'10-Point Guide'
to taking better 'Still Life' photos
Before you start
1 – DO:
- some preparation – find the camera manual … ?
- check the camera – set the resolution to 'highest' unless you know for sure your photos will only be needed for a website and not for printing
- check batteries – recharge/replace as necessary
- check card – you don't want to find it's full before you start
- plan your shoot
- more …
Basic shooting
2 – DO:
• get in close, fill the viewfinder with the subject and square everything up
3 – DO: think 'background' … better still, look carefully for any confusing shapes, colours and textures behind the subject and try and 'lose' them by moving yourself and the camera around
4 – DON'T: rush the shot or stab at the shutter button! When you're ready, take a quiet breath, hold steady … and then press calmly and firmly
5 – DO: check each shot after you take it in your digital camera window
6 – DON'T: forget to take some close-ups of details
7 – DON'T: let anyone (including that wicked little voice inside your own head) tell you not to bother, it's hardly worth it, somebody else is sure to be taking better pictures than you could …
If your early efforts turn out to be … um … terrible, you can easily improve your basic skills and your critics can eat their words, right?
'Advanced' stuff
9 – DO: learn to recognise 'difficult' subjects, such as 'all white' or 'all black'
10 – DON'T: use 'on camera' flash for lighting unless there is absolutely no alternative
More about …
Preparation:
Before leaving for that exhibition or show thinking you're going to bring back lots of lovely pictures, DO just pause and ask yourself exactly how much chance of that there'll be, if … (and we've all done it, haven't we?):
- you've forgotten the camera
- the batteries are flat
- the flash card is full
- you don't notice the camera is set to low quality
Most pictures you take will be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, so make them the best you can! If you have a digital camera with options, don't plan to squeeze more shots onto the card by lowering the 'resolution', size, quality, etc. This might be OK for the website, but will be no good for printing, for instance, in SlipKnot
DO learn as much as you can about the things your camera does and how to get it to do them for you. If all fails, you could even read the 'destructions' in the manual that came with it!
Cameras now come in many different flavours – some are really basic, others are very clever and all are wonderful. Whatever kind yours is, the more familiar you are with it, the more you'll get out of it, the better your shots will be, the happier the SlipKnot and website people will be when you send them in and the more you'll enjoy the whole business of taking photographs
Planning what to shoot:
DON'T stop when you have taken a couple of quick shots of a whole exhibition stand or gallery room! You certainly need those to remind you where you were and to capture the atmosphere, but they will rarely be good enough to do on their own in, say, a SlipKnot article or website feature. DO go on and take as many shots of individual exhibits as possible, including close-ups of details
Composing the picture:
DON'T just look at the subject! DO keep looking deliberately all around the edges and corners of the viewing window and check that:
- the subject pretty much fills the frame (turn the camera for 'upright' subjects)
- no vital bits of the subject are 'chopped off' by accident
- no foreground objects are coming between the camera and the subject
- the subject is properly aligned vertically and horizontally within the frame
Tip: To improve backgrounds, see if you can move mannequins or 'live' models (including knitters, if 'live'!) forward and away from walls or surrounding objects, so as to isolate and distance them from what's behind them – the idea is that, with any luck, the camera will focus sharply only on your subject and more softly on everything else. (If you have a setting called "portrait" mode on your camera, that could help the effect)
Close-ups:
Close-ups of fabric or garment details can be as interesting and important as the main shots, but may need special care; in particular:
- check how close you can get with your camera and still be in sharp focus – you may need to go for a setting called "macro" if you have lots of knobs, buttons and wheels
- DON'T get in your own light – this is easier said than done when you get really close
Settling on the shot:
The 'good news' about 'still life' subjects is that they are static. Even though you may be in a hurry or the show is about to close, there is no 'decisive moment' you have to capture when you press the camera button, so when you're good and ready and everything has been checked
- settle on the shot
- compose yourself
- press the button all the way (Ooops! With some clever cameras you must first press half-way down to let the focus and exposure thingies do what they do best … and only then press fully)
Tip: To avoid camera-shake lean against a wall or bookcase or hold the camera against a pole or sit it on an immoveable object to avoid as much shake as possible!
Better still a tripod (even a 'mini' one) and cable shutter release (if your camera allows such a thing) can help you compose yourself as well as the picture! It also saves you having to hold the camera steady whilst you are checking what's in the window, which is particularly helpful in low light conditions or if you get easily flustered
Even if you don't have or can't be bothered with any of that, try and work with the same care and deliberation
Checking what you've got:
DO look with a dispassionate and critical eye – this is where you see and evaluate exactly what you actually took, not what you thought was there. Delete and re-shoot and you wont waste a frame!
Sorry! Film camera users just wont know what they've got until the opportunity to re-take has long gone. So hedge your bets and cover yourself by taking several shots of each subject, maybe varying the framing, angle, positioning, exposure, etc
Lighting:
DO try, if you have any choice, to avoid harsh, artificial, directional lighting, which creates strong shadows, and look for gentle, diffuse lighting, which covers the subject evenly
DON'T shoot against strong light (Maybe you can get a much better result if you ask nicely and are allowed to move the subject temporarily?)
'Difficult' subjects are those which are either very pale or very dark all over. They can trick your camera into making duff exposures (bleached or solid mud). There may be some simple 'programme' setting on your camera to compensate for this – otherwise you have to take pot luck … or learn a little more about how cameras work!
Direct flash (from the built-in device on the camera) usually makes the subject look 'startled' – and that's only the knitting! If you can move a subject to where it is in adequate general light and stop the flash from doing its thing, so much the better. It may be the only way you'll get a result, though, so DO take the shot anyway and be philosophical about it afterwards.
Examples
Example 1 – Delphos Top
1.1: Oh, dear! This subject needs to be:
- straightened
- squared up
- bigger in the frame
- moved (if possible) away from the extraneous detail on the left
1.2: This is better! The graphic people have at least something to work with now …
Example 2 – Delphiniums
2.1: Oh, dear! This subject needs to be:
- straightened
- squared up
- bigger in the frame
- moved (if possible) away from the extraneous detail below
2.2: This is better! A shame that flash had to be used, though – notice the slightly washed-out centre, dark corners and 'gleams' on all four sides of the frame – but, with any luck, the graphic people will have time to tidy that up
Example 3 – Cushion Cover
3.1: Oh, dear! This subject (Yes, we mean the crochet fabric square on the window sill!) is nowhere near large enough in the frame and it is partially obscured both by a piece of the flower arrangement and by the back of the sofa in the foreground, apart from which …
3.2: … even though it is better framed in this shot, the strong sunlight and harsh shadows are distracting. If you can't wait for the sun to go behind a cloud and have nothing suitable to drape across the window or there's no way of rigging such a thing up … and if you can't move the subject or there isn't anywhere suitable to move it to … this photography lark can be quite trying!
3.3: There! Gotcha! Shame about the top lefthand corner somehow getting tucked under like that, but … oh, well …
Example 4 – 'Newgrange' Sweater
4.1: Oh, dear! This subject has no chance at all, photographed against the light and in the middle of such a background.
4.2: This way around at least the lighting is better, but we still have the background from hell!
If this is not your patch, you may not be able to do anything radical about that, but DO look for small things that might be easily 'disappeared' out of shot
4.3: Maybe in a case like this it's better to cut some bits of the subject off deliberately, such as the sleeves from this one, to make reasonable visual sense of what's left. Even then only some background re-touching will make the image really 'useable'