How To Shoot Still Life Photography
Still life photography is a very interesting photography genre which requires a high professionalism from an artist. A perfect sense of light and composition are necessary skills for any still-life photographer.
Still life photography has its own aims, topics and subjects, which are different from those of other genres. It does not only depict objects, but also their surrounding and creates a mood. A still life photographer uses all possible photography methods and techniques in his work, as light, contrast, colours, and various composition techniques.
Traditionally, a still-life is a close-up depiction of subjects. It is a challenging genre, as it renders a complex nature of objects and their textures, as well as their arrangement. That is why lighting is probably the most important element of still-life photography, because only with the help of light, the photographer can show a rough or even surface of subjects and their layout. Still life photography can be used as a teaching process that helps to master lighting techniques.
1. Subjects. Still life photography will always be interested in such traditional subjects, as vegetables, fruit, glass and china, human instruments of labor and household tools. Still lives offer a great variety of themes. However, often it is not a theme, but the subject form and the photographer lighting skills which is the most important in this genre. Read more about Still Life Tabletop Photography.
2. Lighting. It is often enough to use only one lighting source to get an interesting shot with a nice contrast and deep shadows. But if you want to emphasize contours of your subject, place a lighting source behind your subject on either its side and make sure it goes from above. Besides, put a defused lighting source in front of the subject. Read more about lighting techniques Photography Lighting Techniques.
Remember that front light from above often creates a grate amount of hotspots. Although such hotspots often enliven an image, it is still better to avoid this effect, as in most cases they prevent the viewer from perception of subject forms as a whole entity.
3. Background. You can get rid of hotspots if you use brightly lit white background, when shooting colorless or colored transparent glassware.
If you shoot chinaware, you can use both white and black background. The advantage of black background in this case is that it will create a contrast between white crockery and dark background.
Background is an important element of still life photography. Often the surface, where subjects are situated and the background are divided with a horizontal line, which can prevent the viewer to see the image as a whole entity. If you want to avoid appearing this line in a shot, shoot either from above or use a big sheet of paper or a big piece of cloth as background. In the latter case, the cloth or paper should smoothly change its direction from vertical to horizontal.
4. Dynamic composition. Dynamic composition in still life photography is always more difficult than a static one. Certainly, the most easy way to shoot such photos is to use speed lamps, but ordinary soffites also allow shooting moving objects and streaming water. Read more about composition Now You Can Compose Your Photos As a Professional and Composition Photography Rules.
5. Lenses. You can shoot still lives with different lenses. The choice of lens depends of your intention.
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