What gear to use/tips on indoor/outdoor residential photography?

[RefuseToConform]

Hi! I'm new to the world of photography but luckily I have been given the chance to learn!

I started working for a company that sells and installs home automation stuff, in-ceiling/wall speakers, wall mounted TVs, lighting products, ect. My boss owns a really nice DSLR with some different lens and has tasked me with going to our customers homes and shooting what we've done there.

Here are some examples of what I'll need to be shooting (Just go through the gallery on this sites page):
http://www.structuresdb.com/residential/

I think this style is refered to as residential photography. Basically I'll be taking pictures of the whole room, then some focusing on what we've installed.

Right now I am currently using a Canon EOS 70D. The lens we have are both Canons: EFS 18-135mm (standard zoom) & EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (telephoto zoom). What lens and or anything else do I need to buy for me to get that quality? If that is possible with my current camera. I think I can learn the basic stuff from this website (Already skimmed over the tutorials but still have alot to learn). Also is photoshop something I should look into or can I get away with something free like Paint.Net?

Thanks for taking the time to read!

[HaseebM]

Welcome to CiC and we all like to share our real name here. On the subject, an 18-135mm should cover most of your requirements and you will definitely need a tripod for those indoor shots with lights on to get the ambience correct.

[William W]

Hi, welcome to CiC.

. . . I'm new to the world of photography . . . My boss . . . has tasked me with going to our customers homes and shooting what we've done there. . . Here are some examples of what I'll need to be shooting . . .

I had a look at quite a few of the example pictures in the link. I expect that many of those Photographs are used for other purposes than just that website.

Many of the indoor shots appear to be shot with a lens wider than the equivalent an 18mm lens used on a 70D.

There are some hints that a Tilt & Shift Lens was used on some shots, but also I think definitely some shots were made with an Ultra Wide Lens and then corrected for Vertical and Horizontal Alignment in Post Production.

There appears to be a significant amount of reasonable to good quality Post Production done on all the images that I viewed: most likely either using Photoshop or Lightroom - possibly both.

A noticeable feature in some/most of the indoor shots is the lighting balance between the Indoor and the outdoor whilst maintaining a reasonable exposure of the illuminated indoor room lights – this could have been achieved by use of multiple Flash Heads and/or Photo Stacking different exposures.

Probably a Tripod was used for many of the shots.

It occurs to me that that most of the photos on that web site were made by a Photographer and Photo Editor with skills and also experience.

***

What . . . do I need . . . for me to get that quality?

> An EOS 70D will do the job.

> A wide angle lens in the range about 10mm to 25mm will be necessary. The Canon EF-S 10 to 22 is a good choice.

> A solid Tripod and Head will be necessary. A big sized Ball Head will be probably be OK to save on cost.

> Photoshop and or Lightroom will be more than very handy. Photoshop only if funds are limited, would be my choice.

> Three Flash Heads, Stands and Basic Lighting modifiers will be very handy.

> It would be imprudent to consider a TS-E Lens without buying a larger format camera to realize the full potential of the lens, but this is a thought to consider, depending on the budget - a 5D or 5D MkII would suffice and a TS-E 17

> The Skill, Knowledge and Experience to use the Camera, Lenses, Lighting gear and the Post Production Editing Programs.

The last one is the most important.

WW

[Manfred M]

Hi! I'm new to the world of photography but luckily I have been given the chance to learn!

I started working for a company that sells and installs home automation stuff, in-ceiling/wall speakers, wall mounted TVs, lighting products, ect. My boss owns a really nice DSLR with some different lens and has tasked me with going to our customers homes and shooting what we've done there.

Here are some examples of what I'll need to be shooting (Just go through the gallery on this sites page):
http://www.structuresdb.com/residential/

I think this style is refered to as residential photography. Basically I'll be taking pictures of the whole room, then some focusing on what we've installed.

Right now I am currently using a Canon EOS 70D. The lens we have are both Canons: EFS 18-135mm (standard zoom) & EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (telephoto zoom). What lens and or anything else do I need to buy for me to get that quality? If that is possible with my current camera. I think I can learn the basic stuff from this website (Already skimmed over the tutorials but still have alot to learn). Also is photoshop something I should look into or can I get away with something free like Paint.Net?

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Hi welcome to CiC -would you mind completing your profile and at least giving us your first name and telling us where you are from? We tend to be a friendly and on a first name basis here.

Bill has provided some excellent advice. A word of caution; architectural photography is a VERY specialized photographic field and is not just picking up a camera and taking a few pictures. These images you have pointed us to definitely fall into this category. Just as an aside, real estate photography is not the same thing as architectural photography.

