Interiors shoot

Photographic shoot for K Interiors on 8^th October 2011

I first met Kate of K Interiors last year at the Arlewas show when she had a stand in one of the marquees. She was looking to get some improvement on her images to advance the business that she had created.

In September of this year, I had a call from Kate to see if I was still interested in helping her out with some images for her business. She is currently expanding the business so it was an appropriate time for her to create more advertising.

We had a brief discussion on the phone, and we met up on Saturday 1^st October to discuss what her requirements were and how I could help. She produced an album of previous images to give me and an idea of what she was looking for. The quality was not very good of the images, but the ideas of what she had in mind were, and this gave me a lot to work with and to think about.

I had also done some research on the web for images taken of this subject. They all very well lit. And after talking with Mr Steve it transpired that a lot of the advertising images were actually set up in a studio and lit to achieve a good result. I however was going to a client’s house to photograph in situ. This could lead to many difficulties, but I would have to make an assessment when I arrived.

She had 2 properties that she had fitted soft furnishings to, along with curtains. These were in Barton under Needwood. I did not have much of an idea of what these properties were like, but I had seen some images from one of them that Kate had taken. We then arranged to meet in Barton at 2pm for a 2:30pm start.

The kit I took with me included my Canon 5DMKII, along with the 24 – 105 mm lens, and my 10-24mm lens. Not knowing how much room I would have I thought that these 2 lenses would be just right. I also took along 2 Canon 580EXII flash guns, a set of Bowens lights, and 2 tripods.

The interior of the first house was immaculate, and Kate decided to start at the top of the house, and the family went out to leave us to take the photographs.

This room was lit from the one small window on the right with one flash being used to see what the result was. The decoration was a very pastel in nature, and I felt that this should be preserved, and Kate agreed to this. The images required here were of the soft furnishings on the bed and the curtains to the window. I found it quite difficult to get the balance of the light right for the whole room, but only a selection of the areas were required.

For my first shoot, I was very apprehensive, and trying to work out how to take the images required with the space available. It became quite easy to work out where to take the images as Kate was very good with her directions and knew what she wanted, which made it a pleasure. But once I got into the taking of images and talking to Kate about what she wanted we progressed quite well, and Kate was pleased with what she saw on the camera. It was quite difficult to get the items images that Kate wanted due to the room restrictions, as I did not want to use a wider angled lens. I was trying to keep to the 50mm parameter, to give realistic shots and details. The rooms were quite large, but positioning was still an art form. I did not feel that we could move the furniture about too much, but Kate took control of this. She also dressed the area to achieve the look that she wanted.

The day outside was very bright with an overcast sky so I did not have to contend with the sunshine, and gave quite a nice light inside the rooms, but it was very directional and I did have to supplement the lighting with a least one, if not 2 flash guns. These were used off camera to create some distinctive lighting.

We covered 4 room’s altogether, 2 bedrooms, a dining room and a lounge. There was not a lot of time and the shoot was finished within one and a half hours. I could have spent a lot more time on this subject, and I will list comments I felt that I would use next time.

We then went off to another house, so different to the first one, and a lot less space to work in. But having done the first house this one was easier to work, despite the smaller space. We were only here for a short time as our time was up, but also there were only two subjects to image.

Kate was happy with the way it went, and with the images on the back of the camera. I did not take load’s as we did not have the time to do so.

For my first shoot I was pleased but I have a lot to learn and have learnt how to work with a client.