Lens choices for architectural/interior photography?

[theregoesjb]

I work for an architecture firm, my boss loves having professional photos taken of the work but rarely feels like its worth springing for. I am a decent hobbiest photographer and would love to learn to take good interior photos. He seemed excited about letting me try my hand with our projects.

I have a canon t2i
Sigma 10-20
canon 50, 1.8
kit lens

Unrelated to all this, I have been thinking a lot about picking up either a sigma or tamron 17-50 2.8 (or even a used canon 2.8).
I like the sigma 10-20 but the wide angle perspective distortion is sometimes a bit too dramatic. The nifty 50 is amazing other than it being stuck at 50mm.

With the prospect of taking more architectural/interior images, does anyone have any thoughts about any of these 17-50 2.8 lenses being a better choice? Or any other opinions on the matter?

 

[JoeW]

I work for an architecture firm, my boss loves having professional photos taken of the work but rarely feels like its worth springing for. I am a decent hobbiest photographer and would love to learn to take good interior photos. He seemed excited about letting me try my hand with our projects.

I have a canon t2i
Sigma 10-20
canon 50, 1.8
kit lens

Unrelated to all this, I have been thinking a lot about picking up either a sigma or tamron 17-50 2.8 (or even a used canon 2.8).
I like the sigma 10-20 but the wide angle perspective distortion is sometimes a bit too dramatic. The nifty 50 is amazing other than it being stuck at 50mm.

With the prospect of taking more architectural/interior images, does anyone have any thoughts about any of these 17-50 2.8 lenses being a better choice? Or any other opinions on the matter?

"Any other opinions?" Yes. You're barking up the wrong tree.

The three most important items for you to get are:
--a wide angle, tilt-shift (aka perspective control) lens. You don't need fast glass (in fact, most of your shooting will be off of a tripod with slow exposures). Something like 17mm-24mm for wide angle.
--a professional grade tripod. One that is rock solid. Expect to spend a couple of hundred dollars. Don't aim for one to fly with or go hiking with. You want something that will be solid on wood floor or carpet so weight is a positive in this case.
--a remote shutter release (either cable or wireless).

A couple of other additional things that would be really nice to have:
--color and white balance calibration tools.
--a large reflector.
--a speed light (not to light your interior...you'll get too much glare and hot spots that way but instead to shoot outside in...to simulate sunlight on a cloudy day or add a gel and get a nice "sunrise" coming through a window to warm up a room).
--polarizing filter (to reduce glare and reflection off of glass and shiny surfaces).

I'm serious: good interior work is going to require a wide angle lens with distortion control. You can shoot good interior work with a mediocre body but you NEED a really good lens. And the tripod is second. You can shoot without a tilt shift lens but you'll need to do a lot of correction then (assuming you're using a real wide angle lens) in photoshop.

 

[AKUK]

Agreed, a PC lens is more important than merely a wide angle lens for architectural photography. I'd only add that a good quality heavy ND filter wouldn't go amiss either. This will enable you to render moving subjects invisible. For example, if you are photographing a building in a busy town or city centre, normally people walking past get recorded into the image or you'd have to wait until the scene was clear (often an impossibility). By using a strong ND filter you will require a very long exposure, which means any moving subjects will not be recorded onto the frame. Even car head/tail lights provided the ND filter is sufficiently strong and the exposure long enough.

As you are using Canon bodies, you can use the old Nikkor PC lenses via an optic free adapter, which are great quality and often not that expensive either.

 

[Designer]

Adding a different wrinkle:

Ordinarily I would say strobe lights (several) but with interiors, you will want to turn on all the lights, and then use strobes (concealed behind something) to spark up those dark areas. But if these buildings have CFLs in the fixtures, as do many buildings lately, then you will want your portable lights to be CFLs also. As JoeW has pointed out, the exposures are going to be longer than you have assumed, so some of the higher-wattage CFLs in reflectors (clamp-on work lights) will balance nicely.

So spend your money on the PC lens, and a really sturdy (heavy) tripod. FYI: my Gitzo legs will hold my weight, so a camera is like nothing.

 

[Dave442]

Your boss may not realize how much time you will put into this little project.

 

[Designer]

Also, you're going to want to shoot at smaller apertures than you have assumed.

I hope your boss is buying your new equipment. If he isn't, then start talking about charging him like a professional photographer, and see how it goes from there.

 

[FotosbyMike]

I agree with about 95% of what everyone else is saying but strobes for architectural/interior are awesome if used correctly. Tilt Shift lens is not a must inside you can correct a lot in PS/LR but I know pro interior photographers who never shot wider then 24mm. But if you plan on shooting exteriors you really need to have a TS of all your buildings will be falling backwards.

