Photo SILL-LIFE Secrets

I began by asking Tony to describe his definition of Still Life Photography. Here is his reply.

There Are Two basic aspects to Still-Life Photography:

1. Commercial Still Life Photography, when shooting the manufactures product and exhibiting it in the best possible way.

2. Creative Still Life Photography, which could mean shooting perhaps a piece of nature and exhibiting it as art, for example a vase of flowers or a bowl of fruit, or something abstract.

Commercial or Advertising Still Life Photography could be Tabletop for small products, or larger products, or even building room sets to shoot furniture, bed linen, carpets etc. In some still life shots it might be necessary to include a models hand holding a product. All these categories would fall under the heading of Still-Life Photography.

Backgrounds: Most products could be shot on a neutral background or simple backdrop in order to show the manufactures product the best possible way. Usually a piece of paper size 1 meter by 70cm., which is a standard size available at any stationary store, will do. Also available is a graded background in the same size. You could use a piece of cloth or in fact any other type of surface as well.

The Simplest of table top photography would be small products, such as a bottle of shampoo or even a bottle of vodka, in which I would use a white or graded background, but normally a neutral background that would not draw attention from the product itself.

Cameras: Usually the bigger format "View Cameras" are used in still life, with the 5"x4"inch camera being the most popular size format. The reason for this is that the perspectives can be corrected. Also the view cameras tilt and swing camera back and front lens panel can assist in close up focusing, giving the user the ability of obtaining critical focus. Sometimes roll film cameras size120 may be used. This is up to the clients brief or specification, but it is often down to his budget expenses! It is simply cheaper to use one roll of 120 film than12 pieces of 'sheet film'.

A View Camera is a large camera with a camera back that takes 'sheet film', which has to be loaded into 'dark slides' in a darkroom, and placed in position in the camera back before an exposure can be made. These large size negatives or transparencies offer the ultimate in image quality, but film stock is expensive to buy, however because of the accurate and static nature of these cameras, fewer pieces of 'sheet film' would be used. View cameras can vary in size from 5"x4", right up to 10"x8"inch negative size.

To day Digital Camera Backs, either scanning Digital backs or One Shot Digital backs are available for use with most View Cameras. The big advantage of this technology is that the client can see his work on screen immediately, or via email on his computer.

There will always be: Advantages and disadvantages in using Digital or conventional film. If you opt to use film, you first have to buy it, or at least keep a small stock of it, then after the shoot, taking it to the color lab' for processing. But with Digital you don’t have these problems. But remember, film will always give you the highest possible quality, far and beyond what a Digital image can give you, keeping in mind this extra quality you get from film may not be needed by the client and therefore the convenience of using digital may be the option chosen. Eight years ago, UK photographer Phil Selfe switched his Pro Ad Studio from film to Digital. He's never looked back! Check out his story and other Digital Photography info in our Digital Photography page.

My Personal Preference View Camera, is the Swiss made "Sinar" camera, made by a photographer who is a technician. The controls on the camera, like perspective correction, depth of field settings are all done on a slide-rule measure, which makes for rapid and easy handling. The camera is completely 'modular' and can be assembled to suite most requirements. Roger Lewis also endorses the 5"x4" "Sinar" camera, which he worked with for more than twenty years, in the studios in London and location fashion assignments abroad, throughout the seventies and eighties.

One Of The Greatest Assets of the View Camera, is being able to correct converging parallel lines, when shooting from above or below the product. Architectural photographers cannot work without them, simply because they can correct the converging parallel lines of a building.

Camera Lenses Are purchased separately and are extremely expensive, but manufactured to the highest quality possible. I have several lenses and find the two most widely used ones are the Nikon 210mm and the Nikon 135mm.

Film Speed: (unless your using digital),100 ASA or even 50 ASA, there is no need to use a faster film speed on a static subject, and from a slower film speed, you will obtain the best quality definition.

This Should Be Kept as simple as possible, even if you use more than one light, you mustn’t let this be noticeable.

The Main Light, (key light), should be from the side or above at a 45 degree angle or higher, to give shape and dimension to the object being photographed. In other words the main light will give the depth and dimension to the shot, while all other lights and reflectors are secondary.

A Second Light could be used as a fill-in, which is usually placed directly above the camera lens, so any shadows are not seen and generally set at half power. The idea of this is to balance out areas that are too dark for a reflector to deal with.

You Must Keep In Mind: That the film doesn’t see the lighting range that the human eye can see. The strength of the fill in light should generally be half the power of the main light, or sometimes even quarter power of the main light.

The Next Thing, would be a third light, placed behind the object itself, which will help to give the object dimension, very much like a clip light on a models hair and help to separate or lift the product from the background. These three lights are more than enough for most simple still life photographs.

When Setting Up your still life shot for small products, make sure that there is space around the set. This of course, equally applies to a larger set as well. Don’t set up against a wall so that you will not be able to place lights behind your set, or be unable to move around it. Ideally you should set up in the middle of the studio, leaving enough working space and room for setting up the camera and tripod, together with a long focus lens if required.

The Choice Of Lighting could be one of several. A large Soft-Box fitted to a studio flash unit, which would give a soft overall light. Or it could be tungsten light, such as a spotlight, which will give shadows emphasizing details of the product, or somewhere in between the two. For example, my studio flash units have tungsten modeling lights so while I can see the lighting effects as I set up my shot, I can also opt to use it as a tungsten lighting source and not use the flash.

Soft-Box: Here is a suggestion to save you some money, and if you haven't already got a soft-box, hang a piece of tracing paper in front of your studio flash unit, it's almost as good as a soft box and a lot cheaper too. The only problem with this is that you will find that it's less controllable.

Light Source: Can be Studio Flash, which is daylight balanced, or could be tungsten light. You can obtain daylight balanced film and tungsten balanced film.

The Second Choice in lighting would not be another light, but a reflector such as a white card. But you must make sure that whatever way you choose to light your set, that you don’t overpower the main light.

Important: Try to think and work with one light and keep it simple as possible, all other lights and reflectors are secondary.