Interior lens??

Hey guys/gals,

I am new here and to photograpghy and I am already finding myself very addicted. I got a near mint XSi off of ebay 2 weeks ago with 2 lenses (I guess kit ones) and I have been non stop shooting since. I really got it because I have a marble and granite company and I need to take more professional pics of our work for website/media etc. but I can already tell that I am on my way to becoming a serious enthuesiest as I have been out shooting the beach and city before/during sunrise about 5 times already and I got a companion book and really have a firm grasp on using manual modes

So, the most difficult thing for my work is captureing the whole of bathrooms and kitchens in a real and crisp perspective since humans have a more panoramic veiw in tight quarters. So I am thinking I need a wide angle and I know from lurking around that this has been beat to death, but I am kinda down to these:

Canon 10-22
Sigma?they have 2 that may work I guess

And I think that I am nervous about the Tokina because of flare and sometimes I have bright lights and decorative lighting that I will want to include on for aesthetics.

Also the Canon has a current $50 rebate and it really isn't much more $$ than the other 2 from what I can see if you shop it right new with the rebate. What do you all think?????


Here is my current website that needs to be overhauled, you can tell that some pics were with my wifes rebel XT (in auto mode with me knowing nothing, and a sigma 28-70) and cheap point and shoots. www.patronamarbleandgr​anite.com

Sorry for the novel, but I wanted to introduce myself and I appreciate all of your help!

I'd go with the Canon lens. That is actually the same lens I'm looking at for wide angle. If you're doing this for business, spend a few extra bucks for a Canon lens.

Flare will be a problem in shooting bathrooms and kitchens with points of very bright light. I'd avoid any "protective" filter, as it may cause excessive flare.

Good luck on this!

Here's a sample I took recently on a kitchen I'm almost done rehabbing, with the Canon 10-22. Haven't processed this shot at all, it's just a test. This is a very small kitchen but the lens fits most of it in.

One problem you'll have is that you'll notice here that basically none of the verticals are vertical. Some people won't care about this and it will really bother others. I'm curious how easily this can be corrected in Photoshop, I haven't played around with that yet.

This is at 10mm and that light on the ceiling is very bright, but doesn't have any pinpoints of light. It also has an off camera flash firing into the kitchen behind the counter to the right of the fridge; I wanted to see if the IR communication would work with line of sight completely blocked and it did just fine

The "real" way to do it right is to use a perspective control lens, and these are pricy with another learning curve.

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The easist way to correct the verticals in PS is select>all,then edit>transform>perspective and drag the handles.Its also worthwhile turning the grid on ( view>show>grid) it makes life a bit easier
Sometimes you have to crop to get rid of the edges.Its not perfect by any means but its a lot cheaper way than a TS lens.
Dont forget the further away (up or down) you are from the centerline of the room the more the verticals converge.I invariably end up kneeling on the floor

OK I just tried this in my CS3 and that was pretty easy - you do lose a fair amount to cropping so I wonder what equivalent focal length this ends up being...I'm sure you could do a better job I just wanted to try it.

Next time I'll try to be at the centerline of the room.

I wonder how well it would work to do a 2 or 3 shot panorama and stitch them? To me the first shot looks more impressive because of the widescreen aspect, even with the awful verticals

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workerdrone wrote in post #11409615
OK I just tried this in my CS3 and that was pretty easy - you do lose a fair amount to cropping so I wonder what equivalent focal length this ends up being...I'm sure you could do a better job I just wanted to try it.

Next time I'll try to be at the centerline of the room.

I wonder how well it would work to do a 2 or 3 shot panorama and stitch them? To me the first shot looks more impressive because of the widescreen aspect, even with the awful verticals

The distortion of the table in the middle and the flooring is wicked, even though the vertical lines have been restored.

Using a tilt/shift lens could do a lot better.

I used the Canon lens with a 7D in Europe extensivly this summer for interiors in churches and museums. I was very happy with the results and did not notice any flaring in my shots. If you can back it out to 11 or 12 mm you can reduce the distortion a bit - but then for what you are doing I'm not sure the distortion is all that bad.

Note that I did not try the other lenses - my only experience is with the Canon. Just a data point saying I am very happy with it.

Lower the camera. For interior shots like these shoot from about waist level, maybe slightly higher. Won't completly eliminate perspective distortion, but should improve it, and generally be more pleasing.

It looks like the camera was pointed slightly down, causing the vertical lines to converge at the bottom. Keep the camera absolutely level (use a bubble level) and the verticals will be vertical. This is especially important in the 10-17mm range. Above 17mm very slight upward or downward tilts will not be that big a problem.

Just tried a panorama of 5 shots of my kitchen taken with the 10/20mm and stitched together

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I've owned both the Canon and Tokina and much prefer the Tokina (I found mine to be sharper). If you need the 2.8, get the Tokina - for versatility and flare control - get the Canon.

Neat Thanks for the example Troutfisher...care to share software and basics?

My goal with my interior shots is mostly for real estate listings and documenting rehab before and afters, I'm not looking for architectural mag quality but I want to stand out above most of the listings (which shouldn't be any challenge from what I've seen). Some of the photoshopping I've seen in this type of photography borders on unethical (adding sunsets where they wouldn't be, erasing abutting properties and powerlines, and altering landscapes) since they never mention that the images have been photoshopped.

But I think if you simply use an UWA lens and do a little perspective correction and exposure correction in PP to make the images pop, you're really not misrepresenting anything and you're really upping the chances that folks are going to come see the property and will go to the images again and again while making their decision.

I'll try to come back to this thread later with some more pics from the same viewpoint but altering the height and levelling the camera to see what can be further improved.

I would imagine a 17mm L TS-E would excel at interior shots.

Pricey though!!

Thanks for the fast responses.

I think it bums me out that I could get a 17-40L for about the same money, and that is probably a much better lens for more purposes, but 17 is probably not low enough for what I need for work and currently work is funding the hobby .

I think that kitchen photos stitched looks cool, but I am trying to not have a fish eye look. It just seems that the canon is the safest choice, but with these things being so expensive, it really puts the pressure on to get the right one. If I didn't see some pics of the Tokina into lights I think that would be my frontrunning choice, but I also like the versatility for landscapes of the extra zoom on the canon. This is way more complicaterd than I would have thought.

buy used and if you are not happy you should be able to get 100% of your money back by reselling....I think I paid $600 for my Canon 10-22