For this Photograph I used the brush on the background but slanted the camera to give it a 3D look and also added a light behind the object to create a glow and better effect.
For Single Life I really liked the look of a still object in Black and White because it gives it an old, antique look that almost shows what people used to use for tools in the past but in fact people still do everyday! 😊
I chose these three tools because I really like how they all are different with either different backgrounds or different angles. But also are very similar themed with very different meanings.
Here is a few of my single object photos. I used a light behind the tools for some of the photos because I really liked how the glow behind the object looks because it gives it a silhouette and also I can change the colour of the glow if I want a different effect/look.
Walker Evans was an American photographer and photojournalist best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans’ work from the FSA period uses the large format, 8×10-inch view camera.
Evans’ most famous photo was a portrait of Allie May Burroughs- a farmer’s wife, and mother of four – whose unforgettable eyes seem to stare right through us – is one of the most firmly embedded images in American consciousness.
This is some examples of Walker Evans’ work, where he takes simple flat photographs of different tools and then makes them black and white and maybe even give them a reflection or shadow to create dark, old, almost scary feel to the photographs. Also, they all don’t use any colour only shadow colours like grey, black and white and some pictures he gave an almost floating effect by using no shadow by using extra lights which also helps capture all the details on each tool.
Darren Harvey-Regan is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. His work has appeared in exhibitions and publications internationally and is part of the permanent photography collection at the V & A Museum, London.
Darren is an accomplished Leader with a focus on designing culture, strategic thinking, change management, operational design, HR and project leadership.
Darren Harvey-Regan’s photos are very bold and powerful and this picture in particular has a very strong contrast between the block and the shadow. This makes the object used stand out and look more powerful. The use of shape and line in this image makes the object appear more interesting to look at and gives the object a different composition.
These photos are actually montages of Walker Evans’ work when many people think it is Darren Harvey-Regan’s work.
My Top 3 edited Still-Life images.
First Photo Editing Process
For my photograph, I first made the background purple whilst making the shadows darker and the highlights brighter so above the sunglasses is a lighter purple which also helps the reflection on the sunglasses because they had lighter parts on too! Also, used the vignette to create a shadow around the whole photo making it seem darker and surrounded.
Second Photo Editing Process
For my second photograph, I didn’t like how the shadows made it look so dark and gloomy and wanted some colours in the picture so I made the shadows on the right a turquoise colour with the highlights being red, and it gives this really cool split on the tower!
Third Photo Editing Process
For my third photograph, I didn’t change too much, I only changed a few effects in the Tone settings and the Presence settings. But I wanted a more brighter/warmer feel to the picture by making the background have a yellowish tint with bringing out the highlights and colours!
These are some of my photos I have taken, a lot of the photos I used a 3D further away look, but for a lot of the other ones I also used the 2D over-head look with capturing all the tools, books and other objects.
Strongest photos:
For these photographs, what I did was use the infinity curve for the objects to go on. I placed the different objects in the centre apart from the shoes which I put the middle of them in the centre. Then turned all the main lights off, but kept a still standing light on with the cool side of it on. Faced it towards my objects and then took the picture.
But for the camera what I did was put the aperture around f/16 which is kind of high because I don’t need to blur the background as it is plain and dark already. A low shutter speed because the object is still, it doesn’t need a high shutter speed. Finally, a high ISO because I wanted it to be fairly dark and that is what gives the gloomy/dark feel especially for the tower.
In this photo this is old objects but gives the viewer a lightened feel with the background having a pinkish tint, and with the texture being very smooth it gives a friendly/young feel.
Photographs consist of formal and visual elements and have their own ‘grammar’. Examples of visual and formal elements consist such as line, shape, repetition, rhythm, balance and many more. Steiglitz and Strand, “often abstracted reality by eliminating social or spatial context; by using viewpoints that flattened pictorial space, acknowledging the flatness of the picture plane; and by emphasising shape and tonal rendition in highlights and shadows as much as in the actual subject matter.”
Light– e.g. where’s the brightest areas, any shadows, can you tell the time of day through the picture, natural light or artificial, harsh or soft and directed or reflected light.
You can see in this photo that the whole photo is dark but their is a light that shines straight across the objects to show, that’s the importance and main focus in the photo.
