How can these shots be improved ?

[omoeko]

Hi All.

I ventured into interior photography, and most of the shots are in small tight rooms where I need to capture as much as possible. In this case, I have attached the 430 ex flash onto the camera as I like to shoot with the lights on to give a softer feel and also want to avoid yellowing on the photos due to the temperature of the lights.

I'm shooting using a monopod as a tripod, which will consume too much space, which I don't have.

My questions are as follows

The pictures of the lounge wth the blue sofa, there isn't a lot of natural light coming in. The flash is attached to the camera, is there anything else that I could have done better here ?

These photos are intended for a website, they have not been edited at all and I would like to ask if all improvements can only be done at post processing or if I were to retake the photos what can I change ?

Lastly, when providing photos that will be used online/social media, what is the correct output size to ensure that quality is not lost and the images remain small in sizes such that they can load quickly ?


From Left to right

IMG_2573 | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/10
IMG_2585 | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/6
IMG_2616 | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/40
IMG_2617 | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/40
IMG_2641 | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/40
IMG_2645 | ISO 100 | f8 | 1/40
IMG_2781 | ISO 100 | f10 | 1/25
IMG_2787 | ISO 100 | f10 | 1/25

 

[KJ_North]

I am certainly no expert and i am sure others on here are more knowledgeable. But IMO they need more exposure (They appear a little dim and shawdowy) Post corrections can be made easily enough or up the ISO a notch.

If you have the flash on try firing it straight up onto the ceiling when taking the photos.

As for temp of the lights etc again you can adjust that easily in post processing so dont fret over that.

 

[omoeko]

I am certainly no expert and i am sure others on here are more knowledgeable. But IMO they need more exposure (They appear a little dim and shawdowy) Post corrections can be made easily enough or up the ISO a notch.

If you have the flash on try firing it straight up onto the ceiling when taking the photos.

As for temp of the lights etc again you can adjust that easily in post processing so dont fret over that.

Thanks for the constructive feedback, when shooting thesame property its easy to leave the dial on thesame setting, I read up that interior photos are best set at 100 ISO. Looking forward to the eedback from others. The flash is pointed upwards and bounces off the ceiling, I can improve the expose by reducing the aperture, my fear with that is that most places would then not be in focus. Slower shutter speed needs a tripod which I don't have the space to mount.

 

[KJ_North]

I wouldnt touch the aperature, but jumping to ISO 200 or 400 isnt going to hurt the images.

 

[Thiophilos]

Interior photography is not my area at all, but here are some comments anyway.

- Lamps render orange or yellow in digital photography. LED lamps are especially bad. Turn them off.
- Many of the lines in your photos are curved and are not parallel. You can fix this in post-processing.
- Low ISO reduces noise, but this has to be balanced with other requirements. Can you see any noise at ISO 800? If not, then you have the freedom to shoot at higher ISO with a narrower aperture or faster shutter speed to improve sharpness.
- Use a tripod where there is space. It helps with sharpness and allows you to compose the shots exactly right.
- All photographic genres are specialties that have their own best techniques and tricks-of-trades. There is a ton of info online to help you.

 

[Original katomi]

Lighting aside as others have commented
Have a look at your images with a view to crop out some of the side clutter
2 some of your images may have been better if you had taken them in portrait not landscape
I looked at your images as if I was going on holiday and your images were about the hotel
Hope this helps

 

[Woolsocks]

Have you thought of using reflectors with natural light? The other option is to take captures at a set aperture but change your shutter speed and use a flash, a weak flash with reflectors. You can then stack the images for exposure compensation or tone map them for a realistic effect of course. Requires software though either free or paid and some learning to use required software.

I have heard of photographers using soft boxes because they convey natural light.

 

[omoeko]

Interior photography is not my area at all, but here are some comments anyway.

- Lamps render orange or yellow in digital photography. LED lamps are especially bad. Turn them off.
- Many of the lines in your photos are curved and are not parallel. You can fix this in post-processing.
- Low ISO reduces noise, but this has to be balanced with other requirements. Can you see any noise at ISO 800? If not, then you have the freedom to shoot at higher ISO with a narrower aperture or faster shutter speed to improve sharpness.
- Use a tripod where there is space. It helps with sharpness and allows you to compose the shots exactly right.
- All photographic genres are specialties that have their own best techniques and tricks-of-trades. There is a ton of info online to help you.

Excuse my ignorance here, how can I tell if there is noise should i decide to bump up the ISO @ 800, is thee a way to tell whilst shooting instead of realising after spending hours shooting.

The lines in the photos that are curved, is there anything I can do to prevent. This could be from my sigma 10 - 17 wide lens.

 

[omoeko]

Lighting aside as others have commented
Have a look at your images with a view to crop out some of the side clutter
2 some of your images may have been better if you had taken them in portrait not landscape
I looked at your images as if I was going on holiday and your images were about the hotel
Hope this helps

Please can you help with telling me what the side clutter were and the particular image, i am going to retake the photos this feedback would be really useful for me so that I do not make thesame mistakes again.

Which of the images would be better as portrait ?

 

[omoeko]

Have you thought of using reflectors with natural light? The other option is to take captures at a set aperture but change your shutter speed and use a flash, a weak flash with reflectors. You can then stack the images for exposure compensation or tone map them for a realistic effect of course. Requires software though either free or paid and some learning to use required software.

I have heard of photographers using soft boxes because they convey natural light.

I do have a collapsable reflector, if this is what you mean. Perhaps I could deploy them when I next practice. The reflector will be opposite the door reflecting the natural light back inside?

 

[Thiophilos]

Excuse my ignorance here, how can I tell if there is noise should i decide to bump up the ISO @ 800, is thee a way to tell whilst shooting instead of realising after spending hours shooting.

The lines in the photos that are curved, is there anything I can do to prevent. This could be from my sigma 10 - 17 wide lens.

Just blow the image up to the biggest size anyone would reasonably view it at and see if it looks grainy. Most modern cameras will be OK at 800 or even quite a bit higher, but that might depend on use. So you have to decide.

Lens distortion like curved lines can be straightened in software like Lightroom Classic and in many other apps too.

 

[Woolsocks]

Am I wrong in answer for someone else a question not directed at me. ??

How can I tell about noise? Well in the shadows noise becomes really apparent. Also when you combined multiple photographs together in a stack for example. What does noise look like? Kind of purple clustered pixels.

What about indoor lighting I prefer to use flashes to control white balance. You can sometimes bring in your own light bulbs for single socket lighting. Or bring in a couple lamps yourself and turn off the lamps that are installed in the room.

One of but takes some time is. Setup your tripod and camera. Take an image with the lights off but with a longer exposure time. Then take a capture with your flash or lightbox on. Then take a capture with your reflector placed however you like in and out of the camera lens field of view. Get the idea? Then in photoshop you can add each image in and use layer masks to paint in our point out objects you don't want in like the reflectors. You can mask in just the light and this will illuminate your image. A none destructive way of manipulating the light sources without tone mapping. The more you take steps like this the faster times go by.


What images are best for portrait shots? You mean positioning the camera on it's side. Well I think hallways are a good start. And the entrance to the home, just as you get in and take off your shoes. Sometimes they have a chandelier here and it helps to shoot in portrait angle. Any position where the ceiling is high and the width of the room is narrow. Sometimes the customer will ask for portrait shots. Like 5 horizontal images and 4 vertical images.

 

[Original katomi]

Hi image 1
Crop the left in to just before the window there is something dark on that edge
Image 3 try in portrait as it’s quite distorted also 4,5,6 my do better in portrait