Be still, my heart.
(See what I did there?)
The images everyone came up with this month absolutely blew my mind. Still Life & Flatlay were a new theme to us this year, and the creativity that everyone came up with was unrivaled. It was so interesting to see everything from toys around the house, other creative endeavors, and the quiet moments in the hustle and bustle of life. Sometimes it takes pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones to really grow as artists, and while this may not be everyone's cup of tea, you all jumped right in and left me with this stunning highlight reel!
Two scoops of sugar, and a dash of milk,
Gear: Canon 5d mk3, 24mm
Settings: ISO 100, f2, 1/1000s
The Shot: I saw this pretty patch of light/shadows on the fridge and magnet so I popped the little Valentine’s message my daughter had written for my son (and I knew I wanted to remember) under the magnet, exposed for the highlights and snapped
Post Processing: I carried out very minor edits- tweaked the white balance, increased increased contrast by lowering blacks and cropped in slightly.
Gear: Nikon d750 & sigma 35 mm art 1.4
Settings: f5.6, 1/320, ISO 1250
The Shot: My daughter was painting her shoes and walked away to start cleaning up. I quickly pushed the table towards the window and stood on a small chair. Everything was just as she left it
Post Processing: Edited in LR. Brought up saturation and vibrancy, lowered blacks and shadows. And cropped in a little to remove my feet.
Gear: Nikon d750, sigma art 35mm
Settings: F3.2, iso 400, 1/250
The Shot: I cut out each stalk/stem on a piece of water color paper in a well lit room and took one shot of each. The light was natural and there were clouds rolling by so I tried to wait until the light was bright so they would all expose about the same. I did this better with some than others
Post Processing: Brought them all into LR and matched the exposure by watching the counts on the red channel on the paper and trying to match it to within a count for them all. A couple had to be warmed up as the sun faded and the shadow created a blue cast. I did that by eye. Increased contrast a little. When they all matched, I brought them into PS and used the grid template function to snap them all in. I put the roundish one in the middle and then tried to match features as I moved out (dark ones around the center, long ones in the corners) to create unity through symmetry.
Gear: Nikon Z6, 35mm 1.8
Settings: Iso 400, f, 3.2, 1/5000
The Shot: I wandered through the streets of our town during afternoon and spotted this scene.
Post Processing: Brightened a bit, increased contrast, shadows up, whites up, black down, increased dynamic
Gear: Nikon D750, 24-105mm lens
Settings: 1/15 f. 7.1 ISO 650
The Shot: I’ve become interested in still life as portraiture. This is a tribute to my husbands Nonna. Positioned against a dark wall with natural light to the upper right. I collected objects that reminded me of her and arranged them into a triangle composition. It was dark so I shot on a tripod with remote trigger to keep SS slow so that I could have a large aperture for detail and relatively low ISO.
Post Processing: In Lightroom I used feb curve to make it mat, increased clarity and sharpness and used radial gradients to increase exposure and saturation on key objects.
Gear: Nikon D850 with 35 mm f1,4
Settings: f2, ISO 1250, 1/400.
The Shot: I shot this next to window on coffee table.
Post Processing: I imported photo to Lightroom, downed highlights and shadows, increased whites and clarity a little bit. Using spot removal removed some distractions Then used curves for more contrast.
Gear: Nikon D800, 24-70mm @38mm
Settings: ISO 250, 1/500, f/2.8
The Shot: I was struggling to find anything interesting to shoot for still life, so I looked for interesting light/shadows. I shot a few toys in this light and decided I liked the shadow produced by the slinky.
Post Processing: Editing was done in LR - After converting to B&W, I bumped up exposure, contrast and clarity. I pulled down the blacks and shadows a bit. On the tone curve, I pulled the shadows down more and bumped the midtones. I also pulled up the blacks for a slight matte look.
Gear: Nikon D750, Sigma 35 1.4
Settings: ISO 100, F/2.2, 1/200
The Shot: It is cold and dark and I needed something to brighten things up a bit so my son and I pretended it was summer and made popsicles. I used an oversized art construction sheet for background and pushed the table right up to the window. Had to act fast before they melted.
Post Processing: Edited in LR, upped contrast, texture, and clarity and played with color sliders to warm it up.
Gear: Sony Alpha 7ii, 28mm
Settings: 1/160 sec, f 4.0, iso 400
The Shot: During a natural disaster “historic winter event” in Texas I was checking our pipes and looked down and found this natural flat lay. My dog loved the snow even though it was causing havoc for our city and thought it was a telling moment in the time we were in. Held my camera directly above. Natural light coming in from the left side of the deck.
Post Processing: Used Light Room and increased exposure, whites, blacks, and shadows. Slightly increased vibrance and texture.
Gear: Canon 5D MarkIV, Lensbaby Sol45
Settings: 1/320 sec, ISO 500, manual focus
The Shot: I walked in the living room and saw the kids soccer ball sitting there in the evening light
Post Processing: Edited in LR, adjusted blacks, WB, and increased vibrance.
Gear: Canon R, 50mm 1.8.
Settings: 1/250, F3.2, ISO320
The Shot: My friend had her kitchen remodeled over pandemic and I haven't been in there much. Went to her house to be inspired and snapped photos of still life around her new kitchen.
Post Processing: Edited in LR, Adjusted WB to a bit warmer, bumped up clarity and vibrance, moved saturation and hue siders up for the red to make that tea kettle knob pop a lot, moved all the color grading sliders down, shadow tone slider down.
Gear: Sony A7iii with 35mm 1.8 lens
Settings: ISO 5000, f/8, 1/125
The Shot: I took my camera into work (school) to look for an interesting shot. Stood at the top of the stairwell and held the camera high above my head hanging over the ledge to get the lines and turn of the stairs in.
Post Processing: In Lightroom added Smal preset and reduced shadow and increased exposure on the lowest stairs
Gear: Nikon D7200, 29mm.
Settings: F5.0 1/250 iso250. Bounced flash
The Shot: Craft room table supplies while standing on a stool without falling lol
Post Processing: Lightroom mobile editing - increased whites and contrast. took out reflection in googly eyes.
Gear: Canon Rebel T7i & Canon 18-55mm (on 21mm)
Settings: ISO 800, F20 1/13 sec
The Shot: I took the photo next to a window, with a tripod and long exposure. A friend helped me to blow the smoke of a cigar from one side.
Post Processing: Edited directly in PS, I raised the shadows, accentuated the highlights, removed reds in a saturation layer, and added texture.
Gear: Canon 80D, 24-70mm
Settings: ISO 1600, f 4.0, 1/250
The Shot: Natural light on kitchen counter ~ tried several different arrangements, liked it best when there was space between objects (except the prints).
Post Processing: Edited with Mastin Labs Portra 400 preset, increased exposure and tweaked greens since there seemed to be a bit of green cast, probably from the flower stems.