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Project Educate:Still Life with *LuizaLazarStill Life Photography here on deviantART whilst an overlooked gallery for the majority of the time is vastly becoming popular among conceptual and food photographers. *LuizaLazar, a female photographer from Romania has shared her thoughts and feelings on the gallery including some useful tips.

:icondyingstate:
You & Still Life Photography...
Most of my Still Life works are based on fruits and flowers. I love to photograph raspberries (maybe because they are my favorite fruits, but I'm also attracted by their color and shape), cherries, rain drops or tiny objects. I must say I love food photography, but I'm not quite able to do the shots I wanna do. Other than that, I don't cook very often, therefore I have no item to photograph :giggle:

Your Likes and Dislikes about Still Life Photography...
What I like about Still Life Photography is the fact that you can arrange the elements in
Enhancing Still Life Shots with LieveheersbeestjeSo you've got a still life shot but it looks nothing like those epic pieces you see hitting the front page here on deviantART - the lighting, hues and general feel of the piece is just not as good as you feel it could be. Well that's okay! Photoshop in particular helps you enhance your shots to bring out the best in them - or the worst if you're not careful.

These are basically the processes that she goes through to edit a shot - saved and uploaded to deviantART for your use (provided you read the rules.) There are many floating around - and they add that little something.
So How Do They Work?
All you need to do is download a file that contains such actions...

In this particular one =lieveheersbeestje shares her Photoshop Silver & Bronze Actions. Once you've downloaded the file you just open it as you usually would and it will go straight into photoshop ready for use
Project Educate: Still Life with ClareManson*claremanson pretty much  had me addicted to her photography the moment I stumbled into her gallery. Clare not only photographs her awesome creations but she also shares the recipes. But what really hooked my interest was the Oreo Pizza...

:iconclaremanson:
What area of Still Life Photography do you find yourself favouring?
It has to be food photography. I love to bake and i love to photograph so being able to bring the two together is a great feeling. There is nothing more satisfying to me than being able to capture the beauty of something you have put your heart into making.

What are the challenges and merits of undertaking Still Life?
The biggest challenge for me is lighting, being in the UK where the sky is often overcast natural light can be hard to come across.
A lot of the time i plan my baking and photography sessions around the weather and time of day to get the best
Project Educate: Getting Started with Still Life Getting Started with Still Life Photography...

Your Homemade Studio
You don't need a studio or amazingly fancy lighting in order to achieve some of the most popular still life photography shots that you see on deviantART. I take most of my still life photography shots on the window sill in my bedroom because the colour is neutral and the lighting best.
You can start pretty much anywhere in the home - using a backdrop of mottled glass will give a different effect to plain glass and so on - the possibilities are pretty much endless! Using paper, books, scarfs or other bits of material can provide excellent backdrops. Raindrops on windows can create a fantastic bokeh...

Your Subject
 
Fruit and Flowers are overdone. It's true. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try them out and if you have a creative concept in mind go for it. However there is so m
Project Educate: Interviewing Orwald!*Orwald has been on deviantART for just a year but has astounded the Still Life Photography community with her fantastic works. As well as putting together beautiful features of others works, *Orwald strives for the best with her own and shares some of her tips here...
What inspires you to explore Still Life Photography?
I like to show the things around us. It`s very interesting to find some ordinary objects at home and try to show them from different views/  I can`t say that there is some area of Still Life photography that I like the most but I recently noticed that there are a lot of "fruit" and "cup" shots in my gallery :giggle:

What are the difficulties and rewards of Still Life?
I'm not a professional photographer so there is always a dilemma - how to place all objects together, how to make the light and whole the scene look naturally. I like to play with colour combinations and it`s the
Project Educate: Dragonfly-oli on Still Life`dragonfly-oli is fast becoming one of the most well known Still Life Photographers on deviantART. Whilst she has only been here for 2 years her artwork has certainly made its mark on the community. Here she shares a bit of insight into what she does and why.

