Update on the still life class

So, in my last post I mentioned an online still life photography class I am taking at 2lilowls.com.   And, as I said, there is ALWAYS something new to learn…..well, one of the things I learned is to use the inside of a crate as a background, it allows the shadows to drop off and have more depth than a traditional background.  Luckily I happen to have a wonderful old crate with a full bottom.  I have used it as a shelf and have placed items inside it to photograph, but never considered using it as a background.  My crate is a stand size and not very large, but I found some snow drops blooming in our yard and they are such pretty petite flowers so I thought they would make the perfect test subject.

I had found these sweet little bottles last year at the Philadelphia Flower Show Marketplace - they are just the right size for the snow drops.  I added a piece of cloth for some texture and the light is natural light from a south facing window.  I used my 24-300mm lens and was a f/5.6, the camera was tripod mounted.  

I am really loving the way the background drops off but still has some depth to it.  The images were post processed in Lightroom and I used a couple of Lightroom presets provided with the course and tweaked them until I came up with an image that I was happy with.  So, what do you think?  

Learning new techniques is always an adventure for me and I just love being able to add new things to my bag of tricks.  So, if you haven’t stretched your imagination lately, give it a try, take a new course in an old subject or read a blog, research a theme you enjoy - the point is just to keep on learning and never think we have all the knowledge we need.

Until next time……..