Photographing interiors

I have a couple question regarding photographing interiors with a Nikon D70 or D80.

 

Firstly, which lens do I need?

I would like a horizontal field of view of at least 100%.

I would like a rectilinear lens with the minimum distortion.

I have a done a bit of research and it seems the following lens may be suitable:

Tokina AF 12-24mm f/4 AT-X Pro

 

Secondely, what is the best way of lighting an interior?

I assume it is using some type of incandescent lighting equipment. Does anyone

have any suggestions for some good and portable lighting equipment for

photographing interiors?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice and suggestions.

 

The cheaper the better of course.

 

Wastlinger

The Tokina 12-24mm is a very good lens for interiors. I use it with a D200. It is not without

distortion, but it is minimal.

 

Depending upon the situation, ambient light is always my first choice. But I supplement that

with a number of SB800 speedlites I can position wherever I need them. The wireless

capability on the Nikon system is great.

Hi Franz,

 

I do a little real-estate photography, but not enough to merit buying extra lights. And I too prefer ambient lighting, whenever possible. But it was slightly difficult to strike a good balance between outdoor and indoor lighting until I bought a camera that did RAW. Now, I just shoot RAW, and adjust those files to suit.

 

Happy New Year!

 

Dave

Hi Franz,

 

For interiors I use a 24mm prime lens on a 35mm film camera. The 24mm gives you approximately an 84 degree horizontal view, not quite the 100 degrees you refer to in your post, but close. I find this field of view to be sufficient for living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. For bathrooms you may lack sufficient space to back up, but you can still manage.

 

On a Nikon DSLR, that would mean using a lens at the 16mm setting to get a similar field of view. I have no experience with the 12-24mm you mention, but anything between 12 and 16mm should give you a wide enough angle for most of your shots. You may find distortion is better controlled at the 16mm setting than at the minimum 12mm setting, as zoom lenses normally display barrel or cushion distortion at the extremes.

 

Lighting a big room is quite complicated, so I don't even bother. Put your camera on a tripod, trip the shutter with a remote release or use the self timer. Exposure times can typically be from 1/15 second to 1/2 second, sometimes even longer.

 

You need to take care with strong light coming through a big window. Light levels between the darker areas of the room (further away from the window) and the light levels close to the window may be too much for your camera to record both well. I always expose for the interior and let the strong light take care of itself. This sometimes means burnt out highlights (too much exposure so those parts turn completely white).

 

You have two options to overcome this problem, but both are time consuming. One option is to take your shots in the late afternoon, when light levels outside are lower and it is easier to get a balance between indoor and outdoor. This may mean having to wait until light levels get lower. A second option is to take two shots on a tripod, without moving the camera. For your first shot you expose for the interior, for your second shot you expose only for the exterior. If you then display the second image on your computer, you can just retain the part that is behind the window and merge it with the first image. I have to look through some CDs, I'll see if I can post one example of this.

 

I sometimes put on lights in the room, like overhead lights and table lamps, but then you need to check colour balance. Normal lamps give a yellow cast, which can still look pleasing to the eye if it is subtle. Fluorescent tubes give a greenish tint and almost always need either filtration at the taking stage or enhancement on your computer.

 

Also take care with curtains. You may try to close curtains a little bit to reduce the amount of light coming through the windows and thus have a better balance between interior and exterior. It works well with white or cream coloured curtains. Do not try this with strong colours though, like yellow or orange, as this will give a strong colour cast over your whole picture.

 

I enclose some images taken with the 24mm, all taken without additional light.

 

regards

 

Jan

second picture

third picture

fourth picture

Two pictures combined, one exposed for the interior and one for the exterior.

 

Hope this will show well enough on screen, I have only been able to locate a reduced version of the original file.

Very good points Jan. Ambient light is by far the best situation. But unfortunately, we don't

live in a perfect world. Natural shadows, uneven light, various white balance situations all

contribute to very challenging capture situations.

 

While I can't claim to harness all the knowledge of light and its mysteries, I've worked with

a few photographers who have the talent. I've art directed some shots that (I thought)

started out very simple, but before I knew it, the photographer had set up a dozen or so

lights and shot a multitude of polaroids to get the light right, and voila, a wonderful shot.

Perfectly lit. Perfectly balanced. Those are the guys and gals who have it down, and can

see before the shot is taken what needs to be done to get every detail and subtle nuance

captured.

 

The advent of digital, and the intro of Nkon CLS has given me the ability to go where I

could not go before.

 

I have a relative who is a very talented, successful pro photographer in Chicago. I asked

him a few years ago what to do when lighting a situation...what are the rules. He told me

that there are no rules. Just use lighting in any way you can to get the shot.

 

The bottom line is experiment. See what you can do with available light. See what happens

when you use ambient and add a strobe here or there.

 

Here is a shot I took last year. Ambient light. Large space. D70, five SB800s in various

places to reduce hidden dark areas. Used a rented Nikon 12-24mm f/4. (Ended up buying

the Tokina 12-24mm later after testing the two side by side.)

 

http://www.brentcombsdesign.com/projectimages7.html

Not to disagree with anyone, but everyone has their own style. I prefer to use several lights and reflectors if needed. Sometimes it can take 2 hours to get the right lighting, but once you do it is well worth the effort.

BW and Bob,

 

I agree with you that the use of lights will certainly help lift a picture and even out the existing light levels throughout the room, as BW's picture shows.

