Photographing Interiors

[57 Chevy]

I've recently had to shoot my house and garden as we are hoping to get some location work. I found this to be much harder that I thought and realised just how good phones are at sorting out dynamic range to get a good exposure. Granted I only have a Canon 5D MkII and a 6D so in camera processing may have come on alot since I bought these. Short of screening windows with film bracketing and combining multiple exposures I wondered if anyone had any tips?

I think I've done OK but I feel like it could have been an easier process.

Full album here...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/grantgb/albums/72177...

Here's a few I like...

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

Midcentury Scotland by Nick Grant, on Flickr

[StevieBee]

There's not much wrong them to be honest. Nice shots.

There's a bit of highlight blow out through the windows and some shadow that could be lightened a tad - nothing that a bit of Lightroom wouldn't sort.

Other than that, you could try HDR merging - tripod it and take a series of shots across a range of exposures and use the HDR Merge function in Lightroom or Photoshop - the Ai takes the best bits of each to create a decent single image. I believe there's some free software that does the same thing.

[Simpo Two]

57 Chevy said:

I've recently had to shoot my house and garden as we are hoping to get some location work. I found this to be much harder that I thought and realised just how good phones are at sorting out dynamic range to get a good exposure. Granted I only have a Canon 5D MkII and a 6D so in camera processing may have come on alot since I bought these. Short of screening windows with film bracketing and combining multiple exposures I wondered if anyone had any tips?

As well as exposure between inside and out, consider white balance too. Usually outside will be blueish, inside reddish. You may like that difference, but as with exposure, if you shoot RAW you can twiddle it afterwards. I would sometimes process a photo with two different WBs then blend in PS until I was happy with it.

You can of course light the interior, but that adds another layer of complexity and kit.

[Drogo]

You might be over thinking it.
I think any location scout would be more than happy with those to get a feel of the interior space.
If they wanted more they'd ask?

They would also have to look into the actual location in terms of accessibility for crews and personnel.

p.s Cool house

[Turtle Shed]

Pics are fine, the typewriter shot is lovely.

[57 Chevy]

StevieBee said:

There's not much wrong them to be honest. Nice shots.

There's a bit of highlight blow out through the windows and some shadow that could be lightened a tad - nothing that a bit of Lightroom wouldn't sort.

Other than that, you could try HDR merging - tripod it and take a series of shots across a range of exposures and use the HDR Merge function in Lightroom or Photoshop - the Ai takes the best bits of each to create a decent single image. I believe there's some free software that does the same thing.

Thanks. I had to do some exposure recovery in photoshop, pushed it as far as I could. HDR merging might be work a shot though thanks. It's hard getting a tripod in some of the spaces though.

[57 Chevy]

Simpo Two said:

As well as exposure between inside and out, consider white balance too. Usually outside will be blueish, inside reddish. You may like that difference, but as with exposure, if you shoot RAW you can twiddle it afterwards. I would sometimes process a photo with two different WBs then blend in PS until I was happy with it.

You can of course light the interior, but that adds another layer of complexity and kit.

Thanks. The colour temp is a funny one. Most of the lights in the house are smart bulbs that you can change the temp but it actually looks really un-natural if you make them match the outside. I thing we are so used to seeing electric lights as warmer, especially for a retro interior.

[57 Chevy]

Drogo said:

You might be over thinking it.
I think any location scout would be more than happy with those to get a feel of the interior space.
If they wanted more they'd ask?

They would also have to look into the actual location in terms of accessibility for crews and personnel.

p.s Cool house

Thanks, Location Works have taken us on and they do seem happy with them. It just seemed to be a lot of hard work I guess I was tidying and styling as I went though.

We love the house, it's taken 10 years to get it looking like this. There is a build thread over here... https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[57 Chevy]

Turtle Shed said:

Pics are fine, the typewriter shot is lovely.

Thanks very much

[Bacardi]

Regarding the CT, you have got the balance just right imho, the practical lamps, set to tungsten, giving nice splashes or warmth with the outside neutral. You could mess around with HDR and increasing the DR with auto bracketing the iso and blending, but it's a faff and for what you wanted to achieve, it's job done! Didn't you have a V series 'Blad once (trip to japan rings a bell)? For the full retro look you could have shot it on film...

57 Chevy said:

We love the house, it's taken 10 years to get it looking like this. There is a build thread over here... https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

That is amazing job and collection. Great job Nick.

[Turtle Shed]

There is a technique called "Flambient" that you can find out about on Youtube. A lot of faffing about, but basically combining flash with ambient lighting, then using photoshop blending to fix the weird colour casts.

[57 Chevy]

Bacardi said:

That is amazing job and collection. Great job Nick.

Thanks very much . No I've never had a Hasselblad unfortunately I have messed around with Medium Format though, with a Lubitel and some Holga stuff.

[57 Chevy]

Turtle Shed said:

There is a technique called "Flambient" that you can find out about on Youtube. A lot of faffing about, but basically combining flash with ambient lighting, then using photoshop blending to fix the weird colour casts.

Yes I've dabbled before. This is something most phones do on their own these days I guess I'm finding my old DSLRs a bit lacking in their processing power but I guess that's to be expected.

[Simpo Two]

57 Chevy said:

Turtle Shed said:

There is a technique called "Flambient" that you can find out about on Youtube. A lot of faffing about, but basically combining flash with ambient lighting, then using photoshop blending to fix the weird colour casts.

Yes I've dabbled before. This is something most phones do on their own these days I guess I'm finding my old DSLRs a bit lacking in their processing power but I guess that's to be expected.

I consider the main objective of a DSLR is to record the image, then if you want to do any subsequent processing shove it in a computer and do it at your leisure on a nice big screen

Agree with the comment about warm lighting; even with wedding photography I'd often set the WB a little warm; it just made people and things look nicer.