JA-PHOTO

Just Art 2008

Still Life Photography Revealing the secret ! Build your home studio

January 2008 ,, 3rd issue January Photographed by Jamal Alayoubi 1st winner in the open section in RC gallery KSC Kuwait 2008

MAIN SUBJECT PHOTOSHOP TOOLS - Revealing the secret - Cleaning photos and - Lighting essential of stunning still correcting lighting tools for still life life photography. and colors. photography. - Home made lighting - converting colors - A snake that would tools and how to use and chose the best help you taking the it to get the pro colors for your best shots. look lighting. still life shot & - Vedio lighting is a give it the Look. very useful tool.

[2] JA-PHOTO January 2008 3rd issue Tip of the month: If you know someone with the stylish tuch , let him/her organise your still life sobject to get JA-PHOTOthe best photos.

Think of a topic then look for the objects then take the shot.

THE ART OF FINDING THE IDEAS ... Finding the ideas for still life photography is not easy like taking the photo, you’ll have to think of the topic and to find the subjects then organize it correctly then adding the light and take the photo from the correct angle.

Still life photography is one of the hardest essential rule for still life photography because styles of photography where you’ll have to have still life is all about passion. the artistic imagination and organize subjects on I call the photo above “the virgin” I used your mind to have an imaginable look at the here a black background and a flower and a pair photo in your ming, add to this that you’ll have of jeans many people think that this photo have to imagine the lighting on the subject then to a bad sexual meaning ! but what I meant here is work on the photo with your camera. the woman chastity , saintliness and honor , Still life photography is all about still what I’m saying here that you draw the painting objects you can find in every home, you can and you only know the reason behind it , people make it look boring and you can make it looks might think oppositely but they’ll understand interesting with a couple of touches with lighting when you tell the story, you can also make it an or adding some other objects to the photo. understandable still life photo with less Sometimes people refers still life meanings like shooting cups or any other photography to surrealism art where the photo objects like the photo in the right I uses some subjects looks vague or have many meanings or it will be water drops to draw a cloud with rain drops an a Use any available subject that just a texture like what we call in photography unique way, you can think in the subject and you can find in your home to get abstract or pattern , artistic touches is an what to use and you’ll get the best shots. the shoot you are looking for.

[3] Top Photo Contest

Thanks for participating in the competition, most of the entries were more than great and congratulations for the winners and good luck for the rest in the next issue.

2nd

1st Al-Ajeel 3abbas

3rd ıIıl EiSsa ™ lıIı

Due to lack of the original size of the participated images we changed the cover page contest to top photo contest, and to participate in the next issue please visit our flick group.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO JA-PHOTO GROUP

[4] The Definition of Still Life something more than a simple record of the scene. When a painter works, the resulting Photography from the net. picture will reflect what's has been in the STILL LIFE Still life photography is the depiction of artist's mind - predilections, frustrations, inanimate subject matter, most typically a enjoyments and moods etc. This applies to small grouping of commonplace objects the photographer as artist too - so our that are either human-made or "natural." pictures represent something within us, Still life photography, more so than other making each unique. types of photography, such as landscape or During the 17th century a branch of portraiture, gives the photographer more Dutch painting created an almost specialist leeway in the arrangement of design form of the still life and raised it to the state elements within a composition. of high/fine art. Often the scenes from Still life photography is a demanding art, these Dutch masters show tables fairly one in which the photographers are creaking with layers of food, brimming expected to be able to form their work with chalices of wine, sprawling game with fine a highly refined sense of lighting, coupled cloths and brocades adorning the frame. with superb compositional skills. The still They're rich in chiaroscuro, texture, sombre Think of the life photographer makes pictures rather color, sparkling highlights and an infinity of best idea than takes them. Knowing where to look for shadows. Often pictures such as these propping and surfaces also a valuable skill. were aimed at a market of wealthy, likely In addition to knowing the fundamentals buyers, who wished for scenes to decorate of photography, successful still life dining rooms of fine houses. photographers should be intimately familiar Still life work provides a very quick and with still life techniques. They must have enjoyable learning path to the skills of tremendous studio-lighting skills, the ability composing, lighting effectively, being to use large-format view cameras, have a creative, problem solving, improvising, strong visual technique, and have a being creative and working in a disciplined distinctive stylistic approach. manner and the treatment of the subject Still life is one of the hardest of can range from the coldly clinical to deeply photographic genres to define. Portraits, personal with concerned involvement. nudes, architecture, lingerie, even special Often the narrative approach is adopted. effects all raise certain expectations; but Here there is the feeling of a story line, a still life is another matter. It ranges from sense that a moment in time has been advertising shots to the most personal of recorded and that the scene has a history work; from pictures that can take days to and a future beyond the moment of assemble in the studio, to those that are exposure "found" compositions and are Remember, still life can be found and photographed by available light in a few created anywhere. The subject matter may moments; from subjects no bigger than the be constructed over several hours or palm of your hand to those which fill a simply be "objet trouvé". Whatever it is, room. keep your senses tuned and use your Still Life, as with so much of imagination to the full. photography, has its roots firmly embedded in the romanticism of traditional painting source: techniques. Still life usually seeks to www.members.aol.com www.en.wikipedia.org illustrate the natural world and to present