 

The pictures I posted were taken a couple of years ago, when I was working in real estate. I typically had about ten minutes for an apartment and twenty to thirty minutes for a large villa (interior and exterior). Setting up lights for each interior shot would have taken too much time, as we usually had to make an appointment with the owner to view the property, take all the details and do the photography. Surely, with plenty of time I could have taken a different approach. I just wanted to show Franz that it can be done without additional lights. BW showed how it can be done with several portable flashes. These two approaches stay in line with Franz's quest for a cheap solution to light a room. Studio lights and large reflectors would be ideal, but not precisely cheap nor portable.

 

Other interior shots I've taken were of art exhibitions, but then you have the luxury of working in a well lit, large room. A couple of reflectors, even large white foam boards helped to remove any unwanted shadows. The overhead lights were tungsten, so I either used a blue filter over the lens or used tungsten film to get rid of the yellow-orange cast. Of course, digital gives you much more room to experiment and set your white balance at the taking stage.

 

regards

 

Jan

Thanks to all for incredibly helpful and kind advice.

 

I will go the Tokina lens.

 

I will probably try and use existing internal lighting, take photos in the late afternoon, when light from exterior is not so strong. I will possibly also use some extra (portable) floodlights, and use the white balance to adjust the colour temparature.

 

Someone mentioned RAW files. Do RAW files allow me much greater photo editing possibilities (I use gimp) than a JPEG file? I assume that I would need much more storage using RAW files. JPG top quality are around 1 to 2mb each. I assume a RAW format photo would use up much more space.

 

Thanks again to all for your advice. Truly appreciated.

 

Franz

Franz,

 

Shooting RAW gives you an large range of editing power. When you're shooting with variable

light sources and trying to balance those and the exposures, it is invaluable.

 

The files are much larger than JPEG, so your computer's ability of RAM and storage becomes

important. I'm not familiar with your editing software, so I can't help you with its

compatibility with RAW files. (I use CS2 with the Adobe plugin.)

Jan, I can relate to the "hurry up and shoot" mode. I was shooting a corporate boardroom for

the architect/builder and was told I had an hour to shoot. That would give me plenty of time.

So I started setting up, when the CEO came in and nixed that.

 

He gave me 5 minutes to get the job done. All available light. RAW. Lots of editing.

 

I don't like CEOs anymore.

Forgot about those RUSH jobs where they give you 3 minutes to get in and get out. In that case shoot raw with the widest lens you have and with available light. Use a bounce flash. The clients pay for what they get, so if they can't allow you the time needed, go with plan 2! Good luck!

In commerical shooting of interiors its not uncommon to have a van full of lights, stands, gels, reflectors, lamps for relamping. One might spend 2 days shooting a house, planning the lighting around the sun and how it comes thru the windows. After all the cool images are created most folks ask "what camera was used", when the camera really could have been a speed graphic with a wide angle, a mamyia TLR, a dslr, or even a walmart P&S digital. Having a cool camera and lens doesnt magically regel windows, relamp lights, or make extra lamps and reflectors appear. One might also have a girl to make sure the look of the room is neat, tidy, with extra fruit on the kitchen table, muffins coming out of the oven, and no clutter like my own house!

I think we've all had our share of rush jobs, with people looking at their watches and saying they need to pick up the kids in two minutes, so could you please hurry up ? Even if you get on location fully prepared, that is, film or memory card loaded, lens in place, quick release plate on the camera so you can just attach it to your tripod in half a second, some people don't understand you have to make some small adjustments to aperture and shutter speed and think you're just fumbling with the camera because you have no clue what you're doing.

 

But then I've also had my share of really nice jobs, with people interested in how the pictures will come out. The owners themselves arranged flowers, opened and closed doors and windows and were really helpful, with a cup of coffee waiting for when the shoot was over.

 

The most annoying job I had was at one of the art exhibitions I mentionned earlier. It was a series where we would give beginning artists the chance to set up an exhibition for the first time in their lives. I was called in to do the shots for the catalogue, which would then be printed and handed out during the exhibition, which normally lasted a couple of weeks. One of those artists was still setting up and changing stuff around, so I had to wait until he finished. He then followed me around like a lost puppy. Whenever I set up my tripod and framed a shot, he insisted he wanted to have a look through the viewfinder before I tripped the shutter. Luckily he was happy with all the pictures I took.

 

You'll meet all sorts of people, some will despair you to no end and others will leave you with nothing but good feelings. As long as your client is happy with the pictures you present, you'll learn to live with it.

 

I would give a last advice to Franz: keep your eyes open for small details. Especially kitchens and bathrooms may be a little bit cluttered. If there is too much stuff around the kitchen sink, ask the owner if you can remove it. Also take care with mirrors in bathrooms and hallways, as it's very easy to get your own reflection or your camera and tripod's reflection. With digital this is not so much of a problem, you'll be able to remove it on your computer, but a little bit of care at the taking stage will save you a lot of time. When you shoot a room that leads on to another room, open the doors, this will look more inviting. The same for a villa: if you shoot the main entrance from outside, open the doors so it looks as if they're inviting you in.

 

I've seen so many sloppy interior shots to know what to look out for. Buy a magazine that specializes in interiors, decoration or architecture and look through the pictures. And practice in your own house before you take on an assignment.