My Little Project Inspired by Melanie Chan
So, I was scrolling online the other day, you know how it is, just killing time. And I stumbled across some work credited to a ‘Melanie Chan’. Didn’t know the name before, but the images, they just sort of stuck with me. Really simple stuff, mostly everyday things, but they had this specific look. Hard to describe.
It wasn’t flashy or complicated. Quite the opposite. But it felt really deliberate, you know? Like every photo was carefully thought out, even the simple ones. It got me thinking. Could I do something like that? Capture that kind of quiet vibe?
So, I decided to give it a shot. Not to copy exactly, but to see if I could understand that process and maybe learn something for my own photography, which honestly, has been feeling a bit stale.
First thing I did was just stare at her photos for a good while. Like, really look. What was she actually doing?
- The colors seemed pretty muted, often kinda desaturated.
- Lots of focus on texture and shape.
- The lighting felt soft, natural mostly. Not harsh studio lights.
- Composition was key. Often simple, maybe slightly off-center, but always balanced.
Okay, so I had a few ideas. I grabbed my camera. Didn’t go anywhere fancy. Just used stuff I had lying around the house – a cup, an old book, a plant on the windowsill. Stuff she might photograph.
Then the actual work started. I tried setting up a few shots. Took maybe fifty photos the first afternoon. And honestly? They looked rubbish. Flat. Boring. Nothing like the feeling I got from her work. It was actually pretty frustrating. Felt like I was missing something obvious.
I went back to looking at her examples. Maybe it was the editing? So I loaded my photos onto the computer. Started messing around with the settings. Lowered the saturation. Played with the contrast, but kept it low. Tried adding a tiny bit of grain, just to see. This part took ages. Click, adjust, undo. Click, adjust, maybe keep that one? It was slow going.
Then I focused more on the light. Instead of just shooting anywhere, I waited for that late afternoon light coming through the window. Moved the objects around to catch the shadows just right. This seemed to help more. The photos started to have a bit more mood.
After a few days of trying this, messing with the camera, tweaking settings on the computer, I started getting a few shots that felt… closer. Not copies, but they had a bit of that quiet, thoughtful feel I was aiming for. It wasn’t easy, and I definitely didn’t nail her specific style – her work clearly has a lot more going on under the surface than you first realize.
But the whole process was pretty cool. It forced me to slow down and really look at things, both when shooting and when editing. Made me think way more about light and composition than I usually do. So yeah, didn’t become Melanie Chan overnight, obviously. But I definitely learned a few things, and it shook up my own approach a bit. Good little experiment.
