Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects.
Because still life’s are in fact still, they became photography’s favourite subject back in its earliest days. Soon after the creation of the first ever photograph in 1839, it was convenient for pioneer photographers to take pictures of something that’s not moving. The reason was simple and technical enough: exposures were fairly long, so long it even took days for an image to come to life, so an inanimate object was perfect for the occasion. These works tended to resemble still life depicted in paintings, so much they even used the same objects and arrangements. As the photographic camera improved, still life was no longer a necessity, but it nevertheless remained one of the most attempted types of photo making Today, this kind of photography mostly lives in form of advertising shots, as their demand on the market is quite high, but its existence in terms of the arts certainly did not go cease either, as many photographers still do it for pure aesthetic reasons, for instance.
Where still life photography originated
still life photography’s origins reside in the early 20th century. Art photographers emerged such as Baron Adolf de Meyer. The Baron was known for his highly artistic approach to photography, as he employed darkroom techniques and used soft-focus lenses to create photographs that looked like drawings, which was fashionable at the time.
John Baldessari is an American photograph who was born on the 17th of June 1931 and died on the 2nd of January 2020. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California.
John Baldessari was known for his pioneering use of appropriated imagery. By blending photos with painting and text. His photos examine the plastic nature of artistic media while offering commentary on our contemporary culture.
Adobe Lightroom classic is an editing software where photographers can edit there photos. its like photoshop just a bit worse.
this is the library section of Lightroom where you can see all your photos, you can also make a collection to organise your photo. For example if you have a lot of photos then you can put your best photo in a collection. this is development this is where you can edit your photos and put filters on them if your in a rush to put them on a website or social media. on the right is where you can manual edit the photos and on the left is already set filters for your photo.
Lightroom classic was made on the 19 of February 2007
When using Lightroom Classic you are able to filter through your photos and choose the best ones for you.
You can pick and discard each imagine using white and black flags and with the photos you pick you are able to rate out of 5 stars then colour code with a red amber green system to decide which photos will be in final use.
This systems allows you to avoid clutter and becoming overwhelmed with too much to choose from.
In the image above is my catalogue after using the filtering system, as you can see i have a significantly reduced the amount of photos to choose from allowing me to make sure I have the best result.
Collections
Here we made a collection to help organise to allow me to find my pictures easier using the collections as if they are sub folders.
Still life in photography derives from the traditional concept of photographing objects organised in such a way that orchestrates a narrative, forming complex compositions that communicate varied allegorical meanings. In its early days, still life photography took the initial meanings and ideas behind still life used in painting, and implemented it into photography, slowly becoming less and less definable over time, to where – in the modern day – still life pieces are able to take any form or definition; from concerns surrounding the environment
William Talbot – Articles of Glass (>1844)
The use of still life was very prominent in photography inventors Jacques-Louis-Mandé Daguerre and William Talbot’s work dating back as early as the 1830s. Still life itself originated within painting in the Netherlands during the 17th Century, representing wealth of the upper classes, religion, morality, colonialism, and various other themes within literature – the phrase ‘still life’ forming from the Dutch word ‘stilleven’.
Still Life with Partridge and Gauntlets – Jacopo De’Barbari, 1504
The ‘first’ still life painting ever created was created by artist Jacopo De’Barbari, although still life didn’t rise to popularity until later on up north. It depicts a deceased grey partridge, with two iron gauntlets, and a bolt from a crossbow passed through each object against a wooden table or wall.`
Vanitas painting by Antonio de Pereda
A vanitas is a piece of artwork that typically symbolises the transience of time and life, the idea of death being absolute, and the futility of pleasure. In its prime, vanitas paintings were produced primarily from the mid-16th-mid-17th Centuries, being another key genre during the Dutch Golden Age. The paintings contrast ideas of wealth and death, ‘vanitas’ deriving from Latin – meaning vanity – which links to Christian beliefs in the sense that material objects have no meaning, as they can’t be carried to the next life with us.
Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill – Pieter Claesz, 1628
“Memento Mori” – remember death – is also another key theme presented throughout still life, vanitas works in particular, the theme that all living things must die at some point or another, and that nothing is forever.
The common themes and symbols – death, wealth, vanity, time, beauty, nature, etc. – used in still life are used to enforce a clear and concise message, and almost provide a comfort about the terrifying uncertainties that are experienced throughout a lifetime.
Still life photography is a from of photography that focuses on everyday objects and captures them in a unique way to make the images more interesting and engaging to the viewer. It defines detail within the objects and brings it out showing the greater depth, making them something more that just a flower or piece of fruit for example. It started in the 17th century when photos and painting of still life objects became very popular, the names ‘still life photography’ comes from the Dutch word stilleven which directly translates.
Examples of still life photography:
Types of still life photography:
There are two main types still life photography, found still life photography and created still life photography.
Found still life photography:
This type of still life photography is when you have randomly or naturally find anything life flowers or fallen fruit etc, without any help e.g. not adding or moving anything around to make the ‘perfect’ image.
Created still life photography:
Whereas created still life photography is when is when you have set up objects life fruits, flowers or food purposely to take an image. The objects are very often simple objects that are placed to make them more interesting and engaging.
What is vanitas ?
Vanitas is a symbolic style of art which shows the certainty of death and purity of pleasure. The Dutch painting was first used in the 17th century and contains anything from books, fruit, cards, jewellery, wilting flowers, hourglasses, skulls, wine and many more objects like that. Giacomo Carissimi was one of the first people to make a Vanitas painting, he made his painting between 1604 and 1605.
what is Memento Mori ?
A memento mori is an object or item that reminds us of the inevitability of death such as a skull. These items are used widely in Vanitas as it matches the structure of the piece.
What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why?
There are many different objects that are used within Vanitas such as candles, cards, wine, dead flowers, skulls, jewellery, hourglasses, fruit, bubbles and more.
What do they represent:
candles – the human soul
cards – faulty of life goals
wine – pleasure of goods
dead flowers – beauty and death
jewellery – nature of beauty and sin of narcissism
hourglasses – the brevity of life and ephemeral nature of life
For my first selection process on Lightroom I clicked file and then import photos and videos. I then went to my drive and selected the images that I wanted to use and then imported them.
I then flagged my images with either ‘x’ to reject them, or ‘p’ to select them.
I have filtered out my rejects to only see the images that I wish to use to make it easier to work with them.
You can compare two images using the compare view and can zoom in using the magnified glass, this allows you to choose with image is of better quality.
I have now switched my image from library to develop to edit the image. I have cropped my image down to focus on the objects in the image.
To edit the image I used the auto button on the right hand side to create better lighting on my image.
I added a shadow by using present on the left hand side, as well as vignetting and I used the level medium to give the image a slight shadow.
To export my images I pressed file export and the adjusted the filters:
Aperture is the adjustable lens opening that lets light into the camera when taking and image. It is important to know how to use the aperture as it determines the depth of field which controls the sharpness of the image.
A higher depth of field would allow for the whole image to be in focus with a sharp finish, and vice versa, a lower depth of field would only have a certain object in focus with the background blurry.
