Vegetables and fruit are superb still life photography topics. They function stunning textures, colours, and shapes; they’re additionally extremely accessible. In spite of everything, to discover a topic (or 10!), you merely want to go to your native grocery store.
However how are you going to seize pro-level fruit and vegetable nonetheless life pictures? As a veteran nonetheless life snapper, I’ve developed loads of strategies to attain persistently excellent photos. And that’s what I share on this article: My prime 10 suggestions that’ll assist you to create well-composed, superbly lit fruit and vegetable photographs. Particularly, I clarify:
- A method to light your subjects that’ll produce breathtakingly ethereal outcomes
- How to decide on the right nonetheless life background
- A fast tip to maintain your topics trying contemporary
- Far more!
Able to turn out to be a nonetheless life grasp? Then let’s dive proper in, beginning with my first tip:
1. Fastidiously select your topic
Completely different vegetables and fruit lend themselves to various kinds of photos – so it’s essential you select your nonetheless life topics rigorously.
If you happen to’re after a classical-type picture, choose conventional topics like pears, apples, and lemons. If you wish to make your nonetheless life shot seem particularly refined, be certain that your particular person vegetables and fruit are in tip-top form (i.e., freed from bruises, cuts, and different blemishes).
That stated, you possibly can create distinctive nonetheless life photographs by embracing uncommon topics. Carrots, asparagus, artichokes – they’re not the themes that you simply’ll discover in 1600s nonetheless life work, but they’ll definitely add to your compositions!
And whereas it’s usually greatest to make use of near-perfect topics, you can even have enjoyable working with wilting vegetables and fruit. Goal to steer into the skid; alter your lighting and background for darker, moodier photographs that emphasize the regular march towards dying and decay.
2. Use pure lighting for a sensible end result
As I discover all through this text, there are many efficient methods to mild a fruit and vegetable nonetheless life. However the easiest way – and the one which I like to recommend for nonetheless life newbies – is to make use of pure window mild.
Discover a pretty big window that doesn’t expertise direct daylight. (In different phrases, go for a window that faces north or south.) That manner, you possibly can work with softer, lower-contrast lighting all day lengthy! If you happen to don’t have entry to a north- or south-facing window or the window mild remains to be a bit too harsh, strive ready for a cloudy day or draping a sheet over the window body. Each of those methods will produce attractive subtle mild.
Arrange your fruits or greens on a desk close to the window. I’d suggest guaranteeing that the sunshine hits your association from the aspect, however be happy to maneuver the desk back and forth till you get a glance you want.
And when you discover that the shadows are a little bit too heavy, add a easy reflector or a chunk of white poster board to bounce some mild again into the darkness.
3. Don’t be afraid of synthetic lighting
Whereas pure lighting is an effective way to get began with nonetheless life pictures, synthetic lighting does include a number of benefits. It provides you far higher management over the sunshine route, you possibly can depend on all of it day and evening with out challenge, and you’ll management the hardness and softness with ease.
So when you discover that pure mild is simply too rigid to your functions, contemplate grabbing some synthetic mild sources. You could have loads of choices right here; it actually all depends upon your pursuits and finances!
If you wish to preserve the associated fee to a minimal, LED flashlights are low-cost, small, and moveable. You’ll be able to set them up round your nonetheless life association, although they are usually comparatively dim, so that you’ll want to make use of an extended publicity to seize a vivid picture.
Another choice is a steady lighting equipment, which you’ll be able to choose up for a number of hundred {dollars}. Continuous lights are decently vivid, and most significantly, they continue to be lit always. It is a large deal for newbies; it means that you can see the precise results of the lights as you arrange your shot.
That stated, when you plan to get severe about your nonetheless life taking pictures, it’s greatest to spend money on some speedlights or studio strobes. Whilst you gained’t be capable to see the lighting impact prematurely, these mild sources are extremely highly effective – so highly effective, in actual fact, that they’ll overwhelm all ambient mild sources to supply cool lighting results.
Strobes additionally provide actually hundreds of modifier options. In different phrases, you should use snoots, reflectors, scrims, softboxes, and colored gels to direct the sunshine, soften the sunshine, harden the sunshine, shade the sunshine, and extra. Positive, strobes are costly – however if you wish to turn out to be a devoted nonetheless life shooter, they’re a must have.
4. Use mild portray for dramatic outcomes
Within the earlier sections, I explored the facility of typical lighting sources. However there’s an alternate lighting choice that I’d like to debate:
Light painting, which you should use to create dramatic, directional, even ethereal results, like this:
Mild portray requires surprisingly little tools – only a flashlight, a digital camera, and a tripod – and whereas it does require some experimentation and follow, the outcomes are sometimes astonishing.
Right here’s the way it works:
First, put your digital camera on a rock-steady tripod, set the shutter speed to 10 seconds or so, and drop the ISO to its lowest setting with the intention to reduce noise. Be happy to make use of a narrow aperture to attain loads of depth of field; if it’s essential decrease your shutter pace to compensate, that shouldn’t be an enormous deal!
Then set off the shutter utilizing both a remote release or the two-second timer to get rid of vibrations. As soon as the publicity has begun, flip in your flashlight and paint it throughout the scene. For a dramatic look, strive portray from off to the aspect, and purpose to maintain the lighting route comparatively constant, whilst you sweep the beam of sunshine throughout totally different topics.
Considered one of my favourite light-painting photographers is Carlo Denino. He usually makes use of this method to supply beautiful photographs of fruits, greens, and different nonetheless life topics. I encourage you to offer his photos a glance and see when you can emulate his fashion. I do know from private expertise it’s not practically as straightforward as it would look!
