These still life photography tips will help you to make stunning images out of everyday objects. Still life is a venerable tradition, going back before the birth of photography to the great painters of the renaissance and before. It’s a style of photography that asks us to look at the objects around us in a new light. These tips are designed to give you some ideas to bear in mind when you take your own images.
Tip#1–Posed or Natural?
Before you even set down to take a still life photograph, you have to decide on what you’re going to shoot. Think about whether you’re going to arrange the objects in your image frame yourself, or wait for happenstance to throw up the perfect combination of items.
If you’re interested in trying to arrange your own scene, think about how you can help the composition of the image by the way that you place the objects – even moving something by a couple of millimeters can make a difference.
Tip #2– Tell A Story
As with so much of photography, a great still life photograph is somehow more than the sum of its parts. Be mindful of your still life and what it represents. Make sure that the objects in your scene work together to tell a story.
Think about how the objects in your scene relate to one another – and if necessary show how they relate together to the person or people who own them. If your image can express some of those relationships it will be all the stronger for it.
Tip #3– Backgrounds and ‘Black-grounds’
Always be on the lookout for backgrounds which either add something to your image, or at least don’t take anything away from it. Objects with an interesting texture – like bark, grass, or fur, perhaps – are good, especially if they aren’t too distracting.
As for ‘black-grounds,’ a great way to isolate the subject of your shot and really emphasis its color and texture is to photograph it against a black background. A piece of black velvet will work particularly well as it will absorb almost all of the light that hits it, leaving your subject shining out in front. If you don’t have any black velvet lying around, any black material will do.
Tip #4– Don’t Forget About Composition
When you’re making images of inanimate objects there’s no excuse for a poorly arranged scene! It is necessary to pay particular attention to composition. Follow the rule of thirds when framing your set up. Do not place to many objects in the scene, and use a large aperture to create depth and isolate particular objects of importance in the scene.
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