Indoor photography tips – how to take photos inside

Are you currently trying to take pictures at home but struggling to make your indoor photos look crisp and professional? In this article I will share some indoor photography tips so that you can learn how to take photos inside and avoid harsh shadows, and yellow tinted pictures.

Indoor photography tips

Now that you understand the camera settings and how to set it up for an indoor photoshoot you are ready to start taking pictures! Here are my top indoor photography tips on how to take photos inside.

1) Find the best spot in your house to shoot

There will be certain places in your home that work better in photos than others, not just for the aesthetic, but the way the light is processed. You should think about:

• Where is there the most amount of natural light?
• What time of day is best? (what direction are your windows facing?)
• Do you have a space with more mirrors that might help to boost the available light?

2) Place the subject near the window

As someone who avoids flash photography, I always try to make the most of the available natural light. This means that when taking photos inside I tend to be near a window, with the subject facing the light.

If you’re shooting near the window you might want to get creative and play with the shadows and light. Why not use some lace as a prop to create an interesting pattern on your subject?

Use a light catching backdrop

Another way to boost the natural light in your indoor photos is to use a light catching backdrop. Ideally this will be white. You can easily use a plain white bedsheet near a window to catch the light.

4) Use mirrors to control the natural light

Mirrors are a great way to boost the natural light in your photos, especially if they face the window.

5) Turn off the lights

In general natural light mixed with artificial light doesn’t look good in photos. This is because both light sources change how colours are portrayed within your pictures. Electric lights can affect your white balance, and make your photos appear more yellow. By turning off the lights and only using natural light you ensure that the colours within your photo are streamlined, and thus more attractive!

6) Use a camera

Mobile camera technology is definitely improving however I still find that mobile cameras struggle taking photos inside (especially if your home isn’t very bright). You can definitely still create great images inside with your phone, however they won’t look at professional as a camera.

Scroll down to see what equipment I use for indoor photography.

7) Shoot in manual mode

One of my number one indoor photography tips is to shoot in manual mode . This way you have complete control over the light and how your pictures look. Scroll up for more information on what camera settings to use for indoor photography.

8) Choose your White balance

Another camera setting to play around with is the White balance. The White balance is the process of removing unrealistic colour casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo.

You know how your indoor photos tend to appear yellow? This is usually due to artificial light. You can offset this by changing the White balance. In general the Auto White Balance (AWB) works quite well, however sometimes Daylight or Cloudy look best on skin tones. Try them all and see what works best for the light around you.

9) Shoot in RAW

When taking photos there are two file formats you can create, RAW or JPEG. When shooting a JPEG image information is compressed and lost, whereas RAW files aren’t actual images so no information is compressed and they are able to retain more detail.

RAW files produce higher quality images giving you the opportunity to correct photos that would be unrecoverable if shot as a JPEG. However if you shoot in RAW you will have to edit the picture in order to create an image.

10) Lights

If you are still finding it hard to shoot clear photos using natural light you might want to invest in some professional lights. I would recommend softbox studio lights. If you’re shooting product photography you might want to invest in a photo light box.