Paparazzi

Hi! Thanks for joining me today! I’m excited to get into today’s topic with you, because we’re talking all about the big pay off after putting in so many hours, so much time and care designing and crafting your interior space. We are striving towards improving the spaces we live and work in, but one of the most important parts of this process is to celebrate wins as we go. Taking a victory lap isn’t necessarily easy, especially if your mind is like mine, and already on to the next goal or project. But taking time to revel in our accomplishments keeps us grounded and gives us the fuel to tackle the next big thing. So, if you just completed a big upgrade to a space, the question becomes: is it even real if you don't have good pictures of it? 

You may want photos to post on social media, but even if that isn't your thing, it can be great to have nice photos of a finished project for yourself to look back on in two years or ten, or to send to close friends and family.  And while the professional images we see in design magazines take a whole team of experts to create, the good news is you can use some super lo-fi tricks to hack your way to impressive looking interior pictures. No special equipment or photography classes required, with a little sweat equity and some careful strategy using the eight tips in this episode, you too can have pictures of the hard work you’ve put into your home or work space that will have your parasocial crew begging for all the details.

But first let’s talk about the color of the week! Next week will mark the first time in 33 years that the Cincinnati Bengals fought for the title of Super Bowl Champions. Now, I am not a sports aficionado, but I am a proud Bearcat, and I could not be more excited for the Bengals in the momentous occasion. To celebrate, the Color of the Week is Bengals Orange - Pantone 1655. This deep orange hue borders on red, and let me tell you, it looks stunning as an upholstery color - in traditional and modern space alike. To create an earthy color scheme, try pairing Bengals Orange with dark natural wood tones like walnut and add pops of soft yellow, or to really amp it up, if you feeling yourself - add some super light lilac to the mix. Mark Rothko actually did this in 1953 with his Liliac and Orange over Ivory painting, which is on display at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth. Stunning!

This episode is brought to you by Soft Landing Studio. If you enjoy this podcast and want to take your space to the next level, you can book a virtual appointment me to review your home, office or retail project. Whether you want a quick brainstorming session, a series of regular check-ins during your renovation, or to work with my full interior design services; we will talk through all your interior design goals, dreams, and aspirations, and give you a road map to get there. Go to www.softlandingstudio.com to schedule your experience now. And while you’re there, don’t forget to download the absolutely free Guide to Getting Started. This fun-filled PDF quiz will orient you at the very beginning of your interior design journey. If you know you aren’t 100% happy in your space, but you don’t know what to do about it, this guide is for you. You will be directed towards big idea solutions, so you’ll know what to do, and most importantly, what to avoid! Visit www.softlandingstudio.com for you free copy today.

1.

I can tell you right now, 90% maybe even 95% of getting a good photo of any interior space is in the set up. Pressing the button, whether it's on your phone or a true camera, is something almost anyone can do and it doesn't ensure a compelling photo. It doesn’t matter if you have a state of the art professional camera or an iPhone 6. If you don’t do the prep work I’m going to tell you about, the photos won’t pop.  So to start, whatever you’re shooting with, iPhone, Digital SLR, or polaroid - they all need something to keep them steady. Taking a picture while holding any camera in your hands will limit the length of the exposure and potentially give you blurry photos. It’s also hard to get a consistent angle between multiple shots without a fixed set-up. If you have any kind of a tripod, use it. If you don’t, try setting up your camera on a nearby table and prop it up-right. You can use a stack of books, I’ve even seen makeshift phone stands made from paper coffee cups and hair clips. Get creative, but make sure whatever your set-up, it has to be sturdy, but flexible enough so that we can adjust the angle of the camera, which we will talk about later. 

2.

We’ve all seen drool worthy photos of spaces, on Pinterest, Instagram, or even in old-school print publications like Architectural Digest. The latter in particular is important to note that professional photographs of interior spaces take hours. I love photo shoot days because it feels like a real triumphant celebration for a lot of hard work and what is now a successful project. But make no mistake, photo shoot days are long. We are talking 12 hours as the norm. Meaning set up by 7 AM, and finally wrapping at 7 PM. What could we possibly be doing for so long? Just snap a couple photos of an already gorgeous space right? Hardly. We start by cleaning up. Whatever room or series of rooms you were planning on photographing, you will want to clean extensively. 

