Bathroom photo © Copyright Ed Krimen
This past weekend, some local relatives asked me to take photos of their two bathrooms for a project they were working on. The photos would just be shown online to a small group of people. Nothing fancy. And that’s good, because I don’t do a lot of indoor photography. I prefer to shoot outdoors.
I knew this would be straightforward, if I could keep it simple. I also wanted it to be quick. I definitely didn’t want to spend a lot of time on it. No sense in trying to over-complicate things unnecessarily.
That said, I also wanted to end up with great photos. No sense in shooting photos if they don’t look good.
I already knew what the bathrooms looked like, so I knew what I was up against. Even so, before I went over to their house, I did a little thinking to figure out what I’d need. I considered lights on stands, and an external camera-mounted flash. I figured though, that the lights on stands would be overkill, especially because they’d barely fit in the small bathrooms. I brought the external camera-mounted flash, just in case, but I didn’t need it. I usually use it when photographing people indoors, with great results. (Quick tip: Aim the flash up to the ceiling, so the light reflects off the ceiling.)
The photos of their bathrooms turned out better than I expected, and the “client” was thrilled with them. The shooting session took about an hour, at a very slow, relaxed pace, including reviewing the photos on their computer a few times during that hour to make sure I got what I needed. I only shot 22 photos, and most of them, about 80 percent I’d say, are usable. The photo shown above is the best looking one, because the bathrooms themselves aren’t spectacular; the bathrooms won’t appear in any home architecture magazines, that’s for sure. But I think the photos look good, if I do say so myself.
Here’s how I made these photos look good, quickly and easily:
1. Turn off the on-camera flash. Don’t use any additional light sources, other than what’s in the room. Obviously, this may not work for every situation, especially with much larger rooms such as living rooms, but with these small bathrooms and the proportionally large amount of light in the bathrooms, no extra flash was needed. In fact, I took a couple of shots with the on-camera flash by accident, and those photos didn’t come out well at all. I actually think the on-board flash on cameras should be off by default, not on when shooting indoors. In this case, I let the camera’s Auto mode determine the proper exposure, and it did a great job.
2. Composition is key. That phrase could be a subtitle for this journal. I really do think composition is extremely important, especially in these photos, in these small bathrooms. Focus on what you really want in the photos. Shooting in these bathrooms would actually be a great composition exercise. Note in the photo above, that the top parts of the walls are mirrors. I didn’t want to be in the photos (the photos are supposed to show the bathrooms, not me), so I knelt down on my knees and took the photos below the mirrors. I specifically kept a small part of the mirrors in the photos so you could see that there were mirrors there, but you couldn’t see what was reflected in the mirrors. Worked out very well. There was no editing done on these photos at all. They’re straight from the camera, which is just how I like it.
3. Keep it simple. Just me and my camera. And a little, casual planning beforehand to mainly eliminate what I didn’t need, such as the lights on stands. I actually had three cameras to choose from to use for this project, and I decided to use the 3-megapixel Canon PowerShot G1, from 2001. I knew it was easy to use, with not a lot of options, and it would just get the job done. I didn’t use the potentially over-complicated Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F828 or the tiny, yet capable Casio Exilim EX-Z77. Both of those could have also done the job, but I didn’t want to complicate matters. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time fumbling with options. Nevertheless, if one of those cameras was your only option, they would have done a fine job; just turn off the on-camera flash though. I also considered using a tripod, but I didn’t need it (and didn’t bring it either). If you’re photographing a larger room without a flash, I’d recommend the tripod.
4. Be prepared. As usual. Make sure your batteries are charged. I brought a backup battery, and I found out later that it wasn’t charged. Make sure your memory cards are empty. Even though my relatives have a computer with memory card slots, I brought my own card reader because I wasn’t sure how theirs worked, or if they worked at all. I used my card reader to review and show them the photos on their computer. I even made a new, hidden photo album in my Photobird photo album, so they could show their bathroom photos.
This little project worked out very well. Quick and easy. Just how I like ‘em.
Now if you’re looking for a more polished, professional look without spending a lot of time, load your photo into my favorite, free, online photo editor, Picnik.com; go to the Edit tab, and click Auto-fix, which automatically adjusts the photo’s colors for you. Here’s a version of the photo shown above after Auto-fix has been applied.
Bathroom photo (Edited) © Copyright Ed Krimen
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, also by Bryan Peterson. If nothing else, all of the beautiful photos in the book are very inspirational. They encourage readers to keep shooting, and to keep reading the book to find out what Bryan Peterson recommends to capture such colorful photos.
