Interior Photography complications

**Mike Austin** · 20-Nov-1999, 21:04

Hello new friends, It's interesting to be able to talk to people about like interests on the web. I hope that someone out there can help me with this problem relating to interi or Photography. I have been hired by an Architect to take shots of the interior of a new movie theatre. Upon investigation,I realized I am dealing with a horren dous lighting situation. The room with the large movie screen is lit by a combin ation of overhead flourescents, halogens from the sides, and small tungsten "acc ent" light fixtures located mid-wall on both sides. If I use Tungsten balanced f ilm, I think I will still get a strange color cast. The front lobby shot has the same lighting situation, except daylight comes into the equation. What do you s uggest I use for film and filtration?(I was going to use Fugi NPS, Kodak 64T, an d my Toyo 45D/65mm lens)

**Ron Shaw** · 22-Nov-1999, 13:07

What is sometimes done in this situation is to have the camera RIGIDLY mounted, and do multiple exposures, with appropriate filtering for each type of light. You will need to be able to turn on and off the various lighting types (such as, turn on only tungsten lights, filter for tungsten, and expose film. Turn off tungsten, turn on flourescents, filter for flourescents, re-expose film, etc. Needless to say, this can be time consuming, and usually needs to be done at night when the theatre is closed. If daylight is a factor, that will be shot in the same way. It can be very complicated, and one exposure can take all night. Print film may help you reduce the number of re-shoots, due to its greater latitude than reversal film, but be prepared to do several reshoots to get it balanced. Probably the biggest problem is keeping your camera rigidly enough mounted to keep perfect registration thru several hours of multi exposures. Good luck...

**Andreas Wickberg** · 22-Nov-1999, 15:51

Fuji Reala, with it's fourth cyan layer, could be worth investigating. It tends to capture mixed lighting well. I have no idea if this film is available in sheet sizes. In the end I think you will need to spend some time in Photoshop fixing the colors.

**Larry Huppert** · 23-Nov-1999, 00:35

Fuji Reala is not available in 4x5 (atleast in the US). I've not seen any grey market 4x5 Reala either, so it probably doesn't exist. Fuji NPS has this same magical 4th layer, and is available in 4x5.

**Roger Madison** · 23-Nov-1999, 17:30

Mike,

You need to find out the needs of your client. Achitects (my cleints0 usally want one of two things. They either want a 30x40 for the wall of their office or they want it for a brochure. If its for a brochure you can assume that that it will be a reasonibly small shot. Her is what I am getting at and it will probibly get me kicked off this site. I use MF and don't use LF for interior shots anymore.(almost never) So I don't get kicked off this site I do use a squeese box for exterior shots where i need it for perspecive correction. Truth is no one seems to want to pay you to break out an 810 anymore. I'm in the process of shooting about 60 buildings for a large corporate brochure and about half have this problem. I have never had good luck taking multi pop shots with different filters but if you have the tripod and the weight (lots of it) to lock it down it will work. You have to think about your market and the people that you are selling to. I have found that in this market most of the cleints I have worked with seem to think the more colors the better. I try to expose to eliminate the green cast from the floresents and wory less about the colder lights. Because of the mix you might want to start with a cc20 filter and maybe go to a 30 or FLD. With a real heavy mix of tungsten you might want to go with a cc10 or nothing and take it out in photoshop or let the lab deal with it depending on their purpose for the shot. I think that the colder colors are less of a problem and you can fix them later one way or another. I use print film for interior work when ever we can (almost always). I've tried Reala its good film and it helps. I'll start a war with this but I'm so rooted in Kodak that I don't use much Fuji. I have been using the big K's Portra VC160 and VC400. This might sound soft for the subject but after you start putting filters in front of it you might be supprised and Portra is available in 4x5. Find out what they want the shot(s) for. If the final medium needs to be E-6 you might consider an intertransperency from a neg, a good lab can work wonders.

Roger

**Mike Kravit** · 5-Dec-1999, 18:14

Mike,

As an architect and a photographer (I never photograph my own work) I would recommend that you speak with your client. Personally I would never accept a professional image without the lighting being balanced and corrected. If that means that the photographer has to gel the fluorescents and filter for HID's, then so be it.

I have had photographers make multiple exposures with lights turned on and off. Camera movement did not seem to be an issue.

I would not accept medoum format negatives or chromes as a work product. Doesn't matter if it is for my reception room wall or the brochure. If it is not shot in 4x5 that I don't want it.

All of my work is shot on chrome. In fact, I prefer Fuji Astia for several reasons. First, colors are very natural. They tend to really work with the architecture. Second, whites tend to be white. Architects are very anal about white you know! If it is not white, then it is yellow and that is just not acceptable.

There is an excellnet book entitled "Photographing Buildings Inside and Out" by Norman McGrath. This is an excellent text and will be very helpful to you. Norman McGrath teached workshops at the Palm Beach Photographic Workshops in Delray Beach, Florida.

Good Luck Mike