The photo challenge for the next two weeks will be Still Life. You can do this with almost any inanimate subject that you have lying around in your house. It can be done with any camera, any type of lighting or any type of background that is available in your house. This type of photography can really challenge your creativity. Click Here for inspiration. Another source for inspiration are YouTube tutorials Click Here for one I found worth while.
Please upload images no larger than 1600 pixels wide or 1050 pixels high.
ISO 3200, f/16, 1/30.
Wow, what a fantastic still life Ron. I love the lens distortions in the water filled glass. The distorted fruit perfectly in the 1/3 makes for a perfect composition. Colours are great.
Vanitas still life paintings, popular among Dutch and Spanish artists in the 16th and 17th centuries, are dark and interesting, so I tried to apply the theme to this assignment. Here’s a description from my new favourite search engine, perplexity.ai (Google has deteriorated IMO).
“Vanitas paintings are known for their chaotic and disorganized compositions that are symbolic of the transience of life and the inevitability of death. They include objects such as skulls, hourglasses, wilting flowers, musical instruments, jewelry, books, and other items that represent the ephemeral nature of life and the vanity of worldly pursuits.”
ISO 800, 64 mm, f/22, 0.6 sec
I composed the photo in a darkened room with the main light source being a 60 watt filament bulb. I bounced the light off the ceiling using an old fashioned work light, the one I used to work in the engine bay of my ol’ Fury II. I wanted to produce an oldish look to the photo, by shielding the objects from direct light and using the filament bulb it produced an even, yellowish wash over the objects. I did at first try to remove shadows by side and back lighting, it just did not work for me, so I thought of the work light. I did tone down a tad the ‘yellowishness’ of the photo in Light Room and made various other adjustments. I used a flashlight hidden in the bay of the record player to illuminate the plate and the 45 due it was coming out too dark otherwise. I used a 50 mm lens at max aperture (F/16), ISO 200,, shutter speed 5 sec.
Wow – I am having a nostalgia attack! – Great example of a still life.
Thanks. It has one missing element. Unfortunately I found the photo I had wanted to include only after I had posted. It is a photo of the ‘gang’ 25 to 30 years younger taken at a party.
There is not much to this photo. Simply a glass ornament sitting on a light ring against a dark background, and heavily adjusted in Light Room. I used a macro 105 mm lens, at max aperture (f/36), ISO 400, 15 sec. shutter speed. I post below the set-up before I moved the tripod/camera up to the ornament.
The set-up
Egg against colored sheets of paper lit with flood lights, while using a shade to cast a shadow. I then made the image into a stark graphic in Photoshop by using the bucket tool and paint brush.
Here is the original setup.
I couldn’t help but notice how closely your image comes to the one seen twice in the YouTube by Karl Taylor you referenced. Good thing you included this showing your set up.
His video was very useful. Thanks for providing the link.
Yes, Karl Taylor’s image was my inspiration. I think I improved on it by targeting the shadows towards the right side of the egg. I think my image has stronger leading lines.
I took this photo looking straight down on a glass. Then inverted the colors and bumped up the saturation a bit.
f/9, 1/160, iso400
This was simply a shot of a bunch of sea shells
f/6, 1/125, iso2500
This is a wind ornament. I was challenged with getting a blue sky background so the subject stood out. Finally asked a volunteer to be my assistant and hold it up.
I took 30 images trying for the perfect spin to capture the sunlight lighting both the flat inner section with as many of the rings as possible.
Settled with this and made a positive vignette adjustment.
I really like it. Interesting composition and framing Bill. The vignette adds to the composition.
I attempted a few stills to see how it would all turn out. I tried to capture the “darker” side of things with these images. Settings were f16, ISO 400 and around 5 sec. for all images.
Second image.
Third image.
Love the colours, Cheerful
ISO 3200, f/20, 1/15. Taken on tripod, with dimmed overhead pot lighting to illuminate the flowers a bit.
Wonderful photo. Evocative of old-master oil painting, I think. Captures the candle light so well
Thanks Nick!
Egg Holders with Flowers – Canon EOS R8. 100mm lens, ISO 1600, 1/125 sec @ f/5.0.
Used a lamp to direct some extra light onto the egg holders. Background in a piece of white cloth. Cropped the picture and increased exposure and whites in LR. Also increased clarity and saturation in LR.
Lovely image Shannon. Love your choice of background and the green leaves framing the ends of the composition.
I will be unavailable for the virtual meeting tomorrow. I enjoyed looking at the YouTube resource. See you all next meeting.
These are little Guinea fowl craft items from the time I lived in Zambia with watermark reminiscent of zebras.
Not quite similar scales but it does evoke strong memories of my teen years going off to the lake or paddle down a section of a river.
Used a LUD from Luminar 4 called “hot punch” to enhance the colours especially the yellow car paint and birch bark used to make the model canoe.
Used a TTL flash held up to the right of camera with a MagMod diffuser to give the idea of a sunny sky.
The canoe was a purchased replacement at Cranberry Portage Manitoba after my handmade model floated off in a wind storm on Madge Lake Manitoba and was not recovered. As I recall I felt at the time, it just wasn’t the same. Age 10 or so.
I am submitting these two photos the first is my 1930 Philco radio my wife did the decorating. I shot two photos and stitched them together vertically.
this second one was a setup in my office when I was thinking of what I should take pictures of camera gear and stuff that came to mind. these are a few of my cameras a gear. the portraits are circa 1860’s on cardboard, the smaller ones are circa 1840’s tintypes or daguerreotype these are my Great grandmother’s family. Went b+w darkened a little to shiny in places
Interesting composition, Dwight. I have a working, Yashica-C which I use from time to time. It is a comparatively inexpensive way to shoot 6×6 film. I draw the purist line here, I use the D camera for the meter settings…eyes not what they used to be. I develop the film and prints myself (more for the fun than convenience). I attach a shot here.
During this Challenge period we were in BC. Highlight was a visit to Tofino and the great beaches facing the Pacific Ocean. We hoped for storms and big waves but missed it by a few days so instead up before sunrise and late into evening on the beach.
This is my “Mother Nature still life” a solitary man looking at the sun setting.
Fuji XT-5 handheld walking the beach at sunset. Great orange sky but darkness meant high ISO. ISO 12,800/ F8/ SS@1/1000
Taken with my 16mm lens at 1/3 sec, f/14, ISO 500
ISO 800, 56 mm, f/6.3, 1/20th sec
I used a lens ball on a silver tray with small beads scattered. I had a flash with a snoot shooting from behind. Shot at 1/60 sec, f 5.6, ISO 100 using a 100mm lens.
I love doing still life, but this time around I struggled with the lighting and background. The only edits were cropped and used dehaze and clarity to whiten the background in Lightroom. This was with my macro lens at F5 1/60 sec, ISO 100.