Taking photographs in artificial lighting conditions is not limited to the portrait genre alone. Very interesting in terms of the artistic form and imagery of reflection on the surrounding world can be photographs of various compositions – still-lifes.
Still-life as an independent genre of photo art has its own tasks, its own range of subjects and plots, the expressiveness inherent in it and the imagery of the artistic language. Still-lifes are photographed using all artistic means in photography – light and color solutions, tone, and various composition techniques. The methods and ways to address artistic tasks in this case acquire special concreteness, since photographs often portray not just objects as such, but also the setting, the environment surrounding the objects, and create a certain mood. This is why the viewer gets an impression from both specific objects in the frame and the space imagined beyond the frame.
It would be likewise wrong to consider still-life a primitive genre of photo art. Here, much like in advertising photography which often represents a narrow development of still-life, it is very important to achieve a completed, accomplished composition and lighting solution for the frame, expressive conveyance of three-dimensional forms and textures of object surfaces and their special arrangement. This is why the photographer must exercise special care and precision in arranging the lighting, for only using the light can one convey a rough or smooth surface of objects and their spatial arrangement.
In most cases, a still-life represents a close-up portrayal of objects. In photographs they should appear the way we are used to seeing them in daily life. This is possible only if the object surface texture is conveyed by appropriately arranging the lighting fixtures. For this exact reason a still-life can be viewed not merely as an independent genre of photo art, but also as a kind of learning process designed to help you master the lighting technique, as a path toward higher photographic mastery.
Let us focus on the objects in still-lifes. The photographer’s attention will be always drawn to such traditional objects as fruits, vegetables, glassware and earthenware, tools, and household items. The subjects of such still-lifes are endlessly varied and inexhaustible. At the same time, quite often the focus o the still-life is not the subject to which this still-life is devoted, but its expressive form and the photographer’s mastery in handling lighting.
When photographing a still-life, it may suffice to use just one light source so as to create a photograph of interesting tone and light solution.
Both white and black background can be used to photograph Chinaware items. In this case, the basis of the tone structure of the image will be the contract between light utensils and the ambiguous black background. For a clear outline of the contours of a tea set, one can use posterior-lateral (nearly opposite) top light, and illuminate the object in the front with sources of dispersed light.