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Photographing Interiors
by Mike Goldstein
The telephone rings; it’s Gourmet Today Magazine. They want me to spend time in Touristown, USA, photographing selected upscale eateries for them. They’ve booked me into one of the classier B&B establishments for a few days, one located in the artists’ colony of town where the target restaurants are located.
As I pack my camera bag, I’m already thinking about other photo markets for shots I might do on my own time--artists’ studios, local hotels and inns, and--of course—bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Most of these images will be interiors, so I take a moment to consider lighting and lenses as I pack. Later, on site, I’ll think about “the look.”
LIGHTING
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The village church in East Barnard, Vermont follows New England tradition in being open all day, year ‘round, even when nobody is in attendance. The late afternoon light coming through the west windows makes the classic interior glow. As I wanted the light to follow the “leading lines” of the pews, no other lighting was used for this image. A 24mm lens was used here. |
It would be great if this were a “no holds barred” kind of shoot, with time to set up multiple light stands and have total control of the lighting. In fact, this will be more of a “lightning tour,” with the restaurants in question fitting me in when and as they can. I expect to use a flash and pray for large windows and a low white ceiling.
I once shot a San Diego restaurant next to a marina using only the equipment I was carrying in a belt bag, and employing a monopod for camera support. Doing the restaurant shot was a very unexpected bonus to a day of walking around outdoors. I balanced window light against interior lighting and bounce flash (un-metered!), and used my 24mm lens with the polarizer removed. We tidied up the target area, the restaurant produced a bottle of red wine and a cooked meal on amazingly short notice, and the resulting image was published twice!
With a more advanced notice this time, I pack my flash meter. Depending on automatic exposure of flash or camera makes me nervous when clients depend on me. I try to take interior shots on a bright day. I meter the room interior, with all possible lighting turned on, and that establishes my basic exposure. Using a tripod allows me to opt for maximum depth of focus. Then, I measure the window light, actually pointing the camera through the window. If I’m lucky, the exposures are close, but often, I must allow the window light to overexpose. However, I can usually “pump up” the interior exposure by bouncing my flash from a low, white ceiling or even a wall, to the point at which the two exposures are close. Bounce flash yields even, shadow-free lighting, so that you can rarely tell that flash was used. Even if I’m using the features of a modern automatic flash (see my Apogee Photo article, “Intelligent Sunshine”), I like to check the flash exposure with the flash meter.
I use only outdoor daylight film for my interior shots, because the cozy warm glow caused by incandescent lighting on this film yields a nice effect that people like. I avoid fluorescent lighting like the plague. (“Fluorescent lighting, in my restaurant, M’sieur?”) Even an FLD filter can’t make it look warm.
LENSES
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My “bed & breakfast” in Touristown, USA (actually photographed in Niagara Falls, Ontario) offered a bedroom ideal for photography. The strong window light was muted by pulling down the shade, and balanced against the light of several lamps in the room. Flash was bounced from the white ceiling. The corner of the bed, and the corner of the ceiling, give opposing leading lines, which make for a rather neat composition. I used a 17mm rectilinear lens for this photograph. |
No need to pack long lenses for this shoot. Room interiors demand the use of wide-angle lenses, if you want to achieve a look of spaciousness. A 24mm lens is good. The wide-angle zooms are extremely versatile for this kind of shooting. My favorite is my 17mm rectilinear wide-angle lens, which consistently allows me to photograph my own tripod legs, if I’m not careful. Use of wide-angle lenses usually requires that you be cautious about tilting the lens up or down indoors, to avoid the perspective distortion of leaning walls. No need to pack lots of filters, either—except, perhaps, a color-correction filter (like the FLD), if you’re faced with fluorescent lights. While you can use “indoor film,” I’ve never published an interior image with that film palette. Manual focus of lenses is usually a requirement for interior photography, with “depth of field preview” a necessity, to check that everything is in focus.
THE LOOK
Producing publishable restaurant photographs is not easy. Unless you bring your own professional models, and/or you’re handholding “grab shots” of the entire room at night, avoid including diners. Blurred shots of waiters in motion can be effective for mood, but you have little control over the process or the resulting compositions. However, shooting diners at night can be effective, if you can shoot down on them from on high, using a “bird’s eye view.” This gimmick works well if the floor has a distinctive pattern or if the tables are circular.
If you can shoot while the restaurant is empty, you can usually coax the owners into providing props--a bottle of red wine and a cooked meal. They won’t mind if you move things around a bit. Corral a waiter or two to assist you. Try to isolate one table, with an outdoor window scene as your background. Angle the table so one corner is facing the camera; the sides of the table make great leading lines. Shoot a round table from a high angle with a wide lens, to emphasize its roundness and space for happy diners. Use plants, trees, and any color accent you can find to avoid that monochromatic look.
You can make a room appear larger by including mirror reflections where possible. If you can shoot only a mirror reflection of a room (like shooting only the reflection of the building’s exterior in a puddle), you’ll produce an unusual perspective that will capture attention. When I’m shooting in museums or historic buildings, I try to make portraits of people in period costume, shooting only their reflection in a window or a mirror.
Most artists and artisans will happily pose with their creations, allow you to photograph them at work, and happily accept your offer of free shots for their advertising. (Ask for a photo credit!) Check the studio lighting, as it’s often the dreaded fluorescent. Bounce flash is just as useful in this environment, where you’ll often be unable to set up your tripod. If your location is a hotel room or bedroom, treat them like restaurants. Use the corner of the bed in your foreground and make use of mirrors and window scenes.
My hostess at the Touristown B&B was amazed. Before I had even unpacked my suitcase, I set up my tripod and photographed my bedroom in the soft afternoon light!
More Photos and Captions
 This photograph was made in a Salem, Massachusetts hotel, using a 17mm rectilinear lens, bounced flash, and a lamp to offset the lighting from the window. The bed and its canopy, photographed from the rear corner, offers its own strong leading lines into the composition. Accommoda-tions fit for a witch!
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 This marvellous place is the St. Benoit du Lac monastery, in Québec’s Eastern Townships region. Too large a space to fill with bounce flash, this photograph was made with a 24mm lens and window lighting, augmented by the rather sparse overhead lights. Here is an environment where using a tripod is a necessity, if a sharp image is to be the result.
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 The lounge of the Ripplecove Inn, in Québec’s Eastern Townships region, made a challenging photograph. This is actually quite a dark room. The strong window light was offset by one lamp in the composition, and all other interior lights were turned on. The ceiling was far too high for bounce flash, so direct flash was used, allowing the natural flash “drop off” to pick up the dark woods on the far side of the room. The magazine table, angled to present a corner to the camera, provides nice leading lines into the room. This is a situation that does not demand a human figure, but is actually a portrait of the room itself.
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