Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. Similar to still life painting, it is the application of photography to the still life artistic style.

Historical context:

Still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe. The impetus for this term came as artists created compositions of greater complexity, bringing together a wider variety of objects to communicate allegorical meanings.

Still life painting reached a height of popularity in the Netherlands during the 17th century, when the market for small intimate paintings for domestic settings exploded. These images reflected the importance of religion to their owners and used a rich symbolic language to subtly convey complex moral and spiritual ideas. Flowers, fruit, and common household items were used to gently remind the viewer that life is short, death is certain, and any overindulgence in sensual earthly pleasures will be paid for in the afterlife. A still life conveys vanitas themes because we know that flowers fade, and candles burn out. They symbolise the shortness of life and are meant to remind the viewer that existence is meaningless without the hope of salvation.

Still-life painting:

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Still-life photography:

Still life photography is a form of professional photography that depicts inanimate objects or subject matters. Still life is a unique genre of photography. One thing that makes it so special is that often the subjects aren’t very interesting.

There are two different types of still-life photography which are found still-life and created still-life. Found still-life is photography that contains a combination of found subject, symbolic objects, and natural lighting. The visual message is concerned with the transitory nature of life, and the inevitability of death. However, created still-life is when a photographer creates an image with almost full control over lighting, mood, and composition. Because photographers directly influence the image creation process, still life photos reflect the creativity and style of the photographers themselves.

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Key Painting Analysis:

In this still-life painting created from 1620/21–1690 by Abraham van Beyeren it clearly displays multiple food items which symbolise the idea of ‘wealth’. The artist included a rich, red lobster which symbolises wealth and temptation with a fancy glass that shows the artist indulged in a life of luxury. The table shown is neatly lade boasting the luscious foods on display with a prosperous white and blue bowl. The glass could be used to reflect the richness off of the lobster to arrange the ideas of wealth throughout the collection of lavish items. The ideas of good luck and abundance have been presented through the grapes which are slightly hanging off the table meaning to always hold on due to the good luck. The painting has a great contrast between the black background and the dimmed items presented on the table. The use of the dark browns make the image have a dark tone and create a gloomy feeling towards the viewer.

EXPERIMENT #1

For my first experiment I am planning to create a joiner from my first photoshoot.

First I separated the images I took to create a joiner from the rest of my photos by changing the colour label to blue.

I then edited one image and synchronized the settings so all images were edited the same.

I then exported my images to Adobe photoshoot and made a joiner by clicking merge images and selecting images I wanted in my joiner.

The process was automated so I could not control what the final outcome looked like. I changed the colour of the background (seen below) to black.

The final outcome of this joiner is seen below

I quite like this experiment, especially how detached each image of the coast is, with the biggest image in the middle- drawing attention to it. The angles of the photos are interesting and present almost an optical illusion view contrasted against the sharp, straight lines of the edges of the image.

EXPERIMENT #2

I decided to create another joiner using the same process

This joiner was not as successful as the images separated and just became sharp fragments of pieces of the image.

EXPERIMENTATION #3

Instead of combining multiple images I decided to experiment using one image by changing it into a 3D image to decide if I should create a 3D joiner.

I did this by going on 3D; New mesh from layer; mesh pre-set; sphere where photoshop then merged my image into a sphere.

I then changed the background to black to get rid of the shadow as I believed it looked tacky and too fake.

I quite like this experimentation as the image looks almost like it was taken with a fisheye lens and looks slightly magnified- distorting the structure of the rock which makes the image look more interesting overall. I really like the way the middle of the image looks like a flower as the contrast between

EXPERIMENTATION #4

I wanted to explore by merging images to make a joiner, first I selected some images on Adobe Photoshop and superimposed them on top of each other.

I chose images which had a large contrast between shadows and light areas so the joiner would be more varied in colour

I believe this joiner is not successful as the image is too busy and there is not a large contrast in tones as the textures of the rocks are quite similar, meaning the image looks plain.

FINAL OUTCOMES

Overall I believe the two experiments below are the most successful and I plan to decide between them and display my final choice in an exhibition.

With the still life images, I arranged a group of rocks and other materials into a formation that I was happy with. Once this was achieved, I took a few photos of the items and decided to change the backdrops and boards they lay on.

