Inside Jobs - Architecture


	Lit by available light only, this simple room shot at a D H Lawrence museum struggles to record both highlights and shadow detail. Adding a burst of on-camera flash maintains the same exposure for the window area but perks up internal details considerably.



	People can sometimes be a nuisance, unwittingly wandering into your composition. At other times, they're essential - this image of a restaurant interior wouldn't have been half as interesting without the diners.

Capturing an effective architectural interior is often trickier than obtaining an exterior shot. Constraints of security and access, limited space to work in, lower lighting levels, windows that give high contrast and mixed light sources all conspire to make shooting a good internal picture of a building less than straightforward. But once you overcome these and other hurdles, the rewards can be quite breathtaking.

Each building has its own character, and that applies just as much to the inside shapes and surfaces as to the outside treatment. The design will reveal its function and give strong clues as to the type and number of people who use it. Lighting is arranged by the architect to suit its exact purpose - then it is up to you to try to record or interpret this individuality with your camera.

The least complicated interior occurs when available lighting, either via windows or artificial sources, is sufficient to illuminate the space and record well on film. Low light levels can be problematical because though they look fine to the eye, they lead to extended exposures on film and this can result in reciprocity failure (certain colours not appearing as they should). This effect is exaggerated if slow film is used along with a very small aperture to obtain maximum depth-of-field.

Room lighting usually looks quite even to the untrained eye, but there are often pools of light and dark. In fact there can be huge differences in illumination levels between areas near the light source and distant darker places. Check it for yourself with your camera meter or a separate hand-held version - a dimly lit corner can be as much as six f-stops darker than a well illuminated spot. That level of contrast means something has to give, as such extremes cannot both be accurately recorded on film. Often a balanced exposure is the best compromise, or this can be weighted either towards the shadows or highlights depending upon the effect desired.

You might think interior lighting is constant, but in some buildings there are significant differences throughout any 24 hour period. Most interiors are lit by windows, so the light quality outside is the first factor - sunlight gives a different quality of interior light compared to when it is cloudy. As dusk approaches, the influence of artificial lights increases, while at night, available light is absent for all intents and purposes and only lamps provide the illumination. So choose a time of day which suits your purpose.


At first glance this industrial interior looks as if lit by ambient light only. Actually some beefy studio lights were needed to boost light levels and balance with the available light - note the give-away shadows on the wall by the left door.

Another way to shoot an interior is to add some light yourself, if the space you are photographing is sufficiently small and conditions permit. There are occasions when you can studio lights into a building, conceal them from the camera and add more light to the interior, but this is a rarity, as time and trailing leads can make a photographer unpopular with the occupants. So a more portable form of illumination is often preferable, and that means a hand flash - the more powerful the better. A single burst of flash can do much to cheer up an interior lit by available light, especially if it fills in the darker shadow areas. But this method is not for every interior - with extremely large internal volumes such as a cathedral, there is no chance of a handflash affecting the overall lighting.


	Because a lot of large buildings have wide open floor areas, this can lead to a somewhat empty feeling in an interior shot. Using an interesting element in the foreground, just as you would with a wide exterior view, improves the sense of space and the overall composition.

Another novel technique for gloomy or very dark interiors, again when conditions permit, is to 'paint' the space with light yourself. The technique is simple - set your camera on a tripod, set the shutter to remain open on the B or T setting, and fire off a few well-placed flashes while you roam around the interior. The trick is to conceal yourself and the flash from the camera position, so lurk behind pillars or recesses, and gradually build up a series of flashes. It's a technique that demands some experimentation, but can pay handsome dividends.

As a general rule, try to keep lighting as simple and as natural looking as possible. Direct flash can appear harsh, so bounce the light off a ceiling, wall or reflector to diffuse and soften its character. Enhancing the natural daylight or existing artificial sources should be your objective, to retain the character of the original set-up.


Sometimes it's possible to link the interior to the exterior, as in this shot through a dining room window and out into a modern garden. It was a shot I had my eye on all day, and which finally worked best as dusk approached.

Apart from lighting considerations, careful selection of camera position and focal length are the other main factors with interiors. Placement of the camera is critical if you are to include all the essential features, together with a thoughtful take on which lens to employ. It's worth remembering here the difference between eyesight and a camera lens - you scan a scene with the former, using peripheral vision and head movements to quickly take in an overall view of an interior. In comparison, a lens is a limited and one-eyed device, seeing only what it's field of view allows and what you point it at.

You might assume that a healthy wide-angle of 24mm or 28mm is an automatic choice, and this lens type certainly has many merits for indoor applications. However there are other options - a longer lens for showing details, and a specialised shift or perspective control lens for avoiding converging verticals.


	A characterless control room lit by fluorescent tubes needed something of a lift, so I forgot about this lighting and introduced my own. Several carefully placed studio lights on stands, some with coloured gels attached, provided a far more dramatic result.

For really confined spaces a superwide optic may be advisable, though a note of caution must be expressed. The danger with extreme wide lenses of 15-18mm is distortion - foreground elements are made to look larger than they really are and given extra emphasis in the shot, while distant objects seem even further away. Scrutinise the viewfinder image closely to check what's happening through your chosen lens, and don't forget that most viewfinders only show about 90% of the actual scene. So allow for a little extra around the edges of your shot, and be especially careful if critical parts of the shot are near the frame edge or if you have light stands parked apparently just out of shot.


Use whatever advantages or opportunities you can find when taking interior shots. I rarely use a fisheye lens for obvious reasons, but it seemed an ideal tool to capture this cavernous cathedral interior plus its mirrored reflection.

With some interiors it is possible to rearrange items of furniture and decorative objects a little, so that a more harmonious and less distorted composition results. Another trick - if you are really pushed for space - is to position the camera and tripod not in the space you are photographing but just outside it - in a doorway or by a window, to make the space look bigger.