Create Personalized Home Art with Digital Photography

Walk into many homes these days and one word will come to mind: bland. Neutral-colored paint, hardly any accents and almost zero artwork. But it is understandable that some rent or lease homes in which the are not allowed to paint their walls. This is unfortunate, but it is a common stipulation. It is furthermore understandable that some people cannot always afford or do not have time to shop for accents to bring color and character to their homes. However, in the case of artwork, homeowners, renters or leasers can bring an amazing amount of personalization and style to the rooms of their homes very cheaply with the use of a digital camera and a little extra cash.

Creating personalized art with your digital camera is easy even if you are not a seasoned photographer. You also do not have to be proficient with Photoshop or any other high-tech software. You can accomplish some interesting photos with many of today's cameras and not even have to boot up your computer. Finding the right subject is easy. Think about it for a moment: with personalized art photography, you simply want to express the things you like and care about in an interesting way. What sort of things in your life that describe you and your ideals? Your spouse? Your children? Your cats? Airplanes? Model trains? Think about the people, things, or even pets that you love and want to use to express something about yourself.

Once you have decided on the subject do not limit yourself to a straight forward angle. When photographing people, take profiles and close-ups. If you are shooting your pet, close-ups are great too and shots of your pet in action can really be interesting. If your pet does a trick, catching it film can make for interesting artwork. And it is good to have your camera nearby just in case you catch your cat or dog doing something hilarious. And another thing : don't be afraid to be random. Take some candid shots in which your subject is looking away. Another tip is to use your camera's black & white function if it has that. Color photos are really fun to look at and really capture the moment but black and white can really bring an "artsy" feel to the artwork you are creating. I have found in my own experience that black and white images really draw the eye because, I assume, they are out of the ordinary. This makes them ideal for decorating. If you do not have a camera with this functionality there are numerous programs you can use including iPhoto (Mac only), Photoshop and Photoshop Elements or the free, open-source GIMP.

Developing your digital photos is pretty simple these days since many stores have begun catering to digital photographers. Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and CVS all have services that will develop your digital photos. With Wal-Mart, you can do it online and then pick them up at your local store or you can take the photos to the store and use their digital photography kiosk (you will need to take the pictures on your camera's removable memory card, or put them on a CD or other portable storage medium). CVS and Walgreens have similar online services. As you go through you can choose the size prints you want to order. The price schemes vary but all are inexpensive. My local Wal-mart's kiosk charged me around $.03 per print. Not a bad price.

Finally, once you have your prints, you just need some snazzy means of displaying your photos. If you want a simple frame, these can be found at Wal-Mart or even Goodwill. If you shop around you can get one on clearance or at a thrift store for next to nothing. And even if it is not quite the color you need, there's always spray paint! You can also look around and find all types of interesting photo display units. Just get something that goes along with the style of the room you are decorating. It would look funny to have a slick, chrome picture holder in the middle of a French country-style room. And when you are doing any part of this, do not try to be a pro or worry about what others will think. Just do what you like and choose subjects that express what it is you are trying to convey through the artwork or your design scheme as a whole.