Photos in this page taken by Fred Hansen

[5] Still life Home Studio. backgrounds where can use colored cloth or any material you like “wood, color paper, Still life requires a small space in any aluminum foil ...etc” to give the best look to corner of your home , you’ll be needing a HOME MADE ! your photos , you can also bring some table and some tools to create your working materials from the streets like stones or any space and you can even create your lighting other materials just to make your photo looks tools to use with your still life shots. great. First you’ll have to chose the darkest In the photo below you can see my room in your home to start building your home studio where I was shooting an apple small studio, and after finding the best room inside of my light tent with the use of two you’ll be needing some essential tools that SB-800 nikon speed lights with a home made you cant just construct like a good tripod and soft-box and a home made snoot and for the some speed lights, I have two SB-800 Nikon background I used a black cloth and for the Speed-lights and a remote commander on ground I used a book with a structured black top of the camera and I even use office cover to give an artistic touch. lamps to give some great lighting , you can Now you know how easy it is to create find great cheap usable lamps at IKEA that your own working space and it’s all about gives a great lighting with the same white ideas and creativity just find the place and balance of a speed light that you can use if start working and shooting what ever you want to add some motion to the shot, interests you easily at the rest of your own you will need a light tent to get the best home. lighting and to eliminate as much reflections as you can when you are shooting cups or any other reflect subjects , you can construct This is a great website “Blog” for home your own light tent with less than 5 dollars by made lighting tools you can learn from: using some papers and a carton box just to www.diyphotography.net use it as a light tent , then you’ll need the

my home made studio: - first I find the best room in the home with the lowest lighting available. - I bought a good useful light tent. - I made some usable lighting tools to use Home Studio with my speed light unit. - now I can shoot still life whenever I want at the rest of my home.

[6] FRED HANSEN

Fred Hansen Fred has built a considerable A great Still life photographer with an reputation for his varied lighting amazing lighting touches and stunning abilities. Professionally detailed, with ideas. great compositions and finishing the assignments in a timely fashion. Fred Hansen has, for 30 years, photographed for the best and Fred has embraced the digital brightest advertising agencies, revolution for the past ten years and designers and corporations. His also has considerable Adobe clients are varied and range Photoshop and computer skills to throughout Ohio and South Florida. make the photographs shine. Many of these clients have won highly acclaimed awards through the use of his photography. www.fredhansenphoto.com

[7] REVEALING THE SECRET !!

Revealing the secret of the flying objects .

When I won the first prize in the place a double face docking tape on open section in kuwait science club the tip of the barbeque sticks and RC gallery with the photo in the place the objects you want to upper left corner many people asks levitate you cane use more than one me if it was designed with sticks on heavy objects , then look photoshop! in the viewfinder of the camera and Now I will let you know that I adjust the sticks so you see only the used photoshop only to correct object covering the stick so it would colors and contrast and to give the look levitated and floating in the air photo the best final look. and take the shoot. the tools you’ll be needing for It’s not an easy job to do as you this tricks are some barbeque sticks will notice to adjust the sticks so it and a corks board and a blurry wont appear in the image and just printed photo as the background to let you know that it took me two and double face docking tape or days just to adjust the objects and you can use glue. to get the best lighting to eliminate first I took an out of focus the sticks shadows, you can see the blurred photo of my home pharmacy diagram on the top and the lighting and printed it on matt paper and diagram on the right. stick it on a corks board then I Good Luck ,,, insert the barbeque sticks on the photo towards the camera lens and

[8] Editing still life shots with photoshop,, blur the image until you get the best this is our image now with a little crop You shouldn’t adjust or edit still life desired blurred background. too. shots with photoshop , because when you take a still life shot you’ll have all the time in the world to setup your lighting and camera adjustments before taking the shot so you should have the best photo possible from your camera. But what if you already have a shot and you find out that there is some dust in the photo or you don’t like the colors or the shadows ! If it’s not possible to take the photo Now after getting a clear nicer shot we again photoshop can help you to get the thought of changing the liquid color from best shot you are looking for. blue to green by choosing replace color. we’ll work on this photo. After blurring the image now you’ll need to bring back the sharpness to the main subject by choosing History brush tool.

and make the brush as soft as possible. click the blue on the image.

This is a raw shot of our object we need to adjust, the background doesn't look blurred and there is some unwanted parts Now you’ll have to go to history steps we need to remove and we want to change and mark the step before adding the blur. the color of the liquid and give some artistic look the the shot. First we’ll work on cleaning the unwanted objects with the healing brush tool Move the hue button until you see the desired color then click ok . Now we want to add an artistic dark corners by making a selection circle then invert selection and use 200 feather Go to an empty place on the photo selection and press Ctrl+j to make a new press (Alt) and click with the mouse then go layer of the selection then use level to darken to the dust or the unwanted dot and click it the selection. and it will be removed , but not that you wont be able to remove dust if it has a structured background. now pain over the objects you want to and after cleaning the shot we’ll have to show in your image you can also use the work with the background to make it look dodge tool if you are using a white soft and blurred as we desire. background to make it even whiter, Go to filters and chose Gaussian Blur.

