Benefits of Getting Into Photography as an Artist

When it comes to art, there is always a need for photography. Either it be gathering references or incorporating textures, the best way to achieve these resources on your own. With mobile phones having good-quality cameras built in, it is relatively easy to get started on your own using either what is around you or your own body.

Here are four advantages for artists willing to utilize their camera and take pictures themselves!

Making Your Own References

The most obvious benefit is the fact that you get your very own references. If you wish to know what water looks like, you can take a picture of water as long as you have access to it. If you wish to know what a cat looks like, perhaps you or a friend has a pet cat you can spend the day and take pictures with!

While what kind of references you can come up with will be limited and dependant on what you have access to, it can prove to be more reliable than looking through image hosting sites that might have generated AI plaguing the pages.

Free Texture Resource

If you need wood, fabric, metal, plastic, or any other material, odds are you have that material close by. With a closeup picture, you can create a handy file that you can use over and over again on any art project you have. The best part is that you don’t have to pay for each individual file. As long as you have a camera and a way to transfer your files, you have spent all the money you will ever need.

For editing, phones usually come with an editing feature built in to their camera apps, and you can download the free software Gimp for editing photos on desktop where you can do a lot more with your textures before using them.

Practice Composition

Photography skills and illustration skills share a large overlap, and practicing both can compliment each other quite nicely. One of those shared skills is composition. They follow similar rules to the point of best practice being nearly identical. If you create a photograph that has good composition and go on to draw the picture, it will also have good composition.

The advantage photography has is the fact that things are already in place. What you need to do on your end is figure out the best zoom and position of the camera. While that will take some time to figure out, you are still learning what good composition looks like!

Going Outside

Finally, a lot of photography will lead you to going outside. When you need pictures of nature, you can’t create them yourself while staying inside. Being an artist requires staying inside a lot and living a sedentary lifestyle, so any excuse to go outside is good for your health both mentally and physically. You will get to stretch your legs and have a nice change of scenery to mix up your life and make things a little more interesting. Most excuses to go outside are good excuses, and photography to help your art is a great one!

Conclusion

Artists will only benefit by practicing photography and learning the skills that come with it. Either it just being an excuse to exercise or creating a collection of references and textures, photography can only level up your creative skills.

The photos featured in the post are created by me and are free to use as long as credit is given. If you use the images for anything, feel free to mention me on Bluesky (@dextivestudios.bsky.social) so I can see what you have created!