We've all drooled over interior shots in shelter mags and websites like our very own Apartment Therapy, but how the heck can an amateur get professional shots worthy of showing off? Decorno has a great post featuring tips from photographer Paul Costello, who has shot for Elle Living, Domino, and InStyle.
From Decorno and Paul Costello.
- Don't ever use an on-camera flash.
- Get a tripod.
- Bracket the exposures. If the lightmeter tells your camera to expose for 2 seconds, start there then do 4 seconds, then 8 seconds until it is obviously too bright.
- Sometimes the best light is really low light. Don't be afraid of 30 second exposures.
- Turn off your lamps and overhead lights. Not just in the room your shooting but in nearby rooms as well.
- Natural light. It worked for the masters. It can work for you.
- Even most point and shoot cameras have manual settings. People would be well served to get familiar with their cameras. They'll be suprised how many functions even cheap cameras have.
- Get to know your camera. Play with depth of field and aperture settings. You can then focus on points of interest and the background sort of fades away.
- If you're scouting for magazines (this is good advice for anyone) remember that editors want to see the whole room. Avoid tons of middle distance vignettes. Also try to show how rooms flow to each other.
- Frame up shots with things in the foreground and middleground. Sometimes it's cool to let a chair close to the camera go all blurry.
- Try things that are contrary to the obvious way you look at the room. Like get really low or get up high. Don't think you need to always be super graphic and at right angles.
- Take a shot from a better angle of view. Be willing to move yourself, or your furniture, around.
- The way a room looks best when you're standing in it is often not the best way to shoot it.Get ready to move furniture around.
Always try to shoot during the day with natural light, but if you're having issues with light, nicheinteriors, a reader of Houzz suggests, "Try adding artificial fill lights to get an even shot. You don't need to rent professional lights, just use what you have around the house -- removing the shades may help."
Now go take some photos of your wicked tech set-ups and email them to us.
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Comments (4)
My pet peeve is the ridiculous way some real estate people choose to photographically illustrate a home. Home pictures that show us vignettes, falling leaves, a throw pillow on a chair are USELESS to a potential buyer and they are really frustrating. Worse yet are virtual tours that focus on a vertical pan of one sliver of the room. Show us the home and pictures that give us perspective and the space of the rooms within the home.
Thank you for the tips. I've noticed natural light works better in my photos but the winter gloom can be a problem.
I like how objects in the background fade and become fuzzy.
I will definitely be practicing.
Agreed, sierracreek. I get the idea of showing what kinds of things people have done with the architectural details of the house, like showing what someone has stored or displayed in a quirky niche, sure. But the closeups of what a nice fruit bowl the current family has on their table? How on earth does that make me want to buy the house?
(I have, however, heard from some friends in real estate that people do look at the types of furniture and belongings in the house and consciously or unconsciously take cues as to what sort of people live in that neighborhood based on that. Apparently people sometimes get a really good price on a house because they're the only one able to look past the plastic-covered tapestry couches or lawn ornaments.)
Great tips!