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The Basics of Interior Photography

By Autumn Lockwood

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 26Nov2010
Word count: 604
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Getting great photographs of interior spaces is one of the trickier skills a photographer can develop. Struggling with challenging lighting, dealing with a rapidly changing landscape and unknowing subjects are part of the fun and difficulty of interior photography. Here are five easy tips to help get you started taking interior photos all with just a little bit of photo gear.

Include Some People

Sometimes there are some interiors that just look good completely empty. However, one of the most intriguing elements of interior photography is capturing how people interact with their environment. You can use this to your advantage by placing yourself at odd angles to frame people in interesting ways, or by using people as a scale for understanding size (for instance, a photograph of people gathered around the Lincoln Memorial would help to show off the sculpture's massive scale). In many cases, isolating groups of people or individuals in a frame can create a more powerful image than shots without humans.

Assume it Will Have Low Light

One of the primary difficulties of interior photography is dealing with light. Digital cameras especially have trouble in low-light situations, and most interior environments are going to fall into that category. You can minimize this problem by working with a tripod. The extra support of the tripod will let you take pictures at lower shutter speeds without getting a blur from the press of the shutter button or a slight movement from your body. Additionally, pack a filter or adjust your white balance to help avoid the nasty hue of fluorescent lights.

Look Around

We spend a lot of time looking forward. When we're trying to get from one place to the other, we don't usually have time to observe our surroundings. Make sure to examine everything in your entire environment since you can take the extra time to look around as the photographer. In the world of interior photography, there are countless beautiful images of floors, ceilings, obscure wall details, and plenty of other things that the photographer would have never noticed had they kept their eyes on the horizon. Every interior has its beauty but it's up to you to discover it.

Tell a Story

Taking pictures of walls and ceilings can certainly be nice looking but as a photographer you need to be able to tell a story about your surroundings. Use people, construction, graffiti, building degradation, signage, or anything else you can find to make your photograph tell the story of that moment. Remember that even in the case of interior photography, there should always be a reason for the photograph. While "it looked pretty" works every now and then, challenge yourself to see through the layers of the world and find the connections we all share, but often miss.

Perception

Always be thinking about what is visually more interesting. Whenever possible, try and force yourself to come up with new and interesting ways to capture an object. Much like human subjects, architecture can be made to look beautiful, ugly, or anywhere in between simply by finding a different angle or cropping out certain elements.

Interior photography can be tricky so it can be more fun to practice learning through trial and error. Set aside some time to shoot some of your favorite interiors, and let yourself discover ways to see them that you have never discovered. Just make sure that you have permission from the building owner - there are many interiors that are quite unfriendly to photographers. Most, however, are happy to welcome passionate shooters with minimal gear, so try to explore as many as possible.

Autumn Lockwood is a writer for Your Picture Frames. Shop online and see our selection of 8x10 picture frames in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Visit our website to see our beautiful 8x10 picture frames now or call 1-800-780-0699.

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