BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

BetterPhoto Member

interior photography

Would like some advise on shooting chalet interiors for a snowboarding brouchure, the best way to light different rooms with them being chalets and the wooden panels how to avoid the images being to dark. shooting with a d200 and flashgun.

Thanks
Vicky

To love this question, log in above
December 07, 2006

Todd Bennett

Vicky,

I have recently done some of this type of photography. What I found is it isn't as easy as you would think. Most photogs that have done this use a medium format camera. The 35mm DSLR's have a problem with barrel distorion. I did 6 or 7 different shoots trying to get what I felt was acceptable.

After shooting with the kit lense that came with my D70 I just happen to one day put an aspherical lense on it. The asphericall lense works great in this situation. It helps to eliminate barrel distortion because of the way the image hits the sensor. It eliminated probably 99% of the distortion. I still see it; but, nobody else does.

If you don't have one of these types of lenses you will need to shoot with a tripod and make sure all your shots are taken level. Otherwise the barrel distortion will come into play and be a major distraction.

As far as settings on the camera I found that I need 1 to 2 stops (most of the time 2 unless there are a lot of windows) of exposure compensation. You may need to tweak this a little depending on your camera. I used ISO 400 and no flash or extra lights. I also used aperature priority and set it to f11 so that I could get good focus throughout. I did use a tripod except on one shot.

If you'd like, contact me off list and I'll be glad to send you a link to the site they are have been used on.

Hope this helps.

Todd

To love this comment, log in above
December 07, 2006

Todd Bennett

Oops, in the first paragraph I meant to say 35mm and DSLR's.

To love this comment, log in above
December 07, 2006

John H. Siskin

I love shooting interiors. There is probably no more difficult part of professional photography. First you need lights or you need to work in the daylight. If you use daylight you will have trouble with your windows being too bright. I really like the Norman 200B strobes as a light source for architectural work when I shoot digital. I’m going to upload a picture I took last weekend for a restaurant on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. I used 5 strobes in this shot, and it is still not that even. You might want to check out an article I wrote about this, it’s on the magazine articles page at my website: www.siskinphoto.com. If you do this with a digital camera you do need a better quality lens. If you have a small chip the increase depth-of-field will help you, because you’ll need less light. Keep in mind that you can fix some of the perspective problems in Photoshop. You get perspective problems from pointing a wide-angle lens either up or down. There is a lot more to this than pointing the camera in the right direction! Good Luck! John Siskin

To love this comment, log in above
December 07, 2006

Todd Bennett

John,

Nice shot. While I agree with most of what you said here (and I am not questioning your credentials because I see you are an instructor here), one thing you stated bothers me a little. Maybe I don't understand! You state "the increase depth-of-field will help you, because you’ll need less light." Doesn't increased depth of field mean a smaller apperature and the need for more light? I thought to increase the depth of field (meaning more of the photo is in focus) you would use a higher f-stop thereby closing the iris if you will down smaller thereby needing more light.

Todd

To love this comment, log in above
December 07, 2006

John H. Siskin

Hi Todd,
I probably didn't say this very well. The smaller your capture area is the more depth of field you have with the same aperture and angle of coverage. For instance a 90mm lens on a 4X5inch camera has about the same capture area as a 28mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera. The 90mm lens at f5.6 is in focus from about 12 feet to infinity. A 28mm lens at f8 is in focus from 5 feet to infinity. More depth of field with a smaller capture area means you do not need as much light to do a shot with a smaller format. Sorry if I was confusing! Thanks, John

To love this comment, log in above
December 07, 2006

Todd Bennett

Thanks. I thought I had lost my mind.

To love this comment, log in above
December 07, 2006

W.

Hi Victoria,

to get really HIGH-res photos WITHOUT barrel distortion, or any other wide-angle distortion, you may want to try photo stitching (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_stitching). Also excellent for hi-res, non-distorted landscapes.

To love this comment, log in above
December 08, 2006

John H. Siskin

Hi W. Smith,
Have you successfully done a stitching job on an interior? I’ve done stitching a couple of times on landscape shots. It’s impossible to get everything to line up perfectly in a landscape situation, but you can fudge. I don’t see how you could fudge successfully on an interior shot; detail is critical. I would love to be able to do this if you have any suggestions. Thanks, John Siskin

To love this comment, log in above
December 09, 2006

W.

Lining up everything in a landscape situation gets easier if the constituting images have less perspective distortion. To get less perspective distortion you need longer focal length. So, to cover the same panoramic arc more images are the result.
Recap: the longer the focal length, the easier the images can be lined up.

But that of course doesn't work for an interior shoot where you'll have to settle for shorter focal lengths.
But sometimes they are indeed fudgeable. Picture a Roman/Greek style marbled palace interior with lots of very white ceilings, columns and surfaces. Lots of fudging possibilities. So it depends on the interior. Consequently, I could see a wood-paneled interior - which many chalets sport - being a real problem.

To love this comment, log in above
December 09, 2006

John H. Siskin

I built a digital/view camera conversion with the hope of doing successful stitching jobs. You can check it out at http://www.siskinphoto.com/camera4a.html. I couldn’t make this work well enough to be commercially useful. I also tried using the Perspective Control lens with similar problems. Very sad, I wish I could make very large files in this manner. Thanks, John

To love this comment, log in above
December 09, 2006

W.

The laws of physics seem unbendable. But - scanning the first pages of your article - you must have a better handle on that than I could ever aspire to.

To love this comment, log in above
December 09, 2006

John H. Siskin

I keep looking for a way to make this work for interiors. Sigh. John

To love this comment, log in above
December 09, 2006

This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here

Report this Thread