Still life photography has lots of practical and valuable uses. Perhaps you want to take a photograph of a beautiful bowl of fruit or perhaps you have learned that an important key to eBay success is uploading quality photos of your products. Learning still life photography can also give you opportunities for selling your photograph downloads on microstock sites or to food magazines. No matter what your reason, still life photography is a great skill to learn.

Unless you are photographing specific products or pictures for a magazine assignment, the subjects for your still life photography are endless. Fine art still lifes aren't limited to just apples and grapes. Even super simple items like a few artfully arranged spools of thread can be interesting and attract attention. Microstock sites like Shutterstock and iStock that cater to commercial users have a high demand for all sorts of still life, often of very simple objects, like a cup of coffee or a key.

In one way, still life photography is a lot easier than other forms of photography like landscape, sports or pet photography. With still life pictures, you can arrange the objects exactly how you want them and have full control over the photo's composition.

And sometimes, good quality still life pictures can be even more challenging to photograph. Because still lifes are taken up close, it's easy to see imperfections on your subject that you would normally never see.

Despite its challenge, by using some basic photography skills and applying these tips, you can create stunning still life pictures with just a little practice.

Lighting for Still Life Photography

With most professional photographers, they use a light box or soft box to take their still life photos. Although soft boxes can help out a lot, they still aren't absolutely necessary to get good results as you'll see shortly. However, if you do want one, you can find a soft box online or you can easily make one using instructions you find online. The purpose of these tools is to provide good, even light.

You can also get a good quality of light by setting up your photo shoot outside. In fact, a high overcast (bright overcast) sky creates a soft box effect where you get good lighting without the harsh shadows.

Composing Still Life Pictures

When composing your photograph, you need to arrange the objects in a pleasing composition. You should consider using classical composition techniques like the "Rule of Thirds," "Leading Lines" or "Frame within a Frame" for ideas of how to best compose your pictures. Artfully arrange the objects, and use your imagination. For example, if it's a picture of a piece of cake, instead of including the entire table setting, place a gleaming, silver dessert fork upside down on the plate and remove a tiny bite from the cake.

Fill the Frame with Your Subject

Remember, the only thing that should be in your viewfinder or on your preview LCD screen is your composition. Remove any clutter and get up close with your camera. If you have a backdrop or background you don't like don't worry about it because it can be easily solved. The soft box or light box solves this issue, but if you are shooting outside, here's something you can do: place a piece of white foam board or piece of material behind your subject, and voila – no more distracting background. Be sure to use Macro mode so that you get a sharp image.

Look for a Good Angle – and Shoot!

Rather than taking a picture from your head level, try holding the camera so that it's at the same height as your subject. You should also try shooting from a variety of different angles.

Hopefully these tips have provided you some helpful information on taking still life photos that you can start putting to use immediately.