29. Still Life & Product Photography

Information for this lesson came from Mango Street, Ed Verosky, Daniel Norton, Sean Durham, Peter McKinnon, and Karl Taylor on Youtube, 

Still life photography is a great way for beginners to learn their craft without expensive equipment or hiring models. To quote Sean Durham, "If you practice still-life photography, what you are doing is practicing every aspect of photography, and it will really hone your chops."

With still lifes, you can set your own schedule, work at your leisure, experiment, and even sell your work. It's also a good indoor project when it's cold outside. Still life photography is considered more artistic than product photography, because of it's history.

Inspiration

Art history provides a wealth of inspiration, as still life painting has long been an essential genre for artists to master. The problem of how to compose a beautiful, poignant, symbolic, and even mysterious still life has already been solved. It has been a right of passage for artists since the Renaissance:

The Knight's Dream, by Antonio de Pereda, 1650

Still Life with Brass & Glass, by William Merritt Chase, 1888

Still Life with Apples & Oranges, by Paul Cezanne, 1900

Still Life with Attributes of Art, by Zinaida Serebryakova, 1922

Chinese Takeout, by Carl Dobsky, 2005

Icarus VI, by Katherine Stone

Paper, Scissors, Rock, by Elaine Kurie

Still Life with Colored Glass, by Hillary Eddy

Still Life Flowers, by Hillary Eddy

Still Life by Amanda Grieve

Nature versus Nurture, by Julie Beck, 2016

Many photographers have also created wonderful still-lifes. Edward Weston (1886-1958) blurred the line between still life photography, portraiture, and landscape with his work in Point Lobos, California.

Another source of inspiration is Frederick Sommer, who would pick through pieces of trash in junkyards for items with poetic significance. He once said, “Photography is well adapted to work by the laws of chance. Poetic and speculative photographs can result if one works carefully and accurately, yet letting chance relationships have full play.”

Theme

The challenge with still lifes is how to make them interesting - so that they're more than just stuff on a table. Consider your theme. It may be seasonal, historical, nostalgic, delicate, timeless, playful, silly, etc. Also consider the symbolism of your objects. Many still lifes focus on the temporary nature of life, slipping towards death. That's why more languages refer to this not as an image of life, but as "nature morte". The term "still-life" refers to a life that has just ended, or "still". For my photography students, one way to add meaning is to make the still life a kind of self portrait.

The Setup

Consider what background you want for your image. Does it compliment the still life? Is it too busy or distracting? You might want a darker background to help your still life pop. Or, perhaps a textured background like a large wood pattern? Or a textile? For product photography, a white background is a classic standard, but consider what colors might compliment your product. You can hang a collection of backdrops on a clothes rack, to keep on hand.

Consider if you want your table bare or if you prefer a certain table cloth. Do you want it nice and neat, or do you want it rumpled and bunched into interesting folds?

As for the objects themselves, consider what you could do to them to add interest. A lit candle is pretty - blowing it out creates beautiful smoke lines. If you really want smoke for a longer time, light an incense stick and blow it out. It'll produce tons of smoke, and you can wave it around (not in school!). A piece of fruit could be prettier if cut, or peeled. It can also make the scene feel more "lived in". More importantly, think about how your objects can symbolize ideas and convey meaning. Think about if you want them as is, or if they need cleaning.

For flowers, you may consider a clip stand in place of a vase, as it helps arrange the flowers exactly as you like them. You can also clip a pane of picture glass in front of your still life, and sprits it with water, to get a beautiful painterly effect:

Ex from Camera Club Live on Youtube

Set Up Considerations for Product Photography

For photographing products, it helps to have a brand-new item, in mint condition. Make sure to keep it clean. If it has a shiny surface, like glass or metal, you want to avoid leaving finger prints, so be sure to wear gloves (cotton work well). Daniel Norton suggests keeping your camera high, at eye level, looking down, as if you were in a store looking at them on display. If you're not making a pure white background, whatever surface you're using, be careful not to show beyond that surface - check your corners.

If it's necessary to capture the exact colors of your objects/products you should use a grey card to adjust the white balance. Consider if you want to place your objects on a turn table, to capture them from different points of view.

Reflective Objects

For reflective glass objects, like bottles and sunglasses, you may want to add a diffusor to your light to avoid any strong glare. There are also plastic cones you can place over smaller objects to remove distracting reflections - those are only good for product photography of single objects. Another option which might allow more creative freedom is to use little black cards, placing them to the sides of your composition in such a way as to limit the amount of glare they give off. As Daniel Norton says, "You want to control, not eliminate the reflections. If you eliminate them, it doesn't look natural."

Your Camera & Settings

Any camera should work for still lifes. You may want a prime lens for added clarity (around 50mm), or a macro lens to emphasize one particular object. You may also want a tripod to keep your camera in place, as well as a reflector or white posterboard. One advantage of using a tripod is you can switch to manual focus and get it exactly how you want. You can also shoot slower shutter speeds and lower your ISO so your photos are cleaner.

You can also hook your camera to a speedlite with a dedicated sync cord, and experiment using a flash from various angles.

The Lighting

This can be whatever you like. Some photographers recommend a "moody" key light, such as from a single window. Daniel Norton suggests, to help give a sense of volume to your objects, to use a key light on one side and a weaker fill light on the other. He sets the camera so that, without the strobe lights, the picture would be black - that way any lights are only from the strobes, and nothing ambient. Then, you can have the background vignette to black. 

For apparel photography, Daniel uses a single light, set above, so that the bottom of the product casts a slight shadow. He lays it on a white paper roll, and uses a white silk screen to diffuse his strobe light. He also surrounds the object with white foam core boards, building a "house of cards" to block anything from around the studio reflecting/bleeding colors onto the products. Daniel recommends organizing apparel according to like colors, to save time fine-tuning your settings, and he uses a grey card to adjust the white balance, and capture the exact colors of each product. This technique also works for books and anything else that lies flat.

Composition Tips

1. Obviously, you need to be familiar with the elements & principles of design, so you use leading lines, shapes, colors, layers, and the rest to good effect.

2. Be careful not to overload your still life with too many objects - unless that's your goal, to overwhelm the viewer. Consider which objects you want to stand out, and where to place them.

3. Consider differing levels of height. You want some variety, but not too much - you're looking for a sense of balance. You might place certain things on plates or platters to raise them higher.

4. Consider your vantage point - how high or low to hold your camera, and how near or far to stand. If you shoot at the same level as your subject, it adds power - a more monumental feel.

5. Your still life need not be "still". Karl Taylor likes to photograph things in motion, flying through the air. He'll splash water on a still life, and capture the splashes. You can take photos while pouring liquids into cups, etc.

6. Ed Versosky recommends following the "Rule of Odds". This claims that an odd number of objects is more interesting than an even number of objects. I won't say if it's true or not, but it's worth considering when you plan.

7. I discuss grouping objects in this compositional lesson. Just to repeat, how you group objects is especially important in a still life.

8. Sean Durham likens still life composition to architecture, thinking of your objects as buildings and how they correspond to and compliment each other.

9. Peter McKinnon likes to add a glass on its side super close to the camera so it's out of focus, but pretty.

10. For product photos, you want to use a high F number to keep everything in focus, and avoid over-editing in Lightroom. You want the images to look natural.