Lighting Room Interiors

[Richard Wasserman]

I am in the process of negotiating photographing an historical neighborhood in Chicago. If all goes well I will be shooting the exteriors in large format black and white, and am thinking of doing the interiors of some of the homes digitally in color. I have a Sony a7R II and am thinking of using a Canon tilt/shift lens. The rooms will be fairly modest in size—living rooms are about 12x16 feet. I want to include the residents in some of the images. My knowledge and experience doing this kind of work is close to nil. I need a simple solution, that is not overly large. I don't know that I will use any lights I buy again after this project so I would rather spend less than more, but I need something that will be up to the task. Are any of the LED panels useful, or should I be thinking strobes? Any hints or tips are most welcome!

[Kirk Gittings]

call me Richard on the weekend-too much to write here. I'll leave my number in a PM.

[Richard Wasserman]

call me Richard on the weekend-too much to write here. I'll leave my number in a PM.

Thanks Kirk! I'll be in touch.

[Robert Langham]

I'd like to be a fly on the wall on THAT discussion.

[macolive]

I'd like to be a fly on the wall on THAT discussion.
So would I!

[vinny]

LitePanel's Astras are great and pack a punch. So are kino flo's celeb 200's. Not cheap though.

[Ben Calwell]

Maybe Kirk will share with the rest of the class.

[Kirk Gittings]

Maybe Richard can summarize it. I'm buried with work on a way to soon deadline. A conversation I can have-writing it out where it is comprehensible I can't.

[Luis-F-S]

Get a copy of Photographing Buildings Inside and Out by Norman McGrath. Should be readily available as a used book. Probably the most practical architectural photography book. I don't know if Norman did a digital version, but a lot of the film concepts are applicable. L

[Richard Wasserman]

Maybe Richard can summarize it. I'm buried with work on a way to soon deadline. A conversation I can have-writing it out where it is comprehensible I can't.

I'll consider it, but please don't hold your collective breaths. I share Kirk's concern that writing it so it can be readily understood sounds daunting.

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

A good flash meter, and a few lumedyne lighting units.

[DrTang]

I took a class years ago from some guy who shot hotels worldwide or something

and his thing was the 'squint' method'...he'd set up his camera..then squint down..looking at the scene, and by doing that..he could determine where and about how much light to add to balance out the shot

sounds weird..but it worked for him


then he would light with both practicals and a hot light in a big dish he could paint the scene with to lighten up dark areas

his exposures would be in the minute range..so he might add lights or have lights on for a third to a half of the time