If you haven’t heard, our current photo contest theme is an “Inspirational Object“. This means your picture has to be an object that inspires you. It cannot be a picture of any living things; flowers, pets or people. The image must be a picture of a non breathing object that gives you life in some way.
I know this is not an easy task, but such a good photo exercise to try. Objects, or should we say Details, are important to being a Story Telling Photographer. Whether you are capturing the objects in one’s home that describes who they are, or the details at a wedding, you are telling their story.
We’ve had a handful of photo submissions for this contest. But I’ve noticed there aren’t as many as we usually have. I think it’s because the theme is a bit more challenging.
So I thought I would post some tips on how to photograph objects. See if this gets your creative juices flowing!
Here are Seven Photo Tips for Shooting an Object when trying to bring still life to life!
1. Get up as close as you can to the object so that you’re filling the frame. Have as little background as possible. And if you do have any background that is recognizable, make sure it strengths your object.
Pascaline and I had our own little date yesterday and went to a local ceramic painting studio. What a blast! On a side note, while we were painting she looked at me and said, “So how is it going being a mom?” You have to love it!
Little did I know, it was the perfect place for taking pictures of objects! In regards to this first tip, I could have shot the paintbrushes even tighter, but I kind of liked clipping the side of a paint bottle to make the paintbrushes that much more powerful.
2. Set the object (depending on size) on a light colored surface. For example, if you have a white or marble cutting board try that as a background.
Or go the opposite direction and use a piece of black velvet. Black velvet is a great backdrop material because velvet soaks up all the light and creates a rich, deep black background.
3. Where is your light? Set your cutting board or black velvet next to a window for natural light. Keep that flash off. And don’t forget to play with shadows too. Sometimes shadows can enhance the drama of your object. Notice the shadows in the fork above.
4. Go as low as you can in your Fstop/Aperture to get the most buttery, blurry background possible. Low Fstops would be 3.5, 2.8, 2.0, or even 1.4.
5. If you are not comfortable shooting in Manuel, put your camera in AV or A mode (Aperture Priority). This way you get to decide how low that aperture is and your camera decides how fast your shutter speed needs to open and close.
6. Since this object doesn’t smile back at us, we need to create as much movement and energy as possible. Sometimes a simple tilt to your camera will do this. Push the lines in your image to evoke emotion. Make the lines of your teacup smile back at you. 
7. If you process your images in Lightroom, try your vignette feature (under Lens Correction) so the four corners are a bit darker then the rest of your image. To get to this feature, put one of your images in Develop mode and you’ll see the Vignettes feature on the right hand side toward the bottom. Experiment by moving your “Amount” into the negative numbers, and then try moving your “Midpoint” into the negative numbers too.
Vignetting highlights the subject of your image even more. The slight vignetting that I did on the image below helps give the illusion that the paint bottles go on and on as they fade into the distance. The vignetting also brings more focus to the center of the frame.
One more challenge that I hope doesn’t offend anyone. A lot of the submissions have been of Bibles or crosses. There isn’t any thing wrong with these two objects being your Inspirational Object. But if you’d allow me, I’d like to challenge you to submit a second photo of a second object. We usually ask that you submit one photo only, but if you’ve submitted a photo of the Bible or cross we are making an exception.
Why? I want you to challenge yourself to think of an object that is out of the box. An everyday thing you pass everyday, or maybe something hidden away. When you first thought of what your Inspirational Object would be, an idea popped into your mind. Now put that idea on the back burner and try to think of something else. Trust me on this, you’ll get much more out of this photo exercise if you push yourself to get out of the box on what the second object could be.
The deadline for the Inspiration Object Photo Contest is this Sunday, October 26th at midnight, PST.
Have fun with this exercise. When we were shooting in Cape Cod last weekend, Brian looked at me and said, “So much of getting better at photography is just trying new things and be willing to experiment.” He is so right.
Try something new.
Experiment with light, shadows and unusual objects.
And enjoy!
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For more fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese (see the downloadable version that is now available if you live outside the US!), our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, click on the words of your choice! To read a great review done on our DVDs, click here!
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I just love both of those two teacup pictures, I think of them a lot. They have just stuck with me ever since you first posted them.
