A cancelled studio session left me at a loose end one day: after a quick telephone conversation I headed over to see Chase to talk about Helios lenses – and ended up with an impromptu lesson in still life. So I had to turn it into a sort of interview… The questions were disorganised, and the answers weren’t rehearsed.

We have met once before, although as fellow Critique Team members, Janet (her real name) and I have corresponded frequently. Since last time, she’s moved house and is now fitting her still life setup into a rather smaller room. Just one thing – Janet’s allergic to having a camera pointed at her, so you’re not going to see the face behind the viewfinder.

Janet’s still life ‘studio’ – a wooden board on top of a laundry basket with backcloths held on a basic lightweight background support. © John Duder.

The first thing we talked about is the number of objects to put into a still life.

"Yes. Three’s ideal, or an odd number. An even number looks too fixed, too… not real, static. Static is the right word," explained Janet. 

Showing the workings – and losing the mood. Uncropped, this image shows a reflector on the right, and what the board is sitting on below. And it’s ‘correctly exposed’ according to the camera’s meter. This gives a bright result, with far too little atmosphere. Imagine a Hammer Horror film with bright floodlighting all-round Dracula’s castle! © John Duder.

So we went to Janet's still life room and we put three cameras – for some reason, it had to be cameras – on a wooden base in front of a background, and it looked wrong… apparently, it looked wrong, the light was wrong - it was too much... then Janet suggests that, actually, it was the fact that each piece just didn't gel: "Each individual piece has to say something to the other. There has to be something that brings the objects together, that ties them up into one, a whole."

The expression on Janet’s face as she said that had to be seen to be believed!

Properly cropped and much darker – this is beginning to get there. Note the three objects – box and two cameras arranged in a triangle. © John Duder.

"You started with three cameras in a line, all at the same height, all the same distance from your camera and a row just won't work," Janet continued. "It has to have some dynamism, somewhere for the shadows to fall and the light to hit. The shadows have to fall somewhere so that although you’re looking at a flat screen, a 2D image, it makes it look 3D, because there’s space, there’s light, there’s shadow and there’s shade."

I’ve done still life occasionally, with reasonable success, because the stuff is just there. But when you have to arrange it yourself from scratch, it’s much harder.

It’s not just a matter of following a set of rules – Janet pointed out that this arrangement doesn’t allow the cameras to ‘talk to each other’ – indeed, they seem to be ignoring each other. I moved on rapidly! © John Duder.

"That's because you need things to gel and to look right together which means looking at colours and textures - a mix of textures is always good and this is why you should always be prepared to change something, not just move it, change it. For example, if it doesn’t look right with a box, change it for books," said Janet. 

We started with three cameras and moved to two cameras and a box then it was two cameras with books, then two cameras with books and a film spool or some seed heads to, in the words of Janet, 'add something real, something that was alive to add colour, texture and a way for light to hit differently'. 

Janet’s image uses apparently-unrelated items – books, pieces of a clock, books – but they link and gel subtly and beautifully.

"It’s all about light with still life, whether it’s light-painted or shot by window light, light is important. Window light is my favourite, especially from the left. Why? I don’t know really... It brings life to an image: which light does, whatever kind of image," said Janet. 

Adding random items doesn’t necessarily work – seed heads seem a little out of place here. © John Duder.

The thing I found fascinating, because, absolutely, I can’t do it, was the way Janet put things down in what seemed to be a random way and it just looked right. 

"There is an art, a skill to the arrangement. You have to ask yourself why it doesn’t look good. What’s the problem with it? Is it flat? Are things not facing the right way? Is the light not hitting it? It has to appeal to your eyes as well as the camera," explained Janet. 

In this image, Janet’s got a uniting theme running through all the images – elderly kitchen utensils plus an apple. You could almost find these on a real kitchen table…

I suggested that alchemy may be involved as in her own work, every so often there’s a moth or a bee or a little puff of smoke…

"There's no particularly logical reason for it, I just add things that look right and bring the whole thing to life. It depends what it is – I like the moths on a dark background and with something like the cameras it looks really nice! It looks pretty, and it also fills an empty space with something that is relevant in one way, although some people may not see that! It depends on how you look at something," Janet replied. 

Replacing (most of) the seed heads with a film spool looks better – but there’s an excessive amount of light on the pages of the books, skewing the tonal balance. © John Duder.

"You do a flower, and what climbs up flower stems? Ladybirds! It just adds something else and takes your eye away from the main thing, it just makes you look somewhere else. It makes you look around the frame instead of just at it," add Janet. 

Janet's image avoids light reflecting straight off the books by placing them further from the light and using an angle that doesn’t catch the light so much.

A sort of sideways logic? "Things have to be generally aligned with the main subject but not too much aligned. For instance, with the cameras, I’d be tempted to put a moth on the dark background, or something like a snail on the books because it matches. It goes, it fits," said Janet. 

For my image, Janet suggested turning the books round to display the less-reflective spines. © John Duder.

When processing her work, Janet often uses HDR which I also asked about: "HDR gives me the ability to use three frames, or five, or however many I’ve taken, and know that the light is somewhere in there. All I have to do is find it.

I don’t do tone mapping, I don’t like it: I think it puts harsh edges into images and makes them comic-book, not real. But I know I’ve got three lots of light in one image, and I can move that light where I want it to be.

It’s about having an extended tonal range available, having tone in highlights and shadows and also having the ability to alter the balance of light and shade within the frame. When you have mixed lighting, HDR can bring it out beautifully if you use it correctly. Overdone, like any slider, up to ten doesn’t work, does it?"

Janet's shot of old first aid supplies makes extensive use of darkness… There’s light, but not very much, and she uses it carefully. Most of her images make use of subtle HDR processing.

We chatted a bit more about specifics relating to my own images, but the basics of excellent still life images are in there, and in the examples of Janet’s work that I’ve used to illustrate this article. To me, it seems to come down to developing an instinct for both choice and arrangement of the objects you use, and there’s often a sort of sideways logic to what looks right. Call it inspiration, if you want…

Janet persuaded me to try an HDR image of the final arrangement, but my focus and alignment mean that I am reluctant to let the image out…

Do take a look at Janet's portfolio as it's bursting with excellent imagery. 

All images © Janet Walters unless otherwise stated. 

The creative process goes two ways, and my love of unconventional lenses has led Janet to experiment with one or two. In this case, a Helios 44-2 with the front element reversed, giving massive softening at the corners.

One image can change us.

A picture, a moment can change the way we feel. Change how we see ourselves. Change our understanding and change the rules. Provoke and change history.

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