Tips for Interior Photography: architecture of an office

[jaguar tang]

HI guys, i recently just bought myself a d3100 nikon. Very basic, but i think itl do for now.

Anyways, I recently joined my brother in the family business as we supply office furniture systems, office chairs, tables, parititons, etc.

We are currently in the process of creating a website, also it would be good to ahve pictures of our done projects.

obviously skill and experience is more important. As such I already enrolled myself in photography class.

But here are my questions,,,,so for my reference:

1. would my d3100 do?
2. What lens would i need? what brand? exactly what type?
3. Assuming ill be taking a lot of photos of offices with flurscent light, etc. what settings would you use? why?
4. What are points to consider when taking interior photography?
5. what flash, hoods, and other accessories would i need and why?
6 What tripod would i need?
7. what settings would i generally be using (iso, aperture, shutter speed, exposure settings?)
Again, i know learning more about photography would be best, but our project will be turned over tom. and its quite nice, so aside from hiring a pro, i wish to take some shots as well.

Thanks

[Troy]

Wow, lots of questions there. Firstly, what sort of images are you looking to produce? Are they simply ones to display the furniture, or are they going to be a bit more fancy and artistic? Also what sort of location do you have to take the pictures in?

I'll try and answer these questions without this info, so they will probably be wrong.

1. Yes. It is a very capable camera that should do just fine.
2. If you have a tight space you will more than likely want a wide-angle lens. But this depends on where and what type of shots. If it is wide angle, the ever popular Sigma 10-20mm is a good choice, and not too expensive.
3. Your specific settings will be almost impossible for us to tell you on here. But expect to have to play with ISO if you are shooting in low light. However some artificial lighting and a good tripod will change all of this.
4. Main points to consider i'd say is lighting. Interiors are hard to shoot due to dull light, and possible light coming in from windows etc.
5. You may want a flash, possibly to place off the camera to light the subject from different angles.
6. A good sturdy tripod. There are too many to list. For a beginner price but sturdy construction look at Redsnapper tripods.
7. Settings can't be advised until we know what you are shooting etc etc etc.


All of the suggestions also depend on how far you want to take this. As going down this route can be limitlessly expensive, and time consuming, oh and addictive

[ALwin]

1) Which lens came with your D3100? The standard 18-55 kit lens?
- if so, it should serve nicely (don't worry too much about gear while you're still starting out with photography)
- if you must get some additional lenses, look first at second-hand lenses from local camera stores. You may find some pretty good ones for low prices.

2) Settings
- to be on the safe side, shoot RAW if you're willing to take the time to edit photos in Photoshop or other applications.
- else, stick to shooting jpgs in Auto mode, they give pretty decent images in normal conditions
- shutter, ISO, aperture, white balance: study up on what their purpose is and play around until you get the image you need

3) A tripod would be essential, perhaps a flash like the SB-600 too. Also consider getting a remote shutter trigger, ebay has some nice cheap ones that will work with the D3100.

4) Tips for interior photography: I'll let the members who have experience with this genre provide it. I do remember reading an article a couple of months back in an issue of DP concerning architectural and interior photography.

Share with us a few examples of what you have done so far right now and we'll see how things can be improved. I do mean photos that you have done for this work you are thinking about. We won't be able to tell you how to improve your interior furniture photography if you show us some landscapes can we?

[Medley]

I've done a bit of this work. Here's a few tips I learned the hard way:

Keep the sensor (ie:the back of the camera) parallel to a wall to prevent distortion due to perspective.

HDR generally provides the best exposure, as there is a lot of leeway for error in capturing the individual images. It also improves sharpness to some degree. This would require both a tripod and a remote shutter release. (I also do mine with an application called Photomatix Pro)

I generally use a 50mm prime lens, but your lens would probably be OK.

If you're not doing HDR, and there are windows in the photo, the best idea is to meter for the lightness of the window, and use a flash. Check the results though, to see if they're acceptable.

