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Quarantine photography: Staying creative during coronavirus lockdown
August 17, 2025
Thecoronavirusoutbreak paused everything and put the world on lock-down. It was a photographer’s nightmare. Landscape, street, nature, and event photography were very limited, and often near impossible. This gave us a different perspective and made us realize that sometimes we need to stay creative, even when stuck at home. Quarantine photography can be great, and you can continue to thrive in your career.
I’ve been hiding behind walls too, but this doesn’t mean my photography career (and hobby) is on halt. On the contrary, the situation has pushed me to learn and find great images in otherwise ordinary subjects. I’m polishing my eye for composition, thinking outside the box, taking great photos, and even making money. All from home! I have some tips for you, so keep reading.
Activities for quarantine photography:
1. Take advantage of free courses
Photographers can’t get comfortable. Constantly evolving and improving is part of our nature. With so much downtime, we must work on learning more. Thankfully, many companies and influencers are supporting the community by offering free photography courses. Here are some of the best ones.
2. Learn from blogs, YouTubers, and other influencers
While paid courses have much to offer, the internet is full of free material. For starters, here atAndroid Authority,we create plenty of quarantine photography educational content. There are also amazing YouTube personalities you can follow to fine-tune your skills and get new ideas. Let’s give you some recommendations.
3. Create your own content!
Quarantine is forcing people indoors. This means there are plenty of photographers without work and a handful of aspiring photographers with free time. If you are a seasoned photographer with tips and tricks to share with the community, you can also create your own content!
Learn:How to create and set up a YouTube channel
YouTube is a great platform for sharing your photography knowledge with others. And while they won’t be paying you directly, building an audience and enabling advertising can create passive income. In addition, you can use services likePatreonto get help from your viewers, or share your PayPal details to accept donations. You could even go the formal route and sell your classes and tutorials in digital form. This is a great alternative to actual quarantine photography.
4. Try your hand at macro photography
If the lock-down doesn’t allow you to see the big picture, focus on the small one. We have much to learn from the little things in life, and beauty is found in all objects. Macro photography is about shooting small things up close. Surely you have flowers, textured walls, pets, and many other cool-looking objects to use as subjects.
We have a full article on macro photography and how to do it, so give it a read by clicking the button below.
5. Shoot some portraits and studio photos
We know you may’t exactly be receiving guests at home, but shooting portraits can be a very lucrative business, and you can get started practicing right now. You can set up a studio at home and shoot all kinds of solid background portraits. Acquiring cool backdrops is also possible if you really want to get into it. You could even start something more interesting, like pet portraits. The photo above was shot by our own David Imel in a small room. You can do awesome things indoors!
Also:How to stay sane working from home
6. Build a product photography portfolio
Product photography is a very lucrative market. If you have a good eye for photographing objects, you should give this one a go. you’re able to later work on finding clients, as the market is on hold, but if you can build a portfolio, it will help for future business.
Pick your subject! It can be anything anyone would want to sell. Got milk? Photograph it. Throw in some Oreo cookies and make it look like an ad. Or shoot your phone. Maybe your vacuum cleaner! Literally, anything that people buy and sell will work. I shot the image above with packaging paper and a white table. It could even be a solid white background!
Also:Here are the best photography essentials you can buy
7. Make passive income with stock photography
Those who like the idea of passive income should get into stock photography. People need photos for advertising, design, content, and more. These usually don’t sell for much, but they can sell multiple times and get you good earnings in the long run. It’s not always cost-effective to hire a photographer for each shoot, so companies go to stock photography libraries (now online) to find usable images. That’s where you come in!
Much like in product photography, you’re able to shoot stock quarantine photography of anything. I shot the image above to use in anarticle showing you what you should and shouldn’t use to clean your phone. If a dedicated photographer weren’t around, the website would have paid for the rights to use a very similar stock photo. You could also photograph food, random household items, tools, textures, tech, and more. And while the topic is hot, you might even want to shoot some virus-related images.
Check out stock photo websites likeGetty Images,Shutterstock,Adobe Stock, and others to learn more about the process.
8. Sell your editing talent!
If you are a photographer, you likely know how to edit. That is a talent people pay money for. And while you may’t go edit at some office or meet with clients, the internet can help you find editing work from home. For starters, you can use the internet, social media, and advertising to promote your work.
There are also websites likeUpworkandFiverr, which help clients meet freelancers. For something like editing, you don’t necessarily have to meet up, and the client could be from anywhere.
Here:10 Adobe Lightroom tips and tricks
9. Re-edit old images
As mentioned earlier, photographers are constantly evolving. I have become a better photo editor with time and love retouching old images. Results are almost always better than in the past, not to mention I get to test new and creative edits. Try that black and white. Make the colors warmer/colder. Go nuts with quarantine photography editing!
Editing software tends to evolve too. Maybe there are now new features and tools you didn’t have before! Or maybe now you have better hardware and accessories for improved editing.
10. Improve your smartphone photographs
Haven’t we always heard the best camera is the one you have with you? It’s very true. I tested this first-hand when I decided to take a cheap phone and get the best results I can out of it. Even affordable phones can take amazing photos nowadays, so try to get more acquainted with the phone’s capabilities so you will be ready when the perfect shot appears with no serious camera within reach.
More:What a pro photographer can do with a cheap smartphone camera
Stay creative, fellow photographers. It’s a tough world out there, and we will need creatives to tell this story. Let’s stay safe and reflect upon our work. This is also a great opportunity to fine-tune our skills to better serve society with quarantine photography.
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