Capturing magazine-worthy interior photos seems simple enough if you're an experienced photographer, but what if you're new to interior or architectural photography? You may not need to learn interior photography from scratch, but get familiar with this unique niche of photography and elevate your interior photos with these 10 essential beginner tips!
1. Sharpen your soft skills
For interior photography, you'll be working with a lot of interior designers. While all clients are based on a solid relationship, the interior design community is one that accentuates the importance of soft skills.
What are soft skills? Think of anything that would be referred to as "people skills". This can include things like clear and friendly communication, approachability, empathy, and being a good listener.
Relationships with interior photography clients is a long-game, meaning that it takes time to build that trust so they feel comfortable spending thousands of hard-earned dollars on a photoshoot. Developing your soft skills will help build that relationship and trust quicker, and make it easier to make initial connections that become fruitful.
Practical Tip:
Practice reaching out to potential clients! Put together an introductory email to send to potential clients (do NOT sell in this email! Purely to introduce yourself), or follow designers on Instagram and reply to some of their stories. Try out a few different approaches and see if some get more responses than others.
Looking for guidance? Our Business of Interior Photography Masterclass dives into marketing methods for this niche; our Premium membership includes access to recorded webinars, including one all about what soft skills are and how to build them up and use them in your marketing; we have a team of mentors ready to guide you one-on-one!
2. Use a tripod.
When starting out, it can be tempting to handhold the camera as you snap photos throughout a home.
But resist the temptation!
Interior photography requires a tripod, and the sooner you get used to using one, the better.
Why use a tripod? The biggest reason is because you will be shooting multiple exposures that will then get blended together in the editing process. Using a tripod ensures that each frame is perfectly aligned to the next.
There are more reasons to use a tripod, though:
- It allows you to keep the ISO low and use longer exposures, keeping potential grain to a minimum
- It keeps your hands free for tethering or lighting
- It gives you the time and precision needed to perfect your composition
- It makes it easy to create multiple versions of the exact same photo (with a model or not, with or without lights on, styling variations, etc)
Practical Tip:
If you don't own a tripod, consider renting one to try it out. When you do search for your own tripod to buy, consider the mount it needs and look for one that it sturdy, yet relatively lightweight. Looking for suggestions on the perfect tripod legs and head for interior photography? Check out our Gear page!
If you already own a tripod, practice with it at home, get comfortable with how to make adjustments quickly, and don't feel the pressure to spend on a new/better model until you feel the constraints of the one you own.
3. Wide is Not Always Best
A wide-angle lens can capture more of the room in a single shot, making spaces appear larger and more inviting. This is perfect for many real estate listing shoots, but the goals of an interior shoot are quite different.
For interiors, you are showing the design and evoking emotion. This often calls for details, vignettes, or partial room views. You usually don't need to show the entire room, and often just need to capture 1-2 walls in the photo.
If you do want to capture a wide photo of the space, be cautious of distortion. You can manage distortion by:
- Stepping farther back in the room, rather than just going with an ultrawide focal range
- Buying the best possible lens you can for the focal range you want. Often, lower quality wide lenses will have very noticeable distortion when compared to high quality lenses.
- You can correct for some distortion in your editing workflow, but beware that this is intended for minor adjustments.
Practical Tip:
Typically, you want to shoot at no wider than about 20-24mm. If you're used to shooting a space at a wider focal length, practice in your home by capturing some tighter shots and getting a feel for the compositions this can create. Dive deeper into types of interior compositions and tips for them in our FREE Shot List Bundle!
4. Optimize Your Camera Settings
Choosing the right camera settings is crucial for interior photos.
- Use a low ISO to minimize noise - we recommend no higher than 200 unless you are shooting handheld details and need to go higher for low light situations.
- A small aperture (high f-number) ensures a deep depth of field, keeping both foreground and background elements in focus. This is ideal for most shots, although there is more liberty to go to a low f-stop for details. Our recommended go-to f-stop is 9 or higher.
- Adjust the shutter speed for varying exposures, as this is the setting that will least impact the visual quality. In other words, it doesn't impact the depth of field and it doesn't risk adding grain.
Practical Tip:
Use a cable release or remote shutter release to help ensure that there is no camera shake at all. Once you start tethering, make sure that the tethering method you use allows you to remotely release the shutter. For a deeper dive, check out our Ultimate Guide to Shooting Interiors Masterclass!