If you can beg/ borrow/ rent a tilt/shift lens, it may help. Tilt/Shift lenses allow you to elevate or turn the lens in relation to the body of the camera. It helps you to keep the back of the camera parallel to the scene, while allowing you to compose the picture the way you want to. Some shots are impossible without them, but it wouldn't be cost effective to buy one unless you plan on doing this a lot- there are few other places in photography that such a lens is necessary (though they can be a fun experiment).

- Joe U.

[ALwin]

With the D3100, I wouldn't go and borrow a Tilt-Shift lens though. Consumer bodies weren't designed to handle TS lenses.

[Medley]

With the D3100, I wouldn't go and borrow a Tilt-Shift lens though. Consumer bodies weren't designed to handle TS lenses.

Good to know. Thanks.

- Joe U.

[peterlyall]

I concur with the comments made in terms of equipment etc. For the time being the standard kit lens will be fine if the intention is to try and get much of the space in one shot using the wide angle end of the lens.
Remember however that unless these are purely as a matter of record for your website etc that you might want to add a bit of interest. For example shoot from a step ladder or sitting at a desk to add variety, use the longer focal length to concentrate on a particular piece and play with light for effect. Look at you competitors and see what works and see if that provides some inspiration too.

[jaguar tang]

Wow ! lots of replies...thanks guys!!! I can say, the DP website in uk is much better than where im located at, u guys are much more friendly as well, haha.

Anyways, the photos im trying to produce are the office as a whole, workstations, and a detailed photo of the important parts of the partitions, desks, chairs, etc.

I cant really explain how i want it to look, but prefer it to be bright, lively, sharp and colorful.
Something like these:

http://www.designhomeonline.net/05/2011 ... e-designs/

http://www.architectshomedesign.info/ta ... re-images/

http://www.philippe-roy.com/text/blog/k ... otography_

as for the pictures i took..ill try to post them up tonight

Thanks a lot guys!!

just one last question:

Well office spaces are big and wide,,,so im guessing i need ultra wide lens? What specific model do u think i should get, i hear there are some issues with the VR lens for nikon d3100?

Thanks guys

[ALwin]

Ok from the examples of what you wish to mimic, keep these two things in mind:

As others have already stated
1) Try to use the wider end of your lens.
2) Keep the camera sensor's plane in parallel to the vertical.

But that doesn't mean you need to stick to these tips, play around with the angles and focal lengths. And play around with perspective, from high to low.

[jaguar tang]

Kinda stupid question, but what white balance should i be using?

Im assuming since offices have lots of flurascnents i should use flurascent, but it seems to be so ...blue?

Also, Whenever I take these shots, it doesnt seem to be as light and white as I want it to, and again, not as sharp.

It seems that only the closer part is sharp...but not the rest? what fstop should i be at?

[jaguar tang]

Also, could you guys explian more on the camera plane positioning?

Really sorry for being such a noob

[Troy]

To be honest, for white balance it is best to shoot in RAW. That way you can change the WB in post processing to whatever you like.

[ALwin]

Also, could you guys explian more on the camera plane positioning?

Really sorry for being such a noob

What we mean by camera plane is, for example, if you're taking a photo of some graffiti painted on a wall, make sure that the sensor and the wall are parallel to each other. Don't angle/tilt the camera in any direction.

As for keeping elements in the photo sharp: remember this rule, smaller apertures provide greater depth of field. But there is a limit to how small an aperture you want to use, the 18-55 kit lens is a good lens, it is NOT a great lens, therefore at some point, using a smaller aperture may provide a great DOF but loss of sharpness due to diffraction.

As Medley suggested, a Tilt-shift lens is one of the most essential lenses for interior furnishing/decoration photography. Except it's not a lens for beginners nor will it fit on a camera like the D3100 due to the size of the lens and the knobs on it. There are third party tilt-shift lenses which can be used on the D3100 but they can be quite expensive.

[jaguar tang]

aww man..i should have gotten the canon 550d then, i also just learned now that the d3100 cant do bracketing.

Anyways, thanks a load, learned tons already

[Troy]

just learned now that the d3100 cant do bracketing.

Don't worry, you can manually bracket your exposures, which shouldn't be a problem if you are using a tripod