While this does mean the standard sweep, vacuum, and dust; it also means being judicious, almost vigilant, about objects that are included in the space. There may be items that normally live in this room that aren’t adding to the beauty of the photograph, and therefore, they have to leave. For example, if you’re taking pictures of your living room, be very conscientious of wires from TV’s, gaming consoles, the router, and other electronics. Even though these are major elements in a living room, they muck up a photograph, and it may mean removing all of these items from the room for your photoshoot. You might leave the TV in place because it tends to be a focal point, but make sure you wrap up the cord and hide it away by taping it to the backside of the TV with a little blue painters tape. 

If it’s your kitchen, while you may have a deluxe, high-power blender normally living on your counter top because you use it every day, it’s not really adding anything visually to the photograph, plus it’s covering up your stunning new backsplash, so move it to the dining room for a few hours while you snap your pictures. Make no mistake. This cleaning task is a process - a quick scan of the room may seem like it’s clean enough, but what will really help highlight things that need to get pulled out, is to take a test shot or two and notice if anything is distracting in the picture.  You can do this two or three times before you have the clean slate you need for a great picture. 

3.

Just as soon as you've completed your thorough subtraction process, you have to begin layering elements of interest back in. This is referred to as the accessorizing process. This includes things like plants, books with beautiful covers, a strategically placed coffee cup, a vase with flowers, and glassware. All of which add a level of lived-in chic that make a photo feel alive and interesting. Sure, your house plants may all actually be clustered around your living room window and not sitting on your kitchen counter, but here we are considering the artistry of a photograph. We have to create a composition. We must add pops of visual interest the same way we would add exclamation points to an email.  Often, but not everywhere. 

Use accessories to accentuate what's already in the room. If you just renovated your kitchen to be an all white masterpiece, consider adding some glossy white porcelain earthenware, or a clear glass vase for a single white peony. In this instance, if you decide to bring in lots of color with your accessories, it can detract from the main subject - your new space. If you have an accent color in the room, bring in accessories that are similar tones. The accessory selection does not need to be excessively realistic, you may not keep a stack of coffee-table books on your nightstand, but they may look amazing next to your headboard; so keep an open mind.

4.

Any photographer will tell you no matter the subject, lighting is key to producing an amazing final image. While the idea of a photo shoot may conjure images of studio spot lights and bright overheads, an interior design photograph will look its best when relying on natural light. With good daylighting on your side, no filters are necessary, and you will minimize the amount of work needed in post-production. How do we get great daylight? This will take a little surveillance ahead of time. When you're in the space you're going to photograph, note where the windows are located. You can use your amazing sense of direction or a compass or compass app on your phone to determine which cardinal direction each window faces. 

Then, it all comes down to timing. The sun rises in the the East and sets in the West - that’s pretty common knowledge. But what’s also important to note is that the sun travels from the East to the West over the course of the day in the Southern half of the sky. In the winter time, the sun is fairly low and closer to the horizon line, but in the summer the sun’s path reaches much higher and brings that true “high-noon” sun. You’ll want to note the time of year you are taking your photographs. If it’s winter, the sun’s variation will be less dramatic (generally speaking), but in the summer the sun will be VERY different hour to hour - especially if you are using windows that face that dynamic Southern light. North facing windows are wonderful because the light is generally more diffused throughout the day, with less variation - giving you more opportunities for great photographs. 

It’s important to note that the ideal, overcast natural light for portraits is different than the ideal light for interior and architectural photography. Interiors almost always look best on a very sunny day, with lots of light coming in from any available windows.

The very best way to understand the natural light in your room, is to do a few days of observation leading up to when you want to take pictures. When does the room feel effortlessly flooded with light? When is the room at its brightest? Take note of the time, and then on a sunny or at least partially sunny day, catch that shutterbug.

