Interior Photography with Available Light:
Architecture

Next: Travel Interiors 

Jim is adept at photographing the dimmest interiors using only the available light. How can this help you?

  • You can show your interiors they way you designed them, the way your clients or readers will see them.
  • Large rooms are expensive to light; small rooms won't hold the light stands.
  • You probably need exteriors, too. Jim's received light methods work well with both.
  • Let's not forget cost. With Jim's methods you don't pay for assistants, light banks, or lengthy setup times.

Here are some examples of architectural interiors (and an exterior), with Jim's comments.

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    Smoky Mountain Room (#424); view from entry hall towards bed & sitting area, showing fireplace & shuttered windows. Location: NC, Buncombe County, Asheville, Richmond Hill Neighborhood, The Richmond Hill Inn. [ref. to #232.068]
    NC: Buncombe County, Asheville, Richmond Hill Neighborhood, The Richmond Hill Inn, Smoky Mountain Room (#424); view from entry hall towards bed & sitting area, showing fireplace & shuttered windows. [ref. to #232.068]

    My photograph of this Asheville area hotel room looks straight into wide banks of windows, yet shows the fire in the fireplace and a warm glow from the lamp. As with the large majority of my interior received light images, this needed no unusual digital manipulation; I achieved this dramatic lighting simply by adjusting the blinds.
    McNutt Residence Interior; great room, from dining area. NR. Location: NC, Haywood County, Waynesville Area, Hyatt Creek Community, Laurel Ridge Country Club. [ref. to #225.007]
    NC: Haywood County, Waynesville Area, Hyatt Creek Community, Laurel Ridge Country Club, private residence interior; great room, from dining area. [ref. to #225.007]

    Here is another unmanipulated shot, this time of a house's great room. Even though it's illuminated solely by window light, I've avoided dark corners and odd colors. I've also made the room appear large while avoiding converging perspective lines typical of superwide lenses.
    Interior. Guest room. Location: NC, Yancey County, Mayland Valley, Burnsville, The Nu Wray Inn. [ref. to #235.207]
    NC: Yancey County, Mayland Valley, Burnsville, The Nu Wray Inn, Interior. Guest room. [ref. to #235.207]

    This photo of a very small, elegantly furnished hotel room makes it look comfortable and inviting. Again, I've achived even lighting and avoided strong distortion during the original shoot, without digital manipulation.
    Master bedroom. Location: NC, Yancey County, Burnsville Area, Mountain Air (gated community), Home designed by Armin Wessel, Arch.. [ref. to #252.084]
    NC: Yancey County, Burnsville Area, Mountain Air (gated community), Home designed by Armin Wessel, Arch., Master bedroom. RELEASED [ref. to #252.084]

    Here a flood of window light should have destroyed any possibility of even lighting, much less showing the view out the window. Perhaps it did. At any rate, this March image had only grey, treeless mountains in the background. This digital triple-image relied on separate scans for shadow tones and mid-tones, plus an early summer image of a similar mountain view.
    General view of the living area of a luxury mountain home. Location: NC, Yancey County, Burnsville Area, Mountain Air (gated community), Home designed by Armin Wessel, Arch.. [ref. to #252.092]
    NC: Yancey County, Burnsville Area, Mountain Air (gated community), Home designed by Armin Wessel, Arch., General view of the living area. RELEASED [ref. to #252.092]

    The living room of the same house yielded up much more even lighting; I used digital manipulation only to substitute the summer view for the winter view. It's the same view, taken from my extensive stock image library; I chose it to match the actual view very closely, right down to the geology, elevation, and environment.
    Front view, with early spring flowers. Location: NC, Yancey County, Burnsville Area, Mountain Air (gated community), Home designed by Armin Wessel, Arch.. [ref. to #252.107]
    NC: Yancey County, Burnsville Area, Mountain Air (gated community), Home designed by Armin Wessel, Arch., Front view, with early spring flowers [ref. to #252.107]

    Here's an exterior shot of the same house. If this doesn't look very tricky, well, it's not supposed to. It's supposed to look as if this is what you would see if you wandered up the street. It's not, though. The house is in a forest in late-winter, surrounded by bare spindly trees casting nasty shadows. I used careful planning and timing, but no digital manipulation.


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    Next: Travel Interiors

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    Jim Hargan
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