2020 Photo Challenge #13

March’s theme / technique: Being Creative with texture

The six visual keys to a great photograph are:

    • Patterns
    • Texture
    • Lines
    • Light
    • Depth of field
    • Space

This month we are going to look at textures. While the structure of an object is its form, the material from which it is made constitutes its texture. Is it hard or soft, smooth or rough?  You are aiming at translating texture visually, bringing life and energy to a photo through shape, tone and colour. Study the texture and forget about the object. Texture becomes the subject here.

    • Try contrasting rough against smooth
    • Shoot at different times of the day. Does it change the effect?
    • Capture details – like the fibres in a rope or a carpet.
    • Try altering the angle of light to avoid flat and dull images. You might be able to do this with your editing software too.
    • Use different angles to discover how much texture appears.
This month's final assignment - Get close to your subject and capture just the texture itself, without the context. Then Zoom out so that you capture both the context of the texture as well as the texture itself.

A favourite textured image of mine is rope which can be found all around the harbours in Cornwall.

From a distance this messy coil of rope doesn’t look that interesting, but come in close and you start to notice the individual rough fibres and the subtle hues of turquoise along with that distinctive pattern of ‘blue, yellow, blue’ stripe interwoven amongst the other strands.

Lichens and Moss

And sometimes you find something so furry or fuzzy you just want to reach out and stroke it. Salvia leucantha / velvet-sage.

If you would like to join in with the 2020 photo challenge then please take a look at my 2020 Photo Challenge page. No complicated rules, just a camera required 🙂

    • Create your own post with some information about how you composed the shot.
    • Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
    • Add the tag #2020PhotoChallenge so everyone can find your entry easily in the WP Reader
    • Get your post(s) in by the end of the week as the new theme begins next Sunday with Lines

Please check out the links in the comments to have a look at all the wonderful textured photos shared this month. 

Thank you all for joining in with me. 

Published by

Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

48 thoughts on “2020 Photo Challenge #13”

  3. Lichens are just fabulous, and really like the rope close up . . . I was thinking what I had planned wasn’t quite right but now I think it might be. Yay! Will go and sort 🙂

    1. Do you have a nice deep pile carpet? Or fluffy blanket? This not going anywhere is going to be a real challenge. I really didn’t want to use archived photos, but needs must.

  5. Pingback: Being Creative with Textures | The life of B
  9. Pingback: 2020 Photo Challenge – #13 – Texture | Mama Cormier

    1. So many different sage plants. This one I have only seen in two places: South Africa and the Logan Botanic Garden in Scotland! Go figure! And if you haven’t been to the Scottish one you really ought to. Some fabulous gardens in the Dumfries and Galloway region.

        1. They have a lovely Australian area and a South African one too – which is where I saw the sage. Felt like I had been overseas! Brilliant garden.

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