Prop 7

Images from: 

http://www.adangio.com/gallery.php?photoGenre=still%20life 

http://www.digital-scene.com/product-photographer/product-still-life-photography/

http://haroldrossfineart.wordpress.com/jan-2012-light-painting-the-still-life-workshop

http://www.tecca.com/columns/taking-still-life-photography-beyond-bowls-of-fruit/

http://fineartamerica.com/contests/still-life-challenge--winter-season.html

http://www.flickr.com/groups/creative_tabletop_photography/discuss/72157604293416341/

These are the most interesting still life images that I found, I liked them because of their lighting. I also like the backgrounds being completely black, makes the object stand out more.

With it having a black background instead of white, it seems to make the colours a little more vibrant.

I have also decided the light will be going in this direction:

Thought it would be easier if I started with the shadows.

Using the polygonal lasso tool and the gradient and paint bucket tools I have managed to create some nice shadows, looking at this now though I have realised that the objects don't cast a shadow on the tray. That will be the next thing I do.

Ihave now put the missing shadows in, including the shadow inside the spout of the teapot which I didn't realise I had forgotten.

I changed the opacity to 90% on the shadows on the tray because it was starting to look a little to black.

The last thing I need to do to finish this off is add some highlights.

I got the highlights where I want them to be using the same method as how I did the shadows but I think they look to bright, I'm going to play with the layer effects and opacity to get them looking how I want.

To get them how I wanted I put the layer effect to soft light and copied it twice, the first two are at 100% opacity and the last one is at 50%.

This is the finished piece.