Most still life images are photographed inside, under artificial lights. As Alfonso Calero explains, it doesn't have to be that way.
Markets can be a great place to search for photographic inspiration. You'll often meet great characters and there are always wonderful still life subjects waiting to be photographed amongst the bric-a-brac. Recently I visited Evandale Market, Tasmania, where I shot this series of pots, pans, teacups and baking trays. The midday sun made it tough to shoot portraits but it seemed to add a new dimension to the still life images, with the crisp shadows as prominent in the pictures as the objects themselves. If you are visiting a market in the future here are some tricks I've learned over the years.
01 OFF TO MARKET
Always ask permission from stall holders before you start shooting and make sure you don't block any potential customers. Be quick, polite and thankful.
02 PICK A THEME
After a few minutes walking around the markets I noticed the display of pots, pans and baking trays you see here. From tea cups to baking trays it was easy to create a narrative of kitchen objects and shoot a series of five images. I usually aim for 3-6 images as a minimum when shooting a mini series.
03 USE THE LIGHT
While most professional photographers try to avoid shooting in the middle of the day, sometimes you just have to work with the light you have. Midday light is terrible for portraits but it can be interesting with still life subjects. In these images the crisp shadows add a graphic quality to the simple geometric shapes, and are as much a part of the picture as the objects themselves. Occasionally you can use that high-contrast lighting to your advantage.
04 INTERESTING ANGLES
It seemed most logical to choose an angle from above looking down because of the harshness of the sun. It was also important to frame my subject matter to have all objects in the same intensity of light. Be careful not to cast your own shadow when shooting from above.
05 USE ONE FOCAL LENGTH
If you are shooting a series of images on a theme it can help to choose a single focal length and stick to it. In this case, I used a 35mm lens for all of these shots. This tends to create a consistent feel from shot to shot so the images are better perceived as a series.
06 APERTURE
To keep the images nice and sharp I used an aperture range between f/5.6 and f/8. Most lenses are sharpest closed down two or three stops from the maximum aperture setting, which for my 24-70mm lens is f/2.8. At an aperture of f/8 there is also plenty of depth of field to keep the scene sharp from front to back.
07 POST PRODUCTION
During post production it's important to make sure any changes you make are applied consistently to all images in the series. Working with one image in Lightroom 4, I experimented with saturation, colour, contrast, clarity, vibrance, noise reduction, sharpness and vignette. When I was happy with the result I applied a synchronised batch action to the other images. Since they were all shot under the same lighting conditions this approach worked very well.
Born and raised in the Philippines, Alfonso Calero moved to Australia at the age of 15. He graduated from the Sydney Institute of Technology with an Associate Diploma in Photography in 2001 and has been professionally photographing food, portraits, landscapes and travel subjects ever since. He started a travel education and tours company four years ago delivering workshops every Saturday morning in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle. He also takes groups of four people to Japan, Philippines, Spain and Tasmania once a year for 10-14 day photography workshops.
