Still life photography has lots of practical and valuable uses. Perhaps you want to take a photograph of a beautiful bowl of fruit or perhaps you have learned that an important key to eBay success is uploading quality photos of your products. Learning still life photography can also give you opportunities for selling your photograph downloads on microstock sites or to food magazines. No matter what your reason, still life photography is a great skill to learn.
Unless you are photographing specific products or pictures for a magazine assignment, the subjects for your still life photography are endless. Fine art still lifes aren't limited to just apples and grapes. Even super simple items like a few artfully arranged spools of thread can be interesting and attract attention. Microstock sites like Shutterstock and iStock that cater to commercial users have a high demand for all sorts of still life, often of very simple objects, like a cup of coffee or a key.
In one way, still life photography is a lot easier than other forms of photography like landscape, sports or pet photography. With still life pictures, you can arrange the objects exactly how you want them and have full control over the photo's composition.
And sometimes, good quality still life pictures can be even more challenging to photograph. Because still lifes are taken up close, it's easy to see imperfections on your subject that you would normally never see.
Despite its challenge, by using some basic photography skills and applying these tips, you can create stunning still life pictures with just a little practice.
Lighting for Still Life Photography
With most professional photographers, they use a light box or soft box to take their still life photos. Although soft boxes can help out a lot, they still aren't absolutely necessary to get good results as you'll see shortly. However, if you do want one, you can find a soft box online or you can easily make one using instructions you find online. The purpose of these tools is to provide good, even light.
You can also get a good quality of light by setting up your photo shoot outside. In fact, a high overcast (bright overcast) sky creates a soft box effect where you get good lighting without the harsh shadows.
Composing Still Life Pictures
When composing your photograph, you need to arrange the objects in a pleasing composition. You should consider using classical composition techniques like the "Rule of Thirds," "Leading Lines" or "Frame within a Frame" for ideas of how to best compose your pictures. Artfully arrange the objects, and use your imagination. For example, if it's a picture of a piece of cake, instead of including the entire table setting, place a gleaming, silver dessert fork upside down on the plate and remove a tiny bite from the cake.
Fill the Frame with Your Subject
Remember, the only thing that should be in your viewfinder or on your preview LCD screen is your composition. Remove any clutter and get up close with your camera. If you have a backdrop or background you don't like don't worry about it because it can be easily solved. The soft box or light box solves this issue, but if you are shooting outside, here's something you can do: place a piece of white foam board or piece of material behind your subject, and voila no more distracting background. Be sure to use Macro mode so that you get a sharp image.
Look for a Good Angle and Shoot!
Rather than taking a picture from your head level, try holding the camera so that it's at the same height as your subject. You should also try shooting from a variety of different angles.
Hopefully these tips have provided you some helpful information on taking still life photos that you can start putting to use immediately.
STILL LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY "By Pandu Rajendra i Ketut Ngurah"
[affmage source="amazon" results="1"]still life photography[/affmage]
[affmage source="overstock" results="1"]still life photography[/affmage]
[affmage source="cj" results="3"]still life photography[/affmage]
I'm deciding on a wedding photographer and I've looked at a few sites and there are heaps of great photos so I'm finding it hard to choose one particular photographer to go with. Do you think personal recommendations are best or should I think more about price or should I choose the photographer with the best pictures? Or should I meet a few and choose whoever has the best vibe?
Personal recommendations, pictures you love at the right price are all relevant factors. Here's what I would look for:
1. Experience: an enormous amount of photographers and studios out there have only been shooting "professionally" for less than five years. There's been an incredible saturation of the wedding photographer market of people who bought a decent camera at Best Buy with no other experience and are now "professional photographers."
Photographers with many weddings under their belt as well as shooters with experience in daily newspapers or magazines are wonderful choices for wedding photographers.
2. Integrity: check their references and make sure they live up to their promises. Make sure they deliver their product and service on time. Either they have no integrity or no qualifications, too many photographers get in over their head and start hosing clients.
3. Likeability: the right photographer for your wedding will make great pictures AND do so in a way that makes your wedding day even better. Are they courteous? Do they seem interested in you enough to ask questions? How do they handle pressure situations? You need someone who works efficiently, stays calm and polite and can deliver a professional result in situations that are often less than ideal.
