Still Life Photography Tips

These still life photography tips will help improve your digital photography. Digital still life photography is a great way to hone your sense of composition and improve your eye for light and color.

Many new photographers start out taking landscape and still life pictures when they are getting used to their camera settings. These forms of photography aren't just for new photographers though. Getting really good landscape or still life photos takes a lot of skill. Photographers can spend a lifetime trying to develop and master these styles of photography. On this page we'll look at some tips for still life pictures.

Composition

Still life photography includes pictures of any inanimate objects. Pictures of fruit, cut flowers, books, cups and any other objects or groupings of objects count as still life photography.

Try to tell a story with your picture. Put objects together in such a way that they communicate an idea in the photograph. For example, you could take a picture of a notebook and a pen.

If you're photographing in color, pay attention to the colors of objects in your pictures and how those colors work together. If you're using black and white, pay close attention to contrast and textures in your photographs.

The background in your still life photographs is also quite important. It is important to have a background that doesn't distract from the composition. Plain backgrounds usually work well, but if you are unable to get a plain background in your picture you can open your aperture wide to blur the background.

Light is another very important aspect of still life pictures. This type of photography give you great opportunities to experiment with the placing of artificial lighting. You can use one or multiple light setups to properly light your subject.

A great solution for still life work to get good lighting and a seamless background is using a light tent. Here's an example of one that comes with the lights you would need. CowboyStudio Table Top Photo Studio Light Tent Kit in a Box - 1 Tent, 2 Light Set, 1 Stand, 1 Case (See all Camera Lighting Accessories)

You can also use natural light in your still life. Try taking pictures near windows to make the most of light streaming into the room. You can use sheer fabric to soften the light if needed.

Other Tips

Here are some other still life photography tips to help you take great pictures.

• Use a low ISO setting to get the clearest pictures.
• Use a tripod to steady your camera.
• Initially you may want to use autofocus to focus your shot then switch to manual to tweak the focus a bit a get a clearer picture.

If you liked these still life photography tips check out our other digital photography tutorials.