of colours and the visual effect.
Learning photography skills is one of the best ways to practice a keen eye on the idea of colour contrast.
This is one of those impactful skills to sharpen your skills.
Creative Inspiration
Photography is a creative work.
It stimulates the mind to explore beyond something human eyes.
Your involvement here will help you enormously.
Not only you but also your work will have a positive impact.
Visual Communication
They say photography is a tool for visual communication.
It is a way to portray a picture, convey a message.
Having that skill as a photographer is advantageous.
You will immediately understand what asks of you and what you need to do.
It’s the part of being creative, and such skills emphasize the core skills and sharpen them.
Reduce Dependency on Stock Photography
Accessibility to stock photography has made us lazy, believe it or not.
Even if you do Photoshop work on it, it will lack your uniqueness.
Having photography skills will always spark authenticity inside you.
You will have the images that you own, which include your perspective and define your creativity.
It has a definite positive impact- that is, the attitude to look for stock photography.
Digital Photography Skills
The digital camera has many advantages, and it’s exciting and satisfactory to use.
You will learn operations beyond normal cameras.
That’s why by learning photography through digital cameras, you can actually accumulate valuable skills.
The more you get involved in digital photography, the better you have a keen eye for work.
This will greatly improve your performance.
Develop a Strategy That Works
To be a successful graphic designer in this commercial market, you need to be one step ahead of your competitors.
And the most effective way is to develop a strategy!
Not that any will do, you have to do your research to find out.
For example, some graphic designers learn photography and do their photo editing work themselves.
Doing this is like 2 birds in one stone- learning creativity and earning extra money.
You can do anything that is convenient to your workflow and helps your level up.
Final Verdict
I hope you understand why photography is important and how it is related to graphic design.
Want to improve your design skill through photography skills?
Practice all the above-mentioned tips to achieve your target.
