Preparation for the project

Research on classical still life artists and paintings
Identifying symbolism in my project
Preparing props
Studio set up
Shooting with different lenses
Finalising and editing the images
Presenting the final image
Conclusion

Research on classic still life artists and paintings

Jacob Vosmaer (1574-1641)

Born in Delft, Vosmaer started his career as a landscape specialist, but switched to flowers, which brought him more success. He was a Dutch Golden Age painter. It was a period in the history of the Netherlands, in which Dutch trade, science, and art and the Dutch military were among the most acclaimed in Europe.

**Paul Cezanne (1839 - 1906)**

Post-Impressionist French painter Paul Cézanne is best known for his incredibly varied painting style, which greatly influenced 20th-century abstract art. In his four decades career, Cezanne created more than 900 oil paintings and 400 watercolors, and his works influenced Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse and paved the way for modern art.

Identifying symbolism in my project

There are 10 most common symbols in still life painting and photography.

1. Fruit: Varying Symbolism In Still Life Paintings

2. Skulls: The Certainty Of Mortality

3. Candles: The Passing Of Time

4. Flowers: Symbols Of Life And Growth

5. Seashells: Birth, Purity, And Fertility

6. Mirrors: The Soul In Reflection

7. Insects: Transformation And Decay

8. Musical Instruments: Beauty And Transience

9. Dead Animals: Contradiction And The Hunt

10. Silver And Gold: Luxury In Still Life Paintings

My images portray mixture of fruit and flowers.

Flowers - A beautiful bouquet of flowers in full bloom can signify life, faith, growth, and power. Wilting and dying flowers, on the other hand, represent a reminder that life, material goods, and beauty are fragile. Specific flowers also have more specific meanings.

Lemons - lemons in paintings represent a symbol of luxury and a sign of wealth. In the Dutch still life paintings lemons became a symbol of power, wealth, and dominance in trade. Being able to consume such an exotic item as a lemon represents a sort of superior status in being able to pick the best of the best from around the world.

When the fruit in the portrayals appears to be fresh and ripe, this stands as a symbol of abundance, bounty, fertility, youth and vitality.

Preparing props

Props: flowers - partly dead; lemons; blueberries; cloth; vase for flowers; ceramic pot with water

My camera Nikon Z6, lenses, transmitter

Set up the studio

In the studio I decided to use a black backdrop. I wanted yellow lemons to stand out from the image representing the freshness and vitality and health.

After placing my props on the table and in desired composition I moved to lights. The composition is using the triangle, a common composition when shooting still life (mentioned in my previous post).

I started with one light first (left). Soft box helps with soft and equal light on a subject. I adjusted the power of light to my liking; coming from about 45 degree angle it put a lovely light on the subject. I took couple of shots. The right side of the subject however seemed a bit too dark, that was not my intention. I decided to use a reflector first to see if that can do the trick. Unfortunately the reflector didn’t provide enough reflected light on right side of the subject.

Next step was to add another soft box (left). I wanted to create a soft subtle light on right side of the subject and therefore had to be careful not to over power the light coming from right. After a bit of playing with adjusting the light power I was happy with 3:1 ratio.

Shooting with different lenses

I tried different lenses to compare different effects.

Zoom lens 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6

Image 1: 1/100s, f/9, ISO 100, Image 2: 1/100s, f/25, ISO 100

Prime lens 85mm f/1.8S

Image 1 & 2: 1/100s, f/16, ISO 100

Zoom lens 24-70mm f/2.8S

Image 1: 1/100s, f/16, ISO 100; Image 2&3: 1/100s, f/13, ISO 100; Image 4: 1/100s, f/16, ISO 100

Finalising and editing the images

I have edited the images in Lightroom. Shooting in raw format makes the initial images look very flat so I always do a bit of editing in the end. This time I was mainly playing with adjusting the vibrance because the colours are quite significant in this case.

I also experimented with the attributes to make the images look more like paintings in order to be as close to the classical paintings as possible.

Presenting the final image

It’s never easy to make a decision especially when you need to pick just one image. The images have a slightly different angle and different lens adds a different finish. I picked the image I took with my prime lens 85mm f/1.8S.

I like the light in this image and the composition of the flowers especially tulips leaning above the vase with water. They look tired and thirsty and unable to reach water despite being so close to it. There is a shadow on the cloth which helps to create texture and mood of the image.

Conclusion

I tried different angles when capturing these images. I think all three lenses worked well for this project and overall I am happy with my images. Next time I will be working more with lighting up the backdrop to create more moody background.

Other work

Below is a selection of some images I took in the studio using different lighting set up.