Check out Mike Kelley, Tony Roslund and Dylan Patrick just to name a few.

 

[480sparky]

Adding a different wrinkle:

Ordinarily I would say strobe lights (several) but with interiors, you will want to turn on all the lights, and then use strobes (concealed behind something) to spark up those dark areas. But if these buildings have CFLs in the fixtures, as do many buildings lately, then you will want your portable lights to be CFLs also. As JoeW has pointed out, the exposures are going to be longer than you have assumed, so some of the higher-wattage CFLs in reflectors (clamp-on work lights) will balance nicely. ............

Given the wide variety of lighting in commercial buildings (LED, CFLs, HID, etc. and in an endless myriad of color temperatures) it typically is difficult to match a light source to the building lighting with simple clamp-on lights. If it were me, I would use speedlights and/or monolights and simply gel them to match.

 

[runnah]

I would do multiple exposures and do some HDR to get a nice even tones.

Do NOT go for the full gross blown out HDR.

 

[Light Guru]

You should also know that the tilt shift lenses the others have mentioned are not cheep. Expect to pay around $2000 for a good one.

If your going to use a tilt shift lens you should also probably be using a full frame camera body so that's another expense.

Between lenses camera body and lights you are looking at a BIG chunk of change. If your boss expects you to provide equipment then just politely say that you cannot afford to purchase the required equipment. Put together a list of equipment and its cost he probably won't want to pay that.

Even if he does buy the equipment or even rent it he would loose you because once you are finished learning on his dime your gonna leave because you will be able to make more on your own using those new skills.

 

[astroNikon]

Someone could have asked if he has a budget first ...
but I think we're way past that now.

I agree though, FF and Tilt/Shift. I tried one once .. nice results once you get a hang of it.

 

[Designer]

I've been wanting a PC lens for years.

Good idea, 480sparky, on gelling the speedlights.

 

[JoeW]

Agreed, a PC lens is more important than merely a wide angle lens for architectural photography. I'd only add that a good quality heavy ND filter wouldn't go amiss either. This will enable you to render moving subjects invisible. For example, if you are photographing a building in a busy town or city centre, normally people walking past get recorded into the image or you'd have to wait until the scene was clear (often an impossibility). By using a strong ND filter you will require a very long exposure, which means any moving subjects will not be recorded onto the frame. Even car head/tail lights provided the ND filter is sufficiently strong and the exposure long enough.

As you are using Canon bodies, you can use the old Nikkor PC lenses via an optic free adapter, which are great quality and often not that expensive either.

Holy crap--can't believe I forgot about the ND filter. I guess I was thinking solely of interiors, not building exteriors in urban environments. Good catch!

 

[JoeW]

Your boss may not realize how much time you will put into this little project.

"Your boss may not realize how much time you will put into this little addiction" (fixed your wording!)

 

[Buckster]

On lighting, add this to your list of things that can work REALLY well for what you want to do:

Oloneo - HDR Software

Check out in particular the video in the middle with the caption under it that says, "Turn on and off light sources in your photos!"

I use it occasionally for its relighting ability, and it's pretty awesome.

On the tilt-shift lens, it's a lot less necessary in the digital age than it was in the film era (especially considering their high cost as a specialty lens), simply because it's so much easier now to fix keystoning and such in Photoshop, or even in the latest versions of Lightroom, which now has perspective correction abilities in its Lens Corrections panel, which works really well, especially if things aren't too awful out of whack to start with.

I happened to take a few quick snaps of my sister's workshop area yesterday while it's all cleaned out. I used a 10-22mm on a Canon 7D (not a full frame camera). Here's the shot out of the camera, then one click on "Auto" in the Lens Correction section of Lightroom:

There was an interesting conversation not too long ago here on TPF with someone who actually has a tilt shift lens and has used it extensively, and as I recall, he agreed that it's a lot less necessary these days for correcting architectural issues such as these, but is still very useful for controlling DOF in certain situations. If I can find it, I'll post a link to it.

On the heavy tripod for added stability, it's helpful to hang something heavy from it to get that added weight and its resulting added stability. Many tripods have a hook underneath specifically for this purpose, and a camera bag with gear in it is often used. If you don't think that's enough (because the photos are blurry from camera+tripod shake even with a gear bag hanging off it), you can always step up to a sandbag. But realistically, with a wide angle lens it's really not going to be much of an issue as long as you don't bump into it while shooting, and use a remote shutter trigger. Modern DSLRs don't have the magnificent mirror slapback that something like an old RB67 had to rock the tripod off its legs, but there's enough of a vibration from it that it's worth doing your best to stabilize it.