Throughout quarantine, many people on the app TikTok have begun to do at home photoshoots. From bringing a mirror outside to taping flowers to your face, TikTok users have seen it all. Since quarantine, the app TikTok has been used more and more to try and cure adolescents’ boredom through funny dances, comedy skits, trying photoshoots, and more. While I am currently stuck in my house, I figured that this is the best time to try out some of these photoshoots. 

   While I only tried two of the TikTok photoshoot ideas, there are a bunch more. I got most of my inspiration from Julia Dovogal, a photographer that has made TikToks of her portrait photoshoots. 

   I recently got a Nikon D5300 DSLR camera and decided to put it to good use by trying two photoshoots in one week. First, I tried a simple newspaper photoshoot. This involved taping pieces of newspaper to my wall and some on the ground and then posing in front of it while I used my timer to snap about eight pictures at a time. 

   This photoshoot took about an hour of setup but it went by pretty quickly when I had something to watch. The process was interesting but in the beginning it was awkward to model in front of the camera but it turned out okay. I had to move a lot of things around in my room to have space to tape up the newspapers and take the pictures but it was not too difficult. I found that some of the ink would rub off on my hands and then I would touch the wall to tape the pieces of newspaper and get ink smudges on the wall. 

   Later after I took the pictures, I found that nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol removed the ink smudges quickly, which was a relief. Although I used a nice camera, most people on TikTok have done these photoshoots with their phone, and still got some pretty amazing results. For the newspaper pictures, I decided to stay with the mostly black and white theme and wear all black with a white cardigan. I have also seen some people wear something brightly colored to stand out from the newspaper background. 

   Although I decided to do this photoshoot at about 1 a.m., it was still really fun and something different to try in this lonely time. 

   The other photoshoot I tried was with limes and lemons. I set up my camera outside my house in front of some brick and took some pictures by connecting my camera to my computer, but you could also easily set up your phone to snap some pictures. I found that posing with an object did not work out great for me personally but I got some cool pictures because the lighting was good. 

   While during the other photoshoot I took about 160 pictures, I took over 400 with the limes. It was overall a really fun way to pass the time. Hopefully in the future I can take some pictures of my family or dogs. 

1. Tape magazines for a colored version of the newspaper. 
2. Splatter paint your face with some non-toxic washable paint or use some chalk instead. 
3. Tape some green leaves to a white wall.
4. Put flowers in your hair or tape them to yourself or the backdrop.