5.

Okay, this next step might come as a little bit of a surprise, but trust me - this is all about creating a hierarchy and a focus in your photograph. When you are setting up your view, make sure that you are not including dramatic views to the outdoors, and if possible don't look out a window at all. This goes hand-in-hand with using natural light in you photographs, but it takes it a step further. Having a camera facing a window will create a high contrast situation. The light coming in from the window is so much brighter than the light inside, that the space will seem dark and the window will seem like a glowing orb from outer space . If you have a killer view, by all means - photograph it! But don't try to capture it all in one picture. Have an interior picture and a separate one highlighting your great view. Keeping the camera angled away from the window also lets the window’s natural light work with the composition of the photograph, rather than against it. You wouldn’t take a picture looking directly at the sun, and in the world of interior design photography, aiming at the window is basically the same idea. 

6.

And this leads us into the next item on our check list which is thinking all about angles. The placement of a camera has a make or break effect on how the objects in a picture appear. Many of us are aware of this in our selfie-crazed society, but this applies to pictures of your new fireplace too. Perspective is everything. 

I always tell the students I teach, when they are setting up their 3D renderings, to make sure every view includes the ceiling, the floor, and three walls. This is true for interior photographs as well. If the view you set up shows a smaller section of the room, it's considered a vignette or a detail shot. While vignettes can be great, I see too many photographs of interior spaces these days are focused on a tiny little corner of a room. As I’ve mentioned before on this podcast, interior design is about more than the knick knacks you choose for your shelves, it’s about the full composition of a space, and that’s what you need to display in your photographs. What's really going to separate your photography and make it stand out, and celebrate the major accomplishment you've achieved by updating your space, is to create a true perspective view. When you are setting up your camera, look at the display that’s showing your framed shot- can you see the floor, the ceiling, and three walls? If not - try backing up. You might even try setting your camera up in the corner of a room to get as wide of a view as possible. 

Photographs can be more intriguing if there is a hint of a space beyond, so this might mean looking for an angle that shows multiple spaces at once. Whether that’s standing in one room and looking through an open door to another, focusing the picture around a mirror that reflects the space behind the camera, or even including transitional spaces like hallways and staircases in the picture.

The great thing about shooting from a phone is that it's very easy to understand photography's most basic rule the rule of thirds. Most camera phones have an overlaid grid that shows three sections vertically and three sections horizontally that make up a nine square. You can use this to further arrange your composition so that you have objects in your view divided into thirds. This naturally looks more appealing to the human eye. 

7.

Most cameras, even the ones on our phones, have a self timer feature. Use it. Trying to tap the camera button every time we take a picture can result in mishaps like fingers over the lens, knocking down the camera, or messing up the carefully planned angle. If you happen to have a bluetooth enabled remote shutter, like the kind that came with a selfie stick, even better. 

8.

Since you don’t have to be behind the camera to take the picture with the self timer, try a few shots with you or your loved ones in the room itself. Don’t look at the camera, try to look like you are using the room naturally, which might look like standing at the kitchen counter, opening a cabinet door, or walking through your living room. These may or may not turn out to be your favorite photos, but a big part of getting the perfect shot is trying lots of different things and taking a ton of photos. So even if the shots with you in them don’t end up being ”the ones” you won’t be sorry you experimented. 

Here is a bonus tip. If you’re really feeling yourself, you can try downloading a photo editing app like Adobe Lightroom or even editing pictures in your phone’s native photo editor. Try adjusting the brightness, exposure, contrast, and darkness. This can add a pop to your photo that is normally lost in translation from the human eye to the camera. Every photo is little bit different in terms of what adjustments it needs, so don't let being a beginner stop you from going in and experimenting with different settings. You can always revert back to the original, or create a copy to play around with.

Do you have great photos of your space? They are really priceless, especially as time goes on. I wish had better photographs of my first apartment here in Brooklyn, and with every iteration of my current apartment, I try to remember to do a little photoshoot. It helps any refreshes I make feel like true achievements. I hope you have a great day, and I will talk to you in the next episode.