Still Life & Flat Lay practical evening

This Tuesday’s theme was a practical night on still life / flat lay photography, with the option of trying out low and high key imaging. I have to confess that still life photography is not a genre that rocks my boat but nevertheless I was keen to try it out. Similarly low and high key imaging is not something I knew much about so a bit of homework beforehand came in useful. Twenty two members participated which we think is close to a record for participation in a practical night. Several members brought along props and a variety of lighting equipment, most of which can be bought at a fairly low cost. I particularly enjoyed using Muriel’s portable light box and the flat lay screen lights. I can see one of these going onto my Christmas gift wish list!

High key images are bright and low contrast with minimal or no shadows and can be produced by flooding the scene with light and exposing to keep the highlights while reducing the shadows.This technique works particularly well for portraits and product photography. Low key images are the opposite and create dark moody pictures with high contrast and illumination of only part of the subject. Again this works well for portraiture as well as for still life and architecture. I found it easier to create a high key image with the equipment we had on the night and the picture of a flower demonstrates the difference between a normal exposure and one with +3 stops of compensation. See below.