DSLRUsers.com

Hi, again, I don't know what I got myself into, but I've been asked to photograph serviced apartments in Melbourne this coming Saturday. I've never done anything like this and was wondering if someone can offer some advice to me. They need some photos for their website, specifically reception area photos and some apartments.

My current kit consists of:

- D70
- kit lens
- sb 800
- Nikkor AF 28 mm 2.8f
- Nikkor 50 mm f1.4
- Nikkor 80-200 f 4.5-5.6 (useless for this job, I guess)
- a Manfrotto tripod

Please help me with any suggestions.

Thank you

Alex

Hi Alex,

I'd suggest you do a reckie b4 hand to see what available light or lack off you have. In the past for reception area's I've had to use up to 3kW of lighting.

Mark

This old thread may be of some help to you...

Thanks for your help, guys.

Alex

Alex, I think John's link is very helpful, would also suggest taking your tripod and remote using available light unless you have a few SB800s, dont worry how slow the shutter speed is. If you could borrow a wide angle lens it could make your life easier, eg a 12-24 or 10-20

Thanks for suggestions, Glen. I might have to use the kit lens plus 28 mm as wide angle, although 28 mm is not really. I am definately taking tripod but no remote, I'll use timer instead.

Cheers
Alex

I knew a photographer who used to take photos in furniture showrooms for use in catalogues. He used to put the camera on a tripod, Set it on "B" at the smallest possible aperture then quickly walk around the room with a flash in his hand and fire it off all over the place making sure not to stop moving.
The results were quite good.

phillipb wrote:I knew a photographer who used to take photos in furniture showrooms for use in catalogues. He used to put the camera on a tripod, Set it on "B" at the smallest possible aperture then quickly walk around the room with a flash in his hand and fire it off all over the place making sure not to stop moving.
The results were quite good.

A very interesting idea, Phillip. Might give it a try.

Alex

I would go with Glenn’s suggestion on a 12-24mm. I have shot many apartments and a wide angle is the trick. In advertising developers like a photograph to show that there is plenty of room as most people react to space.

Thanks, Chris. I'm sure that's a great lens for the job, but my chances of getting it for the shoot are close to NIL. I will try to do my best with what I have.

Alex

Alex wrote:Thanks, Chris. I'm sure that's a great lens for the job, but my chances of getting it for the shoot are close to NIL. I will try to do my best with what I have.

Alex

If you can't get your hands on a 12-24, but have a tripod, then you may want to try a few panorama shots. This can duplicate and even surpass the effect of the 12-24. That's the method used in the article I posted above.

leek wrote:If you can't get your hands on a 12-24, but have a tripod, then you may want to try a few panorama shots. This can duplicate and even surpass the effect of the 12-24. That's the method used in the article I posted above.

Good idea, but be careful to make sure you shoot around the nodal point of your lens. It doesn't matter as much for infinite distance landscapes, but becomes a big issue with anything that has foreground elements.

- Rog

I agree that doing a pano will produce far better results than a wide angle lens, if done correctly. As already stated the camera/lens combo needs to be rotated around the nodal point of the lens, otherwise you just can't stitch the images properly, especially in the close quarters of a room.

I did the pano below by using full manual mode and firing the flash once to fill in any shadows. Sorry about the size (170kb), but it's the only one I have.


Here

Thanks again, guys. Lots of great suggestions here!

Alex

It may be a stupid question, but how do I estimate nodal point of a lens? And how do I shoot around it?

Thanks
Alex

Interestingly, I just took some test shots of my living room and 18 mm on the kit lens seems to look pretty good.

Alex

I was selling my place recently and one thing that the photographer did (he used a Canon MkII with a 12mm lens) was really pump up the colour saturation and bump up the exposure. It looked a little strange to me because there colours were not true but everyone who looked at the shots on the web thought the place looked fantastic (and it really was quite a dump).

Another architectual trick is to hose down outside areas and plants before you shoot so pavement etc has a damp look. Water always makes things look a bit better and fresher.

Use you flash inside so that window are not blown highlights.

Thanks for the suggestions, Jonesy. Will keep it in mind.
Cheers
Alex