Still Life Photography - Your Box of Tricks

Still life is the photographic theme that allows us the greatest amount of control. We choose the objects to be photographed, the background, the lighting, the lens, and the camera angle.

We create the composition by just moving objects around. Still life is the closest that photographers get to painting a picture.

It’s the most area of photography where you get busy doing other things than taking a picture. Things like cutting, pasting, hanging, cleaning, stuffing, and many more!

All still life photographers have their box (usually a DIY toolbox) of essential items that they just can’t do without. This is my list of essentials (feel free to add yours):

• Surgical gloves for handling items without leaving fingerprints.
• Tweezers for removing annoying little items like hairs and fluff.
• Colored spray paints for making your own backgrounds
• Scissors
• Permanent ink pens for retouching marks on objects (scratches, for example).
• Blue - Tack for holding things in place (especially round objects).
• Dulling spray for removing fierce highlights from shiny surfaces.
• A make-up brush for removing crumbs and the like.
• Paper towels for mopping up spillage
• Rods for hanging things from.
• A fine water spray for putting dew on flowers or condensation on bottles and glasses.
• Gaffa tape, because it’s very strong and can be reused for many jobs.
• Double sided tape for sticking things together.
• A powerful staple gun for fastening backgrounds in place.

A word of advice. You will have disappointments shooting still lifes just as in any creative endeavor.The reason for the disappointment will almost always be that you didn’t notice something glaringly ugly - a small, black hair in a glass of milk, for example - that has appeared as if from nowhere in your picture.

Don’t give up!

Hani Gamal is a professional photographer since 1997 and have a large number of photography students in his 101 photography class.

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