The images at the site you have linked us to are definitely architectural images. The equipment that Bill has listed are most definitely used, and in a number of the shots, additional lighting (multiple flash setups) has been used. Some of the better architectural shots I've seen are multiple images taken at different times of the day, with different lighting and blended together in post processing.

The photographer doing many of these types of shots needs a lot of experience, the right equipment and a fair bit of time (notice how the lighting and weather seem to be ideal in a lot of the outdoor work). I personally don't think the equipment you have is suitable. You need a rectilinear ultrawide angle (UWA) lens for sure; 10 mm focal length (I don't know the Canon line particularly well) would probably be a decent starting point (in UWA lenses, even an extra mm in focal length makes a lot of difference). Decent tripod with a ball head (you need something fairly heavy duty that won't move and keep the camera steady), a level for the camera (to help minimize perspective distortion), multiple Speedlights, with stands, light modifiers and likely decent radio triggers (so that you can fire them without having direct line of sight).

As Bill has pointed out, shift-tilt lenses are great for this type of work, but they are not going to be as useful on a crop-sensor camera. And oh yes, a pretty good skill level in photoshop.

[Venser]

As Bill has pointed out, shift-tilt lenses are great for this type of work, but they are not going to be as useful on a crop-sensor camera. And oh yes, a pretty good skill level in photoshop.

Professional real estate/architectural photography is the only place where I would say a tilt-shift lens is mandatory. I just listed my house and did all the photography myself. I was able to mimic the effects of a tilt-shift, but the amount of time and work involved was quite extensive. If this wasn't a one-off project, it'd be the first lens I pick up.

I concur with the rectilinear UWA. You can get away with other lenses, but you're going to be doing a lot of work in external software. You're going to need stitching software and something that fixes the perspective. My widest lens is now 24mm and I spent the greater portion of two hours stitching photos and fixing perspectives for four rooms this weekend. If you want to do this professionally, it's better to save time and get the right lens.

Something to seriously consider is Eliminate Parallax or similar product. This will make life so much easier when you stitch scenes. The closer the quarters, the more useful a product like this becomes.

[Rob Ekins]

Some great advice above.

I agree the 70D will be fine. The WiFi function is something that you should definitely be using. I use the Wifi on my 6D with a Samsung !0.1inch and the EOS app.

The Canon EFS-10-22 is the go to lens on crop canons but the EFS 10-18 is getting good reviews and it's price point is good. I used EFS 10-22 for years before going full frame. Be wary of the 10mm end of this lens or any UWA. It will be tempting to go Ultra wide but the problems it brings with it are not for beginners. Distortion is the main issue but also the wider you go the more you need to light, lighting interiors take time to learn. I would very rarely go under 13mm and my client love wide. For detail shots I use the ridiculously cheap Canon 50mm 1.8ii or my 70-200F2.8L depending on what I want to achieve, your current lenses may be fine for that side of things.

You will get away with using a ball head but I strongly recommend the Manfrotto 410 junior geared head. I rate this item as the best value for money that I have spent for interior work. With these types of images having straight Horizontals and verticals is critical and the geared head makes it so so so much easier.

You can use flashes, I do but others use various blending techniques and software to combine multiple exposures without flash. If you go down the flash road I can recommend the Yongnuo range. I have a bunch of them and their trigger systems. The YN560iv @$70 is fantastic value but you will need to buy good batteries like Eneloops, don't skimp on batteries you will get bitten.

Post processing is very important in this field so I would look at Lightroom or Photoshop, I think they are bundled in CC now but I don't use CC so can not be sure of that. I can do anything I need in CS6 so have no use for lightroom, I have tried it but I use masks extensively so it was limiting to my workflow.


The best resource that I have found for learning the art of photographing interiors is the PFRE Flickr forum. There are tonnes of interior photographers from all genres that frequent the site who will be more than happy to answer your questions and critque your images.


Good luck, it is a very satisfying form of photography.

[William W]

. . . You will get away with using a ball head . . . With these types of images having straight Horizontals and verticals is critical and the geared head makes it so so so much easier. . . .

I concur.

In post #3 I was attempting to balance: "the gear that is really needed" vs. "the money the boss is willing to provide"

***

@ 'RefuseToConform' -

It would be really helpful if you could provide an indicative budget that you have to spend, and also if that budget includes funds for tuition.

WW

[rpcrowe]

I would suggest a wide angle lens such as the 12-24mm F/4 Tokina. This would allow you to cover a greater area.

I would definitely suggest that you shoot in RAW and have to software that would enable you to open and correct the RAW images in Adobe Camera RAW. ACR will allow you to correct the perspective of your images so that the vertical lines are not converging.
https://helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/u...amera-raw.html

Photoshop (virtually all issues since CS3) and, I believe, Photoshop Elements will allow you to correct the vertical lines but, IMO, it is far easier to correct them in ACR.