Lay My Hat Forum

[Jimbo]

Recently, LMH member katiebythesea invited me to shoot pictures of her four rental properties in the Pyrenees, in return for a holiday at the same time. It’s worth remembering that, without Paolo’s forum, the opportunity wouldn’t exist for members to assess the cut of each other’s jibs and suggest such mutually beneficial partnerships. Therefore, paying my dues to LMH (and with Katie’s permission), I’m posting a few suggestions about how a professional photographer approaches such an assignment, in case a little of this information might be of value to owners shooting their own material - or considering commissioning a professional in the future.

About bartering your skills:

I’m all for barter but, as I’m waiving my fee, the project has to be something that I’d enjoy. Some places are just too far away (without a travel contribution), some places don’t appeal and – as an owner myself – the rental season is out of bounds for other than paid assignments. But it can work.

We’re all in this together (as the politicians say):

Pro snappers have little control over their assignments. They shoot when and where their clients demand, to tight deadlines and usually in far from optimum conditions. Which isn’t much different to rental owners struggling with limited access to their properties. And, naturally, access is never going to be possible in high season when everything looks wonderful.

The answer is to prioritise and use your time constructively. Only work on what can work – don’t waste time trying to recreate June in November. Look carefully at what pictures already exist. Give the 80%’ers a free pass and concentrate on the duffers. Fill the gaps.

Think about your equipment and your skills. For the pictures that you want, do you need longer or wider lenses? A tripod? Lighting equipment? Can you borrow or hire these – or would an equipment upgrade be a wise investment? Do you have an image editing programme and do you know how to use it – or would additional training be helpful? If you’re compelled to shoot with what you already have, work only to the equipments’ strengths. And practise, practise, practise the difficult stuff at home before you shoot the real thing.

Jim

I’ll add more thoughts and some pictures from Katie's shoot over the coming days. Feedback is always welcome.

[paolo]

Looking forward to your insights, thanks for sharing.

For my part, the two key bits of equipment for interiors are a wide lens and a steady base - tripod, monopod or back of chair - especially at this time of year when exposure can be long. Never use flash!
_________________
Paolo
Lay My Hat
http://www.laymyhat.com

[Jimbo]

What camera and lens?

Ideally, you need a camera over which you can exercise control (ie: which does more than shoot on automatic/programme mode) and you need a lens of 24mm or wider (I’m talking 35mm lens equivalents). My preferred combination is a digital SLR with a 14mm lens and 20-35mm zoom.

If you’re serious about interiors, it’s worth shelling out the money for a sturdy tripod (one with built-in spirit levels and a ‘pan and tilt’ head is the best). This is because interiors involve lengthy exposures and you won’t be able to hand-hold successfully without losing sharpness. Don’t fire the shutter by hand, even if the camera’s on a tripod, because you risk introducing vibration – use (ideally) an electronic shutter cable release or the built-in self timer.

Digital cameras are now so clever that their built-in exposure system can read difficult situations like bright windows and dark areas and combine them to give you a workable photograph. But it’s vital not to over-expose or you will lose your highlight detail. This may not matter for sunlight streaming in a window but it does if you can’t retain tone in light-coloured walls. Don’t worry if your original looks too dark because an enormous amount of detail can be rescued from the shadows but, once detail is lost from the highlights, it’s gone for good.

An interior is, effectively, a still life where nothing moves. The best exposure programme to use is aperture priority (usually marked as ‘av’). Select this and you’ll notice that the aperture changes as you rotate the dial. Go to the smallest aperture (usually f16) and go back three clicks to f11 because lenses (particularly cheaper ones) produce their best results a little distance from their smallest and widest apertures. Using a small aperture will give the greatest sharpness range from foreground to background but it dictates using a longish shutter speed to compensate (and that’s why a tripod is essential). Focus (manually if possible) somewhere in the middle of the picture - if you focus on foreground or background, you'll risk losing sharpness across the whole image.

The two pictures below demonstrate the process (shot on 14mm lens). The first is a 16-bit RAW file (more about RAWs later) which has detail in the highlights and shadows. Don't be alarmed by its dark appearance. The picture beneath is the finished 8-bit jpeg file supplied to the client - low contrast but with detail in all the important areas. From this original; cropping, contrast, colour saturation, colour balance and sharpness can be altered to suit the web page or publication, but it's vital to remember that such changes are destructive (you're throwing away data) and non-reversible. So always save your original file for later use.




More to follow.

Jim

[HelenB]

I've just purchased a new camera (LUmix G3), so I'm looking forward to putting your tips into practice after Christmas.

[Jimbo]

Lighting your interiors:

In the days of film (particularly transparency – negative film was a little more forgiving), what you saw was definitely what you got. Unevenly lit rooms needed to have patchy lighting supplemented with powerful accessory flashes or tungsten bulbs which had to be filtered to the dominant light sources to avoid colour casts. Shoot a room with daylight, tungsten bulbs and fluorescent tubes jostling for attention and the resulting film tranny looked like a box of Newberry Fruits. The arrival of digital capture, particularly when linked with a powerful editing programme like Photoshop and with RAW files, changed the landscape overnight.

Look at the photographs (original RAW and finished jpeg) below of a bedroom with en-suite (taken with 14mm lens). Difficult shot because the room is relatively small, light falls off rapidly across the frame, illumination comes from mixed daylight and tungsten bulbs and the bathroom is (unflatteringly) lit with a single overhead bulb.

This could be tackled in at least three ways (always many ways to skin the photographic moggy):

1. Even up the lighting by hiding supplementary flashes or tungsten bulbs behind the bedroom wall and bathroom door.
2. Shoot as two pictures with differing exposures and patch together later in Photoshop.
3. Or, as I’ve done, shoot as a single picture and use Photoshop’s powerful tools to compensate for uneven exposure and colour casts (I’ve also added a weak fill from a flash bounced off the wall behind me to illuminate the rafters - more about flash later).

Again, don't worry if the original file seems very dark. What you need is something that contains all the information you require to make your finished file.




Jim

More to follow.

[Giddy Goat]

Gripping stuff Jimbo and thank you!

Was it your intention to enable us to see the pics enlarged? Things look hopeful when I mouse over them, but nothing happens when I click.
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http://www.facebook.com/Gascony.Magic?ref=ts
"The secret of success is to get up early, work late and strike oil" John D Rockefeller

[Jimbo]

[la vache!]

Thankyou for all your tips which are given freely and generously Jim! It is very kind of you to share your knowledge. I'd be interested in knowing the dimensions of the room in the last photo - is that possible?
_________________
Child friendly Brittany Cottages and Gites with heated pool
My BrittanyCottages Facebook page

[Normandie]

[Jimbo]

[katiebythesea]

I will happily supply links to the web site photos when it is up and running, just waiting to get the disc with all the hi res images on it
Reading through this has confirmed that it is really tricky to get interiors right and as an off site manager I don't get much time to experiment and try out all this wonderful advice, if I was on site then I would enjoy having it all on hand and give it a go.

LV- don't have the dimensions of the room to hand but is is quite large, on the other side of the room (which can't be seen in the photo)there is a wardrobe too.

Thanks again Jim

[la vache!]

Thanks Katie - I've just found your original photo in Les Jets and can compare it to Jim's photo. It makes quite a difference using a wider angle lens!
_________________
Child friendly Brittany Cottages and Gites with heated pool
My BrittanyCottages Facebook page

[katiebythesea]

It does but it I think a more realistic representation of the room in this case as it shows more of the room in a single shot with the door to the en-suite which I just couldn't do with my reliable but old Nikon.

[paolo]

[Jimbo]