Shooting houses

christulk · May 20, 2008

Hello all,

I been asked by a friend of a friend who is builder, if I would be able to take some shots of the houses he has built in order to put them on his web site. As I usually take snap shots of people, so I was hoping I might be able to get some tips for taking shots (external and internal) of houses.

What lens would you use, ambient lighting or other? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Ps. The builders web site: www.nkconstructions.com.au

achambers · May 21, 2008

You want an ultrawide lens to shoot interiors, I use a Canon 10-22. The field of view of a wide angle lens will give you more of the room. The 10-22 has a 107° view angle at 10 mm, this will let you set up in a doorway and still capture most of a room. The kit 18-55 lens has a field of view of only 74° at 18 mm, a considerably lesser angle of view.

Here is a rough sketch of the viewing angles of these 2 lenses the top angles are the extremes of the 10-22 and the bottom angles are the 18-55 for comparison.

Using UW lenses does have drawbacks, you will have to spend some time in post fixing angle distortion. There are tools in Photoshop for doing this. To minimize these distortions try to be as square and level to the subject as possible.

For lighting I use a mixture of hot lights (w/umbrella), strobes (w/umbrella or diffuser) and natural. Pay attention to the time of day and direction that the windows in a room face. In the early morning east facing windows might blow out, evening/west etc.

Here are some architecture photos that I've done.

Edit
I don't use hot lights and strobes together, it's one or the other depending on the room setup.

christulk · May 22, 2008

Alan,

Thanks very much for the assistance, it is greatly appreciated.

Shooting houses

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