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Still-Life Photography | Studio Lighting Basics


Still-life photography is a great entry point to studio lighting - and it does not need to cost a fortune. With a few household items plus a powerful camera (on an iPad/phone), everyone can create stunning images. 
The workshop at OJC is designed to introduce studio photography, focusing on light and reflection. As such, I have prepared some objects of a common feature to be the still-life subjects - they are mostly made of glass! Wine glasses, shot glasses, glass jars, glass pebbles, glass marbles, and glass mirrors. For the backdrop I have set up a white paper corner, a black felt box, and laid some mirrors on a desk. In terms of lighting I have been lucky enough to have some theatre lights. To set up at home, any desk lamp would do the job just fine.


There should be the below three setups so the learners get to experience a range of compositional possibilities:

  1. White backdrop, corner setting

  2. Black backdrop, box setting
  3. Diffused lighting

To warm up, the first task is to distinguish natural from artificial lighting. Getting the learners to play with composition and notice where the dark and light areas are in their photographs is crucial so they start to realise the importance of where they stand (viewpoint). Practising on a piece of mirror and see how the light reflects will get them excited about producing striking images. #nofail

[A dynamic composition where the line of pebbles leads the eye to the jar.]

[A rather balanced composition playing with the symmetry created by the mirror reflection.]

[Adding water into the equation takes it to another level of fluidity. #punsintended]

White backdrop

[Learners going a go setting up with budget material.]
[It is very easy to over clutter the compostion. Try to keep just one of each of the following: vertical, horizontal, diagonal.]
[Having white objects on white background makes it easier to spot the shadow.]
[Experiment with lighting and tone. cool v.s.]

[Be careful with viewpoint to get the maximum effect.]
[Dramatic lighting and a higher viewpoint makes the subject look larger than life.]

Black backdrop



Diffused lighting

[Holding a piece of wet-strength paper in front of the light source to soften it.]



Digital manipulation


To introduce digital manipulation at this stage really is to further learners' understanding of photography, but it should not be a focus. The reason for setting up studio lighting is to make sure that everything is as close to perfection as possible. However, the camera on a phone/iPad does have its limitations and the post-production should be straight-forward.

There are many effective photo-editing apps in the App Store, yet I prefer using Lightroom as it is what the professionals use. Lightroom CC is a limited version on an iPad for free, and you can easily connect to a computer and enjoy the full functionalities once you have a subscription.

[Using Lightroom to change the temperature of the photograph]




End of the day, I believe photography is about framing and capturing the moment. Telling a story through static images can sometimes be far more powerful than using other means.


Love it, do it.

Sylvie Huang

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