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Magazine
Breaking through the frame of ordinary still life ideas

by Editor David Yang 

Creative ideas make a good photo.
Excellent still life photos always attract readers, but breaking through the frame of ordinary still life ideas will attract readers more.


Showing movement in your still life pictures will bring a very strong visual impact to readers.
The dynamic effect is getting more and more popular in still life photography in the recent years. With the rapid development of photographic equipment, such as the high speed continuous shooting function now found on most cameras, helps still life photographers to freeze even a high speed movement in their picture. This gives a photo more dynamic, and will strike the audience as creative and different. New technology helps the photographers achieve their creative ideas and the results are stunning. The use of dynamic effects has given new life to still life photography.

Balance is also a key part of photo composition. The basic principle of the human eye is to find the tension balance in a picture. The composition has to have not only has a static balance, but a dynamic balance as well. The dynamic balance means that the confrontation of two unequal subjects in the picture reaches an instantaneous equilibrium. When the subject in the picture has a motion effect, the picture becomes more interesting and attractive. This movement makes still life photography much more vivid.

 


'Shot of Whisky' by Lex Augusteijn

 
A glass of whiskey shot by a bullet. It shows a high speed movement frozen in a still life image.

 


'Splash Curves' by Jackson Carvalho

 
The combination of dynamic and static movement is an excellent, creative idea. This beautiful still life image will make readers question the setup and how such an effect was captured.

 


'Newton's Cradle' by Dina Belenko

 
Although it is a still life picture, the multiple dynamics create an illusion of sound erupting from the photo. The dark background acts as a simplistic contrast to bring out the colours of the focal point.

 


'A cup of wine' by vladi garcia

 
Although this is a simple composition, the movement of wine gives life to this photo.

 


'Perfectly Balanced Coffee' by Dina Belenko

 
This is a perfectly balanced and unrepeatable moment, and that is one of the beauties of still life photography.

 


'Ghosts' by Christophe Verot

 
The image seems ordinary, but the blurring movement is creative and adds a new dynamic to the photo.

 


'Color Water Art' by Edy Pamungkas

 


'Citrus splash' by Mogyorosi Stefan

 


'Dandelion Blowing' by Bess Hamiti

 


'Floating' by Larry Deng

 
Here, the balance of still and move brings out a peaceful atmosphere.

 

Creativity is key in still life photography.
Having a unique idea first and using the best and simplest way to present it can result in a beautiful photo.

 

Colour is another very important element that can be used to create different atmospheres.
For example, red, orange, and yellow are warm colours. A photo with these 3 colours as the main colour palate can be called a warm-tone picture. Warn tones help to enhance the visual experience of warmth, excitement, and joy. Various blues and green are cool colours. Cool tones can represent a multitude of things, such as serenity, deepness, coldness, and loneliness. Contrasting tones are the colours formed by opposite colour combinations. Usually, it is a contrast between cold and warm. Contrasting colours can have a strong impact on people's visual experiences. The point of the combination is that the main two contrast colours can't occupy the same area in the picture, because the contrast of the split colours will make the picture unclear and messy.

 


'Listen to me' by Dina Belenko

 


n/t by Elena Arjona

 



'Magnum-Opus #2' by Paul Topham

 



'floating' by Udo Dittmann

 


'dancing with the stars' by Judy Tseng

 

'July Morning – hippie still life' by Dimitar Lazarov – Dim

 



'Tomatos' by Burghard Nitzschmann

 



'A Posy of Pink Cosmos' by Gaille Gray

 



'The Egg Way' by Aleksandrova Karina

 



n/t by Pedro Uranga

 



'Suprematic tea party' by Dina Belenko

 



'Sunny Day' by Lydia Jacobs

 

1x has many more beautiful still life photos on their website. You can read more about Creative ideas in still life Photography in previously published article by clicking here.

David H Yang

 

 

Write
Great to see one of my pictures featuring in this excellent article.
Inspiring article with great selection of wonderful photos! Thank you!
Oh, such a nice company to be in! Thanks)
Great article, thanks Yvette and David.
Great photos :)
Thanks dear Heidi!
Excellent article and good photo collection, thanks for the choice of one of my photos to Ybette and David.
Perfect image to document this article, Pedro! You're doing such a great job with frozen flowers. Best greetings, Yvette
Great article, thanks Yvette and David.
You're welcome, Lydia ;-) Have a great Sunday, dear friend!
Many thanks to Yvette and David for this new article about still life and for selected a picture of mine.
Our pleasure, Christophe! You know how much I like your still life works... Bien à toi, Yvette
I'm honored that one of my photos has been selected. Many thanks to Yvette and David.
Very special and beautiful shot, Udo! Cheers, Yvette
Most inspiring article and excellent selection of images, David. Thanks a lot! Congratulations to the authors too. Cheers, yvette