In our everyday life there’s a lot of complex patterns, so sometimes we need to find something simple to take a rest and by being minimalist validates the simplicity. Minimalism in photography means that there will be a lot of negative space in our picture. Beside keeping the negative space clean from distracting subjects, here is some tips to help you creating minimal still life photos.
Shapes
Photographing subject in a form of geometric shapes works really great on minimalist still life pictures. Shapes could be everything, like square, circle, triangle, or even squiggle. Those simple shapes hopefully will make your photo looks more simple and minimalist. Still, don’t forget to get creative with your subject shape.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”100%” img=”https://img.phototips.cc/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/1DA7E78B1449416AB8CECCAD2461062C.jpg” alt=”Hardi Saputra” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”left”]
Pattern
Because we are photographing still life. It means that we are free to put anything anywhere in our photo, so try to create a pattern. Those shapes that I’ve described before, we can make them a simple pattern.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”100%” img=”https://img.phototips.cc/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/0B65227EE4EF45C0B188DF779398FE25.jpg” alt=”Hardi Saputra” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”left”]
You can also break it by giving something different like this one.
[aesop_parallax img=”https://img.phototips.cc/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/56E1CE8D36DE470EA37A0B972C0D9FD1.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]
Symmetry
Beside rule of third, creating a symmetry is really worth to try. In creating a symmetry, we just simply need to pay attention to the balance between right and left side our photo. The subject itself doesn’t have perfectly symmetrical. By simply putting our subject in the center at least will give our photo a more symmetrical looking.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”100%” img=”https://img.phototips.cc/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/7DA732D04EA849C68141FC909F11FDB0.jpg” alt=”Hardi Saputra” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”left”]
Another Tip
Just in case if you feel like your photo looks dull because of the negative space, try add a gradient to your photo. You can use brush tool, vignette, or something like that in your photo editor to add a bright and dark side to your photo. For example, let me show you the before after picture of a bread below.
Before
[aesop_image imgwidth=”100%” img=”https://img.phototips.cc/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/C294E2C89FAB4E988A162D2EC96B33E0.jpg” alt=”Hardi Saputra” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”left”]
After
[aesop_image imgwidth=”100%” img=”https://img.phototips.cc/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/69333DD4E1944467A8C0605C65304515.jpg” alt=”Hardi Saputra” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionposition=”left”]
Hardi Saputra
I love to create things, and that’s why my photos are still life, mostly. Since I was a kid, I create something like mini toys, cake, or houses for my robots. When I got my first Android phone with camera I started to love photography. I found out photography is pretty magical. Why? because it can help me to create something just the way I see it and it’s awesome.
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