Lighting Budget and Resources for Interior Shooting

[Hannah]

Hi everyone,

I've got a few real estate pieces in the upcoming months that require some professional-type indoor home interior shots. In the past I've relied on others for the interior and I stick with the exterior, however I think I'm ready to try my hand.

I was hoping to get some feedback on what type of equipment/investment would be necessary for lighting? Also, I was wondering if you might have any favorites on "how to" reference material in this regard.

Thanks so much in advance,

Hannah

Oh, I run with a 10d!

[robertwgross]

For openers, you are going to need a wide angle lens. I would suggest the most extreme wide angle that you can find. At least something wider than 20mm.

You are probably going to need a lot of light. I know about daylight coming through the windows and all that. You still need more light. If you are shooting wider than 20mm, then you may need something that throws light wider than a Speedlite. If using a Speedlite, then you need something that will diffuse it and broaden it like a bare bulb. A partner of mine has a big Quantum flash, and he can remove the entire top reflector part so that a bare flash bulb is exposed. That'll really light up a room.

I've seen some good panoramas done inside a house. That generally takes a good panoramic mount on a good tripod. For a house interior with wide hallways or room connectors, that can be a nice effect.

---Bob Gross---

[scottbergerphoto]

If you don't want to spend alot of money, you can use a speedlite on manual and place a couple of small Morris Mini Slaves in corners of the room or hidden in lampshades.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home;jsessionid=BBZVFfZ561!-785234280?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=ye s&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=morris+min+slave
Regards,
Scott

[WestFalcon]

I do kitchens for an upscale company. Their kitchens start at about $30,000. I started doing them with zero experience in that type of photography. I've done them for about 7 years now and some of the pictures have appeared on Brammer's(a kitchen company)website. I have gotten absolutely gorgeous shots using available light and a few reflector floods.....My latest is a craftsman utilty light for $39.95!!! I started by using flash on my first attempts....FORGET IT!!! I found that flash is too difficult to control. Incandescent lights (floods) along with the normal kitchen light make gorgeous pictures. Sometimes I bounce them. I do them all digital at asa 400 at about f11 and 1/15th of a second on a 10D. My lab prints them as 16x20's and they look like the medium format shots that I used to shoot. I use jpeg but I may switch to raw sometime in the future. I do 90 % kitchens but other interior shots use the same principles. Watch bright windows...I usually shoot at dusk. I always shoot off of a tripod. I use a 17-40L lens but the 20-35 would be ok too.

[rodbunn]

If you are shooting REALLY wide and a LARGE area,
try cranking the f-stop down (bigger number) and see if you
can SLOW the shutter down to 5 or 8 seconds (might need to
go to ISO 100), and RUN AROUND the area manually firing
a flash that can fire 4 or 5 times in 5-8 seconds...

You can light up ALL the areas with the flash, and if you move
fast enough (no need to move too fast), you won't show up in the photo.

AND the best part is, IT's FUN...... HEY, it saves on $$$$$
Think OUTSIDE the BOX now and then !!!!!

"Do it" (just rented Starsky & Hutch;-)
Rod

[DaveG]

Hi everyone,

I've got a few real estate pieces in the upcoming months that require some professional-type indoor home interior shots. In the past I've relied on others for the interior and I stick with the exterior, however I think I'm ready to try my hand.

I was hoping to get some feedback on what type of equipment/investment would be necessary for lighting? Also, I was wondering if you might have any favorites on "how to" reference material in this regard.

Thanks so much in advance,

Hannah



Oh, I run with a 10d!

I'd stay with available light and a tripod. A tripod is going to help you line up
things and use a small aperture so everything’s sharp. To light one of these shots
like the pro’s (see Architectural Digest for drooling purposes) is beyond
everyone but them. A radio slaved flash might throw a little light into dark
corners but I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

If you had the 20D or a Drebel, then that new 10-22 would be the lens of choice.

Be VERY careful to make sure that a lens that wide is parallel with the walls.
Outside, if you tip the camera up to get all of the building in the shot, the
building appears to “fall over backwards”, which is really “converging
parallels”. Inside with a super wide angle lens you will get that error if you tip
the lens up or down, even a little! The Hassleblad Super Wide C (an extremely
corrected 38mm lens on a 6cm X 6cm camera) that interior photographers wore
out doing these kinds of shots, had a bubble level that you could use to make
sure that everything was parallel. And the 10-22 is a lot wider!

You might want to shoot two shots very quickly with one exposing for the
interior and one for the window light. Then you could use Photoshop to layer them
so that you haven’t blown out the exposure for the windows. This will look a lot
more natural, but will be impossible without a tripod.