Stil Life Photography - How to Take Better Still Life Photos

Still life photography has many uses. Perhaps you want to take a photograph of a beautiful bowl of fruit or perhaps you have learned that an important key to eBay success is uploading quality photos of your products. Other reasons for learning still life photography are many and include selling photograph downloads at microstock sites or to food magazines.

Unless you are photographing specific products or pictures for a magazine assignment, the subjects for your still life photography are endless. Fine art still life photos aren't limited to apples and grapes. Even something like artfully arranged spools of thread can be interesting and visually appealing. Microstock sites like Shutterstock and iStock that cater to commercial users have a high demand for all sorts of still life, often of very simple objects, like a cup of coffee or a key.

In one way, still life photography is a lot easier than other forms of photography like landscape, sports or pet photography. With stills, you often have full control over the composition and can arrange the inanimate objects exactly how you want them.

In other ways, good still life pictures are more challenging to capture. That's because they are close up so it's easy to spot imperfections like a blemish on a piece of fruit that would usually pass unnoticed.

Despite its challenge, using basic photography skills and the following tips, you can create quality still life pictures.

Lighting for Still Life Photography

Professional photographers usually use a soft box or a light box to shoot their still lifes. However this isn't absolutely necessary as you will see in a moment, but it can be a big help. You can find a soft box online or you can easily make one using instructions you find online. The purpose of these tools is to provide good, even light.

Another way to get this light is to set up your shoot outside. In fact, a high overcast (bright overcast) sky creates a soft box effect where you get good lighting without the harsh shadows.

Composition for Still Life Photography

Arrange your objects in a pleasing composition. Use a classical composition technique such as "Rule of Thirds" or "Leading Lines" or "Frame within a Frame." Artfully arrange the objects, and use your imagination. For example, if it's a picture of a piece of cake, instead of including the entire table setting, place a gleaming, silver dessert fork upside down on the plate and remove a tiny bite from the cake.

Fill the Frame with your Still Life Subject

Remember, the only thing that should be in your viewfinder or on your preview LCD screen is your composition. Remove any clutter and get up close with your camera. What if there's a background you don't want? The soft box or light box solves this issue, but if you are shooting outside, here's something you can do: place a piece of white foam board or piece of material behind your subject, and voila – no more distracting background. Be sure to use Macro mode so that you get a sharp image.

Look for a Good Angle - and Shoot!

Instead of shooting from your height, hold the camera so that it is level with your subject. Then take some shots from varying angles.

Hopefully these tips on have provided you some helpful information on taking still life photos that you can start putting to use immediately.

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