Shooting interior architecture/design with simple light setup?

I hope I'm posting this question in the right forum...

 

I am a residential renovations contractor specialized in

basement development. I am trying to decide what my

best option is for photographing our completed projects

for the gallery section of our website. Hiring a pro is

probably the best option but also probably the most

costly. I have worked out budgets of between $4-6k to

have 8 basements professionally photographed. I am a

fairly competent amateur photographer and I have a

very solid understanding and decent amount of

experience with off camera lighting. I have done a fair

amount of interior real estate type photography as well,

but mostly relied on natural light and some HDR

techniques as well to deal with lighting challenges. I

recently sold all of my Canon bodies, lenses, and speed

lights to join the mirrorless revolution a la the Sony a7.

 

So armed with my a7 and the new FE 16-35 F4 I am

contemplating tackling this interior assignment myself.

Keeping in mind that these are typically smaller rooms

(150-200 sqft) and bathrooms, with generally not much

natural light, and often some pretty wild color

temperature combos (think LED, CFL, halogen and

natural light) My questions are:

 

1. Do I really even need strobes? I hate post processing

so I always try to keep that to a minimum. Will the in

camera HDR function achieve decent enough results? If

I'm going to just available light, I don't want to be

spending hours in post blending exposures.

2. If strobe lighting of some kind is an absolute

necessity, what's the simplest set up that I might get by

with? Is it realistic to think that one 250ws strobe and a

wireless trigger will be adequate? Will a couple Sony

hotshoe flashes using their integrated IR triggering get

the job done? I'd certainly find more use for a few

hotshoe flashes in other situations whereas a self-

powered strobe would not find a lot of other use for

what I normally shoot.

3. If I'm going to use flashes/strobes, are there some

quick and dirty setups that anyone can recommend.

Tips/tricks of the trade? Modifiers?

 

Thanks for any suggestions or advice.

<p>Your a professional contractor and I am a professional photographer so why don't we swap jobs I always thought of myself as a competent amateur contractor. See where I am going with this. Do your self a favor and hire a Pro to showcase your work properly so you can get your next contracting job.</p>

<p>"Like"</p>

If I was looking for advice on how to run my business I

would have posted in another forum altogether.

 

Besides being a professional general contractor, I am an

avid amateur photographer with a great interest in

learning more about how to successfully shoot interiors

and so I chose to post on photo.net where I thought I

might find helpful advice in that pursuit. I may very well

decide in the end to hire a professional, but for now, I

am looking for lighting tips and advice. If you have

some, please share.

 

If you want to offer more advice on how I should run my

business, please restrain yourself.

<p>Then ask the question instead of telling the story about what your debating on doing with your business. You did say you wanted help in deciding what your best option was and your mouth said the best option is probably hiring a pro. You asked for it. I am just saying.</p>

I did perhaps provide more exposition than was perhaps

required but I also asked several very specific questions

about lighting equipment, set ups and modifiers. I didn't

anywhere in my post ask "should I hire a pro, or try to do

it myself." thanks for your advice anyways.

<p>Ok now that we are on the same page and you opt not to take my first advice I will attempt to give you advice based on your attempt to D.I.Y<br /> 1. No you don't really need strobes unless you are in a very dark room or if there are windows and you have outdoor bright light and want to balance it.<br /> 2. HDR is a good option. Regardless of what you do you will spend time in photoshop.<br /> 3. Hot shoe flashes is very limited when shooting interiors. They are good for accent lighting.<br /> I hope I answered your questions.</p>

<p>Hi Creg, you have a pretty decent budget for getting a pro to shoot for you … but it is tough to do work for a client that is also a decent photographer themselves … LOL!</p>

<p>I would say that you could use your A7 and that wide zoom (see caveat on the lens below), in concert with off-camera flash. However, I'd highly recommend speed-lights that are radio triggered rather than any line-of-sight type or infrared trigger such as the Sony flash system. The reason I say this is because you may often wish to hide the lights at a distance where they can't "see" the trigger pulse from line-of-sight type remote flash system. </p>

<p>Phottix now makes off-camera speed-light<strong> radio</strong> systems that will fit the A7 with its' new ISO multi-functional hot-shoe (verses the older Sony/Minota proprietary hot-shoe design).</p>

<p>http://www.phottix.com/index.php/en/hot-shoe-flashes/phottix-mitros-ttl-flash-for-sony-iso.html</p>

<p>I would explore the Phottix solution, and while you are at it, see if they now offer their Odin hot-shoe radio controller in Sony ISO hot-shoe version so you don't need a flash in the A7s camera's hot-shoe as trigger/controller.</p>

<p>I think the objective would be to first increase the level of light in the whole room as evenly as possible, then strategically place individual speed-lights as accents to provide a sense of depth and dimension or to fill in shadowed areas.</p>

<p>A key light aimed at a white or neutral ceiling can often work in smaller spaces … I use a "globe" type modifier on a speed-light that mimics much larger ones used on more powerful strobes like those made by Profoto (which I also use for larger room applications). These "globes" disperse light over-all and can help lift the over-all light level in general with daylight color temp. BTW, the larger translucent globes can also be used with a speed-light set to its' widest zoom position, and places like Home Depot has just the globe part for $20 (I just bought a 12" one there). Then you can make your own with a little inventiveness on your part (get an extra Strobies speed-light mount, epoxy it to the big globe and you are in business.) </p>

<p>http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/902775-REG/interfit_str182_strobies_modi_lite_globe.html<br>

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Newport-Coastal-12-in-Diameter-Acrylic-Replacement-Globe-7791-12W/100671507</p>

<p>IMHO and direct experience the biggest issue you may face in small and/or confined areas isn't lighting them, but shooting them without horrible distortion (especially a bathroom). Luckily, the A7 can take almost any lens made via use of readily available adapters, which could allow you to use something like a Canon 17mm Tilt-Shift lens to mitigate the distortion issues. Most professional architectural shooters use something like this, or true studio cameras with full movements to correct distortion in camera. Otherwise you WILL be forced to do corrections in post production which are NOT easy. </p>

<p>Hope this helps a little,</p>

<p>- Marc</p>

 

<p>"shooting them without horrible distortion (especially a bathroom)"... I concur and have found that the smaller a room is, the more pictures it takes to accurately describe it. <br /><br />My only suggestion is to not just get over your revulsion of processing, but learn to actually enjoy it. The type of work you are attempting requires skill in aesthetics, capture technique and post processing. These are all skills that any professional will either own, or sub-contract, which might also be an option for you. Make sure you have a rock solid tripod, bracket each POV, then turn those files over to a good pixel jockey... t</p><div></div>

<p>Tom, I've never heard the term 'pixel jockey' - you made my day!</p>