What fun things can I do with my digital camera in regards to "still life" photography?

Question

I'd like to experiment with B & W, shadows, dripping water, etc... any other suggestions for some scenes I can set up to photograph?

Answer 1

Hey Jennifer,

This is not so much the original picture as what you can do after with the images. Take flowers, or fruit bowl pictures to start. Then open them in a photo edit software package and play with the images using 'effects'. You can increase or decrease color and make the same picture look hundreds of different ways.

It is fun to take a picture and 'play' with it. Try Charcoal, Emboss, Water Color, etc. effects in your software. Remember to save the altered image to a new file name, or back up the originals. OR, overlays are great fun too, combine a Monkey picture with your own face, lots of fun.

You can take any picture and make it black and white with digital. Then you can increase the light or dark to get the exact feeling you want.

A cool picture is the disappearing road, where there is vegitation all around a road winding off into the distance. Or a siloette, where the person comes out without any details, just a black patch infront of the background. Obviously, no flash on that one.

Along with all this play, you should look for online hints - there are many sites with photographic lessons, advice, hints, and it will save you making many mistakes. Although with digital, you don't have to worry about the cost of film and developing.

Answer 2

If you want to work on your technique and developing that "eye," try not to use PS or any post-processing program as your main source of artistic creation.

To truly learn to use your camera for still life, get a desk lamp (yes, a desk lamp), set down a black or white sheet, light the subject however you want, and shoot. It's very very very cheap to do this, but you'll learn how to use your camera amazingly well.

Once you're comfortable with setting up a shot, go find textures. Think of photography "studies" like texture studies, color studies, etc. Find themes and take shots.

If you've got a digital SLR, try a long shutter and zooming while it's open. A neat effect there. Light play (long shutter, move around your light source) is fun, too.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Sepia-tones treat outside shots very well. Go on a walk some afternoon with your camera and shoot like crazy; trust me, there will be good ones in there. Just put your best artistic foot forward. I think the best ones of people are when they don't know your aren't taking the photo, i.e., aren't posing for it. Make sure you involve a lot of contrast in color, texture, and so on.

Answer 4

isn't the spectrum of solutions here particularly astounding? We hear from the two aspects of the fence and we ought to learn from the two aspects. For some, action picture is the Holy Grail. this is actual that studying on action picture and persevering with to apply it brings mastery of the medium it quite is basically no longer enjoyed via all people who has one 12 months of journey for two decades in a row. it is likewise actual that digital is a Godsend for many beginner photographers who did no longer advance up interior the "penny a shot" days of bulk loaded black and white pictures. "human beings, I basically desire to declare, you know, do all of us get alongside?" -Rodney G.King, 1992

Answer 5

choose like hotels the golden gate bridge people houses a close up of an unusual object rainfall waterfalls oh and tiny maple trees

Answer 6

just about anything takes on an artistic value at close up and in B/W. plants, skin, patterned shirts, draping fabric, the sweeping curve of a car