5. Composition is key
Composition is the foundation of any great photograph, and interior photography is no exception. Basic compositional techniques such as the rule of thirds, leading lines, and symmetry are a good base, but learning about the typical compositions for interior photography will really prepare you!
You always want the photo to feel balanced, so pay attention elements like furniture and decor. Your eye should wander through the image naturally, with it resting on or getting pulled to the features that you want to highlight.
Practical Tip:
Looking for help with your composition of interiors? Download our FREE Shot List Bundle! It lays out the common types of compositions, along with tips and examples for each.
6. Shape Natural Light
Natural light is your best friend in interior photography. Even when you introduce artificial lighting, you always want to aim for it to look and feel natural.
Before introducing artificial lighting, maximize available natural light. If you want a bright look to your interiors and don't need to show off a window view, shoot during the day when the light is bright, overhead, and bouncing around the interiors. For a more dramatic photo that evokes emotion or for soft light that lens into deep shadows, early morning or late afternoon tend to be best.
Practical Tip:
Don't be afraid to shape the natural light! You can do this by closing doors, window blinds, or curtains to block out light from specific directions. New to how light works in a space and how you can shape it or introduce lighting? Our FREE email series From Ambient to Strobe is the perfect introduction to how light works!
7. Style through the lens
You probably already know about the power of styling in a space for interior photos, but do you style with your eyes, or with your lens?
What looks beautiful, balanced, and perfectly imperfect in person could look quite different through the lens! Check the LCD screen on your camera or consider tethering to a larger screen so you can examine the composition and styling through the camera's lens. This will guide you on any items that should be moved, removed, or added.
Practical Tip:
It can be helpful to bring a small selection of versatile props to each shoot. Rather than spending money on items for each space, create a "Prop Box" that contains items that can fit into different types of spaces. Fresh white bath towels, wood cutting board, white bowl for fruit or flowers... items that can fit different styles will make sure you can save the day if your client doesn't have an item handy.
8. Mind your verticals
One of the most telling features of an amateur interior photo is if the vertical lines are angled. To level up your photos, make sure that any vertical elements are actually vertical on the photo. If it's a one-point perspective (a straight-on shot), then also make sure that the horizontal elements are truly horizontal.
How do these lines get angled? If you point your camera up or down, rather than keeping it level, it will angle the verticals. If your camera is perfectly level, then your verticals will be spot-on!
Practical Tip:
To correct verticals in-camera, you can activate the grid on your LCD screen. You can also activate the built-in level that is in most camera models.
When you start your editing workflow, correcting your verticals should come immediately after lens correction. You can use the Transform sliders in Lightroom, or manually adjust in Photoshop. For a detailed breakdown of how this works, sign up for our Editing Interior Photos Masterclass!
9. Get comfortable with masking
Interior photography deals with balancing light in an image. This is why you take multiple exposures and then blend them when editing.
The most common tool for blending your images is Masking in Photoshop. Masking will become a pivotal part of your editing workflow, so the sooner you can get comfortable with how it works, the better!
What is masking? You are essentially putting a screen or 'mask' over a layer, and then using a brush to either reveal or conceal parts of that layer. With interior photography, masking allows you to use just the area you need from each exposure so that the final photo is a custom blend that feels natural.
Practical Tip:
When you're organizing your layers for blending, we recommend putting your 'base' layer at the bottom. Each layer above that will be masked for a specific purpose - to brighten a dark corner, to pull back details into a blown out area, to add definition to a specific spot. Your base layer is typically a middle-of-the-road exposure. We go deeper into this and the rest of the editing workflow in our Editing Interior Photos Masterclass!
10. Be patient
Interior photography is not a quick road to success. In fact, getting those first few clients can take much more work and dedication than other niches. Rest assured that if you work consistently to build genuine relationships with potential clients whose work you admire, it will pay off.
In the meantime, stay active by photographing any space you can. And don't be afraid to mix in other types of photography work until you have a roster of interior photography clients!
Practical Tip:
If you want to gain practice while bringing in some money, consider starting out with real estate photography, reaching out to stagers, or looking for new designers you can grow with. All of these options give the opportunity to offer lower price point shoots that can be more transactional and a quicker "Yes" as you elevate your interior photography skills.
Conclusion
Mastering interior photography takes time, patience, and a willingness to learn. By following these tips and continuously refining your craft, you'll be well on your way to creating stunning images your clients love. Remember, every space has a story to tell, and with your camera, you have the power to bring that story to life. Happy shooting!