Still life and product photography
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- Start Date: 20 Jun 2025End Date: 18 Jul 2025Fri (Daytime): 14:00 - 17:00In PersonLocation: Kean Street Photography StudioDuration: 5 sessions (over -5 weeks)Course Code: VY114Tutors: Jad OakesFull fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
The studio is fully wheel chair accessible and the acoustics are very good.
This still life and product photography course is a hands-on, studio-based workshop designed to help photographers develop and refine their skills in capturing still life imagery. With a focus on lighting, composition, and creative styling, the course will guide you through the technical and artistic aspects of professional studio photography, equipping you with the skills needed to create striking, high-quality images.
You will work with a variety of subjects, including everyday objects, crafted setups, and products, while exploring how to enhance textures, colours, and forms. Each session will involve practical shooting exercises and expert guidance to help you gain confidence in using professional lighting setups, manipulating shadows, and composing visually engaging shots.
Whether you’re aiming to expand your portfolio or transition into product photography for commercial work, this course will guide you in using key techniques that bring life and vibrancy to inanimate objects.
What will we cover?
- studio light techniques for product and still life setups
- composition and styling of still life
- techniques for lighting reflective surfaces
- camera settings, lens choice and focusing techniques
- differences between camera formats
- basic post processing of images for a polished look using Adobe Creative Cloud
- a brief history of still life photography.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- have an understanding in the control and manipulation of studio lighting
- arrange and style still life setups to make visuall interesting compositions
- understand the difference effects of lens focal length
- use image post production techniques to benefit your image output
- understand how different light shapers effect the quality of light.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is for photographers who have experience with basic camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) and are comfortable using manual mode.
You will need to be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions to support demonstrations, hand-outs and for health and safety information, and be prepared to take part in group discussion. You should be happy using numbers and able to do simple measurements and calculations.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught using a range of techniques including studio photography, workshops, short lectures, demonstrations, practical exercises, tutorials, group and individual assistance. Please note the City Lit uses Apple Mac computers in the Photography studio. The course also uses Google Classroom (an online teaching resource) for you to share comments with your class, download course material and upload images for group crits. Google classroom login help
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
There are no extra costs.
Please bring your camera (if you have one) to the classes and you may wish to bring a notebook and pen. The City Lit has a range of Digital SLR and mirrorless cameras, tripods, lenses and flash which you are welcome to use during the hours of the class. It would be useful to bring a memory stick (or portable hard drive – please note: PC formatted hard drives can be read by Apple mac computers, but not written to.)
When you enrol on a course at the City Lit, you are entitled to student discount on Adobe Creative Cloud
Please see the link below:
Please note:
- You will need to create an Adobe account using your City Lit email address which includes your student number. (This is in the format 123456@student.citylit.ac.uk)
- You can access your City Lit email through your supplied Office 365 account.
- When your course finishes and you no longer have access to your student email, the software will continue to function on the installed machine for the remainder of the annual subscription.
- At renewal, you will need to create another Adobe account using your personal email.
- The Adobe account is not accessible to City Lit and technical support is extremely limited as a result.
- It is recommended that you do not use the online storage available on Adobe accounts as access to your work is subject to the continuation of your subscription.
- Adobe sales can be contacted on 0800-028-0148.
Adobe Creative Cloud for Students
Adobe Creative Cloud for Students - system requirements
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
We offer a wide range of courses and specialist workshops in photography, both online and studio based, including our off-site location photography courses. For a full list of courses on offer and more details about course content, please visit our website.
Jad is a multi disciplined artist whose work draws inspiration from memory and time. Lens based media has formed the foundations of his practice, utilising over 20 years of experience working within the eclectic range of disciplines that make up the photographic industry. Over this time Jad has had the opportunity to work on both film and digital, 35mm to large format. As a commercial photographer he has been commissioned to produce work for advertising campaigns, corporate institutions and the creative arts industry both on location and in the studio. His experience is not only limited to the role of the photographer, having had the opportunity to work in diverse roles of photographic production. From assisting photographers to creative post production, budgeting, contracts and working in a photographic lab. His ongoing artistic practice, presented as ongoing projects or completed series, uses both found photographic imagery, staged studio photography and moving image.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.