How does one go about photographing wall finishes?

[Stradawhovious]

A friend of mine is in the business of "Ja Decor" wall finishes, and would like me to try my hand at taking some pictures of the finished product for him to use on his intratube site. For those not familiar with that type of wall finishing, it is heavily textured, and very attractive.

The part that I would need help with would be capturing the deep physical texture of the finished product. It seems that most of the photos I see on the web aren't able to capture that, and I would like to know what I can do to get a good shot.

Keep in mind, that I know I'm not a pro, and before anyone asks, I will not be charging anyone for anything and we are both going into this with the "if you don't like them, don't use them" mentality......... besides..... nothing ventured, nothing gained..... right?

Equipment on hand would be a Nikon D7000, a tripod, a SB-600 and a light stand. Please make any recommendations you feel might be helpful!

 

[skieur]

Wall finishes are not a stand-alone type of thing. In home decorating they are part of a "look" as in perhaps classy, traditional, classic, moderne, etc. What home decorators do is create the "look" by matching the wall finish to the furniture, accessories, and other colour and texture elements in the room.

You would need to take photos of rooms where the wall finish matches the furniture and other elements in the room to create whatever "look" is desired by clients or is currently "hot". while visually emphaxizing the contribution of the wall finish to that look.

skieur

 

[Stradawhovious]

Wall finishes are not a stand-alone type of thing. In home decorating they are part of a "look" as in perhaps classy, traditional, classic, moderne, etc. What home decorators do is create the "look" by matching the wall finish to the furniture, accessories, and other colour and texture elements in the room.

I understand that, and photos of the finished rooms would certainly be a part of it for the portfolio.

However...... what he wants is to show, in detail, on the website, the depth and texture of the product itself wihch is not feasibe by getting a photo of the entire finished room. So for this application, they are a stand-alone type of thing, sorry.... I should have been more specific in the OP.

Consider it a virtual sample swatch, rather than a portfolio piece.

 

[Patrice]

The texture of the finish will be accentuated if you get a bit close and light it with a raking light. The idea is to shadows of the texture itself to illustrate the three dimensional aspect of the surface. Be careful here, too much and it will start to look like an abstract. Get your flash off of the camera and soften it a bit. A few different trial exposures should get you onto the right track.

Good luck.

 

[KmH]

+1 - ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑

Like all photography, it's all about having the right lighting.

 

[skieur]

You will probably need to ask him what he means "visually" by the depth of the product and/or how/why that would be important to the customer.
His answer might give you some ideas. I would also "play" with the paint a little to see what you are dealing with, how fast it dries...particularly under photo lights, how visual the texture is, etc. before I got to thinking about setting up some shots.

skieur

 

[gsgary]

I would try 2 lights one from the side to create shadows and 1 to fill the shadows so they are not so dark, 1 light and a reflector might work , you could try 1 light from the side 1 from above and 1 fill