It's a pirate's still life for me! How I created this cinematic still life photo at home

Gold coins, pirate map, flintlock, candle, bottle of liquor.

Ah, Easter – a bacchanalian orgy of chocolate egg consumption and, of course, whatever pirate-themed film is showing on the TV / streaming services. Well, that’s in my household anyway.

But if thoughts of golden treasure and peak Johnny Depp are distracting you from indulging in your favorite hobby (no, not eating, it’s photography, remember!) why not have a go at this project? You can either approach it from a still-life perspective, or get close up and focus on a key element and make it a macro shot. In fact, once you’ve got it all set up, why not try both?

And if piracy doesn't float yer schooner, matey, you can substitute my piratey props for something fantasy-based. For the still life, an essential component is a candle but that’s really more for effect, reflections, highlights and shadows. Unless you have quite a lot of candles, just one won’t generate enough light.

So you’ll need an additional lighting source, which can be as simple as the window light next to where you set up, or more flexibly a portable light source that you can move around like one of the best LED light panels. I used a Rotolight Neo 2 (predecessor to the Neo 3), as this offers control over both brightness and color temperature.

How to capture a cinematic still life

Arrange the elements and get ready for the close up shot (Image credit: Future)

1. Arrange the elements
The more pirate-style things you have, the more flexibility there is in arranging them. However, you’ll definitely need some gold coins, a weapon or two, a candle and, of course, a map. I got the coins and map online for only a few dollars each. The flintlock pistol was simply a prop.

2. Sort out the lighting
Light the candle, but make sure the base doesn’t get hot enough to set light to the map. Test where the reflections and shadows from it fall. Add the extra light source to provide the main illumination. Take test shots and, if you’re overexposing areas, either use highlight metering or dial in -1EV.

3. Try some different angles
You want enough elevation that you are looking down on the scene and can see into the pot of gold coins, but not too much that it’s directly overhead. Ramp up the ISO so you can move around easily and keep the shutter speed up for handheld shots.

Getting the lighting right

Set a warmer color temperature for a more period feel (Image credit: Future)

As mentioned, using just a candle doesn’t provide enough light and reflections, so I used a supplemental light as well. I tried different light levels to complement that from the candle, rather than completely blow it out.

I also lowered the color temperature on my Rotolight Neo 2 to make the output warmer, but you will need to change the automatic white balance (AWB) on the camera to a setting of Daylight / 5600K, otherwise it will simply match the color temperature of the scene and make it look white anyway. This photo shows this when using AWB:

Change the white balance setting on your camera to 5600K, otherwise auto white balance will render it white anyway (Image credit: Future)

Final touches

Using a Color Lookup Table to tone the image for a more period aesthetic (Image credit: Future)

I edited the image in Adobe Photoshop and used Gaussian Blur with a layer mask to blur the edges of the photo and to make a slight vignette. Then I added a Color Lookup adjustment layer to give the image more of a retro feel.

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