:icondragonfly-oli:
Tell us about your style...
I do really like close-ups, as you can see in my other shots. So I tend to take pictures of little objects. All in all I do really like to do conceptual shots, because I cannot implement my ideas in nature photography.

What are the trials and tribulations of Still Life Photography in your opinion?
Well, it's easier than taking pictures of people or nature! It's a challenge to search for the right object to make a conceptual piece out of it. The light and composition are essential for a good photo here, because people look for the message and the technique in general.
Merits are th
Still Life Photography - The Beginnings Still Life Photography
Whilst Still Life Photography is often considered to be the staging and shooting of a group of inanimate objects - it's more than likely best recognised especially on deviantART as singular items and in particular dishes - such as meals or baked foods. It's an under appreciated art form for sure in that those who don't actively engage in the set up of such shots do not actively appreciate the effort that goes into staging, lighting and composing such pieces. A Still Life Photographer Makes a picture rather than just Take it.
 

Photography -> Still Life -> Food and Drink
Aims of this Project Educate Week
:bulletblack:
PE Stereoscopy: How to View Stereoscopic 3D ImagesHow to View Stereoscopic 3D Images
There are three basic methods of viewing the stereograms we have on DeviantArt. There might be other methods which differ slightly, but these are the main ones:
Anaglyph (and other glasses methods)
Viewing stereo images with glasses is great, because because you don't need to squint your eyes or focus in strange ways to see in stereoscopic vision (stereo 3D). Furthermore, anaglyph images are fantastic, because you don't need a special TV or screen, just a pair of anaglyph glasses. These are pretty easy to get, you can find them with some old 3D films, books, or even in some stores. Chances are you might have a pair lying around the house.
Most anaglyph glasses are red on one eye, and cyan on the other, these are the most common for people to own. But there's a whole range of types of anaglyph using different colors. the whole point is to hide part of the image for each eye, so many opposite-colors can work.
Because yo
Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty ThreePhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.” - Duane Michals
Still Life is the theme of this weeks article given that it's Still Life Week over at #projecteducate! I'm living and breathing still life works right now, and actually it's quite nice. I've discovered some fantastic talent on deviantART, conducted some awesome interviews and started up a group with the wonderful *claremanson If you want a sneak peek head over to #Still-Life-Stills But really the whole definition and ideal of Still Life has eluded me for quite some time and was something I deliberately avoided because I didn't believe in it. If you take an image, you have stilled life. By rights this means that everything out there is Still Life photography. Even when you're capturing movement, you're stilling it for just a few seconds. So why then, do we hav
Nom Nom #6Everyone is complaining about how hungry I make them each time I submit a Nom Nom Article. Well it's now time to put a stop to that. Without further ado I give you...
Brussel Sprouts










Apples
Chicken
Strawberries
Cinnamon
Chocolate
Nom Nom #5 Chocolate
:drool:














Apples
Chicken
Strawberries
Cinnamon
Project Educate: The Traditional Still Life
Traditional Still Life shots are few and far between in this modern era with Photoshop
 becoming a vastly popular tool to soften images with and more materials becoming available to make Still Life something adventurous and different. So it was an extremely nice surprise when I stumbled across *Somebody--else's gallery to find that there were some good wholesome traditional shots there - with a few modern touches to finish it off. *Somebody--else agreed to be interviewed so that I might find out a bit more...
What area of Still Life Photography do you gravitate towards the most and why?
I don't really have a preference, maybe a tiny one for flowers and books as we can use those in many ways.

