What Is Still Life?

Still Life is a genre of art used to picture inanimate subjects, normally a smaller group of inanimate subjects. Still life usually uses fruit, flower and objects. Still life also shows objects from the natural or man made world. There are many artists of this still life genre including Pieter Claesz and Paulette Tavormina.

 

The artist which made this work is called Pieter Claesz, Pieter Claesz is a Dutch painter born in 1597 and died in January 1661. These paintings are in the genre of Still Life and are mainly based on the colours brown, white and green.

Timeline Of Still Life

Still life art has existed since the 17th century onwards, But in the 19th century Still Life changed because artists created photography as a new normal for still life art, to express their thoughts in a new and different way, and that is where still life photography was begun.

• The first piece of evidence that we have of still life photography was in 1839 when the first ever image with still objects in it.
• In the early 19th century, the art genre of modernism came into photography. An example of somebody who did modernist still life photography is Man Ray.
• In the 21st century contemporary still life photography was introduced and many photographers are still working on this today continuing the tradition of Man Ray.

Q1: What is the etymology (origin & history) of the word photography? 

20sec 

Writing with light. 

Capturing light. 

Painting with light. 

Filming light. 

Q2: What year was the first photograph made in camera? 
 

20sec 

1739 (Joseph Wright) 

1839 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre) 

1826 (Joseph Nicéphore Niépce) 

1904 (Salvadore Dali) 

 
 
Q3: When did the first photograph of a human appear? 
 

20sec 

1874 (Julia Margeret Cameron) 

1838 (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre) 

1856 (Henry Mullins) 

1939 (Ropert Capa) 
 

Q4: Who made the first ‘selfie’ 

20sec 

Kim Kardashian (2015) 

Robert Cornelius (1839) 

Cindy Sherman (1980) 

Claude Cahun (1927) 

Q5: When did the first colour photograph appear? 

20sec 

20sec 

1907 (Lumière brothers) 

1961 (Andy Warhol) 

1935 (Kodachrome) 

1861 (James Clerk Maxwell) 
 

Q6: What do we mean by the word genre? 

20sec 

A study of an artwork 

A depiction in art 

A style or category of art 

A creative process in art 

 
 
Q7: What do we mean by the genre of still-life? 

20sec 

In image where a person is sitting still and not moving. 

An arrangement of flowers. 

A picture of food. 

An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world. 

 
Q8: What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement? 
 

20sec 

To capture moving objects 

To record reality 

To affirm photography as an art form 

To be scientific 

Q9: How do we describe the term documentary photography? 
 

30sec 

Capture images that truthfully portray people, places and events. 

Staging images for maximum effect. 

Provide in-depth information about a subject over a long period time. 

An interpretation of reality as witnessed by the photographer. 

 
Q10: What is exposure in photography? 
 

20sec 

To expose hidden elements in our society. 

To record fast moving objects. 

To capture bright light. 

The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor. 

Q11: What controls exposure on your camera? 

30sec 

Depth of field, composition, distance to subject. 

Aperture, focal length, ISO. 

Aperture, shutter speed, ISO. 

Shutter speed, distance to subject, depth of field. 

 
Q12: What control on our camera records moving objects? 
 

20sec 

Aperture 

White balance 

Shutter 

ISO 

 
Q13: How do we explain depth of field? 

How much of your image is in focus. 

To photograph from a high vantage point. 

A view across a field. 

A deadpan approach to image making. 

 
Q14: What factors affect Depth of Field? 

30sec 

Shutter speed, distance from camera to subject, and sensitivity to light. 

Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length. 

Lens focal length shutter speed and lens aperture. 

Sensitivity to light, shutter speed and lens focal length. 

Q15: What is composition in photography? 

20sec 

Capturing the quality of light. 

A piece of music with different instruments. 

Staging a portrait with props. 

The arrangement of visual elements within the frame. 

Q16: What is your understanding of aesthetics in art? 

30sec 

Concerned with the nature of beauty and taste. 

It is subjective and in the eye of the beholder. 

Aesthetic qualities refer to the way and artwork looks and feels. 

Making a critical judgement based on observation and understanding. 

Q17: What are contextual studies in photography? 

30sec 

To provide historial, cultural and theoterical understanding of images. 

Consider factors outside of the image, as well as inside the frame. 

To give an opinion without any research. 

To seek a definite answer. 

 
Q18: How many images are captured on average every day worldwide? 
 

20sec 

1.5 billion 

4.7 billion 

800 million 

6.9 billion 

Q19: Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world? 
 
 

Mona Lisa 

Lady Gaga 

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara 

The Queen (Elizabeth II) 

 

William Eggleston​

William Eggleston, (born July 27, 1939, Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.), is an American photographer whose straightforward depictions of everyday objects and scenes, many of them in the southern United States, were noted for their vivid colours, precise composition, and evocative allure. His work was credited with helping establish colour photography in the late 20th century as a legitimate artistic medium.​

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Before using the studio and camera set up I used the camera simulator to try different things and learnt about different settings. I started in aperture priority settings before moving to full manual.

From the comments given by the simulator it guided the next shot I took testing different suggestions and learning what effects the photo and how. For example in this one the exposure is good as the iso is automatic on aperture priority.

Using what I had learnt I then took the photo above with a wide depth of field, capturing everything in the frame in focus. After this shot I felt comfortable enough to try the full manual mode which is what I will use on the actual cameras.

This was my first attempt in which the aperture is too low for the iso resulting in a very unbalanced exposure meter so the photo is extremely over exposed.

For this shot, which is by far my best one of all of them I focused on making sure the exposure meter is balanced, by adjusting the shutter speed to capture the propellers as well as make sure that the photo is not too over exposed with the low aperture this also meant I needed to increase the iso to get a well exposed photo and keep the exposure meter balanced.