4. Education: The vast majority of wedding photographers have no formal training in photography. Look for photographers with some kind of education in photography.
5. Price: Especially these days it's a big deal. Ten years after your wedding you're not going to be concerned how much you spent on photography, you are going to concerned about the quality of your pictures. With that in mind, don't you think it is better to pay more than you expected rather than less than you should?
I want to take the following kinda pictures but don't know how. Help please.......
1. black and white or one single color----Im successful but need more info
2. I want to take pictures which are kinda black and while or single tone but with red or green. To clarify further, imagine a B/W picture of a model but with red lipstick and/or yellow jewelry
3. Imagine a pic of a child/yourself/anyone (just like colored pic) but the background is all white.
For example you can see some videos at
http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/#design-video
and you will know what kinda still pic I am talking about.
I have a cannon sd750. Went through manual and was able to figure out only the B/W
Thanks in advance
Thanks for all answers so far. But I am not asking about photo editing or to achieve the effects through software. We can take such picture through the camera settings only. and I found out the first two so far. Third one still looking. i am still looking for more answers
Check your manual for "color accent" and "color swap" effects. Your camera has it.
The all white background is something you must do in your lighting and backdrop material, or with clipping in photo editing.
How to Develop Black & White Photos : Loading Film on the Spiral Reels
Maternity Portraits, and Child Portrait Photography, and Family Portrait Photography—can be some of the most important pictures you ever take in your life. And it's quite easy to see why.
Becoming married, having children, and having a family are often the most important aspects of a persons life. Memories of those precious moments are held dear all our lives, and are far from the memories we want to forget.
So we take pictures, photography allows us to capture the essence of memories we never want to lose. But there are many things you can do to make sure those memories are represented in your photography as well as they are represented in your mind.
Being pregnant is a joyful experience, that often times remind us of the glory of nature. Maternity portraits also capture expectant mothers in their most beautiful state. The first and most important thing you need to decide on for your important portrait is a theme—some photographers choose to go more artistic and will want to shoot you in black and white or very high contrast backgrounds. Others will try to take a stance that places an emphasis on the natural aspect of your pregnancy—these photos will often result in a much more calm and carefree themed maternity portrait.
The most important part is that you know what you want, and come to the photographer with that in mind; ready to explain your specific wants or needs, as to make sure your photographer does not hijack your own memories—and take your portrait into a direction you don't agree on.
After your maternity portraits, there's no doubt the next logical step would be child portrait photography—your children are no doubt part of the memories you want to capture forever. And people often have times doing portraits for their children. And this really goes into the nature of what a portrait is. The word "portrait" exudes a formal theme, and in this aspect—many photographers get the child portrait incorrect.
It's important to work with the dynamic energy that is emitted from the absolute care-free fun nature of childhood. You want your children to be captured by the photographer with a smile on their face, you want them to be having fun. Dynamic subjects, specifically with child portraits; make more for interesting subjects, and definitely capture the mood and element that parents expect to feel when they see their children.
Oh and one more small tip when it comes to child portrait's—never say "cheese!" Kids think it's too cheesy, and likely won't laugh. Try to surprise them with a word that will make them laugh and snap the picture at the perfect moment! Lastly, kids are not adults—they don't have the same attention spam or ability to focus on tasks that you feel need to get done, so never get impatient. Don't show any bit of anger or frustration, remember the photos you capture will ultimately reflect how you feel.
And years later, in the comfort of the family you built—you realize there's one more memory you want to capture. You're whole family together, and unbreakable bond that needs to be properly represented. How can you make your family portrait perfect?
The first question is to ask, how do you want your family to be represented? Do you want a formal portrait—with low energy; or do you want your family to be represented as unit, in joy—with expressions, using energy. Sometimes informal family portraits can be the best ones—think back on old photographs you have, candids with your closest friends of the past.
Sometimes photos like this can make us feel all sorts of emotions, and bring back memories we forgot we had. And for family portrait photographer –its all about you photographer: can he capture the right kind of energy you want in the memories of your family?
Our memories are the most precious things we have, and our memories of our families—take precedence over all. So make sure your Maternity Portraits, and Child Portrait Photography, and Family Portrait Photography are absolutely perfect. Contact a photographer that can properly represent your memories and give you something you'll cherish forever.