Tamron Blog: Shooting Still Life Photos At Home

To occupy your time this weekend, why not spend a few hours taking photos indoors, at home, of still life set-ups? This is exactly what Rick, who took the photos in this blog, did and he's shared a few of his top tips with us so you can do the same. 

To keep with the photography theme, Rick chose a Vintage Zenit as his main point of focus but you can use a wide variety of products for this type of photography, you've just got to theme it correctly.

As it's a rather old camera, Rick themed the shot with aged items such as the old cigarette tin filled with newspaper clippings to the right and by adding the aged bird book to the set-up as a stand for the camera and case. The background's an oil painting and as it has similar tones to the book and tin, it works really well in bringing the whole shot together and it adds another level of interest you wouldn't get from a plain background. Textures and shapes are enhanced by the natural light that pours through a set of patio doors and Rick boosted the contrast a little and desaturated the image in post-production to give the shot its overall muted tones. A little sharpening and spot removal were also performed after the shot was captured. 

Rick used the Tamron 16-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro on a mini tripod (see set-up below) to capture his still life shot as the zoom gave him more flexibility with composition and framing than a prime lens would have and great control. 

Sticking with the indoor theme, Rick's Whippet was the subject of an indoor portrait session not so long ago and you can see how Rick got on with this, and all of the other shoots he's completed with the 16-300mm Tamron lens over on our Tamron Blog round-up page.