Photographing Interiors

Interior photography is a special branch of architecture photography but has some of its own unique issues and strategies. This post explores some top tips for making the most of your interior photographs.

Interior Photography Tips

Declutter - Style Your Space. Clutter is one of the top problems with photographing interiors. There is a reason why real estate agents hire professionals when listing houses and why those professionals often bring along a stylist. Look critically at your room or composition, and do not be afraid to move, remove, or simply hide things that do not add to the overall story of the space.

Secret tip: when shooting a series of photographs for a before and after series for a friend, all I had to know was where I was going to stand to take the photographs. Then it was an easy task to simply move all the clutter (trash cans, Kleenex boxes, remote controls, etc.) out of view of the camera - off to the side, behind the couch, etc.

Utilize Natural Light. Natural light will add warmth and create an inviting feel to your interior photographs. Depending on the time of day and the quality of the natural light, you may also want to turn on any interior lights or lamps. A lit lamp looks much more inviting than a dark lamp. Read more on Ideas for Natural Light Photography.

Pay Attention to Vertical Lines. If you are trying to capture a full view of an interior space, you will need to use a wide angle lens, but you will also need to think about your height and angle for shooting. Pointing the camera up at your subject will cause your vertical lines to start converging (or coming together) towards the top of your image, while pointing the camera down will cause your lines to converge towards the bottom. With interior photography, your goal should be to keep your vertical lines vertical. Position your camera so that you can shoot straight on, use a wide angle lens, or consider correcting for the distortion in post-processing. Read more on How to Photograph Architecture.

Remember the Details. Vary your shots when shooting interiors. Yes, you want to capture sweeping vistas of an entire room or space, but do not forget to focus on the detail that make that space unique. Aim for a mix of wide angle and detail shots to truly capture the spirit of a place.

Use a Tripod. Interiors are often darker spaces, so a tripod is an invaluable resource. Using a tripod allows you to shoot at a narrower aperture to keep more of your photograph in focus (if that is your goal). This is particularly important if you are shooting in dim locations, such as the theater shot that opened this article. Read more on How to Maximize Your Tripod.

Do you have a favorite tip or trick for shooting incredible interior shots? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

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How to Photograph Architecture

Architecture is the topic of the week of Sept. 14th for the Boost Your Photography: 52 Weeks Challenge. No matter where you live, you can find interesting architecture to explore in your photographs. This post will provide links to a few great articles on architecture photography to get you started.

Architecture and Composition

Architecture photography is all about composition. There is so much to think about in terms of lines, placement, and lighting. One of the biggest things to keep in mind when photographing architecture is that the type of lens you use - and how close or far you are from your subject - makes a big difference in how your subject will appear in the final image.

The image above is from an earlier post on architecture, Photographing Architecture: watch your lines. I shot this series of photographs of our state capitol building by continually backing up until the amount of the building in the frame was approximately the same for each focal length. (The 18 mm shot was taken from the bottom of the set of stairs, while the 46 mm shot was taken from about two city blocks away.) Wide angle lens and shooting close-in to a building will tend to exaggerate the vertical and horizontal distortion and create converging verticals. Stepping back and using a zoom lens creates more 'natural' looking straight verticals and horizontals, but you may not always have a wide and unimpeded view of your subject to make that type of shot possible. (A specific type of lens, known as a tilt-shift lens, allows you to correct for this type of distortion in camera, but such lenses are a significant investment.)

You can also correct for this type of distortion in post-processing, as in the image series above. The top image is the original photograph. The middle image is after a correction for the vertical and horizontal distortion. Notice that some of the image is now gray space that must be cropped. I chose the cinematic crop ratio, shown in the bottom image, to feature the width of the scene. I would have liked to include the entirety of the Sears Tower, but correcting for distortion resulted in the loss of some of the building. Think about shooting wider than you need if you are planning to apply post-processing corrections.

General Tips for Architecture

The article pinned above, 9 Architectural Photography Tips by Natalie Denton appears on Digital Photography School. This post lays out some of the big ideas regarding architectural photography and how best to approach an architectural subject.

A second article by Natalie, Photographing Architecture expands on the original list with a series of suggestions for what to pay attention to when shooting architecture. This is a great place to start to get some ideas for composition, timing, and subjects.

Interior Architecture

Architecture photography does not mean that you can only take your photographs outdoors! Do not forget the variety of subjects provided by indoor architecture photography. Interior photography may be a specialized branch of architecture but one that also holds endless interest and opportunities.

