One of the most common subjects for both traditional painting as well as photography is still life. Still life photography is taking pictures of ordinary objects in a staged setting. It follows the great tradition in painting of painting objects in everyday life in staged settings. Below is a still life painting by Paul Cezanne. It is a picture of fruit and other objects on a table. One of the major elements of still life is the effect of lighting on the objects. Note the brighter spots of the fruit that indicate lighting highlights.
Still life photography takes this tradition of objects and lighting but captures these images through cameras. Note the photo of the apple below. It just shows a simple apple with lighting from the side. The image below that shows more side lighted fruits and includes another object (candle) as well. The concept of still life is to show everyday items in simple and unadorned ways.
There are many great resources for still life photography. I don’t expect you to use some of the advanced setups here but they are interesting to explore. Please read.
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/basic-still-life-photography-tips-17747
Assignment:
Your assignment will be to go on a photo shoot and try to take photos that illustrate still life. You can try varying lighting through use of a window or a flashlight or lamp to obtain highlights and shadows. Please post two photos from this shoot and post comments on your photo including where it was taken and other relevant information. Also post a comment on someone else’s photo. All plagiarism rules still apply.