Last week I shot some interiors for Jessica Blair, interior designer. After spending a number of years in the lifestyle & interiors market as an assistant, it was like coming home.
There was a lot to shoot across three properties, and if you haven’t shot interiors before you may think you just stick a camera in the corner of a room and fire. No, there are usually space constraints, the positioning of non-moveable items, angles, and people’s ‘stuff’. Stuff in the way, stuff reflecting in other stuff, stuff that doesn’t work aesthetically. Why do we have so much stuff?!
This may be the most critical type of photography for looking around the viewfinder - it’s easy to miss a random item in a room-shot, like the plastic water bottle accidentally left on the mantlepiece in Downton Abbey!
A lot of interiors work is aspirational, and you could tell the decor and furnishings had been well matched to their owners. I met two of the home-owners and just the au pair and cleaner in the third! You know what I’m saying.
It was a drizzly, dull day which is not ideal when you want to portray a bright & breezy atmosphere, but with long exposures and a ping of flash here & there I think we pulled it off!
Here’s a taster…