How to Take Better Photos of Your Interiors

Niche Interiors If there isn't ample natural light try adding artificial fill lights to get an even shot. You don't need to rent professional lights, just use what you have around the house -- removing the shades may help. Great article topic!

Kit Pollard This is really helpful - I need all the advice I can get before the big photographing my house project!

I've always thought this post about styling/photographing interiors was helpful, too:
http://habituallychic.blogspot.com/2009/04/bachelor-pad-photo-shoot-story.html

Becky Harris Niche, I need to remember that. In my most recent purge, I realize I've given away some of my best "for photography light only" ugly dorm type lamps that always helped a lot when I was photographing goodies for eBay. Darn it!

Kit, I just checked out that post and it was really helpful. I tend to follow the work of a lot of stylists and photographers through sites like decor8 and desire to inspire, but I hadn't ever read about what goes into a shoot in that way before. We do have such luxury in checking compositions with digital technology. Whenever I grab a 35 mm camera these days, I tend to use up a roll of film in about a minute. It's like the digital has spoiled me and given me total photography A.D.D.!

Mary Glidden I am not the greatest photographer but my son who is alway told me to never use a flash indoors. It makes things cold looking. I keep working on pictures that will make him proud of me- have a long way to go!

Here's a few of my not too bad ones!

lefish Here's another good blog post with photography hints...

http://decorno.blogspot.com/2008/03/paul-costello-wants-you-to-take-better.html

npovlo Really great advice. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The visuals make a huge impact when coupled with your commentary!

karen1974 Great topic. I'm also terrible at photographing and would love to learn more.

Becky Harris I love this advice from Paul Costello in the decorno article:

"If the room and the styling are ugly, it's likely your pictures will be ugly too."

Too funny!

Traci I am definitely trying to learn how to take better pictures. This article was very helpful. The one thing I know for SURE is natural light is always best. I learned that even more when taking a picture of a table re-do this week. The shots I took at night where terrible, the shots during the day...amazing! Here's the link:
http://beneathmyheart.blogspot.com/2010/01/easy-coffee-table-re-do.html
Thanks!
Traci

sophie777 I've noticed that a lot of people try to photograph the entire room and end up with kind of boring pictures. Move in closer or crop the shots later. If it's really dark, flash is OK, but it is true--natural light really is the best.
Decide if you're creating art or documenting how the room is arranged and furnished.

Susan Serra, CKD LOVE this topic! I've been an amateur photographer for, well, decades! I've shot many interiors after my projects are completed and looking at lines that are plumb and level is always the first "check" for me. Sometimes you have to stoop down or step up to get the lines right.

This idea book is very helpful with great tips and examples. I usually do lots of shots with different exposures because I'm not always sure when I take the picture how I want it emphasized in terms of shadows and highlights. With cameras that don't have controls, you can just move the camera just a little bit one way or the other and watch for the exposure to be different, so multiple images can easily be taken.

The software I use is acdsee pro 3, photoshop, and I'm wild about this plugin for noise called Noiseware, which I think is a miracle worker.

tamitan Great tips- thanks!

Becky Harris This is great, please keep them coming people - perhaps I can make a better ideabook that archives all of these advanced ideas from you all!

02bnmxco Thanks for posting this. I'm a new blogger and I really struggle with taking pics. Hopefully this wil help! Lisa

Eileen Curinga Great topic and suggestions. My indoor pics always turn out looking dark even if I don't think it's dark in here.
I usually take around twenty pics of something that I plan to blog about, playing with the settings on my camera. Eventually, I will get it right!

Linda Paul thanks for the tips. I am getting a home ready for sale and I need all the help I can get

interior- decorating-diva.com/Marie Grabo Designs I love the use of the reflection in the mirror to get the shot but not sure how to do it without getting me in the shot. Was it done by a self timer?

Becky Harris Innervisions, I am guessing they stood to the right of the mirror and stayed out of the angle - if they'd used a timer the camera would still be in the shot. I think if you fool around with it you could make sure you're not in the shot - though a convex mirror would make things really tricky!