The article pinned above, 6 Tips to Take Your Architecture Photography to the Next Level by Suzi Pratt, focuses on suggestions for interior photography, especially for magazines or lifestyle publications. Think about how interesting it could be to apply these tips to your own interior!

My final tip for photographing interiors, especially your own, comes hard-won from needing to sublet my apartment a few years back. While Suzi mentions 'styling' an interior, you might be amazed at what a difference a few minutes of decluttering can make in your final image. Do not be intimidated - you only need to declutter what the camera can see. Hide a few things behind the couch, and your whole space might suddenly look bigger and brighter!

Summary: Architectural Photography

Architecture provides a variety of opportunities to for photography, considering both exteriors and interiors. Pay attention to lines and lighting, and you will be well on your way to creating interesting and memorable shots.

Share a link or a photograph with us in the comments below! Or consider joining the BYP 52 Weeks Google+ Community to share your weekly photograph and see what others are capturing.

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Boost Your Photography: Learn Your DSLR is now available from Amazon. Get the most out of your camera with practical advice about the technical and creative aspects of DSLR photography that will have you taking beautiful pictures right away.

Photographing Architecture: watch your lines

Architecture is a popular photography subject, and one that can be explored both right around you and when traveling. This post will cover a common problem in architecture photographs: distortion due to perspective and the focal length of your camera lens.

Problems with Perspective in Architecture

Perspective is critical in photography and perhaps no where more so than with architectural photographs. Our brains use perspective 'cues' in two-dimensional pieces, like photographs and paintings, in order to interpret the three-dimensional views represented. We are used to the idea that a road seems to get smaller as it fades off into the distance, even though we know that it is actually the same width all along. These vanishing points (the point either within or outside the image where the two lines of the road would converge) help us gauge distance and scale. But they can also be disconcerting when they create distortion in places where we expect lines to be straight.

The amount of distortion in a photograph depends on the focal length of the lens used and on how close or far you are to your subject. In a previous article, Zooming vs. Cropping: perspective in photography, I provided one series of examples about how focal length and movement can change and distort an image. Below is an architecture example comparing zooming from the same place.

Here, I took two different versions of the same picture, while standing in the same location. First, I took a wide angle view at a focal length of 18 mm, and then I took a zoomed in view at a focal length of 110 mm. When you compare the Capitol between the two pictures, you will notice that there is very little difference in the images and their relative distortion. The problems arise when you start moving and changing your focal length together.

Converging Verticals

The road fading into the distance illustrated the idea of 'converging verticals' - that vertical lines in the image appear to be getting closer together rather than being straight up-and-down. While this can work well for roads, it is not always the effect you want with architecture. The graphic below demonstrates some examples of converging verticals at different focal lengths.

For this series of photographs, I composed each image to include approximately the same composition of the Capitol building. Then, each time I changed focal lengths, I had to walk farther away until I could get the same composition. Overall, I walked about two city blocks between the nearest and farthest shots.

The distortion of the converging verticals is most apparent at the wider focal lengths. Many photographers intentionally use wide angle lenses to create this kind of vast, overwhelming feeling of size through distortion. By the time you approach 50 mm, the verticals have mostly straightened themselves out to give a more 'realistic' or standard architectural view of the building.

Watch Your Horizontals, Too

The distortion from taking a photograph of a building from up close is not limited to converging verticals. Horizontal lines can also appear significantly exaggerated, depending on your lens and location.

For this version, I have included two additional focal lengths, as the horizontal distortion is still evident around 50 mm. As with the vertical lines, the distortion is most apparent at the wider focal lengths. The side wings of the Capitol building appear to head off at much higher angles in the 18 mm photograph than in the other versions.

Because the building wings are being photographed at an angle, they will never appear completely horizontal unless I moved to one side or the other and shot them face-on. Again, as with the vertical distortion, you need to be aware of the look that you are trying to capture and either use or avoid distortion as it fits your photographic vision.

When Photographing Architecture: watch your lines

The key lesson is to keep both horizontal and vertical distortion in mind when photographing and especially when capturing architecture. If you are looking to represent a building in an accurate, less-distorted way, then you need to think about using a longer focal length (over 50 mm at least) and standing much farther away to get the composition that you want.

If you want, instead, to convey a feeling of height or soaring proportions, then using a wide angle lens and getting as close in as possible will help get that feeling across by utilizing vertical and horizontal distortion.

Neither image is 'wrong,' but you want to use distortion intentionally, rather than just clicking a quick snapshot of a famous landmark from up-close and then being disappointed when it looks awkward or unusual when you get home.

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