If you run a design or construction related business, and you want your potential clients to see your work at its best, this list of DIY interior photography secrets is for you!
Let's say you've just completed a project that you want in your portfolio, but it wasn't quite lucrative enough to spend hundreds, if not thousands, on professional architectural photography. This happens, right? Well, no worries because it is possible to get decent photos, even if you shoot it yourself! Just follow these four basic steps (#3 is the most important ;)
- Get a camera with a wide-angle lens.* A $300 point-and-shoot with a wide lens is better for interiors than a $3000 SLR with a long lens! You just can't capture enough of the room without a wide lens.
- What's a wide lens? You want between 15mm and 30mm as the "35mm equivalent focal length". Ask the salesperson or look in the owner's manual for the "35mm equivalent focal length" of your camera.
- * Before you buy any camera, make sure it can shoot in RAW mode!! You've heard of jpg image files, right? Well RAW is to jpg what film negatives were to photo prints. You can retouch RAW files in ways that just aren't possible with jpg files. The difference is astounding. If you do nothing else but shoot your photos in RAW you'll have the potential** to get much, much more out of your interior photography. Ask the salesperson or check the manual for instructions on how to set your camera to RAW mode.
- ** I say "potential" to get more from your photography, because straight out of the camera you may not notice the difference yet - but with some RAW image editing techniques that I'm going to share with you in another post, you can unleash all that potential.
Extracting all that good stuff from your RAW image files will help you make the best impression on your prospective clients, and costs considerably less than having a photographer visit your jobsite! Read this post to find out how, or learn more about interior photography.
