First Interior Shoot - Your pro tips and tricks please.

I've recently been asked to shoot the interior of an art gallery - [See picture of the gallery to get an idea of the interior] - to be used for their website.

Rooms are not large, largest perhaps 35 feet square. As may be imagined, they will have many rail lights for the artworks. Any tips on how to use them to advantage perhaps? There are hallways leading to other rooms and some pics might include a glimpse of the adjacent room, so it might need to be lit well too.

Gallery owner wants interior shots of the gallery, not so much of the art pieces, in order to sell her space to artists who see the gallery online.

Relevant Equipment:
20D body.
My widest lens: Tamron 24-135 mm 3.5-5.6
580 and 420EX flashes
Ebay 3-light kit with softboxes. They're decent but have only full or half power.
Tripod
Sekonic L-358 flash/light meter

Also, maybe not so relevant: Light modifiers: LSII, 4' reflector disc [gold/silver/white/bla​ck]

1. I am thinking of buying a Tokina 12-24mm f4. for this job. Thoughts?

2. I envision having many or all the lights on (gallery rail lights) and using them to strategically light the areas I want lit. There will probably be artwork on the walls.

3. I'm also going to get Pocket wizards plus IIs. Are two PWs enough? I think so, but I'm unsure. I will use them for weddings later. Budget is tight.

4. There will be window light, but not much. I think the gallery has the blinds down to better show the artworks with their own lighting.

I think I will attempt shooting some without adding my lighting - just using the what's available. But just in case, I'd appreciate some tips from you who have had similar shoots and are veterans.

Also, I welcome comments on what your pricing would be if you were asked to do this job. I believe the gallery wants only one or at most a handful of shots. I think I will be working for about 2 hours tops. Travel I will calculate separately.

I may have missed some points, but I'll let you ask. Thanks in advance.

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Without seeing the actual location it is hard to say but if it is as you describe I would try and take advantage of as much existing light as possible .. in other words use the available window and interior light as your main sources of light and supplement that with your own lighting where required to maintain even light levels.

That would retain the ambience and character of the place and also simplify your lighting requirements. I've been doing quite a few interiors over the past few years and have come to rely on existing light as much as possible.

And if the rooms are smaller you can bounce a light onto the ceiling .. the trick there is to balance the bounced light with the available light so that they are about even. Watch around the window areas as they can often be a far different exposure than the rest of the room .. you can either bring the interior level up to the window level, wait for a time of day when the outside light level is lower, or finally shoot multiple exposures and blend in the window areas.

Good luck .. sounds like a nice job,
Mike

If the people who run the gallery have done thier jobs properly, then the existing light will be set up in such a way that it bests show cases the art work.

Instinctively (as Iv never done this before) I would shoot it using the existing lights, (which means custom white balance, and long exposures on a tripod) to try and capture as much of the gallery's natural atmosphere.
However, you might also want to look at using the 580, bounced of a wall, or the ceiling for the odd bit of fill in places, especially if shooting from unusual angles.

With a bit of practice and lots of chimping you should be able to find a nice balance of flash and existing light to show of the building.

Have fun!

mmahoney wrote in post #2756709
Without seeing the actual location it is hard to say but if it is as you describe I would try and take advantage of as much existing light as possible .. in other words use the available window and interior light as your main sources of light and supplement that with your own lighting where required to maintain even light levels.

That would retain the ambience and character of the place and also simplify your lighting requirements. I've been doing quite a few interiors over the past few years and have come to rely on existing light as much as possible.

And if the rooms are smaller you can bounce a light onto the ceiling .. the trick there is to balance the bounced light with the available light so that they are about even. Watch around the window areas as they can often be a far different exposure than the rest of the room .. you can either bring the interior level up to the window level, wait for a time of day when the outside light level is lower, or finally shoot multiple exposures and blend in the window areas.

Good luck .. sounds like a nice job,
Mike

Thanks Mike for your advice. My feeling exactly about retaining the character of the place by using available light as the main light. One point I did not consider earlier: waiting for outdoor light to serve my purposes. Thanks!

Moppie, thank you. Seems like you and Mike agree on most points. I will take your advice to heart.

I would also spend a good half and hour, to an hour just walking around the gallery with the people who want the shots.
Get some idea of what sort of a look they want.
Do they want wide, sweeping shots, or close details?
Do they want to use the natural and existing lights? Or do they have their own ideas about creating some just for the photos?

Being art people I'm sure it would be an easy process, and they may have some favorite parts of the building they would like captured, but are unsure about asking you.

Where I work, we went trough 2 professionals photographers before I ended up taking photos for the company website and marketing material.
The 1st guy never listened to what was asked of him, and the style the company wanted to portray. The result were some technically correct photos that because of the nature of work we're involved in did not show us in a good light.
The 2nd photog took technically bad photos, but listened to what was asked.
Both used natural light. I went in and took a whole lot of photos using flash, as direct as I could make it. The resulting harsh, high contrast photos were much better suited to the image the company wants to portray.

Sometimes being able to listen to what people want, and knowing how to reproduce it is far more important that how technically wonderful your photos are.

Moppie, good illustrative story. I will keep that in mind. I will be careful to deliver as requested to the best of my ability since I want further business, perhaps through word of mouth.

Thanks.

Good advice here already.

In terms of gear, I would highly recommend some wider glass. Tokina 12-24 is good (only downside is bad CA's, but that shouldn't affect you much on this shoot). I also liked my 10-22 (I've had both). I think it's fair to assume that at least some photos in a space this size will require an UWA, regardless of the particular feel you're after. 24mm on a 20D simply won't get enough in.

Good luck!

linarms wrote in post #2758534
Good advice here already.

In terms of gear, I would highly recommend some wider glass. Tokina 12-24 is good (only downside is bad CA's, but that shouldn't affect you much on this shoot). I also liked my 10-22 (I've had both). I think it's fair to assume that at least some photos in a space this size will require an UWA, regardless of the particular feel you're after. 24mm on a 20D simply won't get enough in.

Good luck!

Hey Luke, thank you. I agree. The 24 is not wide enough. Please tell me your thoughts about the 10-22. Is it worth the extra $200 over the Tokina? I know this is subjective, but I'd like your opinion. I did see a thread here comparing the two lenses, and that 2mm on the wide end makes a BIG difference...

To be honest, I found the 10mm was too wide ... I tended to use it at 10mm (just because I could) and then wish I'd zoomed in a little That was part of the reason I 'back-traded' to the Tokina. Also the Tokina is at least as good as the 10-22 sharpness-wise (better IMO) and feels a lot more solid than the 10-22. The ONLY downside I could find (unless the extra 2mm are critical) was bad purple fringing, but ACR gets rid of that anyway.