Still Life Photography - The Beginnings Still Life Photography Whilst Still Life Photography is often considered to be the staging and shooting of a group of inanimate objects - it's more than likely best recognised especially on deviantART as singular items and in particular dishes - such as meals or baked foods. It's an under appreciated art form for sure in that those who don't actively engage in the set up of such shots do not actively appreciate the effort that goes into staging, lighting and composing such pieces. A Still Life Photographer Makes a picture rather than just Take it. Photography -> Still Life -> Food and Drink Aims of this Project Educate Week
Project Educate: Getting Started with Still Life Getting Started with Still Life Photography... Your Homemade Studio You don't need a studio or amazingly fancy lighting in order to achieve some of the most popular still life photography shots that you see on deviantART. I take most of my still life photography shots on the window sill in my bedroom because the colour is neutral and the lighting best.You can start pretty much anywhere in the home - using a backdrop of mottled glass will give a different effect to plain glass and so on - the possibilities are pretty much endless! Using paper, books, scarfs or other bits of material can provide excellent backdrops. Raindrops on windows can create a fantastic bokeh... Your Subject Fruit and Flowers are overdone. It's true. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try them out and if you have a creative concept in mind go for it. However there is so m
Enhancing Still Life Shots with LieveheersbeestjeSo you've got a still life shot but it looks nothing like those epic pieces you see hitting the front page here on deviantART - the lighting, hues and general feel of the piece is just not as good as you feel it could be. Well that's okay! Photoshop in particular helps you enhance your shots to bring out the best in them - or the worst if you're not careful.These are basically the processes that she goes through to edit a shot - saved and uploaded to deviantART for your use (provided you read the rules.) There are many floating around - and they add that little something. So How Do They Work? All you need to do is download a file that contains such actions...In this particular one =lieveheersbeestje shares her Photoshop Silver & Bronze Actions. Once you've downloaded the file you just open it as you usually would and it will go straight into photoshop ready for use
Still Life and Irving PennIrving Penn - probably most widely known for his Fashion Photography and Portraiture work was also an inspiring still life photographer. He's one of those legacies who continues to education the Art world long after his death (which was in 2009 at the grand age of 92).As you can see, even here on deviantART people are paying homage to the master and recreating his works. Whilst the Still Life Photography Gallery here on deviantART has moved into the modern era with creative bokeh and other fantastic effects - the traditional beginnings still remain to inspire at least some. Penn was, in fact, one of the first photographers to begin posing objects and people against a grey or white backdrop. Something utilized by Photographers almost daily now.
Project Educate: Interviewing Orwald!*Orwald has been on deviantART for just a year but has astounded the Still Life Photography community with her fantastic works. As well as putting together beautiful features of others works, *Orwald strives for the best with her own and shares some of her tips here...What inspires you to explore Still Life Photography? I like to show the things around us. It`s very interesting to find some ordinary objects at home and try to show them from different views/ I can`t say that there is some area of Still Life photography that I like the most but I recently noticed that there are a lot of "fruit" and "cup" shots in my gallery What are the difficulties and rewards of Still Life? I'm not a professional photographer so there is always a dilemma - how to place all objects together, how to make the light and whole the scene look naturally. I like to play with colour combinations and it`s the
Project Educate: Still Life with ClareManson*claremanson pretty much had me addicted to her photography the moment I stumbled into her gallery. Clare not only photographs her awesome creations but she also shares the recipes. But what really hooked my interest was the Oreo Pizza...:iconclaremanson: What area of Still Life Photography do you find yourself favouring? It has to be food photography. I love to bake and i love to photograph so being able to bring the two together is a great feeling. There is nothing more satisfying to me than being able to capture the beauty of something you have put your heart into making. What are the challenges and merits of undertaking Still Life? The biggest challenge for me is lighting, being in the UK where the sky is often overcast natural light can be hard to come across.A lot of the time i plan my baking and photography sessions around the weather and time of day to get the best
Project Educate: The Traditional Still LifeTraditional Still Life shots are few and far between in this modern era with Photoshop becoming a vastly popular tool to soften images with and more materials becoming available to make Still Life something adventurous and different. So it was an extremely nice surprise when I stumbled across *Somebody--else's gallery to find that there were some good wholesome traditional shots there - with a few modern touches to finish it off. *Somebody--else agreed to be interviewed so that I might find out a bit more...What area of Still Life Photography do you gravitate towards the most and why?I don't really have a preference, maybe a tiny one for flowers and books as we can use those in many ways. What do you find are the challenges of staging your photographs to achieve still life shots?For me, the biggest challenge while staging photographs is to be able to
Project Educate:Still Life with *LuizaLazarStill Life Photography here on deviantART whilst an overlooked gallery for the majority of the time is vastly becoming popular among conceptual and food photographers. *LuizaLazar, a female photographer from Romania has shared her thoughts and feelings on the gallery including some useful tips.:icondyingstate:You & Still Life Photography...Most of my Still Life works are based on fruits and flowers. I love to photograph raspberries (maybe because they are my favorite fruits, but I'm also attracted by their color and shape), cherries, rain drops or tiny objects. I must say I love food photography, but I'm not quite able to do the shots I wanna do. Other than that, I don't cook very often, therefore I have no item to photograph Your Likes and Dislikes about Still Life Photography...What I like about Still Life Photography is the fact that you can arrange the elements in
Project Educate: Still-Life-Stills Education cont.Groups for Still Life work are fast becoming popular on deviantART - but finding one that covers all of Still Life and sticks with being just Photography orientated is quite difficult. Therefore myself and *claremanson have today launched #Still-Life-Stills - a group for all of your Still Life needs. Whether that's exposing your work, getting tips and help, or just salivating over awesome food in the gallery or staring in wonder at fantastic cut flower shots or ornaments - we have it all! I've also enjoyed pushing Still Life Photography this week for Project Educate and therefore we are keen to continue the trend over at #Still-Life-Stills and keep educating. The group launch was inspired by this weeks #projecteducate - so hopefully we can continue the general theme of being helpful! Members are very very welcome - so head over now and join if you're interested and start sharing your work. Our submission rules are
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