Tips for Interior Photography: architecture of an office

[jaguar tang]

DSC_2263_5_7_fused by jaguar.tang, on Flickr

Here is the HDR Merged version of one of my shots, and its honestly wayy to noisy for me...any tips on how to fix this? Also, looking at one of the monitors, it seems the color kind of flared. Again any tips?

Here is the normal pic i took with very little editing


DSC_2264 by jaguar.tang, on Flickr

which in my opinion looks much better. But isnt it supposed to look better with Photomatix? (I used photomatix and Exposure Fusion...still to no avail) would you suggest i use mask layering instead? ---need tutorials on this.



Finally here is the panoramic photo which i used Cs5 photostitch


D32-PAN by jaguar.tang, on Flickr

Anyways, hope i could get some feedback.

Its also not as sharp as ide like it to be. Do note, that im using F16? (i think) and tripod.

What should i improve on? and what other post processing ...well processes can i do to make it look better?

[jaguar tang]

Also,

here are my past pics (the pics i took when i didnt kow what i was doing...and it actually looks better than the ones after i took class, haha)

Again, i retouched it a bit using lightroom, but im not sure if i did enough, or did too much.

Again feedback feedback feedback.

Thanks


DSC_0055 by jaguar.tang, on Flickr


DSC_0056-Edit by jaguar.tang, on Flickr


DSC_0052 by jaguar.tang, on Flickr



DSC_0049-Edit by jaguar.tang, on Flickr



DSC_0043 by jaguar.tang, on Flickr



DSC_0030-Edit by jaguar.tang, on Flickr



DSC_0022-Edit by jaguar.tang, on Flickr

[Troy]

In my opinion the HDR version looks MUCH better than the original shot. The tones of the flooring are better and you can see the detail in the blinds/windows.

The only thing ruining it for me is the reflection in the monitors. Is there anyway you can turn off the lights/turn on the monitors for a shot, then this wouldnt be such a problem.

[Chris Humphreys]

A general point on your wide shots. It looks like you've figured that to keep the verticals straight then you need to level the camera, in doing so you have lowered the camera to avoid having too much ceiling showing and missing the bottom off the cubicles. The result is a shot that looks straight at the side of the cubicles and isn't all that interesting. There are two options, use a tilt and shift lens (which is what I do) to allow the camera to stay at eye level or higher and shift down to frame the scene properly. Or keep the camera high and shoot down, then correct the verticals in post production. Looks like you also have a bit of barrel distortion which is always more obvious on architectural shots.

As far as the HDR / standard shot goes I would say your HDR is ok, but you need to adjust the levels and curves to brighten it up and make it pop.

Good work though, looks like you're learning quickly.

Cheers

Chris

[Medley]

The flare you mention is much easier to see on the large images in Flickr. There's also a bit of color noise in the dark blue panels of the cubicle walls, and the light blue windows of the buildings outside stand out to me. This is just a guess, but I think all three are due to UV interference. It doesn't show up so much in a single shot, but Exposure Fusion has a tendency to pull data from the UV spectrum into the visible spectrum- and it mostly shows up as blue or blue/purple noise. Using a quality UV filter on your lens should solve the majority of these problems. But I can't stress the 'quality' part enough. Put cheap glass on the end of your lens, and you might as well be using a cheap lens. Do a little homework, and invest in a good quality filter.

I have more, but I'm out of time for now.....

- Joe U.

[jaguar tang]

Thanks guys,

Now im wondering about the reflection on the monitor.

How would you guys go about it? which tool should i use? still a bit new to post processing.

Also, would appreciate on the comments on post

[jaguar tang]

production on the second batch of photos

[Merlinbeena]

Your interior photography message is very decent !

[jaguar tang]

Hi Chris haha,

Now that I'm a bit more experienced and understand the terms,
I was just wondering how many mixtures of shots did you use for this?

Would it be just two ?( one for light natural light a d one for artificial?) or did you
Shoot for something In between as well.

I've been using an hdr program for the mean time. But it still
Does t get the sharp natural looking look I'm aiming at.

I know this one is more difficult but IDE think this is still better.

Btw, would you happen to remember what setting you used for this shot?

Ok, I've had a look through your shots. There's a number of things you need to look at, probably try and best explain using some examples of my own shots of a similar environment:

These are wide context shots, even when you're shooting furniture you need to set it in context. Get high and shoot down and wide. I used a tilt and shift lens for these, but assuming you don't have one you will need to corrent verticals in post. See how the whole image appears crisp and sharp white? In reality it had a mix of colours coming from the articificial lighting and natural light coming in the windows. A simple white balance shift for the artificial lighting made the light coming in from the windows too cold, conversly setting the white balance for the natural light made the artificial lighting too warm. To balance these I processed both and blended carefully in photoshop using layer masks. Not a quick process.



The next set are slightly tighter than the wide context shots but not too close up. Again white balance is critical and often involved dealing with both natural and artifical light. I've used different formats for the shots to give variety to the end user. Pay close attention to the histogram, bright whites should be way towward the right, much more than you'd think.




Finally here are some details. Look for interesting compositions, and use colour, light and depth of field carefully. Your details are lacking vavavoom! crank up the curves and go for real punchy shots.





Hope this helps a little.


Cheers

Chris