Canvas is fast becoming the medium of choice for art prints in the home – no need for frames, the material displays colour beautifully, canvas prints are durable and can be made much larger than standard prints by utilising the panel technique. If you like the idea of having canvas printing in your home, but you dislike the idea of having the same thing everybody else does, we have some unconventional ideas for subjects for you. Make your visitors laugh, stare, shake their head in wonder, or just reach out to touch your print, with one of these ideas!
1. Old people
Children are one of the most photographed subjects on Earth … and understandably so! However the wisdom and individuality that is apparent in a face at the other end of the life cycle can make for a stunning piece of canvas printing in your home. Up the contrast of your photos to accentuate wrinkles a little, and don’t be afraid to get close-up to your subjects (using your zoom to help respect personal space).
2. ‘Non-pretty’ people
Every face has a story to tell – and if you can either find (on the internet) or take your own photo of someone whose face expresses something strong, it won’t matter at all where they fit into the conventional beauty scale.
3. Don’t photograph faces
Hands and feet can actually be great subjects for canvas photos! Capture them in motion – you can use a long shutter speed and keep the camera still to create colour trails behind your subject, or keep that long shutter speed and pans the camera in the direction that your subject is moving to create a photo where the subject is in focus, but the background is still. These techniques take practice, but make for amazing canvas photos.
4. Nude portraits
These won’t be to everybody’s taste … but they can quite easily be done ‘tastefully’! Pregnancy nudes are rising in popularity – they capture a time of life that isn’t always readily available. It is also one of the only times of life that an enormous, bulging belly is considered healthy – canvas photos can help you make the most of it. Non-pregnancy nudes can easily be made tasteful – the nude body is one of the most immortalized art subjects in the world. Again, ‘prettiness’ is not necessarily a factor in how well your canvas photos turn out.
5. Use unconventional angles
Shoot photos for canvas printing up to your subject, with the camera low to the ground, or think about shooting from up high to give a bird’s eye view. You can use a wide-angle lens to exaggerate the part of your subject that is close to the camera (this works well with buildings, and cars, and gives a crazy-mirror type effect with faces).
6. Dead or dying plants
The browning, crumbling stage of life for trees and plants has an amazing fragility and delicacy about it that makes for an unusual but beautiful canvas photo. Think about the colours of autumn, or the stark beauty of a leafless tree in winter. Up the contrast on these shots again, or else try to shoot in good natural light.
7. Furniture
We don’t really think about it from minute to minute, but every different piece of furniture symbolises something different to us. The kettle is associated with the warmth and comfort of a morning coffee, the piano with good times and singing friends, the couch with lazy Sundays and bed with the bliss of sleep! Pay attention to your surroundings, use unconventional angles for furniture photography, and take plenty of shots, and you’ll soon find one that jumps out at you for canvas printing.
By: Angus Benham
