Interior photography – a new vet practice in Normandy, Surrey UK

While I often photograph people, every so often I am commissioned to photograph the interior and exterior of buildings, which makes a nice change!

Photographing interiors – lighting

The challenge I face when photographing the interior of a building is usually lighting. There will be the normal ambient lighting for the space which needs to be shown, and also very often there is natural daylight coming in through windows and doors.

Then in many cases I need to add my own (flash) illumination to show the whole space and reduce or even out any shadows.

Along with that goes the question of the colour of the light – daylight tends to be cool and bluish, while room lighting can often be warmer and more yellow.

Another consideration can be reflections from mirrors or other shiny surfaces! Occasionally, I have to fix these by editing in Photoshop, but whenever possible, I prefer to eliminate or reduce reflections by adjusting the position of my camera or my lights.

Time of day

Clients sometimes ask me if there is a preferred time of day to do interior photography.

The answer to this is “it depends!” If a big part of a space’s appeal is its access to the outdoors (for example a big living room with sliding patio doors) then photographing it on a sunny day (and perhaps when the sun is fairly low and warm) will give an appealing look to the images.

For commercial properties this is usually less of a consideration, although we may need to take account of the strength and direction of the sun when choosing a time of day to photograph it.

Using a tripod for interior photography

Another question that clients sometimes ask me is why I always use a tripod when I am photographing interiors. 

There are several reasons why I do this. Firstly, it lets me set up my camera in the ideal position and keep it stable and level. With architectural photography, I need to avoid converging verticals or a tilted horizon whenever possible.

Secondly, I sometimes use a slower shutter speed when I want to include more of the ambient light for a natural look, and without a tripod, a slow shutter speed would make for a shaky, blurred image!

And lastly, it means I can leave my camera set up in the right place while I move around positioning my lights or adjusting the placement of objects in the room.

Small rooms and the wide-angle challenge

Large spaces are relatively easy to photograph – but showing a small room (for example the consulting rooms at this vet’s practice) is not so easy to do in a single photograph – you can’t get everything in!

I have a special wide-angle lens that I use in such situations, which helps quite a bit, but also I sometimes have to correct the perspective a little bit in Photoshop to make the view look natural and undistorted.

Retouching in post-production

Believe it or not, I do try to keep retouching to a minimum! I want to show the space as realistically and accurately as possible, while also presenting it at its best.

In conjunction with the client, we will aim to set the room up so that it looks really good, without too many distracting elements.

However, with the best will in the world, sometimes I notice something when I’m editing that I didn’t see on the day of the shoot.

It might be a mobile phone left on a table, or a cushion that’s out of place, or a scratch on a wall. Those are the kinds of small details that I will take care of in post-production.

The art of interior photography

So as you can see, there is quite a lot of work involved in photographing the interior of a building!

You can see more of my architectural photography work in this photo gallery.

If you have an interior or exterior architectural project that needs photographs, please do get in touch and we can chat about the possibilities.

Meanwhile here are a selection of photos from my shoot at the vet’s practice in Normandy (click any thumbnail to enlarge)