First Real Commision...sort of

[Yv]

Sorry had to share. On Wednesday this week I shall officially be taking my first pictures with a price tag attached to them!

Ok, its family, my partners cousin, but everyone has to start somewhere...for me, it will be in Margate, centre of all things glamourous!

So, I have to photograph the interiors [mainly] of two holiday apartments for brochure and website, and whilst I have a good idea in my mind of what I want to do, if any of you guys that do interiors regularly have any hints or tips, they would not go unnoticed. Any particular do's and don't's?
For information, I wil be taking both bodies in case of emergencies [D200 and D70s] with plenty of cards and batteries, tripod and the 18-70 nikon lens, plus the sigma 70-300 as will need a few 'view' shots, plus I might stop elsewhere in the area to capture anything interesting. I also have a couple of small table top daylight rated studio lights which I am thinking might be useful to improve shadows in alcoves?

My feeling is that the shots should give an impression on the whole room rather than focusing on the very nice individual features that have been retained - yes or no? Just hoping the 18mm end gives me a wide enough angle - it does at home, but our rooms are more generously proportioned. :shrug:

 

[Amp34]

Although not much experience I took a few pictures of our holiday home for promotional material and what really spoils a few of them are the windows. They show no view and are just white, so maybe taking 2 different exposured shots if the shot contains a window and PS them together so you can see the room and view? (that's if it's a good one. )

 

[Yv]

It is, right out over Winter gardens and sea, plus a balcony, hence some view shots are wanted, but thats a great point, thanks, will make a note of that one!

 

[Gandhi]

If they're apartments I'd be surprised if 18mm is anywhere near wide enough. We shoot some pretty big places sometimes and inside it's very, very unusual that I'll need anything longer than 20mm.

HDR, lots of flash or cutting and pasting the windows is the only way to really preserve the view out of the windows. Sometimes it's better to have them blown anyway, for example if the window looks onto houses or something unsightly. Cutting and pasting is hard to get the look right. The best way is to meter for the windows and then use flash/more than one flash to light the room depending on it's size.

It's hard to give any definitive answers as everybodies interpretation of what looks right is different anyway.

general tips......

1) make sure the camera is straight and level (use a hot shoe spirit level & tripod if you have to) otherwise you'll be spending hours in cs2 correcting parallax issues and lose FoV.

2) shoot raw for obvious reasons. We shoot jpeg for reasons of speed uploading and a few others I wont go into

3) tidy, tidy and tidy again. Watch for all the tiny details you may miss on the first swipe; cables, things on top of cupboards etc.

4) Beware of flash blast reflecting from mirrors, glass or any shiny surface. It's also far too easy to get a reflection of yourself in tv's, windows, ovens, microwaves etc.

5) take a custom wb for every scene inside

6) turn on all the lights, doesnt really help with EV but makes the place look more inviting.

7) If there's a fire, light it or turn it on.

8) Don't bother with apertures smaller than f8 as you're inside so you don't need the DoF.

9) Find out exactly how many shots they want before hand and then walk around the property and try to work out the shots before you start. What grabs your attention about the place as you walk in, and what details do you want to emphasise.

10) Normal photographic rules apply! thirds, lead in lines etc.


HTH?

 

[Yv]

Thanks gandhi! Love coming back from a late night run round tescos, turning pc back on to find someone has actually been very helpful! Makes ya feel all warm inside

I had thought about the tidying and tidying again, and so far these are unlived in apts. Both have sea views, so will have to see what I can do with windows - I do at least have the flexibility of knowing that the webpages can accomdate a good few more shots even if the brochure will take some hard work to get a few clever ones. I didnt think about turning lights on, so great idea. Will definately be using RAW on this occassion, great reminder. If you dont mind I will print that post off so i have the list in my bag

 

[Gandhi]

Here's some of the stuff I've done. Exifs included if you're interested!

 

[Gandhi]

hmmm, for some reason they have lost an awful lot of sharpness and clarity. If you want a look at full size ones then PM me and I'll mail them to you!

 

[Gandhi]

no worries. cant sleep. too humid lol!

might want to add no 11).......

try and take the shots from where eye level would be naturally. I.e. kneel down to take shots in lounge/bedroom. slightly higher in dining room, standing height in kitchen!

 

[Yv]

Thats exactly what I want...pictures that show the whole overall 'effect' of the room. I see what you mean about the clarity, but I get the gist. I guess its case of 'surveying' each room and deciding on best vantage point before setting up.

