Week 4- Still Life

This week, we were tasked with creating a still life image of “Found Objects”. This meant that I had to collect objects that I did not own and that I had discovered, borrowed or traded.

For this, I tested out three objects that I had borrowed. I positioned them in various ways and with different backgrounds to find out what was the best photograph for each object.

I first took photos of an origami butterfly (I had borrowed the paper from my sister). I decided that it looked nice on my cactus plant so I arranged it to sit on top of it and I played with different angles and lighting. In the first photo, it is clear that it is overexposed. This is a result of having too low of an F-stop number and the ISO being too high.

However in the second photo, you can see that the lighting is much better. For this, I sat with natural light behind me so the subject was lit much better. I increased the F-stop number but kept the ISO the same so the photo would be sharp. I do think I could have made the background more interesting.

The next object I photographed was a lamp. I tried photographing this from many different angles. For example, in the first photo, the camera is angled up towards the bulb to make the subject appear intimidating. Unfortunately, for this I needed to close my curtains to make a background and it erased all natural light. The lighting in my room is not particularly strong and that combined with the F-stop being too high meant the subject is only partly visible.

I like the second photo because the subject is fully visible. I also like the diagonal shapes created in the image through the neck of the lamp and the lamp shade. The F-stop of 3.5 creates a shallow depth of field and a more aesthetically pleasing photo.

The final objects that I photographed were bobbles and hair grips. I arranged them so the grips held a series of bobbles together to form a cylindrical shape. The arrangement made an interesting object of its own. I decided to use pink card for the background and the surface the subject was placed on to make a clean and smooth space that contrasted the textures of the subject. In order to get as close to the object as possible, I zoomed the camera lens in and then adjusted the focus. In the first photo, I didn’t like where the camera was focusing and how the majority of the image was out of focus.

The last image on this page is my final image. When I changed the camera angle to be more level with the subject as opposed to angled down, I believe the subject looks more interesting as it looks much bigger than what its actual size is. I also like the framing of the subject and how the focus is on the hair grip in the foreground.