There is an earlier post which described how to manipulate your camera settings to get better indoor shots. It was the walk before you run post. So, for those joggers out there, I want to follow-up with a final installment in this series: positioning for the inside shot.
Positioning takes on two meanings here, location and pose. I mentioned some key locations in the last post that offer up the best lighting: master bedroom, front door, sliding glass door, and windows. Who took a compass around their house and found the north-facing windows? Who bribed their kid with chocolate to do it for them? {What? She thought it was the best game ever} Good job earning that badge Scouters. But there are lots of others. Let’s break la casa down room by room, and chat about poses in each location.
#1. Entries. Both the front door and the sliding glass door can let in a ton of light. Open it up and shoot your subject in the doorway. Or, use the light that the door gives you to illuminate an area of the house that normally doesn’t have good light. If your subject is in front of the light source, be sure to use spot metering. You will need to do this to blow out the background light and properly expose for your subject. Figure out how to do this with your camera. Unsure? Dust off your manual or give me a holla, I’ll be happy to help!
#2. Bedrooms. One of the most photographed rooms is the nursery. Use your new-found skills mom’togs to get some incredible images of your baby. If the lighting isn’t the greatest at the back of the room, shift furniture towards the windows. Frame a sleeping baby through the slats of the crib. A mom rocking her child angled towards the window will provide nice, soft light and enough shadows on the face to provide some definition. Or, you can photograph Dad and baby looking out of the window, with the window light illuminating the whole face. In the master bedroom, get on the bed! Put everyone on their tummies looking at you, a white sheet or duvet cover will act as a natural reflector for the face. Or, line ‘em up and photograph everyone’s feet peeping out of the covers. Stack up the kids on the bed biggest to smallest in a big hug. Camp out under the covers. There is just something about the bed that makes everyone feel silly.
#3. Kitchen. The kitchen is typically a great place for lifestyle, candid images. Why? It’s full of reflective surfaces and light gets bounced around all over the place. And, as the heart of the house, it’s always a party in there! Get the kids baking, mixing, and making a mess. Do me a favor though and open that aperture up wide and blur the background. Because if your kitchen is anything like mine, clutter runs rampant. You can use that trick for any room in your house. I know it well, my piles have piles!
#4. Bathroom. Who doesn’t get some good smiles in the bathtub? Obviously, this wouldn’t be an option for a family session, but for all my mom’tog friends out there, this is a great place to go. It’s a nice, reflective, and shiny place to contain the kiddies. The light bounces everywhere in a bathroom. Open up the windows and you might get lucky and get some gorgeous backlight.
#5. Basement. This is typically a great place to play with shadows. Use dramatic light to your advantage.
#6. Family room. This can be fun room to use too. Remember some rules from older posts. Organize your subjects using triangle and diamond shapes. Play with heights. Get low when photographing children. Turn their heads up and towards the light source to get some nice catch lights in the eyes. If you are going to photograph a family on the couch, be aware of the way it looks in frame. The legs are closer to the camera than the other parts of the body when the subject is sitting down like that, and can appear awkward. Always try a few different angles, so you have some choices when you are editing. You don’t want your clients looking wider than they are, especially your female clients.
Find the light. Get your settings right. Expose for your subjects. Move furniture around. Many of the successful images indoors are ones that are candid…in the moment. This is lifestyle photography at its best. Don’t worry so much that Johnny needs to sit next to Uncle Tim and Aunt Roe should hold Tina and then try to get all of them looking at you for the perfect shot. If they are all piled on the couch and the kids are being tickled with genuine smiles, then that’s the priceless image. And if the scene happens to be bathed in the light from a north-facing window… girl {dude}, you got it going on!
