Still life photography

Still life is the one genre where every fact in the picture is a decision. Nothing moves, nothing arrives by chance, and the light comes from where the photographer put it. That is why it is the oldest photographic subject: an exposure of ten minutes needs a subject which holds still.

The single light does the describing. One source from the side gives every object a lit face, a turning edge and a cast shadow, and those three things are what tell the eye the shape of a thing. Light from the front removes all three.

Build the ground first. A plain painted backdrop, a sheet of slate, a linen cloth, a sweep of paper. Say what it is and say what colour it is.

Use one soft light and say where it stands: from the left, at 45 degrees, a little above the table. Put a black card on the far side to keep the shadow side dark, or a white card to open it a little.

Place every object on purpose. Say how many there are, what touches what, and where each one sits. Then close to f/16 so the near edge and the far edge are both sharp.

Use it for objects with shape worth describing: glass, tools, fruit, bones, ceramics, instruments, a collection laid out.

Leave it alone when the object has to sell. A catalogue wants On white or Hero three-quarter, which are cleaner and answer to a different brief.

Food photography is a still life with a clock on it. It uses back light for steam and gloss, and it works at f/2.8 with only the front edge sharp. Still life works at f/16 and holds everything.

Cinema publishes Product, and this catalogue carries a commercial set with On white, Flat lay and Hero three-quarter in it. Those sell a thing. A still life arranges things for their own sake.

Macro photography goes closer than this and gives up the arrangement. A still life describes a group of objects, and macro describes one surface.

The grammar predates photography. Dutch painters of the seventeenth century fixed it: one window light from the left, a dark ground, and objects placed to lead the eye from the near edge into the group. The first photographic still lifes of the 1830s and 1840s copied it, because exposures ran for minutes and only a table would hold still that long. Auction catalogues still light silver and glass the same way.

The picture comes back evenly lit from the front, and every object looks flat. Say one light, say it comes from one side at 45 degrees, and say the far side stays dark.

The objects drift into a room, with furniture and a window behind. Say a plain backdrop, name it, and say the table fills the frame.