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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: 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
Project Educate: Still-Life-Stills Education cont.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
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
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
PE: Vexel Tutorials
Learning vexels takes quite a lot of time, especially if you have never worked with the pen tool. This is where tutorials come in handy.
If you browse DeviantArt you'll find some useful and good tuts, starting from the basics of vexeling, through making hair or eyes. The only thing you have to remember is that tutorials are here only to help you start and discover your own style and technique. You don't have to follow them step by step. Don't be afraid to experiment, you never know, you might create something extraordinary.
Basics
Here are few walkthroughs, step by step, explaining how to use the pen tool.

As said before it's really up to you which way you'll choose, there's no perfect method of making vexels.
Hair
Hair tutorial by `jussta :thumb90386972:
Eyes
:
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
Photography Troubleshooting: NoiseThis series of articles aims to answer the questions of Photographers on deviantART who have burning issues with their cameras. Have an issue? Leave a comment at the end of the article and we'll do our best to help you figure out the answer. Additionally if you have information that could help someone out - let us know!
"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

"Noise is a characteristic that can be mitigated with numerous techniques.
Noise is all about how much light a camera can capture above its inherent noise floor (the natural noise that the sensor and electronics will always make regardless of what you do), the more 'signal' there is above the noise floor, the less visible the noise will be.
Based on the EXIF information on your imag
Culinary Creations: Still Life Photography Contest
-Culinary Creations-
Still Life Food Photography Contest
Still life photography usually involves a set up - planning and careful execution of a shot. Food photography in particular takes a lot of preparation and the time to make a dish or an item of food aesthetically pleasing. So I thought it was about time we had a contest involving all elements! Your challenge is to create a brand shiny new Still Life Photography piece that features Food. Now the catch is you must be creative with the food. Entries will be considered carefully and if you are taking photos of food that someone else has made, then you need to step up the mark and make it as unique as possible. If you made the creation yourself, give us a brief idea in the description of how. Utilize the descriptions of your artwork to tell us about your photography!

Start Date: Monday 14th May
  End Date: Monday
Pimps and Whoas - June 27, 2012Pimps
Official dA News
:bulletpurple:  Voila! Paris deviantMEET Wrap Up
:bulletpurple: Join us for a deviantMEET in London, England
:bulletpurple: deviantART is applying to manage .art
:bulletpurple: Site Update Staff Retreat, .art, deviantMEETs
:bulletpurple: Infinity Seven Takes on the Coming Zerg Invation
:bulletpurple:
Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty EightPhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
“What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”
  
―
    Karl Lagerfeld
This week I spied an awesome topic in *Fuzzypiggy's journal and knew instantly that it was what I would talk about for edition twenty eight. "Underground train system bosses are set to ban all photos under new proposals that have angered photographers.." You can read the full article for yourself here but I would love to get some discussion going amongst us all as to whether or not the proposed ban would effect you. I'm personally quite pleased that the latest articles report a U-turn in the proposals so it doesn't look
Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty OnePhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
"Surrealism is embedded in the everyday, in the daily experience." - Katharine Conley

This week the general theme of the article is Infrared Photography. You may know it well for its vision into a dream like world where the trees appear to be fluffy candyfloss and the grass is blue or Orange...Infrared is not as far away from achievable as you might think. This week some wonderful Deviants have shared their infrared views and art to try and help us understand the technique a little better. I rather thought it was time that the infrared community on deviantART had a bit more recognition too!
Contest!
:bulletblack:Check out #Trees-With-character who are holding the Sky is the Limit Contest and think about
Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty NinePhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
"“The eye should learn to listen before it looks.”
  
―
    Robert Frank
I'm quite late hopping on the discussion wagon with this one since `fritsvandersloot tells me the article has been trending for some time now. However I was eternally grateful to him for pointing me in its general direction - because what a topic!McDonalds show behind the photo-graphical scenes because a customer in Canada asked why the food looks so different in real life. If you watch the video included in the article, it's actually very insightful. And what a team they have JUST to photograph a burger. What the video does show is that everything in the photo, every ingredient you see, is exactly the sam
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Still Life Photography - The Beginnings

Sun May 13, 2012, 10:10 PM



People & Portraits :iconkaz-d:



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: I aim to give a bit of insight into what should and shouldn't go into the Still Life Photography Gallery
:bulletblack: Bring the Still Life Photography Gallery into the spotlight to help you utilize it for your work.
:bulletblack: Challenge YOU to undertake your own still life shots and step outside of your comfort zone.
:bulletblack: Bring your attention to still life photographers on deviantART.
:bulletblack: Showcase examplar Still Life works.
:bulletblack: Introduce the Culinary Creations Still Life Photography Contest.

:bigthumb300134153:
Photography -> Still Life -> Dolls & Figures

The Still Life Photography Galleries on DeviantART


There are Four Galleries within the Still Life Photography Category that you can freely submit your work to.


:bulletblack: Cut Flower & Plant Arrangement
:bulletblack: Dollls & Figures
:bulletblack: Food
:bulletblack: Other




Photography -> Still Life -> Other

It's important to remember that however you categorise your work - you are often not limited to one category. You might find that you have a beautiful cake that you've made and photographed which could not only belong in the Still Life - Food Gallery but also could belong with the Culinary Creations of the Artisan Crafts Galleries. You could have a beautiful flower arrangement that has been staged in such a way that a concept lies beneath it and thus your work may belong in the Conceptual Photography Galleries as well as Still Life - Cut Flower Arrangements. The beauty of Art is that in most cases  - it's ambiguous. You just have to remember to stay within the boundaries that do exist.


Photography -> Still Life - Cut Flower & Plant Arrangement


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Still Life Photography - The Beginningsby ^Kaz-D

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©2012-2013 ^Kaz-D
Category: Journals / Art News / Photography

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:iconadmx:
`admx May 15, 2012
:clap:
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:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 18, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
:heart::heart:
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:iconmnxzicun:
~mnxzicun May 14, 2012
I purchased the most inexpensive mp3 Only $ 3.99! Very beautiful! [link]
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:iconzokiart555:
*ZokiArt555 May 14, 2012
:iconyay-plz:
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:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 14, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
:boogie:
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:iconartbycher:
`ArtByCher May 14, 2012   Traditional Artist
Lovely work
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:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 14, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
:heart:
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:icondipliner:
*Dipliner May 14, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
Looks like fun! Thank you for including one of my photos. :aww:
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:iconkaz-d:
^Kaz-D May 14, 2012  Hobbyist Photographer
:heart:
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:iconsilverclawstudio:
Mood: Joy *SilverClawStudio May 14, 2012   General Artist
Yay ! :)
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