Lighting for Still Life Painting

Still life setup ideas, lighting and composition tips to give you the best chance to create a painting that works out.

Kit used in this video:

Still Life stand – actually speaker stand:
https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/tourtech-tts-mo10-2-height-adjustable-studio-monitor-stands

Lights – Neewer 660 bi-colour LEDs
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neewer-Pieces-Bi-color-Video-Light/dp/B073PV3RXD

Softboxes for lights:
https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-10091633-Softbox-Foldable-Diffuser/dp/B076W62DGM/ref=asc_df_B076W62DGM/

White balance card:
https://www.wexphotovideo.com/colour-confidence-total-balance-collapsible-af-grey-card-1531568/

Setting up a still life properly can make the difference between your painting working out or being a disaster. You know the feeling when you’re half way through a painting and it isn’t working out? Maybe it’s not the values, drawing or the colour – very likely it’s just that the set up was put together too quickly without a lot of thought.

So it’s really worth takng some time to learn how to set up a still life. Good still life paintings (and most paintings, really) rely on the pattern of lights and darks, and you can create that before you even squeeze out any paint by carefully putting together the still life composition on your stand. If it looks beautiful before you start painting, you have a much better chance of getting a beautiful painting when you’re finished.

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