What do you find are the challenges of staging your photographs to achieve still life shots?
For me, the biggest challenge while staging photographs is to be able to
People + Portraits: Capturing WeddingsThe Weddings category within the People & Portraits Photography gallery is often misused and misunderstood. It's not for capturing those generic wedding shots of shoes, cakes, decorations and rings. The idea is that there needs to be a person or people captured in the shot to make it portraiture photography. There also (and i know it's mind blowing) needs to be a wedding theme going on! Simply cropping in close on hands or shoes or a part of a dress isn't enough to get it into the gallery. If the gallery were simply 'Weddings' then it would be different of course. You should consider the use of the Photojournalism - Weddings Gallery too and if your shots are journalistic in style they need to be pushed towards that gallery.
:bulletblack: Fiddle with your settings to ensure you capture the bright white of the wedding dress (as this is the common colour anyway). A lot of cameras will over compensate if you've got this large white area in your view finder and expose the dress as being
Project Educate: Classic Portrait PhotographyClassic Portraits are Photographs of people in traditional pose. These are often formal, refined and restrained in style. As you will see within the  Gallery they often involve a plain and simple background which is a popular feature of Classic Portraiture. One of the most notable things within the Classic Portrait Photography Gallery is that there are a lot of art nudes. This actually occurs across the board with People & Portraits and I cannot stress enough - that if your work features nudity, it belongs within the artistic nude gallery!
:bulletblack: Conversion to black and white with concentration on bringing out tones and shadows creates that timeless classic look and is often favoured by the elite artists that submit to the People & Portraits - Classic Gallery.
:bulletblack: Whilst D-SLR's have a monochrome function, for the most part (mine h
Project Educate: Expressing and EmotingEssentially, these are mostly the same thing with a few minor differences which are explained below. But before we move onto that, there's an important message to share when it comes to categorising your work. To get the best out of the photography galleries it's vitally important that you categorise your work properly. That' why these weeks exist in some respects, to help educate you through that. With regards to Daily Deviations - Community Volunteers will not give features to pieces of work that are mis-categorised. They might assist you by moving your work or explaining where it should go, but seeing a deliberate miscat is a bit off-putting when it comes to choosing pieces to showcase. Take some time to have a look through your gallery (I'm going to do the same!) and figure out if everything is in the right place. If you're struggling, just ask. We're here to help. What we won't do is rearrange your whole gallery for you. We will however, work with you to try and straighten things
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May 19, 2012
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Project Educate: Still-Life-Stills Education cont.

Sat May 19, 2012, 3:49 AM



People & Portraits :iconkaz-d:


Groups for Still Life work are fast becoming popular on deviantART - but finding one that covers all of Still Life and sticks with being just Photography orientated is quite difficult. Therefore myself and *claremanson have today launched #Still-Life-Stills - a group for all of your Still Life needs. Whether that's exposing your work, getting tips and help, or just salivating over awesome food in the gallery or staring in wonder at fantastic cut flower shots or ornaments - we have it all! I've also enjoyed pushing Still Life Photography this week for Project Educate and therefore we are keen to continue the trend over at #Still-Life-Stills and keep educating. The group launch was inspired by this weeks #projecteducate - so hopefully we can continue the general theme of being helpful! :B

Members are very very welcome - so head over now and join if you're interested and start sharing your work. Our submission rules are Here. It also combines nicely with a recent poll that I submitted a few days ago and many of you gave feedback on...

What do you Struggle the most with when trying to shoot still life?


:bulletblack:The Lighting

  19 Deviants

:bulletblack:Creativity

  17 Deviants

:bulletblack:More than Two things listed

  11 Deviants

:bulletblack:The Composition

10 Deviants

:bulletblack:All of the things listed

10 Deviants

:bulletblack:Sharpness

9 Deviants

:bulletblack:Colour Enhancement

3 Deviants

And so on...



Whilst we can't address all of these things in just a few days - we can build on them and draw on each others knowledge to try and educate ourselves on how to achieve better shots. Someone here has the knowledge that you need, and you probably have the knowledge that they need. I am by no means expert in Photography and running this Project Educate week and previous weeks has especially helped to educate me. And it's also going to break the bank thanks to =xXCALIBUR linking me to some fantastic lighting equipment...>.> So I'm keen to share what people struggle with and see if we can't start solving these issues! Have a read and see if you can contribute...