John Whipple - By Any Design ltd. I have been using PhotoShop Elements 8 to stitch pictures together to get a wider shot. This and pre - focusing on the bright spot on the room seam to help. I received some more information on the PSE forum. The shots just never turn out great. I have pictures of a bathroom I renovated taken with my camera and the same shot taken by a House and Home photographer and it blows my mind the difference.

Some of the keys I was told was with the flash inside needs to be a higher end one that points to the ceiling. Many design shots if you look close will show shadows under chairs or fixtures revealing the flash or light positions.

Lots of great info in these pages and many great pictures - I look forward to spending hours here in the coming months.

Right now I should be planning my next two bathroom renovations.

By for now.

John Whipple
North vancouver
www.byanydesign.com

Gail Great suggestions. I have problems, also, with taking pictures of rooms or items, especially small items. This has helped as well as the suggestions of the readers. Thanks everyone.

Cyndi K. thanks for the tips - it's fun but challenging learning how to do this....especially in a tight windowless bathroom : / thank goodness for digital cameras....can you imagine attempting this with film?

lmcdonald56 super ideas , thanks ! i just struggled w/ a very small and tight newly reno'd bath.

Fine Art & Portraits by Laurel Think about the composition, as if it's a painting. Remove all clutter. Resist the temptation to use every possible accessory! Use Photoshop to paint over anything which doesn't contribute to the shot, like electric cords and wall sockets. Crop to show what's really important. I never use a flash. If the ambient light seems too dim in the resulting photo, I play with the contrast in Photoshop using: Image>adjustments>curves.

Dona Rosene Interiors Great article Becky! I love styling my project photographs since I know how I want them to look. It's great to work with a talented photographer like Robert Peacock who uses these ideas you listed like the door opened in this Entry shot attached.

Linda Clayton Interiors Great hints. I have completed beautiful jobs of the years only to download the picture and find it did not translate that way in print. I will try some of these suggestions.

Wild About Staging Some really great tips here, thanks. My biggest photo challenge is taking pho tos where it is bright daylight outside and still try to keep the room I want to be the focal point in balance. One is too light and the other too dark Any hints?

$ell It Sooner! Home Staging & Redesign Thank you for bringing this up. I too am a lousy photographer (right now). I have a wide angle point and shoot that has about 400 other features :/ I do notice pics w/no flash look better. I would like to take a class on photography just to know the basics. My photos are so important! Here are a couple of my latest b4 and afters.

lneedham This is a great article, how about another one on how to shoot good landscape and garden shots.

HausStylish This is great advice, thanks for sharing, really helpful, it's always tricky to get good interior shots.

Mona I love this ideabook. We recently sold our home and were told by several people that the home showed very well on-line. Photography is soooo important. The outdoor shots of the pond area were commented on several times. I love your tips!

Rosa Dest Interiors Thank you for the tips on photographing a room. Our eyes tend to scan the entire room as we take it all in, it's nice to break it down into nuggets or vignettes and photograph just those instead.

Revival Room Thanks so much for these words of wisdom. I am starting a blog and am finding that my photos need help. I will utilize these tricks.

Tile & Stone Gallery These are some great tips! Now I just need to some how gain 10 hours a week to devote to photography:)

Vibrant Interiors Ltd. Lately I have been using a flash attached to my digital rebel 35mm, but I point it straight up at the ceiling and force a flash every time. This results in an overexposed picture. Then, on the computer, I dial the light down to normal. This results in evenly lit interiors. Works for me.....

TuffGirl Builders Thank you for sharing from your experiences. I feel as if I am wearing heavy gloves when I take shots of my work. I forget about angles, lighting, and perception until I am away from the job and stuck with a pile of pics to edit.

