Interior of Restaurant

[loosestring]

I'm shooting a restaurant this weekend. Both inside and outside. It is portfolio photos for the contractor who built it. I want to do a fantastic job. I think I can handle the exterior photos fairly well, however I am concerned about the interior photos. Can anyone offer advice for making these photos look professional (as I am but an amateur still yet). I want to impress.

Welcome to ideas concerning lighting, composition, camera settings ie - full manual or auto settings, exposure (long or slow), etc. Should I use filters? I was planning to buy a circular polarizer to use outdoors...

Please give input.

[Chip]

I've never done inside shots before either. Maybe look at some web sites of restaurants in big cities (N.Y., London, etc.) and see what some pros have done?

My guess is a tripod so you can use a narrow enough f stop for DOF (and low ISO), a mix of wide-angle and detail shots, and maybe some shots (if possible) from up high looking down?

Sounds like a fun challenge. Good luck.

[zona5101]

as chip says, a tripod will be your friend. I can only assume the resturant will be empty? (That will make things easier) I also assume you don't have a huge multi-head lighting kit to light the interior. So a couple of things to think about. A tripod will let you work in lower light and not force you to try and light the place with your flash. Downside is you can run into color balance problems if there is mixed lighting. It would be my thought to worry less about color balance (as it will be furniture, walls and decor) and spend more time getting the exposure right. In rooms or halls that lead to other rooms or halls, try and get some light down in those areas so as you look at the picture you see the depth of the facility not a black hole. That might take the form of a quartz worklight or a desk lamp or what ever you have at your disposal tucked away out of sight. Think outside the box. Stand and sit where customers will be standing and sitting - look around, then think about how you can record that image. Shoot a lot and have fun!