Still Life's

Still life photographs are a great way to essentially show something off. For instance, if you have a new coffee cup, take a still life to show it to your friends! These are also great for taking photographs of flowers in a vase, like I have below. You can also be creative with your still life’s, and assemble them into a creative “pose” and then snap away, occasionally readjusting what you are working with – like my paintbrush/palette examples.

Here are my top five tips for still life photography –

1)      Be creative! Don’t be afraid of thinking outside of the box with still life’s, as this is how you will get some of the most interesting shots.

2)      Use props that you like, so that you will feel passionate about photographing them. It is easy to get bored or discouraged with still life’s because they are unmoving and never change (unless you change them)!

3)      Set your props up on a flat surface with a plain background, so as to not distract from what your subject is.

4)      Experiment with the whole “rule of thirds” idea – essentially divide up your image into three. I think of it as left, middle, right and top, middle, bottom. Then move your object within this perimeter so as to not have it in the middle at all times. Like with the Chip cup, it is set more to the right of the photograph – this is an example of the rule of thirds.

5)      Black and white has the ability to enhance some still life’s (like the first picture I posted) so experiment a bit with that as well!

All in all, have fun! Still life’s are a great way to showcase how creative you can be, so don’t hold back with them, and let the creativity flow!