And that’s the final look of our photo good Luck with your work.

[9] JA-Photo flickr group members gallery (Still life) photographer name with a link to his/her flickr page with my comment with each photo ...

Яeema >> Nice warm shot and it could be a nice theme of the new year 2008 with the yellowish tones giving a warmth to the photo with the feeling of a candle light , I would use a smaller F number to enlarge the lights in the background.

<< 7oO7oO >> One of the best ideas of a birthday still ~.. Hanan photo ..~ life shot it gives me two deferent feelings one I can call ended happiness and the Great interesting subject for still life photography the other is no happiness to make it even reflections and the shadows and the b/w effect makes better you could use a different ground or the photo just perfect. adding some eaten cake to the frame that would makes the story.

<< ıIıl EiSsa ™ lıIı Great idea and well organized composition with the nicely done DOF effect but the white balance here is not going well with the idea and it making it more classic while it’s a modern shot but the shadows here is amazingly perfect. << Al-Ajeel Great idea of freshness that makes you want to try one of these tooth paste ! nice lighting and the background is just perfect with the red. >> Abdullah Q8 The lighting here is perfect and the reflection completes the shot with the great emptiness in the right making a great eye rest aria and what makes it unique is the japanese words on the ball. << $weet- g!rl great job using the golden rule at the focused subject that leads the eye to the top of the photo and brings it back to the right with the blue line , the colors here and the white balance are great and amazingly eye catching , I would use the black background with a glass ground to get a little reflection.

[10] Note: This page is not for commercial advertisements, this is just tips and an advice to let you know the best tools to get to have the best photo you can with the greatest simple tools you can find in the market.

>> FM Photography McClamp Video Lighting >> A great useful tool for still life photography Video lighting is a really useful tool that I use a lot in my home studio to hold stuff for while shooting still life photography when me like a reflector or the lighting unit and it can you want to add some motion to your carry a useful weight and itʼs really flexible , you photos that a speed-light unit cant can even use it when you shoot macro to hold provide , and it even gives you a bright some branches for you in the garden to give you the ability to shoot flowers even wen itʼs a windy lighting with a great soft shadows , itʼs an weather. essential tool for food photography , you can find it at any photography store. www.amazon.com

<< Nikon R1 wireless flash kit

When I got the R1 remote flash kit from nikon I was thinking that it would be a great lighting tool for macro photography but after using the unique remote lights i realized itʼs amazing great lighting for still life where you can adjust the lighting and move it and place it anywhere you want , it gives you a new dimension while lighting a still life shot.

www.nikon.com

[11] photography just the way I photography after a nice WHY learned photography from number of issues , I’m sure some great photographers. it would be a nice JA-MAGAZINE ? I started JA-Magazine collection after a while, I’m to collect my lessons in doing my best to collect First I like to thank you one nice unique place to the best and to answer any for reading my magazine, help photographers in their question photographers I’m Jamal Alayoubi from artistic mission and I write have been asking me Kuwait and a photographer here in english to be sure about how I do this and since 1999 and a pro that it’s understandable for that. photographer since 2006 I the whole world , I’m not a Now what I wish for learned and red about great english writer and I JA-magazine is to be a 100 photography from the net know that this magazine is page magazine and I’m and from some great full of mistakes but I’m sure that I won’t be able to books but the best school 100% sure that what I’m do this by myself and I’ll is when I shoot some writing here is need a team of good frames with the great understandable so I’m photographers to help me friends I have in Kuwait doing my best here to write this magazine and the Science club, I have wrote make this magazine upcoming issues in a more some lessons in some readable. professional way to get a photography forums in The idea of giving great amount of arabic and english and each issue a main topic is informations in one small helped a lot of people to to have a great collection place where everybody can understand the art of of every style of understand and like.

Photographed By Faisal Albisher

[12] something wrong or if you even have a better idea about shooting SEND US YOUR the same object with a different idea and technique or maybe with any other materials, all of this can Send us your WORK ... help to help many other result In this issue I revealed a great secret of photographers to give their best in how did I take the floating pills shot and I show this great art of photography. you how to use the barbeque sticks and to get posting your work on this the best lighting to give the light to this unique magazine. shot , I even post a photoshop lessons about making your still life photography looks nicer You are more than welcome to and even unique in a certain way, now it’s your send us your photos, lessons, tips turn to participate and show me if I was helpful and photography news or even a and let us see your shots and how you did the flyer to your next public galleries homework I gave you, and let me know if I did and we’ll be pleased to post it in this magazine, we’ll include a galleries of our readers in the next issue so please send us your photos to our let us know what you think about the subject Note: email or post it to our flickr group to be a part of of this issue and let us know what you want This magazine is made by this magazine or to get your photos reviewed us to include on the next one by emailing us Jamal Alayoubi and I’m in by pro photographers. or visiting the flickr group to participate and need of your ideas and help getting the best we can. help to give the best to Thanks for reading this issue and please our readers.

JA PHOTO MAGAZINE Get it from: www.ja-photo.com email us: [email protected] Participate in the flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/ja-photo/