How to set up a still life

The best part about still life photography is that your subject never moves. There's no blinking at the camera flash, unexpected motion, hair blocking the face or crooked collars to worry about. A still life portrait means a picture of any nonliving object. This can range from food to plants and artwork.

How you pose and arrange a still life object for a photo shoot is important. Careful placement can result in a beautiful photograph. By artfully moving the object near or away from light, you can create different effects. In this tutorial, the still life object is a bouquet of flowers.

Materials
- Small glass bottle, colored
- Fake flowers
- Small table

Instructions
1. Choose the decor. Pick out the glass container you want to use and place it on the table.

2. Choose your still life subject. In this example, the still life object is a flower. Arrange up to three or four flower blooms or stems of greenery in the glass bottle.

3. Style the set. Place the table near a window for natural light. Move the bottle around until it catches the light in the desired manner.

4. Take the photograph. To get finer detail, take close-ups of the still life from different angles.

As you can see, you don't need a lot of materials to take a beautiful still life photograph. Through careful placement and attention to how the light falls on the still life object, you can create a beautiful photograph.