Studio lighting can be used in many ways to change an images light.
Continuous lighting is when the lights are constantly on before and after taking the photo. This can create an overall lighting that is not harsh but soft.
However flash lighting is when the shutter goes off, the lights flash on and off to capture the light when the camera takes the photo.
An example of continuous lighting is this photo I took in the studio with studio lights. Colour screens were used to cover the main light source to create colourful photos. These photos have a ‘soft’ feeling about them from the light.
However here is a photo from using flash lighting. Colour screens can’t be used for this technique, but overall the image seems brighter and the lighting seems stronger.
What is still life? Still life is typicallya photograph or painting of objects such as fruit, flowers, glassware, everyday objects and more. It captures the detail in objects seen in everyday life whether man made or from nature.
Here’s some examples of still life paintings. They are typically realistically painted. They are usually painted from looking at the arrangement, but can also be from a reference photo.
These are some examples of still life in photography:
They can range from dramatic and intense photos, with dark surrounding to create a dramatic mood.
Or they can have bright backgrounds creating a light-hearted mood, with less dramatic tones as the previous image.
Still life time-line:
1840 William Henry Fox Talbot
1860 Roger Fenton
1907 Clarence White
1930 Frederic William Bond
1994 Clive Landen
2006 Ori Gersht
Vanitas
Vanitas is a 17th-century still life painting in a Dutch genre. It contains symbols of death and change to remind them of their inevitability.
Memento Mori
Similar to Vanitas, Memento Mori is an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death. A skull is typically used for this as a reminder.
Metaphors and Symbols in Still Life
A classic still life painting is a basket of fruit. Although they come across as what they are, the painting or photograph can be depicted to have symbolic meaning. For example, apples could signify temptation from the story of Adam and Eve. For instance, Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio’s still life painting has rotting fruit in it, which he used to symbolise his feelings about the Protestant Reformation at the time.
Another symbol is how candles represent the inevitability of time passing. The longer a candles burn, the closer it is to there being nothing left. This also is a symbol of death like Vanitas and Memento Mori.
However on the other hand flowers can be a symbol of life, growth and power. The beauty and vibrancy they hold can represent how life can be the same. Although the idea can be flipped when a wilting flower is painted. It is a reminder of material goods and how beauty is fragile.
To import, click the ‘import’ button in the bottom left and you will be shows the files on your computer. Select the folder and images you want to edit and click ‘import’.
I used ‘shift’ and ‘X’ to reject the images that I didn’t want to edit as they were out of focus or over exposed.
I have filtered out my rejects by filtering to only show the flagged photos.
You can compare images next to each other by selecting two and then clicking ‘Compare View’. You can then zoom in on them by clicking on an image and moving about.
You can also compare more than two images in ‘Survey View’, however you can’t magnify the images in this mode.
I RAG rated my images from green to red. Green is the images I will definitely edit, yellow is alright, and red is the least best images out of my final selection.
I edited my best image adding contrast, vignette, texture etc. to add depth and make the image more interesting. This is the original compared with the edit.
More Basic Edits
How to export images from Lightroom:
File – export – ‘export to: same folder as original photo’ – tick ‘put in subfolder’ – ‘Blog’ – image sizing – tick ‘resize to fit’ – ‘short edge’ – 1000 pixels.
Do the same for the ‘print’ folder but choose 4000 pixels.
Shutter Speed affects an image by making it blurry or sharp. If the shutter speed is long, then the cameras ‘curtains’ are open for a long time, which lets in light. The longer the curtain is open, the blurrier a photo can be if you’re moving. However, a short shutter speed causes the curtain to be open for a shorter amount of time. This lets less light in, and will produce a sharper image.
Examples
An example of a long shutter speed would be the first photo, where the focal point that’s moving is blurred.
However, in this image, a shorter shutter speed would have been used to photograph the moving dog more sharply.
These photos have a fast shutter speed of around 1/250s. This means the moving balls are in focus.
However, this photo was taken with a slower shutter speed, so the balls are not sharp and the image is blurred. The camera’s captured the movement of the camera and balls
