Definition of "Still Life"

[Mz Pip]

This from Wikipedia:

Still life photography is the depiction of inanimate subject matter, most typically a small grouping of objects. Still life photography, more so than other types of photography, such as landscape or portraiture, gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition.

Still life photography is a demanding art, one in which the photographers are expected to be able to form their work with a refined sense of lighting, coupled with compositional skills. The still life photographer makes pictures rather than takes them. Knowing where to look for propping and surfaces also is a required skill.

Mz Pip

[Mira]

1. Tell it to the mountain in GD. Sometimes, I think, they misinterpret the theme

by a wide margin.
(or is that just my observation?)

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Or they just don't care. "Babies! Puppies! Sunsets!" LOL Well, whatever. If they find a picture

brings them joy then I suppose it has at least fulfilled that requirement, if not the theme one. :)

[Mz Pip]

4. Someone requested

the definition on the other thread so I thought I'd post it in case anyone else was interested. :shrug:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

6. It was me.

Thanks! I wanted to make sure I understood. :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Well, sounds like that leaves little man's current pics out. I have an idea to suggest to him if

he is interested in building a still life shot, though.

[alfredo]

5. A white and black poster board will come in handy. Cloth for draping will

work too.

A north facing window will give light that isn't too harsh.

[HappyCynic]

9. Outdoor still life and other thoughts

Of course, still life doesn't need to be indoors. You can go to the beach and arrange a few shells and/or seaweed on the sand or on a rock. You can make it more elaborate like a champagne bottle with a couple of half filled glasses reflecting the sunset (indoor or outdoor). For a lot of the outdoor ones, you'll have less control of the light but you'll have more varied backdrops (assuming you don't have a lot of studio backdrops.
You can also grab some signs (especially if you make signs for a living, like a certain someone), arrange them somewhere, and you'll have a still life with signs.

[Mira]

10. You guys are so funny, and I honestly love you, my friends. BUT

I'm sick of signs. And I voted against them.

The fun starts for me when I do exactly what Mz Pip described, look around at what I have already done and liked. Look at it with new eyes.
Look at my surroundings and mentally start grouping things while removing anything that looks like, walks like, and quacks like a sign.

:rofl:

[alfredo]

14. The best ones are made with cardboard and magic marker.

[Mira]

17. There have been times

when I told that to cheapskate customers.
If you think through what it means to not make a profit, then you realize you can afford to say it.
And that's
PRICELESS

:)

[alfredo]

19. I had a friend who was a sign maker. His were all hand painted and

quite lovely. He did his best to hide brush strokes and his lines were true.

[Mira]

21. Up to 1984 everything that was done was handpainted. Then the

computer plotters that cut vinyl letters were invented, and people no longer learn lettering with a brush, turning it into a dying craft.

It's really hard to hide brush strokes on glass, but true lines are imperative and easy after a while.

[alfredo]

22. You know that Woody Guthrie was a sign painter? I wonder how good he was.

[Cassandra]

27. We had a Poster Committee in high school...

where we learned to do lettering and spacing and did posters for the school. I remember a poster for the movie, String Beans, where I formed the letters as green beans. My teacher, Gaylord Flory, taught me a lot and every time I crop a photo, I'm using something he taught me. http://www.gaylordflory.com/paintings%20completed%20bio%20pagewith%20photo

[Cassandra]

26. You make quacking signs?

You are good!

[alfredo]

11. I shot inside because it was awful out. but today I took a few outside images

but they aren't still lifes.

[HappyCynic]

12. Rainy...

It's been pretty rainy the last few weeks here as well. The last few days have finally been dry so it's although it looks like it's going to be a brief respite - forecast is for potential showers tomorrow, a decent Sunday, then rain for a week.
During the first round of voting for the theme, I figured out the shot I want to do and it'll be an indoor shot. I just have to get all the pieces, assemble the scene, figure out the various surfaces (base and backdrop), and deal with the lighting.
This will definitely be the most work I'll have done for a shot but I look forward to the challenge and the experience I'll gain from the effort.

[Mz Pip]

13. How about

taking a picture from the outside looking through the window at an arrangement inside?

I was thinking about a photo I saw a a couple of years ago that has stayed with me that was taken outside looking in - a night shot. It might be interesting to do shoot through a rainy window. I'm going to give it a try and post what I come up with. We're due for another wave of storms in a couple of days and I think it would be interesting to see what looking through a rainy window to the inside might produce.

[alfredo]

15. In through a window, reflections can work for you or against you. At night?

You will take at least one image with the flash. You didn't mean to, but you forgot to turn it off.

[Mz Pip]

18. I've done that

It's a learning experience that's for sure.


At night I'd probably have to adjust the shutter speed a gazillion times before I got an expose I liked.

[alfredo]

20. Bracketing is your friend.

For the newbie reading this and not too up on bracketing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracketing

Some cameras have settings that will automatically shoot three shots to bracket the image.

[Mz Pip]

7. One of the things I like about

participating in these monthly challenges is that some of them are challenging. They often force me to look at things differently, try something new, experiment in ways I might not have thought about before. I look through my folders and find pics that I haven't thought about in a while, or maybe see something in some of them that I haven't noticed before.

I also get a good idea about how others view a particular piece. There have been pics I've entered that I have just loved that don't make it to the finals and I have to critically look again. There is such a wonderful wide range of abilities and points of view in this group that I learn something new all the time.

So, even if you're not totally thrilled about this month's (or any month's) challenge, give it a try. Who knows? You might just win! Then it gets really interesting...

Just my two cents.

Mz Pip.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. It all depends on his mood if he'll try. He's a landscape photographer at heart, though. :^)

[alfredo]

23. It's not the winning or losing, it is taking part and learning from the experience.

[HappyCynic]

8. Rough definition

I think still life photography can be roughly thought of as "portraiture for inanimate objects".

[Richard D]

24. So????

No kittens or babies?

[alfredo]

25. Only if they are stuffed.

[Cassandra]

28. No stuffing a baby...

to get out of dealing with a vase.

[Mz Pip]

29. maybe an old

Cabbage Patch kid would do?

An arrangement of those could make a very disturbing still life.

[Cassandra]

30. How about a still life...

emerging from a cabbage patch? Now that's disturbing.

[alfredo]

31. Stuff a baby with too many pureed prunes and you will get the gift that keeps on giving.

[Cassandra]

32. Now that's...

a still life. Not very photogenic, though.

[alfredo]

33. Get the baby off the chandelier! It's spraying everywhere!

[Cassandra]

34. I think we're wandering...

into some seriously weird territory. Are you speaking from extensive experience?

[alfredo]

35. No, I slept in a Holiday Inn Express last night. BTW, I took some still life today and

put a few up on my site. I have some watch pictures that are in the running for the contest.

[Richard D]

36. Totally

I'll never mention babies, stuffed or otherwise, or kittens, living or not, again!

[Mira]

37. That's not a problem as long as you post photos of them

(when appropriate)

[alfredo]

38. A stuffed baby sleeping it off.