What is interior photography?
Interior photography is a type of photography that focuses on the design and structure inside of a home. This style of photography can focus on taking images of anything from a complimentary side-table to the architectural structure of wooden beams that lie on the ceiling. Successful interior photographers need a high level of creativity to capture images that properly display a home’s style.
Like any style of photography, home interior pictures intend to capture the best image to show a property in the way the client wants it shown. Interior photography intends to take pictures of a home in a professional manner when the space looks like it’s in its most natural state. The fine lines, the furniture, and the colors of the walls are just introductions of the home to a client. An interior photographer uses these assets and adds additional angles and lighting effects to create a higher level of sophistication.
What does a good interior photographer do?
A good interior photographer will work with the structure and design of an individual room and use it to compliment the property. Though natural lighting is not a tangible part of the design or the make-up of a space, it is what complements the space most easily.
Natural lighting is always important when photographing a property but in interior photography, it is especially important. The natural lighting gives a lighter and more professional ambiance to a room that can often be muddled by external lighting. The use of professional lighting with tungsten, LED, or any other external light sources not within the home, create an unrealistic facade of what a room looks like. Natural lighting also allows for a client to see how space would be on a day-to-day basis versus if it was just professionally lit.
These photographers will also work with finding the intention of a space and take images to help create a narrative. A highline apartment designed for the modern young adult will be marketed differently than a quaint townhome on the edge of the city. The photographer should approach how the images and the subjects of the images fit into these themes and strategies.
How can this help me in different photography fields?
Interior photography is not an exclusive photography field. Interior photography can help many photographers expand their range in fields like real estate photography, architectural photography, interior design photography, etc. Interior photography is a generalized label of a type of photography that fits in many styles and areas of the industry.
Real Estate Photography
Including interior photography in the field of real estate photography is an obvious and common thing to do. Interior photography takes pictures of various components of a home and the real estate photography aspect manages all of these images to sell a home. Interior photography can enhance the feel and mood of a space while, at the same time, it can be used as a tool to sell the property. Good interior photography is a marketing strategy better than anything else because it can show the possibilities of a home for future clients.
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The images above are a great tool to use to market or sell a place as a family home. These images take in the approach the real estate property is on the market for a family to move in it. A property that is up for sale with these home interior pictures will show a level of sophistication in it’s photography compared to other properties.
The image on the left uses subjects as the center of the image to establish a story of the interior of the home. The space wants to be felt as something liveable and comfortable and using subjects as part of the interior is a way to do this.
The image on the right shows warmth in the space through the contrast of the wooden beams, the playful chairs, the overarching plant, and the shelf of family photos. The interior photographer works with an interaction of colors within the living room photographs to create this idea of the space that is marketable for real estate photography.
Architectural Photography
Interior photography helps show the foundation and the geometry within a building. Often architectural photography is thought of as what you see outside versus the beautiful structure of the inside of a building.
The interior photography of the architecture will have more focus on the foundations of the home. This will emphasize things like wooden beams, the wall’s interaction with the space of the room, how the door frames create a flow and simplicity to the home, etc. An architectural photographer and an interior photographer’s role is similar, to depict the story of a structure of a home with the assistance of the camera.
This image takes the interior of a home and works with its design to show the beautiful light that comes in complementary to the structure. The interior photographer utilizes the contrast between the structures of the glass paneling to the wooden cabinetry to show a modern take on a place.
Interior Design Photography
Interior photographers and interior designers have the ability to work together in interior design photography to create a portfolio for both parties. An interior photographer can capture not only the beauty of an interior designer’s work but show the final art of all the work they have put in.
Images also enhance the beauty of the design by giving certain features the space to pop in an image. The interiors design pictures give an opportunity to show the most finite details in large and open spaces.
This image is simple on its face but the delicacy of the simplicity is what draws you in to the image. The art on the wall in combination with the sleek furniture and the pops of color gives a taste of fun modernity. The personality of the interior designer and the interior photographer can be seen in all the ways this space is viewed.