Rose Construction, Inc. Love your photos - I'm learning to use a fancy digital camera with wide-angle lens and telephoto lens, when all I'm used to is a simple point and shoot digital (which I love by the way). I remember my dad taking forever to take pictures with a 35 mm camera and experimenting with f-stops and lenses, and the lighting sensor. That was painful. Looking forward to taking awesome interior photos!

RSB Digital Photography While there are many great suggestions one of the best ideas is to partner with or hire a professional photographer. If you research a bit you can find local photographers that will create fantastic images for you without breaking the bank. I am in the Orlando FL area and charge $125 per property to create portraits for designers, builders, realtors etc. I shoot for approximately 1.5 to 2 hours and create about 8 -10 images based on my clients needs. There are specific techniques to shooting architectural photography in any light or time of day to get spectacular, printable results.

As an Interior Designer you work to perfect your trade so that your clients use your expertise again and again. I do the same as a photographer. Build money into your special projects to hire a professional photographer. In the long run you will see a return on your investment when clients choose you over another designer because of the images in your advertising or on your web sites.

Zarita de la Cerda Great advice, a good camera makes a huge difference, no lights or flash!! Use the daylight to your advantage and try using a laptop for the viewfinder, so you can see the details as you shoot, and shoot away tons!!

Pulman Interiors Any thoughts on a good camera to purchase? I currently have tried three different point and shoot digital cameras and none do the trick. I think I need to upgrade to a better camera that is user friendly and BUDGET friendly!

Susan Corry Design Photography is one of my favorite hobbies, so I tend to shoot most of my own design projects. Here are some helpful tips I've learned that I didn't see mentioned above:

1. Most interiors are shot pretty low to the ground (i.e., lower than at your own eye-level). A good rule of thumb is to shoot about 36-48" off the floor, which is enough to let you see the top of a dining table or desk. Just look at any shelter magazine to see what I'm talking about...your rooms will feel more intimate that way and have less of a skew to them.

2. If you have a laptop or ipad, download your first shot once you have the room arranged the way you *think* you like it. It never ceases to amaze me how many mistakes you can see on a large screen that simply aren't visible on a small camera screen: dust, furniture at an odd angle, a saggy sofa cushion, a window drape that's snagged on something, a vase that's blocking another accent behind it...you have a far better chance of correcting small details like this before you get home and kick yourself for not noticing them sooner!

3. If you have a manual (or semi-manual) 35 mm camera, start by shooting at an f-stop of f11. That tends to give you a pretty good depth of field for the entire room so that items in the foreground and background are in focus and not blurry. (Caveat: sometimes you want to create a blurry foreground or background to accentuate an item, so this advice is mainly helpful when you're shooting a large space and want everything in focus.)

4. Once you've set your f-stop, you can find the right exposure. It's always good to shoot a few exposures over and under what you think is correct in case you need to tweak things later on in Photoshop. And remember: underexposed (darker) images tend to have more "data" in them than overexposed images. So if you plan to tweak things in Photoshop later, you'll be able to get more detail from an underexposed shot.

5. A wide angle lens is invaluable, such as a 14 mm or 17mm. But you can certainly shoot rooms without one...it just makes it easier to capture everything. However, wide angle lenses tend to make things look a little fish-eyed, so try to zoom out only as much as you need to avoid unnecessary distortion.

I hope these ideas help...I'll add more if I think of any. Examples of my photos are on my Houzz profile: http://www.houzz.com/pro/susancorry Good luck!

Cozy•Stylish•Chic Thanks for the tips. I just purchased my first DSLR camera a month ago, after using a point and shoot and iPhone for years. My, what a HUGE difference it makes. I'm still learning how to use it, but can definitely see the progress. Pulman Interiors - I bought the entry level Nikon D3100, which was recommended by my brother in law, who is a professional photographer. It is simple to use, does not break the bank, and takes fantastic pictures. You can check out my blog for some examples.

Jeanne
http://www.cozystylishchic.com

POOL DOCTORS You can always use a reflective object (think a large piece of white cardboard) to add 'fill' light in shadowy areas. Try to keep it out of the frame if you can, or just crop it.