The Yellow Chair ©Harold Ross

As you may know, I’m a huge fan of mid-century design, so when my wife Vera spotted this beautiful Shaw-Walker office chair that a neighbor had set out for collection, she knew I’d love to light paint it. Naturally, I wasted no time gathering it up and bringing it back to the studio for photography. I've always felt that when thinking about still life photography ideas, that one should shoot what appeals to them! As they say, "shoot for yourself, not for others".

I used my Light Wand for the leather seat and seat-back, as they were (surprisingly) quite reflective, and I knew that I would like to see long thin highlights on that leather.

As the aluminum base is also reflective, I used the wand again, and I felt that I could get it into the space below the seat more easily than a scrim, which I typically would employ for something so reflective.

The wand is such a great light, as it behaves like a small strip light; but with light painting, since it can be moved during the exposure, it can be very soft and at the same time, if used correctly, it can reveal texture. This can only happen in Light Painting.

As always, the beauty of light painting never fails to amaze me!

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Still life photography subject ideas are everywhere! You don't have to go far or go to great measures to find a subject that, through light painting, you can make extraordinary. There are so many beautiful things all around!

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Creating light painted still life images is extremely rewarding, and something which I teach in great detail throughout my comprehensive Light Painting Online Video Course.

See some images that my students have produced here: Student Images, and what they are saying about my Online Course here: Student Testimonials.