A few of the photos taken consisted of a layout placed upon a table with coloured card and a white backdrop. This gave off quite a simple look to the photograph with a slight variation of colour change with the card underneath. The other range of photos were taken however on a much harder surface that was a lot more reflective than the card. It was fully white, but I was able to play around with the colour of the lighting by placing coloured plastic over the lights used. This provided a wide range of multicoloured photographs which were interesting to experiment with.

When taking my images, I ended up mainly taking flash head photographs of my still life displays and also continuous lighting photographs. I wanted to experiment with different lighting approaches so that I could get a variety of outcomes.

—- Continuous and flash head lighting —-

What is continuous lighting?

Continuous lighting in photography occurs when you turn the studio lights on, they stay on. You can power your studio lighting up or down, based on what you need, but they produce ‘what you see is what you get’ lighting.

Continuous lighting comes in different kinds, including incandescent, LED, fluorescent, tungsten and even plasma lights.

What is flash head lighting?

Flash heads, whether hooked up to a power pack or integrated into a monolight, generally feature an interchangeable reflector (bowl or dish) used to shape the light. More compact units may come with a built-in reflector. Interchangeable reflectors give photographers numerous options.

Contact sheets:

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Flagged photographs:

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Colour coded and star rated photographs:

Best images:

—- Still life photo-edits —-

Before and afters:

Black and white experiments:

Colour experiments:

Final outcomes + Image Analysis

I have chosen these three images as my first final outcomes as I believe they all compliment each-other well with each containing a variety of objects from the locations in Jersey we have visited. I wanted to display the history of Jersey through the items that can be found among the island and present its geology through the process of a still life photograph. Each image contains the same types of shells but they have all been laid out different and have been photographed at different angles. The first image displays a range of shells all across the photograph whilst the second image only showcases a select number of shells to really highlight a closeup view of what the object really looks like and what it presents for Jersey.

Although I like how these images turned out, I will say that I have a few critics to make about the three images taken. With the third image in particular, I am satisfied with how the image was taken and the angle it was taken at, but I think now that it would have looked a lot better with a similar coloured backdrop so that the shells are showcased a lot more obviously. Photographing them up against a light backdrop, takes away a little of the shells shape as it’s getting lost in a similar colour scheme to that of the backdrop.

For this image, once again I like how the final outcome turned out but I still believe that the image holds some weaknesses that could be improved in order to make the image much higher quality. I believe that the image is slightly blurry and the shadow isn’t as crisp and clear as I hoped it would be. I also think that the reflection of the image isn’t very reflective and shiny which is something else I would like to improve on.

Next time, I would aim to make the image just a bit sharper by possibly adjusting the lighting more and taking the images more slowly as for the camera to process the photographs taken.

Second photoshoot attempt

After doing my first photoshoot, I ended up revisiting the studio to take another selection of photographs to see if I could possibly improve a bit more with taking still life images.

Contact sheets:

Colour coded and star rated photographs:

Best images:

Final edits:

Combined rock photographs:

Singular object photographs:

Evaluation and Critique

Overall, I am very happy with how my second set of images turned out and really enjoy the look they give off with the scratchy background behind the rocks. I believe that this scratchy texture helps to elevate the images a lot more to make it seem like the whole image is rough and jagged. The rough and jagged sense displays what Jersey’s geology really is like and displays the real basis of the islands structure and aesthetic.

For the photographs that contain a collective of rocks, these ones I believe were to be my strongest photographs as I feel they hold a very bold sense of imagery. They capture the real sense of Jersey’s geological aspects and what the island has to hold within it’s beaches and other rocky landscapes. The way I edited the photo I particularly like as it highlights the layers of textures from each rock and gives them a much richer amount of importance.

For my singular images, I particularly like this image out of all the ones I took as I believe it is a very dramatic image and once again displays a nice rough and scratchy presence. Next time I would have possibly tried out photographing the rock on a black surface as I feel like that would have added quite a bit more depth, but it might have also faulted the overall aspect of the rock due to the rock containing quite harsh colours already. The focal point wouldn’t be very clear to see if it’s surrounded in a similar colour to the rock itself, whilst the white background displays the rock in its entirety.