I know EXACTLY what I want to take a picture of, I just haven’t made it out yet to the place where these things are kept. I need to do it before we get nasty weather. Maybe I’ll get up an hour earlier this week and go out there when the sun is rising. Hmmm.
I love your photo exercises, Me Ra! You need to open up the forum so we can share our exercise photos with each other outside of the five Finalists that get posted each month.
I can’t wait to see what everyone else submits… I hope you post more than just the Final Five so we can see the photos and read some of the stories.
Hi MeRa,
Would it be too much to ask about how to submit the photo for this contest? So sorry, I am fairly new in reading your blog, not sure if I got down all the details yet.
Just wanted to say that you truly are an inspiration to me. I have a rather modest camera, a Sony DSC-H50, do you think I could ever take decent pictures with it? I’m still studying the manual, the aperture/ISO are foreing language for me
)
Thank you for your wonderful posts and photos,
Mirela
I love this! I’m so glad you are incouraging people to photograph things that wouldnt normally. Not only does it help you think outside the box but it totally helps you build confidence as a photographer. You are so smart!
So here’s my cheeseball comment of the day…
Lately I have been really into taking pictures of “object’s” some for my blog and some just for fun. And let me tell you it has been one of the best experiences. There is just something incredibly thrilling about getting that sweet shot of something inadament. You have total creative control, that you don’t have with living object’s, so when you capture that it’s very rewarding and confidence boosting. I know it’s corny but the first time I truly felt like a “real photographer” was when I got an outstanding image of a thing. Getting the aperture super low and the focal point right on target equal’s a fun day to me!
The hard part for me is finding and being able to describe the inspiration in the object…
“So much of getting better at photography is just trying new things and be willing to experiment.” – Brillant Prof. T
Great comments ladies!
First Lauren, the forum is the never ending mystery to me. It’s pretty much done but I’m still trying to sort out its purpose and how to direct that purpose. I want to make sure it feels right for us and our crazy schedule and then also helps others. I will keep you updated for sure.
Mirela, glad to have you with us! No matter what camera you have, you can take great photos. It’s a matter of understanding the camera and it’s abilities as well as limitations. Our two dvds teach all about aperture, ISO and shutter speed. Check them out and see if that helps. Lots of people have broken through their glass ceiling by watching them.
Also, great question. To submit a photo for the contest, email it to contest@merakoh.com. Attach your image as a JPG and feel free to say a few words about why you picked this image. Also, if you have a blog or website, make sure you include the link so if you are a finalist I can post that too.
And Amanda, you are such a sweetie! I love to hear how your confidence is growing! You inspire me! Your right about the hard part, but this is where we can challenge ourselves to get out of the box. I love to hear how your discovering yourself more and more.
Hi Me Ra,
Great post…I really love the photos you got in the pottery shop, especially the paints. I find when I take photos indoors lately they look yellow and yuck (as I’m only working in natural light). I’m assuming this place had great natural light, but aside from that could you share your settings for these new photos? Also the paint photo seems to be pretty sharp, another issue I’m having lately, so I’m guessing you had a higher aperture? Thanks!
oh those bibles are so inspirational – I wonder why I didn’t think of that as mine!
Pascaline is too adorable: hows it going being a mom? HA!
MeRa,
I love these posts! They give just the right amount of “aha” “so simple” if that makes sense. Anyway, I just received my Lightroom in the mail…very excited. I have been an avid photoshop user for the past few years and I am now diving into Lightroom. I am going crazy trying to figure out how to save any edits to my photos! I know the answer has to be simple but all I am finding are complex answers. Please, if anyone can tell me the answer I would sooooo appreciate it…unfortunately I can’t move forward until I figure this out. Frustrating! Thanks…Kelli
I dreamt I saw your photo of the wedding bands/teacup in a commercial… but I don’t have a TV. It was so vivid! Your images are so sharp and inspiring that they stay with me days and weeks after I first see them. I think I may be articulating, for the first time, my own #1 goal in taking a picture – one I work towards, but have not fully/thoroughly realized yet. Thank you for the never ending encouragement!
Interesting article. Were did you got all the information from…