:bulletblack:"My biggest problem is with the composition, I never seem to find an interesting angle, crop, shot, or surroundings. I've tried taking photos of my food and they're all dull. Also the lighting, I'm never sure how much light I need and I end up with either lots of shadows or over-exposed photos..." ^Talty

:bulletblack:"Lighting. always have to use just window or lamps which are never good. kind of given up on still life photos, even I have still tons of ideas..." *1510

:bulletblack:"I would love to figure out how to reduce the noise on my camera. I'd love to drop kick it off of a very high cliff, but then I wouldn't have a camera at all. It may just be because the camera is a POS though..." =CelticStrm-Stock

:bulletblack:"Creativity, by a long shot. The lead right now is composition. I can handle composition. Creativity kills me, sometimes..." `phydeau

:bulletblack:"From when I used to do photography what I struggled with most was the backgrounds, I wanted to focus in on the objects and then I'd take it to my tutors and they'd go "it's nice but the background is your desk, or your bookshelf" It was like I was blinkered to everything but the set up. Unless I'm shooting on an infinity curve I struggle to 'see' apropriate backgrounds for my set up..." ^FionaCreates
I can totally see where ^FionaCreates is coming from as I told her, just the other day I was trying to take a still life shot of some food and realized that somebody's cleavage was nicely framed in the background. ><

Thoughts?






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:iconkampfly:
~kampfly May 24, 2012  Student Artisan Crafter
focus. i have taken so many etsy photos trying to do comparative sizing, and my camera will focus on the penny instead of the art :frustrated:
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:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 28, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
Eugh I know! :(
Reply
:iconladydaydream:
~LadyDayDream May 22, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
Set up, I usually have an idea of how I want it to go and look like, but it doesn't turn out quite right.
Reply
:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 24, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
That's something I struggle with often too :(
Reply
:iconzayoon:
Mood: Love ~Zayoon May 20, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
That's so good ,, I just fine that my problem is not only mine but it's "most of photographer's problem" ,,
I wanna replay for :iconpyrochan-dolls: about background ,, for me in most of my shot I just used plan A4 papers , I've multicolored notebook ,, you can use anything that's big and elastic "even some of your clothes can be good ;P " .. I saw in one video before the photographer used a wallpapers just buy it from any market ..
Just look around your home ,, anything can fit especially the things that looks different or with beautiful pattern ..
I hope that will help you to come out with some ideas ;)

Good luck everybody :heart:
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:iconaj333:
*AJ333 May 19, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
Also answered =CelticStrm-Stock's question on her main page like so:

"Hi!

I saw you had a question about noise at Project Educate on your camera? Depending on the model you should be able to mess with a setting called ISO. ISO lets in more light and makes noise aka grain and makes the camera more sensitive. Just turn the ISO to auto or make sure it's at 200 or lower.

Hope that helps :)

AJ"
Reply
:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 20, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
Fantastic! :heart: Thank you for giving feedback :)
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:iconaj333:
*AJ333 May 20, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
No problem, glad to help :meow:
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:iconaj333:
*AJ333 May 19, 2012  Hobbyist General Artist
I'd say for lighting, use windows and as much natural light as possible. The sun is your friend for sure. Also, lighting is the MOST important part of the photo. You can have the best composition ever but if your lighting is bad the whole photo is too. So set up your lighting, then set up the background, composition first.

Utilize all the awesome tutorials and articles on Devianart and get books from your library or see if you can borrow books from your local photographers! Learning from the pros in any way either in books or quick 1 on 1 questions etc is so important so always keep doing that!
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:icontalty:
^Talty May 19, 2012   Artisan Crafter
I'm very excited about this, it's a fantastic team of admins and I love serious groups dedicated to promote and teach some form of art. I'm already interested in what are you going to do :D
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