Tag:wine
Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. An example is food photography.
Wikipedia
In The Beginning….
The classic paintings by the dutch masters featured arrangements of bowls of fruit, flowers in vases surrounded by everyday man-made and organic objects. The still life painting has now evolved to become its own genre as Still Life Photography, using the same principles and props seen in the paintings.
Styles of Still Life Photography
Tabletop is the most common type in still life, where all the objects are arranged on a small table. Other styles of still life are product photography, found object photography, and food photography. In food photography, the entire goal is to present the food attractively by arranging other food items or tableware in the shot to complement your ‘hero’ dish.
Props and Equipment in Still Life Photography
Getting started with still life photography props is inexpensive as most of the props you can pick up in your local second-hand shops and ‘oppies’ and using items that you have at hand in the home.
A collection of jugs, cups, glasses, bottles, wooden boards, linen napkins, tablecloths, vases, bowls, etc., will get you started. From there, you can gradually acquire a few statement pieces. Julie Powell has some great props, but she’s been at it a while. For food photography, just add seasonal fruit and flowers plus cakes etc. Bowls of soup or pasta make great shots.
Backgrounds
A collection of backgrounds are also good to have as you don’t want the background intruding on the shot. White and black cardboard, coreboard, plain coloured or mottled curtain remnants stapled to a large canvas, or buy a large canvas and paint it in splotchy complementary colours to create your own mottled background. Perspex is great if you want a reflective base. Wood-panelled wallpaper pieces also make great fake wooden tabletops.
Lighting for Still Life
Lighting, like all photography, plays a great part. I like to photograph in natural light in front of a window that gets great indirect morning light. A soft voile curtain diffuses the light beautifully. A reflector can be beneficial in helping soften shadows. You can use speedlites; I prefer not to.
Lenses for Still Life
Telephoto and Macro lenses work great for this genre. You aren’t shooting in a wide field of vision, as all your images will be ‘close up’ to get more interesting images. I use my macro a lot, as well as the 50mm or 12-100mm.
I also shot all the images in this post using the macro and on F2.8 as I wanted a very shallow depth of field and soft background.
Final Thoughts
I am definitely not a still life expert as I have just started ‘playin’ in the genre after taking a class some time ago with Julie Powell Photography. However, I have found side or backlighting works great for me.
I also like to keep the colours neutral or colours all complementary. Using a tripod helps a lot too as your camera is static and you can keep tweaking your composition and object placements, without having to put the camera down and recompose your set all the time.
With a gorgeous day forecast for Sunday, we took a drive up to Tahbilk Winery at Nagambie before going to the Pink Cliffs at Heathcote. Along the way, we found and stopped for Canola fields bordered by Wattle shrubs and Gum trees.
Established in 1860 Tahbilk is the most beautiful and historic family owned winery in Australia, located in one of the nation’s premium viticultural areas. The property itself comprises some 1,214 hectares of rich river flats with a frontage of 11 kms to the Goulburn River and 8 kms of permanent backwaters and creeks.
Tahbilk Winery
The Winery
Tahbilk is a lovely old winery, established in 1860 and bordered on two sides by the Tahbilk Lagoon and Goulburn river. The cellar door is open seven days a week, and the very popular cafe is definitely one you need to book for. Its been in the Purbrick family since 1925, with five generations of the family at the helm.
We tried the Sauvignon Blanc and Verdelho.. and liberated a bottle of the Verdelho to bring home with us.
Downstairs from the cellar is the old, old cellars still in use. They’ve been there since 1867. The floor is worn in front of the barrels. You wonder how many people have worked there over the last 151 years
Leaving Tahbilk winery, we drove to Mitchelton winery. However, they had a large wedding with people and cars everywhere, so we moved on and stopped at Nagambie lakes for lunch before heading to Heathcote and the Pink Cliffs.
Pink Cliffs
I found the cliffs VERY underwhelming. They are a series of small, sandy white and reddish rocks and mounds, with a few boulders and lots of gravel and sand. I did do one HDR, which turned out ok. But overall, they are not a place I would bother returning to, and ‘pink’ is drawing a very longbow.
Update
It turned out we were in the wrong place. We were only on the outer, smaller edge of the pink cliffs. I found the area everyone was raving about – and it was fabulous.