Alright, so I wanted to talk about this little project I did, trying to get some photos looking like the work of Veronika Shkliaeva. I first bumped into her stuff, I think it was just scrolling online somewhere, and it really stopped me. Her photos had this heavy, kinda dark feeling, you know? Lots of mood, shadows, not your typical bright and happy pictures.
I kept looking at her photos for a few days. Really looking. I tried to figure out what made them tick. It wasn’t just one thing.
- The light was often soft, maybe like early morning or a cloudy day.
- Lots of shadows, but not just pure black. There was detail in there.
- The colors felt muted, kinda pulled back. Nothing too flashy.
- Subjects were often simple, sometimes lonely feeling.
So, I thought, hey, I wanna try making something feel like that. I don’t have any fancy gear, just my old digital camera and sometimes my phone. But I figured the feeling was more important than the equipment.
Trying to Shoot
The first step was just going out with this idea in mind. I decided to go out really early one morning, hoping for that soft light. It was kinda cold, actually. I went down by the old canal path near my place. Lots of old brick walls and quiet spots there.
I started just taking pictures of things I saw. An empty bench, some weeds growing through cracks, the way the light hit the water. It was harder than I thought. My first shots just looked… flat. Not moody, just dull.
I remembered looking at her photos again on my phone right there. Okay, more contrast maybe? Less sky? I tried getting lower angles, focusing on textures. I took a ton of pictures, probably way too many. Most were junk, honestly. But a few felt like they might have something.
Messing with Editing
Getting back home, I dumped the photos onto my computer. Looking at them on the bigger screen, yeah, most were still not right. But I picked out maybe five or six that had potential.
I don’t have complex software, just a basic photo editor thing. I started playing around. First thing, I pulled down the saturation. Made the colors less bright. Then I messed with the contrast, trying to make the darks darker but without losing all the detail, like I saw in her work. This took a lot of back and forth.
I also tried adding a tiny bit of ‘grain’ effect. Sometimes digital photos look too clean, and hers had a bit of texture. I didn’t want to overdo it, just enough to take off that super smooth digital edge. Cropping was also key. I cut out distracting stuff, tried to make the main subject feel more isolated.
What Happened in the End
So, did I manage to perfectly copy Veronika Shkliaeva’s style? Nope, not really. My photos still looked like my photos, mostly. But they definitely had a different feel than my usual stuff. They were quieter, maybe a bit more thoughtful.
What I really got out of it was learning to see differently. I started noticing light and shadow more when I’m out now. I think more about the mood of a picture, not just what’s in it. It also made me appreciate her actual work even more, seeing how hard it is to get that consistent feeling.
It was a good exercise. Just picking something you admire and trying to understand it by doing it. Even if you don’t nail it, you learn a bunch along the way. That’s the main thing, I guess.
