Interior photography, which is a part of architectural photography, has its own shooting techniques. I have compiled the most important elements of interior photography techniques for you.
Get to know your place!
The first and most important element of architectural interior photography is to know and prepare the place where you will shoot. Before you pick up your camera, you need to go around the place and decide which elements to frame. Removing the elements that you will not include in the composition and identifying the elements that need to be replaced can save you hours in post production.
Not without a tripod!
The tripod is the interior photographer's best friend. You will get great results with a camera positioned in the right place. The tripod gives you the chance to take clear photos in low light conditions.
Get the right perspective!
The height of the camera is an important issue, because the angle of the camera facing up or down distorts the perspective, which is the most important subject of architectural/indoor photography. For example, if you prefer eye level, you will cause many objects to disappear at wide angle. Your general preference should be chest level or slightly below.
Natural light is lovely!
Use as much natural light as possible. Because daylight offers you the most natural form of colors free of charge :) Determine at what time of the day the place where you are going to take photos receives the softest light and plan your shoot accordingly.
Use the lines!
Trace the elements you want to highlight and find the intersecting lines leading to them. The human eye is drawn to the point where the lines point in perspective. Use this to reinforce your composition.
Choose your aperture well!
When shooting interior, it is preferable that all elements in the composition are prominently visible. This means that your aperture is within the f8-11 area frame. In this way, it allows you to include all the elements in the photo in the depth of field as clearly as possible.
Use HDR (High Dynamic Range) shooting technique!
When you capture the perfect composition and shooting values, be sure to take photos of this frame with an upper and lower exposure value. Depending on your personal preference, these values can be 1 or 2 stops apart. Depending on the amount of light the environment receives, you can shoot 3-5-7 frames. By combining these photos in programs such as photoshop, lightroom or capture1, you can get more detailed photos.
Watch your white balance!
White balance is very important in interior architectural photography. Because there are more than one light color and intensity in the game. If you can't set the right color, your photo will not be liked even if all your other settings are perfect. It is generally thought that I can handle it in photoshop or lightroom, and this is one of the biggest mistakes. One of the easiest solutions to this is to use the gray card for white balance.
Watch out for optical distortions!
Wide-angle lenses are generally preferred for interior shots. This brings along optical distortions. Lines that should be straight become curved, items coming to the edges of the frame get longer, etc. Recently, photo processing programs have made significant progress in this regard. But fixing them can take as much time as a photo shoot. Therefore, we go to our first item again, let's get to know the place and create the right composition.
In addition, if you want to learn about architectural photography, I recommend you to read my article https://www.esinbarutcu.com/single-post/mimari-fotograf-cekim-teknikleri
