How To Overcome The Challenges Of Shooting Indoors

It’s cold outside…  That’s what you call an understatement.  My neighbors pipes froze, my assistants pipes froze, roofs are collapsing in Boston, Snowmen are forming a union, it’s a mess.  Many photographers on the East Coast have resorted to photographing inside in order to stave off The Shinning style Cabin Fever.  With indoor shooting there are a few challenges one must overcome (other than convincing your cat, Winkles, to sit still for one GD second).

Lighting

There are lights in your house…  There are lights outside…  I do not like green eggs and….  wait, I got sidetracked.  There are many different sources of light you must contend with in order to obtain a fairly accurate white balance color.  Newer and more advanced cameras can handle this fairly well with auto white balance but older or less advanced cameras will require you to either set white balance manually and/or shoot in RAW and adjust your white balance in post processing.

Personally, I’d shoot in RAW and adjust in post processing rather take the extra few seconds to adjust it manually (it’s not difficult to do but it adds an extra step… and who likes that?).

Want to master white balance?  Take the challenge: Photo Challenge – White Balance.

Subject Matter

JMB_6329

There are literally hundreds of interesting subjects indoors…  Unless you’re in a tent (is that considered “indoors”?  It’s got a door, sometimes two.  I digress, what I’m getting at is that you should not have any trouble finding a subject somewhere indoors.  You could approach this a few different ways.

Still Life

Representation of usually household objects, such as flowers or food, in painting or photography

Pet Photography

What are you looking at? You should know what that is!

Portrait Photography

A likeness of a person, especially one showing the face, that is created by a painter or photographer, for example.

Stock Photography

Stock photography is the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses. Could be anything... A picture of your spoon even.

There are so many types of photography out there I am sure I missed one or two but you get the idea.

Composition

There really is no excuse for poor composition when you’re shooting indoors, you’ve got all the time in the world to work it out.  Try things like the rule of thirds, framing, leading lines, reflections, etc..  You can use a wide aperture (f/2ish) to blur out the background so nobody sees your dirty laundry or the cat dragging its butt across your carpet like a boss.

For articles on composition check out PhotolisticLife’s extensive library of composition tips and how-to articles.

Remember, indoors does not have to mean you home.  There are plenty of indoor areas you can photograph when the weather is poor (museum, aviary, conservatories, aquariums, etc.)  As always, feel free to share your success with us on the Facebook Page!

More from John Barbiaux
Quick Tip 105
ISO 200, f7.1, 50mm, 1/50sec Contrast is Your Friend When composing a...
Read More
0 replies on “How To Overcome The Challenges Of Shooting Indoors”