Still life shots are often in demand because they sell products. They are bought for catalogs and advertisements. They can also be nice images without shooting for commercial purposes. How do you make a still life shot exciting? After all, they are sooooo still! The standard answer is to use great lighting. As we have said in a previous blog about still life photography; with still life photography everything is in the photographer's control. So we have to make sure that everything is perfect. Okay, so we have good lighting, now what, the image still looks boring? Let's try to add a reflection to see what that looks like:

A reflection helps to add a little bit of interest. So how do we get this effect (no, I do not use Photoshop for this purpose)? You take a black blanket and place it over your table or stand. You place a sheet of glass on top of the blanket. Next we lift the far end of the blanket up to form the background. Put your lights in place. Put your lettuce (or whatever) down on the glass. There you have it, a nice reflection to add to your shot. Make sure that you do not get any other reflections in the glass. Change you angle to eliminate other reflections. If you have to, make the room dark (except your lights on the subject matter) to eliminate other reflections.

          You can use this method to shoot anything. You imagination is the only limit. How about jewelry, flatware, glasses, eye glasses, electronics, ...