There will always be divided opinion on the merits of “artistic” photography. For some people, a photograph which depicts an everyday face or item in a different way is worth looking at because it is interesting. For others, it will be considered the hight of pretentious idiocy. The view that you take on this conundrum will probably depend on how interested you are in photography.
There is a difference, one which needs to be noted, between taking such a photograph for artistic reasons, and doing it because you have seen it done elsewhere. The photograph may make the item look like something else, or it may show people a side of the subject that had not been seen before. If it is done because “it looks a bit arty” then it will usually be fairly obvious.
Many of the photographs taken to depict a subject in an unfamiliar way do so by making use of filters. Filters can be purchased and fitted to the lens of a more old-fashioned camera to provide soft-focus looks, a sepia tone or some other form of tinting. They may, alternatively, be added at a later stage to digital photographs using Photoshop. Some cameras, indeed, have specific filtered settings.
If you want to take a photograph that has an interesting look, give some thought to photographs you have seen. Are you bringing something new to the table, or experimenting with what you yourself are capable of doing? Or are you, alternatively, taking a photograph of a table through a sepia filter because you think it is what you are supposed to do?
