Mario’s Note: Another excellent article by Vicente Nadal with several tips on indoor photography.
Taking pictures indoors can be a puzzle or a rewarding experience, depending on how carefully we take them. In today’s article, we’ll review some of the most common errors in indoor photography and how to fix them, and give some tips to improve these types of photos.
- Indoor photos during the day are more likely to be better if we enjoy sunlight.
- The bad thing is when you become our enemy.
- This happens when we insist on shooting backlight.
- That is.
- Placing a window just behind the person or object we want.
- They were photographing.
The right thing to do in this case is to set the window aside to offer us a nice side light like that of a professional studio flash. Obviously, these pictures would be done without flash.
In case it is not possible to change the background of the photograph in some way, the most appropriate thing would be to lower the blind until the light is balanced and turn on the flash.
In houses it is normal to find mirrors, when they appear in photos it is quite easy for the photographer to accidentally get out of the photo, it is also possible that people who are not in the frame but who are seen reflect and who should not appear in the reflection. Therefore, you have to be careful with the reflections before taking the photograph. Another common defect in mirrored photos is that of taking flash photographs in “self-portrait” photos in which the camera must necessarily come out in the shot.
In these cases, the flash behaves like a small sun producing a backlight in the mirror, which causes the camera to shorten the exposure, leaving the photo very dark as well as an intense and ugly flash light.
Therefore, if you have to take photos in front of a mirror and the camera has to turn off, turn off the flash.
In an interior you will find furniture and pictures on the walls, it makes sense. In addition, this can even be the main object of our photography, the most normal thing is that the surface of the furniture or images is slightly shiny or satin. Do you think it will happen if the photos are taken completely from the front and with flash? Exactly one big ugly reflection from the flash will ruin our photos. The best solution, in addition to removing the flash and shooting during the day with much brighter light, is to shoot diagonally, without looking at the furniture. It is pure geometry, the bounce of the flash reflection will come out of the frame and will not be visible to the camera.
Who doesn’t take photos with family, birthdays or friends? These are the most typical souvenir photos and they are worth reviewing. The first thing is spontaneity when taking photos, of course, but we can always improve things. If the photos are taken during lunch or dinner, consider placing objects like bottles. They tend to go unnoticed when taken, but they are very disturbing because they cover a lot of people. Take the time to organize a group photo. If someone is too hidden, they can never repeat that same photo and make it more visible. Better to invest a little time (without going too far) than to regret a bad investment in the future. Don’t take pictures from miles away. In other words, if your group is made up of several people, don’t line them up next to each other. Try to position people so that they take up most of the frame. In many cases, it is best if half of the group is sitting (or below) and the other half behind and above, forming two shorter rows. This way you can get closer to the group and their faces will look better.
Another problem that usually appears in indoor group photos, especially if we take them with flash, are red eyes, we will not go into the physiological details of why red eyes appear, but as a general rule, they appear whenever one (or more) of the following circumstances occur when we shoot with flash:
The solution may be one of the following (I would recommend the first two):
This is not uncommon for those who want to take photos of their home as a souvenir or rent it or even sell it, taking good photos of the rooms of their house is easy with these little tricks:
In short, we see that on many occasions the flash can cause us problems (reflections or red eyes), that we must avoid the backlights and that we must know the natural light to enjoy it in our favor, after all the flash is nothing more than a bad substitute for the sun.
Do you know any other ways to improve your indoor photos? Tell them in the comments. Did you enjoy this reading? Thanks for sharing it on your favorite social network.