The coronavirus outbreak has the world on lock-down. This has become a photographer’s nightmare. Landscape, street, nature, and event photography are very limited, and often near impossible. But this doesn’t mean we can’t stay creative when confined to our homes.

If you need some tips to stay active and creative as a photographer during the COVID-19 quarantine, I’m here to give you some great tips and ideas.

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!

Photography activities for quarantine:

1. Take advantage of free courses

Photographers can’t get comfortable. Constantly evolving and improving is part of our nature. With so much downtime, it’s crucial we work on learning more. Thankfully, many companies and influencers are supporting the community by making their otherwise pricey courses free. Here’s a list of some great ones!

Stay Home With Leica: Leica is featuring a series of photography discussions, led by renown personalities.

Home With Olympus: This program connects Olympus users with experts to get feedback, advice, and more.

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 at Android Authority, we create plenty of 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.

Android Authority: We here at AA love creating educational content for you, and we have a photography series you will love.

Joey Lawrence: He’s hands-down my favorite photographer. Not only because of his great shots and successful career, but because he lets his passion take him places few of us would step foot on. Check out his blog to be mesmerized by great stories.

Peter McKinnon: Peter is a photography YouTube superstar for good reason. His content is fresh and very educational. You will also enjoy his fun personality and enthusiasm. Not to mention his magic tricks!

The Art of Photography: Ted Forbes is a recognized photographer with a long background in the industry. This channel is great for appreciating this art in a more genuine way, looking past modern tendencies and tech.

Jared Polin: The creator of Fro Knows Photo is one of the best photography educators online. His fun personality makes videos hilarious, and his hair is totally out of this world.

Tony & Chelsea Northrup: This photography couple is great at displaying more than just tips and reviews. They often uncover the business side of photography, which many of us can be really bad at.

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 like Patreon to get help from your viewers, or simply share your PayPal details to accept donations. You could even go the formal route and sell your classes and tutorials in digital form.

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 there is beauty to be 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 what macro photography is 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 can’t exactly be receiving guests at home, but shooting portraits can be a very lucrative business and you are home doing nothing. Why not start practicing? 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 can 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 having passive sources of income should get into stock photography. People need photos for advertising, design, content, and more. These 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 can shoot stock photos of anything. I shot the image above to use in an article showing you what you should and shouldn’t use to clean your phone. If a dedicated photographer wasn’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 photos.

Check out stock photo websites like Getty 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 can’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 like Upwork and Fiverr, 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!

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.

More: How to edit a photo using Snapseed on your smartphone

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 have 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 this lifestyle.