5. Fastidiously select your lighting route
While you’re first getting began with nonetheless life pictures, chances are you’ll be tempted to place the sunshine instantly in entrance of your topic association.
Sadly, this may produce very flat, uninspiring outcomes. The most effective nonetheless life photographs are inclined to function a lot of depth, of three-dimensionality, which you’ll be able to solely obtain by positioning the sunshine off to the aspect.
Direct side lighting, as an illustration, will emphasize texture whereas creating loads of temper and drama. You can even strive backlighting, which can create a phenomenal halo across the topic, although the topic itself will likely be partially or fully silhouetted until you add a second mild or reflector on the other aspect.
If you wish to get some ultra-creative appears, contemplate shining a light-weight by means of your topic. Skinny fruit or vegetable slices work nice for this. For the instance beneath, I sliced a kiwi, positioned the slices on a glass pie plate, then caught an LED flashlight beneath. The sunshine actually emphasised the colour and element.
On the finish of the day, lighting route is all about experimentation. Continually make changes to your mild positions, and see what you possibly can create!
6. Decide the suitable background
As with every different picture topic, if you stage a fruit or vegetable nonetheless life picture, you have to rigorously contemplate the background. It ought to complement the topic with out distracting, overwhelming, or in any other case interfering.
The most effective background is commonly the best, so if you’re first beginning out, I’d encourage you to create a very white or black background. Begin with white or black paper, then alter your lighting as wanted. To create an all-white backdrop, shine a light-weight instantly on the white paper; to create an all-black backdrop, do what you possibly can to dam the sunshine from the background paper.
Relying in your lighting setup, chances are you’ll get the outcomes you’re after – or chances are you’ll must take the look the remainder of the best way in Lightroom. Lightroom makes it very straightforward to blow out the highlights or clip the shadows through a masks. Use a brush to color out the background areas, and also you’ll quickly be left together with your most important topic in opposition to a uniform backdrop.
When you turn out to be extra skilled, strive including in additional complicated – however nonetheless complementary! – backgrounds. You’ll be able to embody painted canvas backdrops, which can present a classical look that harmonizes together with your fruit and vegetable topics. You may additionally embody totally different materials, which provide loads of attention-grabbing colours and textures.
If you happen to don’t have a lot management over your background, you should use a large aperture to blur out any distracting particulars. That’s how I dealt with this meals nonetheless life:
7. Spritz issues up
The most effective fruit and vegetable nonetheless lifes are inclined to function fresh-looking topics – but it may be powerful to maintain that sense of freshness if you’re working in studio situations underneath sizzling lights.
So what do you do? Nicely, food photographers have a intelligent little trick: They use a sprig bottle to spritz their topics with water. The water provides a sheen of freshness to the shot, and whereas the common viewer could not consciously discover the distinction, they’ll definitely really feel it.
Professional tip: To create bigger droplets that dangle higher and last more, add a little bit of glycerine to the water.
By the best way, just be sure you spray your topics simply earlier than taking every shot. If you happen to spray too early, the water will evaporate and/or fall off the topic, and also you’ll lose the contemporary look that you simply so rigorously created.
8. Get in shut
Most meals and nonetheless life photographers create a phenomenal topic association and shoot from a distance – however you possibly can truly seize one-of-a-kind fruit and vegetable photographs by getting a lot nearer.
In spite of everything, the construction of residing issues is commonly fascinating, so exploring vegetables and fruit up shut can reveal loads of attention-grabbing parts.
For close-up photographs, a dedicated macro lens usually works greatest, however cheaper alternate options embody extension tubes, bellows, close-up filters, and reverse-lens mounting techniques. And when you don’t want to buy any extra gear, that’s okay, too; strive taking pictures together with your closest-focusing lens (you possibly can all the time do some slight cropping to emphasise little particulars).
When working at excessive magnifications, you’ll must be careful for digital camera shake, so be sure to use loads of mild, a quick shutter pace, and/or a tripod. You’ll additionally want to decide on your digital camera angles rigorously; you don’t need to forged a shadow onto your topic!
9. Inform a narrative
When creating fruit and vegetable still life compositions, you possibly can improve the scene by including different story-telling parts.
As an illustration, when you’re photographing an apple, you would possibly add an apple slice, a reducing board, and a knife. If you happen to’re photographing an orange, you would add some orange peel, a number of extra oranges, and a basket.
Goal so as to add props that improve the theme (and keep away from these props that distract or don’t slot in). Think about the objects that make sense collectively and that pair naturally.
In fact, don’t simply place the props randomly; as a substitute, spend time spacing them out across the scene. It could take some follow, however the extra you’re employed at your nonetheless life compositions, the higher you’ll get. Fairly quickly, you’ll be producing nonetheless life preparations like a professional!
10. Add motion
Customary nonetheless life pictures options immobile topics in opposition to a immobile backdrop – however does it need to be this fashion? I don’t assume so!
There are all types of strategies you should use so as to add a way of motion to your scene, and I encourage you to check out every one. As an illustration, you would possibly strive splash photography, the place you drop fruits or greens right into a tank, then hearth the shutter simply as they hit the water:
You can even seize extra contextual splashes, the place you drop fruit into milk or cereal and {photograph} all the scene:
You’ll be able to even have enjoyable with flash! By firing the flash dozens of instances per second, you possibly can seize vegetables and fruit as they fall by means of the air.
Fruit and vegetable nonetheless life pictures: remaining phrases
Now that you simply’ve completed this text, you’re able to seize some attractive nonetheless life photographs of your very personal.
Bear in mind the guidelines I’ve shared. Have enjoyable experimenting with lighting. And see what you possibly can create!
What vegetables and fruit do you intend to {photograph}? What strategies will you employ? Share your ideas within the feedback beneath!