You are a star, thanks, just looking at exif info. Will report back Thursday with how I got on!

 

[Forbiddenbiker]

On Gandhis point about being horizontal ...My D70 sensor is not quite straight .. as are many apparently. :shrug: ...yours too probably. …do some tests and work out how much you must correct with your tripod.


Congrats BTW.

 

[Yv]

Phew!! What a day!

Got loads of pictures of both apartments and the neighbourhood. Could have done with something a bit wider than 18mm, but I am not sure there would be that many shots that would have been better - the buildings are Georgian so walls, doors, etc are in odd places so a wider angle would have given....well, more wall! :nuts: Just downloaded from camera and run through them and I think she will be pleased with them once I have done a little editing, corrected some verticals [high ceilings make for converging parallels, etc] Will do that tomorrow and post a few! Thanks again hugely for advice, it was very useful!

Had one moment of panic. Went down onto beach, me and eldest daughter [came along as camera caddy] and we were happy paddling in rock pools and taking pictures of seaweed and stuff when I spotted some gulls. Switched the D200 to rapid continuous frames and reeled of...ooohhhh about 3 shots before the whole thing just died! didnt even have the display powered from the internal battery. OH #*:# !! Had the D70s so wasnt worried about further shots, but was concerned about the camera. Got back to flat and changed big battery, finding that mirror had stuck in up position, but shutter curtain was at least closed. fresh battery and all was well again. It seems to have retained things like date and time, but I am worried that the internal battery is fading if that happened, so need to get that checked out. It also showed the main battery as fully charged just before it died....hmmm...

Otherwise the day went quite smoothly. We stopped at Ramsgate on way home and got some nice shots of the habour at night, so will be posting a few from the day tomorrow, but right now, I think its bedtime!!

 

[Gandhi]

Cool, Glad it went ok.

Shall look forward to seeing the results!

 

[Yv]

:bang: Photoshop web albums is driving me insane!! NO matter how I name or order the folder of images, IT puts them in a different order when running the gallery script. I have tried putting 1, 2, 3, etc and a, b, c, etc at start of file names, but nothing. I have used photoshops folder viewer to put them in order, but still it does them in its own random order!!!

Anyway, Here's a couple. Like a say, a wider angle would have better, but she is pleased as they are much better than anything she could do, so thats what matters.

 

[Yv]

hhmmm, same problem, they have softened up in shrinking! :shrug: Oh wel, you get the idea.

Bear in mid, these are for holiday lets rather then actual sales, so they will pass muster for this year, and by next year, I wil have done some more as this is basically an ongoing thing to maintain and update the website and photography for each season!

 

[Gandhi]

They're all much better than some of the tat our togs come up with when they first start. Do you mind a little bit of critique? no? cool!

First one is pretty spot on but could do with slightly more exposure and the curtain pulling out a touch just to tidy it up.

Second one is perfick.

3rd one, the arm of the sofa is quite distracting, I'd have taken a step or two right to get rid of it and it could have done with a touch more flash to brighten up inside. It's a bit underexposed at the mo.

But you probably knew all that anyway!

Next time, you may be better shooting in Manual mode too. If you're using an sb800/600 you can set the exposure for the ambient light conditions and then let the flash sort out the fill level. I tend to use anywhere from 1/10 to 1/40th at f5.6ish, iso400 when there are no windows in shot and depending on the brightness of the day, anywhere up to 1/250th and lower Iso's to get the window exposure correct.

 

[Yv]

Critique not minded at all, its how we learn!

I agree with all you say, the only thing in my defence is the third, I couldn't have got any further to the right, I was already wedged in next to the lamp in the alcove!

..and you dont want to know about the cursing I was doing about the curtains in that main room - when I arrived they had been tied up due to a water leak [now repaired] earlier in the week... you can imagine how scrunchy and untidy they looked! :nono:

It was certainly a learning experience and made mucy easier by tips from here, especially ghandi's, so thankyou all!

Anyway, a couple of the other apartment, pretty much the same story, could have done with wider angles on some, more Dof, etc and those damn cushions on a shiny leath sofa...arrggghhhh!!! Not to mention the sun! and blinds! Mind you, I suppose pics the prove the sun does shine in Margate are no bad thing when you are trying to convince people to holiday there.