Still-Life Photography: Stilled

Still-Life Photography: Documentary

Onto our third mini module on the still life assignment, Documentary.  There are literally thousands of ways in which you can put together a set of images tied together with a single narrative. I feel most of them would, however, be much stronger if it were over a longer period of time. So in saying that I feel this was the weakest in terms of output for me.

This time we were on our own and had to come up with a subject matter really quickly to get on with shooting with any substance. The subject I had chosen was to shoot each of my family members mobile phones against a while background in natural light. The screens would be illuminated with an app or part of the phone I saw as representing them. Whether that was Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or whatever.

Using a tripod to shot from above the phone resting on a sheet of glass I tried to keep the exact scale of each phone in sync with each other. Two large white bounce boards were used to surround the area situated next to a large window with tracing paper sheets used to diffuse the light and soften the shadows.

In the crit it was mentioned it wasn't personal enough to just have the app and it should have been actually logged in or shown some other user information or interaction.


I'm seriously thinking about carrying on this idea, looking at purchasing a small white pop up tent to create a similar look for a different subject. Possibly something along the lines of people who have been caught trying to sneak drugs into festivals..get them to empty all their pockets onto a glass sheet in my tent.

Still-Life Photography: Product - Martin Wonnacott

http://wonnacott.com/

An exceptional food and drinks products photographer based in New York and London. All work has an air of sophistication and comes across as if executed with effortless ease.

Using high-end Leica equipment to its full potential in bringing out the finest detail with no single element of an image there by mistake. A class act indeed.

Still-Life Photography: Product - Jelly Babies

As a little addition, we were asked to come up with an image with Jelly Babies as a part of it.

JLLY BBYZ

I took several hours development to get this final shot at home. D600 with my 85mm sigma lens and all the same equipment used for the other food shots. Shooting wide open at f1;4 which is most noticeable on the table's DOF. An extra flash inside a cardboard box and a black plastic bag directly behind the glass to light inside. The most problem I had was light spill where the jelly babies had not gone right to the edges and left gaps. The flash on a stand was quite far back compared to the others in order to cast the shadow from the handle and create just a rim light rather that light up the front of the jars contents. 

Still-Life Photography: Product

The second of our mini modules focuses on product still life photography. Again we went into groups of 3-4 into the studio to shoot some packets randomly selected by Richard.

The first task was to shoot a golf ball sitting on a tee in front of a white background. What a day to be alive.

And then we got our package to shoot. 

If that doesn't get you excited about photography then frankly I don't know what will

Nairn's..Because you're worth it

Still-Life Photography: Food - Purple Pig Yarm

The 3rd food shoot is for an American style burger restaurant chain based in Yarm. They wanted to put out a set of images weekly through social media as a competition for customers if they shared the post. Offering £100 worth of vouchers towards a meal seems to be the way to go if you want over a thousand shares on limited facebook followings.

Each of the venues has a set of similar lighting, but the layouts vary a great deal. So I shot mostly with these in the background side on for a set of burger, steak, dessert, drink and platter specials. The same equipment used as for the previous 2 food shoots using mostly the 85mm lens.I was waiting for the food from the chefs and in the end it took just over 3 hours to complete the set.

Still-Life Photography: Stuart West

http://www.stuartwest.co.uk/

One of my favourite still life food photographers is Stuart West. His style is always consistently fresh looking with minimal items added to each image. Just enough to convey a message in a commercial context.

Most of his work appears to be for editorial rather than just product advertising with aspirational touches added with set pieces constructed environments. the rustic but not run down look familiar to higher end lifestyle magazines.

Excellent use of lighting to create what can look like natural or a subtle combination of both.