Low-key lighting
Use subdued lighting and candles to shoot a still‑life setup with a Renaissance painting feel
If you’re keen for a home DIY still-life winter challenge, have a go at our Renaissance painting-inspired low-key lighting photo project! Low-key lighting works as it sounds. It’s a soft lighting scheme that retains dark tones and shadows, and is atmospheric and moody in appearance.
To achieve the low-key effect we used three candles, a table lamp and a bit of natural light. We shot in the afternoon on an overcast winter’s day, so despite being next to a big light source it wasn’t overpowering. We found mixing the cool daylight tone with the warm orange tungsten cast from the candles to be visually pleasing.
To take our image, we used a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera. Initially we’d started with a wide-angle 16mm, but after arranging the props a few times and taking a load of test shots, we found the narrower perspective to be more effective. By cropping in, we achieved the still-life Renaissance painting look we were after. Do some research first: Google “still life renaissance” to see how the objects are arranged and what types of props will work.
1 Props and getting set up
To set up our arrangement, we hung a black background behind the table. We then placed a couple of jigsaw boxes underneath a black blanket to create a raised area. Along the front of the image to bring in some subtle colour, we lay a reddy-orange silk scarf. As props we had skulls, candles, dead bugs, antlers, glass cases, fruit (apples are a classic), a Box Brownie camera (well done if you spotted it!), a small wooden draw set, and lots of dead flowers. Of course, you may not have all of these types of props just lying around, but it’s amazing what you can buy online and start collecting if you have an interest in dead things! You can also do this type of effect with jugs, fruit bowls and flowers, so you don’t need to go as macabre as us if skulls are not your thing.
2 Manual focus andLive View
It can be easier to compose your shot through your camera’s Live View feature to get a strong composition and the best positioning of your props. It took us a lot of tinkering to get the final result, so don’t expect to get it right on the first shot. Once we were happy with our composition, we switched to manual focus and zoomed in on the back screen, turning the focusing ring by hand to make sure our image was crisp.
3 Camera setup
To set our camera we placed it on a tripod. We were shooting in Aperture Priority mode at f/11 to keep all the objects in the scene sharp, and at ISO 64 to retain maximum image quality. To ensure the black parts of our image remained black, we underexposed the scene by two stops. Finally, to take the image we set the camera to self-timer mode so we didn’t encounter camera shake.
4 Lighting tips
Although the candles and natural light from the window lit the scene, there were a few areas that were still a little dark. For that reason we also used a warm table lamp (with a diffused cover), which we held overhead to pick up details on the objects. If you use candles and dried flowers like us, be very careful: they will catch fire very easily. Never leave the exposed flames unattended.
5 Editing tricks
To get the final look of our Renaissance painting-inspired still-life setup, we had a small play around in Photoshop. To start we processed the raw file twice (once in a cooler tone and once in a warmer temperature), then blended these together. We also added a Curves Adjustment Layer to tweak the contrast and exposure. To give our image that painting feel, we added a Oil Paint filter. (Go to Filter > Stylize > Oil Paint.) We also used the Burn tool (set Range to Shadows) to manually darken areas, so the objects appear like they’re coming out of the shadows.