What's the difference between still life photography and portrait photography?

There are some obvious differences between still life photography and portrait photography.

1. Shooting object: Still life photography takes inanimate or manually movable or assembled objects as the performance object, such as industrial or handmade products and naturally existing inanimate objects. Portrait photography takes people as the shooting object, focusing on describing and expressing the specific appearance and manner of the subject, as well as the photographer's unique expression of the beauty of the people.

2. shooting environment: product still life photographers usually work in a relatively quiet and sparsely populated environment, focusing on the ability to deal with problems alone and fine light processing skills. Portrait photographers need social skills and language communication skills, because they need to deal with people from different departments, and they also need the ability to manage dozens of people on the spot.

3. Emphasize retouching: In the later retouching stage, the retouching standards and requirements for product still life photography are often higher, such as jewelry, liquor, watches and other luxury goods. The concept and requirements of retouching are to pursue absolute perfection. Portrait photography retouching is more inclined to the personal expression of color aesthetics and photography aesthetics, and the technical requirements for retouching are not as strict as product photography.

Generally speaking, there are significant differences between still life photography and portrait photography in shooting objects, shooting environment, and the focus of later retouching.