Line– Any objects in the picture that acts like lines. Straight or curvy, thin or thick.
There are multiple lines in this picture, all different sizes. But the thin lines are used to just outline shapes whilst the thick lines are used to stand out.
Repetition/Shape– Any objects, shapes, lines or other subjects that repeat and create a rhythm or pattern. Echoes, reflections that also are in photos.
The repetition of all of the pegs are used to create structure to the photo without layering it and piling the picture too much.
Space– Any geometric (straight edged) or organic, (curvy) shapes? What shapes are they and how they relate to each other.
Texture/Value/Tone– Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) space. Ground or background, if you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel, is there a range of tones from dark to light. Where is the darkest part of the image, where is the lightest.
Colour– Where is the darkest part of the image? Where is the lightest? Are the tones in the photograph balanced or does the image tend towards darkness or lightness overall. How does this affect the mood or atmosphere?
What kind of colours can you see e.g. saturated, muted, complementary, primary? Is there a dominant colour? How would this image be different if it was in black and white?
Composition– Does the use of colour help us understand the subject or does it work independently?
How have the various elements in the picture been arranged? Does the image seem balanced or unbalanced? Is it possible to superimpose geometrical shapes on the image to better understand the composition e.g. a pyramid? Has the photographer used the Rule of Thirds?
What is Still Life?
Still life is a painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware. It is also a work of art that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world, such as fruit, flowers, dead game, and/or vessels like baskets or bowls.
Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor from Medellín. His signature style, also known as “Boterismo”, depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece. This style is shown through his still life photos by using large fruit with large abnormal objects to show uniqueness and creativity.
Here is some of Fernando Botero’s best still life work that he has produced over the years!
Another really important and famous artist is Caravaggio. He was a divisive and important Italian painter. He was abandoned when he was 11 years old and trained with an artist in Milan. He relocated to Rome, where his art became well-known for the tenebrism method he employed, which used shadow to highlight brighter regions. His success, unfortunately, was brief. Caravaggio departed Rome after killing a person in a scuffle.
Caravaggio with his Basket of Fruit gave still life new dignity, by putting it on the same level as figurative painting. Caravaggio didn’t search for aesthetically pleasing representations, but he searched for reality, because to him painting meant to accept life as it is, without decorations and with all its imperfections. It looks like he has the basket of fruit on the rule of thirds which shows that is the main focus.
What is Vanitas?
Vanitas is a still-life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability. Here are some examples.
What is Memento Mori?
Memento Mori is an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, such as a skull. Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers.
Some Metaphors and Symbols used in still life would be:
Fruit: Varying Symbolism In Still Life Paintings.
Candles: The Passing of Time.
Seashells: Birth, Purity, And Fertility.
Insects: Transformation And Decay.
Dead Animals: Contradiction And The Hunt.
Trade/Slavery/Colonialism: Shown through objects they used or materials they used/picked e.g. cotton.
Q1: What is the etymology (origin & history) of the word photography?
Writing with light.
Q2: What year was the first photograph made in camera?
1826 (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce)
Q3: When did the first photograph of a human appear?
1838 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)
Q4: Who made the first ‘selfie’
Robert Cornelius (1839)
Q5: When did the first colour photograph appear?
1861 (James Clerk Maxwell)
Q6: What do we mean by the word genre?
A style or category of art.
Q7: What do we mean by the genre of still-life?
An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world.
Q8: What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement?
To record reality
Q9: How do we describe the term documentary photography?
Capture images that truthfully portray people, places and events.
Q10: What is exposure in photography?
The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor.
Q11: What controls exposure on your camera?
Aperture, shutter speed, ISO.
Q12: What control on our camera records moving objects?
Shutter
Q13: How do we explain depth of field?
How much of your image is in focus.
Q14: What factors affect Depth of Field? Shutter speed, distance from camera to subject, and sensitivity to light.
Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length.
Q15: What is composition in photography?
The arrangement of visual elements within the frame.
Q16: What is your understanding of aesthetics in art?
Concerned with the nature of beauty and taste.
Q17: What are contextual studies in photography?
Consider factors outside of the image, as well as inside the frame.
Q18: How many images are captured on average every day worldwide?
4.7 billion
Q19: Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world?
The Queen (Elizabeth II)