Lifestyle photography: vintage, petal or silk blanket? The artist decides

Lifestyle as photo motif? These can be moods, outfits, fashion – motifs directly from life that reflect how the photographer or his model feel, what they like, what they value. This is about both what and how. Inspiration and backgrounds, colors and shapes can serve as a composition for a successful lifestyle photography.

Select the object of lifestyle photography according to your own and intended mood

Lifestyle photography is the basic tool of the advertising industry. Every artistically ambitious photographer will automatically deal with it in between. Some prefer photos of buildings, others like people or landscapes. But also a ring, a hat or a laid table symbolize lifestyle and are suitable for atmospheric photographs. The photographer should ask himself two questions when selecting the object:

1. What mood does the object create in itself?

Anything that inspires, delights or romantically inspires you is also a suitable motif for lifestyle photography. These special moods can be created by golden cuff links on a crocheted vintage blanket as well as a puristic swinging chair on a warm wooden floor. The better lifestyle photographs are always those with which the photographer expresses himself and does not imitate the models of glossy magazines.

2. What mood does the photographer want to transport with his object to the viewer?

A flower full of morning dew, perhaps directly in the first morning light, transports a different mood than the same flower in the evening, perhaps with a fallen petal, perhaps draped on a silk blanket. Such mood considerations can be planned and tested in advance as a scenario for an object.

Include backgrounds in the mood of the photo

Those who take lifestyle photos more frequently, for example for social networks, will over time get a private backdrop for their backgrounds. Wooden planks, a certain cloth as underlay, glass table tops or even clothes are suitable for the optimal accentuation of an object. Here it is necessary to question one’s own mood by means of a few photo samples. How does the picture look – is it overloaded, does it have too many light reflections or does it even appear “heavy” with the background?

The optimum is again best found when the lifestyle photographer feels comfortable with the effect of his trial photo. If this kind of creativity is difficult for you, you will find very different inspiration on photo portals like Pinterest for banal objects with a dramatically beautiful effect only because of their carefully chosen backgrounds.

Composing light and props around the object

A few dry scatter blossoms on a silk cloth can be used as a background for very different lifestyle photos. Cutlery, perhaps just the prongs or the handle of a fork, the lid of a porcelain jug, for country house motifs simply a chequered tablecloth, these are all popular props that everyone has privately at hand. For lifestyle photography outdoors, blades of grass, bundles of ears of corn and even individual flowers are ideal for creating a free and natural summer atmosphere, for example. Winter photos look much more warming with a glove placed as if by chance or a scarf placed slightly arched in a harmonious colour.

Conclusion: In lifestyle photography there are no limits for the artist
Lifestyle is everything that transports a lively, everyday mood as a photo object. Suitable for this are small and large things of everyday life, shots in the room as well as outdoors. In addition to his own mood, the lifestyle photographer should also include the intended mood of the viewer in his planning when composing the object and the background.