Each week we've been suggesting some new photo ideas to inspire you to get out and about with your camera. We've ticked off landscape photography, and last week we covered portrait photography.
But what about some inspiring photography tips for all you control freaks out there!
With the weather and people, you're camera is subject to their whims, but in still life photography you can take complete control over your images, from your lighting on down to fine-tuning your subject's arrangement.
However, shooting still lifes isn't as easy as it may seem, despite having total control. Our friends at Digital Camera World have rounded up their best photography tips and tutorials for shooting still life scenes.
1. Whatever subject you shoot, to do it successfully you need to know your camera and its capabilities inside and out. Read this excellent primer of 44 essential digital camera tips and tricks and you'll be well placed to frame any subject.
2. The key to all still life photography is depth of field. In theory, only the object you focus on will be sharp, but in practice there's a zone of sharpness that extends behind the point you've focused on and in front of it. To learn how to start thinking and composing images in terms of zones of sharpness, read this excellent guide to help you master depth of field in 8 steps.
3. On the other hand, sometimes you may want everything in your frame to be in focus. This isn't always achievable in-camera, however. Find out how to fake perfect focus in Photoshop using this simple focus stacking technique.
4. After focusing, lighting will be your biggest concern when shooting still life scenes. Despite what the pros pay for their studio lighting, illuminating your still life can be cheaper than a pint of beer. This still life photography guide to lighting crafting photos will help you get better exposures, whether you're shooting jewellery or your empty pint glasses!
5. Spring flowers, of course, are one of the most popular subjects to photograph this time of year. From the best ISO settings to the best viewpoints, these 25 flower photography tips will help you get better pictures pictures of flowers this spring than all your friends who didn't read them.
6. Or maybe you want to see how it's done first before you go to all the trouble of setting up your home studio. We respect that. Check out this excellent gallery of still life photography in pictures to help get you inspired.
7. Now that you've read these still life tutorials we expect you're now an expert, right? OK, even if you're not, why not put some of these ideas in practice and enter our still life photography contest and be in with a chance of winning a Lowepro rucksack.
Finally, if, like most of us, you take your photography seriously enough to spend the time to fine tune your pictures on your computer, you were probably intrigued by last week's news of the launch of Adobe's Photoshop CS6 beta.
Our friends at Practical Photoshop have put together a special digital guide to understanding the new features in Photoshop CS6. This iPad-only Adobe Photoshop CS6 Preview goes in-depth on the new features, technical specifications and hardware details of Adobe's latest release. You can download it free through Apple Newsstand.
