Still life looks like it should be simple, and yet it can be quite challenging. It’s an excellent way to learn about composition, managing light, creating a mood, telling a story, and evoking emotion. These are all important elements to making an engaging image – and the great thing about still life is that you can start right away with practicing with things found around your home. So here are three free guides on still life photography to get you started!
1. Beginner’s Guide To Still Life
Still life is the art of assembling elements (usually inanimate or man-made) into an aesthetically pleasing arrangement, which is then painted to preserve the scene for posterity. In this guide, author Stacey Hill goes over the 4 key elements in still life photography. This is a great read for when you’re just starting out. Download here →
2. Lighting for Still Life
Photographing still life does not require an immense space and very elaborate tools. You can actually begin shooting with what you have at home. Of course, lighting is a key element in this style of photography and in this guide, you can learn about how to shape and control light, what tools to use, and how this impacts the mood of your photograph. Want to read more? Download it here →
3. Post-Processing Still Life
So now that you have your lighting and your beautiful shots, what next? Well, here are a few suggested steps on how to post-process your still life photographs to bring out anything you may want to accentuate or fix any hiccup you may have encountered during shooting. Download here →
