Shop photography

greedy123 · 6 Jun 2011 at 09:18

Hi

I've got a job photographing a chain of shops for their website. I have no trouble with the exterior shots but haven't done interior shop photography before and was wondering if anyone here had and therefore had some advice.

Will be using 5dmkII and 16-35mm MKII as my first choice I think, tipod obviously and high aperture, maybe f8.

List of my kit:

Canon 5D MkII

Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM
Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM
Canon EF 70-200mm F/4.0 L IS USM
Canon EF 85 mm f/1.8 USM
Canon EF 135 mm f/2.0L USM
Sigma 150mm f2.8 APO EX DG HSM Macro

Sigma 1.4x EX DG Tele Converter

Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash (x2)
Canon ST-E2
Lumiquest Big Bounce
Lumiquest Ultrasoft

samcat · 6 Jun 2011 at 10:05

It really depends on what they are looking for, or having they given you total creative freedom?
Have an experiment, as both Flash and HDR (done right) can work well..
Have a read here: http://fstoppers.com/best-technique-for-shooting-interiors-hdr-or-flash

Sam

greedy123 · 6 Jun 2011 at 11:10

Interesting video, thanks.

I haven't really been briefed on it in detail. They just asked for some 'awesome' shots, so take from that what you like.

Its a high-end electronics chain so I think hdr might be best given there will be a lot of gloss surfaces making flash use annoying. That's my prediction anyway. I'll try it with flash but I imagine most shots won't have external views so won't need to balance the external with internal really.

A 5 shot bracket will probably work best then merge to hdr in photomatix/photoshop cs5 (only bought cs5 end of last year and haven't had a play with the new hdr function yet). Seen some good results from ps-cs5 hdr though eg. :

I find photomatix sometimes looks a bit odd with colours and the controls are hard to get a clean effect without loads of work after in photoshop. These are a few shot I did using photomatix a couple of years ago:

http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/art/6952-138308517?q=gallery:laughsofgreed/12511396&qo=16
http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/art/6940-138308342?q=gallery:laughsofgreed/12511396&qo=17
http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/gallery/12511396#/d2acf9a
http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/art/7018-138424441?q=gallery:laughsofgreed/12511396&qo=15

Took a lot of playing to get settings nice and I had to change it a lot for each photo. Hopefully cs5 a bit easier and less time consuming.

MuGeN · 6 Jun 2011 at 11:11

I would recommend you look at other peoples work of a similar nature to get inspiration as I'm sure you have the equipment and knowhow to duplicate the kind of stuff you like the look of

Quite common for interior shop photography to have longer exposures with motion-blurred shoppers and sharp everything-else. Also try to capture the image of "good customer service" whatever that may be for the particular industry. Then maybe some shallow DOF stuff to pop out some products?

Derek W · 6 Jun 2011 at 18:08

greedy123 said:
I find photomatix sometimes looks a bit odd with colours and the controls are hard to get a clean effect without loads of work after in photoshop. These are a few shot I did using photomatix a couple of years ago:

http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/art/6952-138308517?q=gallery:laughsofgreed/12511396&qo=16
http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/art/6940-138308342?q=gallery:laughsofgreed/12511396&qo=17
http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/gallery/12511396#/d2acf9a
http://laughsofgreed.deviantart.com/art/7018-138424441?q=gallery:laughsofgreed/12511396&qo=15

When i saw this topic this morning I was going to mention there was a guy who did some interior shots of a house not that long ago........it was you

Depending on the shop is it possible for 'detail' shots of items / products they sell or is it more the overall look of the shop layout / sales floor that they are looking for?

samcat · 6 Jun 2011 at 18:24

If there are gonna be lots of high gloss/glass surfaces a CPL filter is advised, gives you a chance to control reflections.

Share some of the results and how you achieved them if you can.

Sam

greedy123 · 6 Jun 2011 at 20:53

Derek W said:
is it more the overall look of the shop layout / sales floor that they are looking for?

That. They have around 9 stores across England and they want shots of each for the website, that's all I've been told. Its photos of the shops themselves and not the products. Give website visitors an idea of what to look out for/what to expect.

I would name the company but its a OCUK competitor I think as they sell some of the same stuff.

samcat said:
If there are gonna be lots of high gloss/glass surfaces a CPL filter is advised, gives you a chance to control reflections.

Share some of the results and how you achieved them if you can.

Sam

Thanks for the idea, I think I have one somewhere for that lens. I'm sure I'll post some shots when I've done them. Not starting until the 16th and finishing 21st as the shops are all over the place, taking 3 days to visit them all!

Derek W · 6 Jun 2011 at 21:05

as Mugen suggests take a look at what others have done. A quick google of shop interiors gives a flavour of what is typical but of course you will no doubt have your own style to approach the shot.

MuGeN · 6 Jun 2011 at 22:19

Indeed, I'm just starting to get into video and tbh without looking at other peoples work and finding what you like as a starting point, you're just ******g into the wind