Interior Photos
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador
Posts: 598
Interior Photos
Hi all,
I was wondering if you had tips on shooting interior spaces, particularly hotel rooms? I like to take photos of the room for trip reports, but I typically find it challenging with dim lighting, and of course the lighting difference btw the interior of the room and the window or balcony. Any tips would be greatly appreciated; thanks!
I was wondering if you had tips on shooting interior spaces, particularly hotel rooms? I like to take photos of the room for trip reports, but I typically find it challenging with dim lighting, and of course the lighting difference btw the interior of the room and the window or balcony. Any tips would be greatly appreciated; thanks!
#2
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Central California
Programs: Former UA Premex, now dirt
Posts: 6,531
For that situation, you need a flash or a tripod for best results. With flash, you can handhold but the view out the window will not be very good. At night it will go dark. I suggest bouncing the flash off the ceiling or a wall. Without flash, set up your tripod, meter the exposure on an interior wall away from the window and set the self timer for 2 seconds to eliminate camera shake when you trip the shutter. This works best if you are in manual mode or can lock the exposure and then re-compose the image.
If you are trying this with a pocket type camera that doesn't have those options, the best you can do is turn on all the lights you can and brace the camera against a wall or door, something solid to give as much steadiness as you can get. I'd still meter an interior wall, press the shutter down halfway and recompose before firing the shutter. This is much more difficult to get good results than using a full-featured camera.
If you are trying this with a pocket type camera that doesn't have those options, the best you can do is turn on all the lights you can and brace the camera against a wall or door, something solid to give as much steadiness as you can get. I'd still meter an interior wall, press the shutter down halfway and recompose before firing the shutter. This is much more difficult to get good results than using a full-featured camera.
#4
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: K+K
Programs: *G
Posts: 4,866
If you are trying this with a pocket type camera that doesn't have those options, the best you can do is turn on all the lights you can and brace the camera against a wall or door, something solid to give as much steadiness as you can get. I'd still meter an interior wall, press the shutter down halfway and recompose before firing the shutter. This is much more difficult to get good results than using a full-featured camera.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
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Ideally you have a DSLR, wide-angle lenses, and a tripod, with the ability to stitch shots together in a panorama in post processing. Short of that, you're going to be challenged.
You need a stable platform and light collecting ability, and can only capture what your lens allows.
Find an object, or move an object (dresser, ironing board) to where you want to take the shot, put the camera on a timer, set for a low ISO, and allow for a long exposure. High ISO will make a grainy photo, and a flash just looks, well, flash-y. If you have a stable platform, the exposure duration won't matter.
If you can contol metering, meter for the average/darker components of the room. Blowing out a window doesn't matter - there's nothing there. You don't want a perfectly exposed window and a dark/black room.
Most important of all - as with any photography - is thinking about what is in the frame and what you are trying to capture. A technically perfect picture of a wall isn't very informative. Compare these to see which gives a better sense of this hotel:
You need a stable platform and light collecting ability, and can only capture what your lens allows.
Find an object, or move an object (dresser, ironing board) to where you want to take the shot, put the camera on a timer, set for a low ISO, and allow for a long exposure. High ISO will make a grainy photo, and a flash just looks, well, flash-y. If you have a stable platform, the exposure duration won't matter.
If you can contol metering, meter for the average/darker components of the room. Blowing out a window doesn't matter - there's nothing there. You don't want a perfectly exposed window and a dark/black room.
Most important of all - as with any photography - is thinking about what is in the frame and what you are trying to capture. A technically perfect picture of a wall isn't very informative. Compare these to see which gives a better sense of this hotel:
#6
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,784
I think all you need is a newer camera or smartphone. I have a LG G4 and I never use the flash for indoor picture. The pictures it took has more light my eyes could see. And it has manual shutter speed and with that, I have taken pic in almost complete darkness. I use a selfie stick as a tripod if shutter speed is longer than a second or 2.
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Programs: Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador
Posts: 598
Thanks for the tips. In the past, I have used in camera HDR on my Sony RX100 with some post processing in lightroom (see some example results below). I'll also be bringing a Canon 70D this year, probably with the 18-135mm kit lens as that's the widest I have at the moment. I'm still not extremely advanced with it, but hopefully I can utilize its features to help with exposure issues.
#8
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: DCA/IAD
Programs: most of them
Posts: 3,283
wide angle lens
shoot in daylight if possible
use HDR as mentioned to equalize the interior and exterior lighting differences
but those examples you posted are not bad. You just need a wider angle lens or shoot multiple shots and stitch them in software
shoot in daylight if possible
use HDR as mentioned to equalize the interior and exterior lighting differences
but those examples you posted are not bad. You just need a wider angle lens or shoot multiple shots and stitch them in software
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Pittsburgh
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If you need more than 18mm, take 2 or 3 overlapping shots in portrait format - stitching them into a single landscape-ish photo is relatively easy in Lightroom. You can replicate a 10mm lens fairly easily.
#11
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Join Date: Jan 2008
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Just a quick example of what you might expect from 11mm lens (f2.8, 1/15s, ISO400) With such a wide lens 1/15s is managable without a tripod Shot in the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur