Believe it or not, there really is a lot of thought that can go into having a successful and interesting still life photograph. As I’ve mentioned before, there are so many ways to make a still life look good. From the minimalist look to a completely full scene of objects. For mine, I’ve tended to stick to more simple still life photography. I like a ‘cleaner’ scene. Although I’m totally drawn to some of the gorgeous photography that is full of pieces … so far I’ve just been unsuccessful at doing them myself. 

As I begin to put together a scene, I normally have a main object that I want to highlight. It may be flowers, or a particular vessel or piece. I select the backdrop I want to use. I have several to choose from but tend to go with the bright white poster board.

I pull objects together that go with my main piece. There is often a piece of soft cloth or twine in my photos. The cloth adds a softness and movement. The twine adds character and movement.

I suppose I also often like a cup of tea included. I’ve seen lots of other people do that and somehow it will often complete an image … and give it a bit of a story.

Shooting the scene is a whole different story. The way I shoot it depends on how it looks. I push again at my creativity and start looking at what looks good to me. Some are best top down, like the image on the left with the cast iron napkin holder, greenery, and twine. Others are better more straight on like the upper right and others, with a slight top down/front view.

Once I come up with the basic objects, I like to throw other pieces in to change the image up a bit. As you can see with my feature image and the one on the left above, I’ve used only three objects in each and two are the same but I have two different images. I hope this gave you some ideas on how to do your own still life photos. Thanks again for stopping in.