Books

[zemlin]

I think this qualifies, as it was not books on a book shelf, but shelves arranged for the shoot on the kitchen table. My wife does Postcrossing - global postcard swapping through a web site - and likes to make her own cards. She wanted one using a picture of old books, so we scrounged up what we had, and bought a few more at a used book store. Light is one Einstein with an 8.5" reflector and a 30 degree grid.

Shot with an 80-200 f/2.8 at f/2.8 and 170mm.

[Brooks]

This is definately a still life and a nice one at that. The hard light works well with the textures of the book spines.

I'd take it a step farther by shooting at a much more oblique angle to the books with the focus only on the spine of one book so there's a very shallow DOF, 200mm and f/2.. I'd short light it with the light from the side/rear to bring out the texture and I'd be careful to use the oldest looking books in focus and near the point of focus. Maybe even pull the in-focus book slightly forward out of the pack.