Still life primer anyone?

I did some studio work in the past in school. Long long forgotten. But looking at the still life thread here with some images by Igor and Ian Barber, holy cow. Gorgeous. I think I know the basics and never had an interest in still life indoors until my Chamonix came, but it's cold and I'm going to make lemonade out of lemons? I have flashes in umbrellas and two LED soft boxes, I prefer not to ever use flash if I can. I do NOT have one good north light in my home, sadly. I would like to use my 4x5 Chamonix this weekend, my wife and kids are gone (yipee...) and I have on hand Delta 100, Arista 400, HP5, Rodinal, Ilfotec DDX and Ilfosol 3. I have tables, bed sheets and "stuff" but no formal studio gear. Stuff for reflecting etc. is on hand. I have a meter I was given that I HATE (Sekonic 858? for another thread). A tripod. And a 5 gallon keg of homebrew IPA in the fridge. My lens is a 210 Nikkor. God, I wish I had a good North light window.

I would do a search (use Google, not the built-in site search) on Christopher Broadbent's posts here. He hasn't been around in quite a while, and I think the links to his example shots no longer operate, but he is/was a master at still life and had posted some good tips for doing them.

Robert

Thank you Robert, I found images online. What beautiful work.

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Originally Posted by Laminarman

a 5 gallon keg of homebrew IPA in the fridge.

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The first gallon might loosen you up but I'm not so sure how much help the other 4 will be. :cool:

Look up jody dole on Youtube. His work is in color and is all digital but, on one of the videos, he walks you through his thinking process. I don't have access to Youtube right now but it should be an easy find. The series is called light moves by Jody Dole.

Light is needed. Because you have subject material, a table and backdrop, the open question to be answered is light. As Robert mentioned, Christopher Broadbent is a master, and he advocated a single umbrella over the left shoulder. Start with this.