In our latest blog Commercial Photographers Network member for Glasgow and Edinburgh Richard Campbell takes a look at case study photography of some bathrooms interiors which left him in a tight spot.
As commercial photographers, representing the CPN in Glasgow and Edinburgh, we are regularly asked to do case study photography of products which have been installed at a location. This allows clients to showcase actual examples of their products being used in the real world, rather than just appearing as product ranges on a website or in a brochure. This makes it more real for potential customers as they can see other clients who are using the products and gives them more confidence to buy them.
Although there was a bit more room to move around for these types of shots we still had to spend a lot of time avoiding unwanted reflections.
One client the CPN has worked with regularly over the years is specialist tile manufacturer Porcelanosa.
On this occasion we we are asked to photograph new bathrooms which had been installed at the Lochside Hotel, one of RAD Hotel Group’s hotels near Glasgow. As the bathrooms featured all of Porcelanosa’s products such as tiles, showers, sinks and toilets it was a perfect showcase.
A number of product details were also needed.
Although we have a lot of experience in interior photography, this was quite challenging due to the size of the bathrooms. From the point of view of a customer, the bathrooms were very spacious and very well appointed but from a photographic point of view, even with a very wide angle lens it would be impossible to get the whole bathroom in one shot. There was also nowhere to hide lights.
You need to be careful when using wide angles lenses to avoid distortion.
This is a common problem when photographing bathrooms and thankfully we’ve dealt with this situation before so we had all the right equipment with us.
The solution was to use small speed lights on light stands which would be easy to position in the corners and not get in the way of the bathroom interiors or the camera. Working with a very wide angle lens did allow us to get some good wide shots but you need to be very careful not to introduce any distortion into the shots which is a common feature of these types of lenses. Fortunately, we have a lot of experience in using these so we know how to avoid these problems.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to lie on the floor to photograph a toilet but thankfully it was spotlessly clean!
As well as the wider shots, we also had to take a number of detailed shots to showcase individual products. Although space was less of a problem with these, we still had to spend time adjusting the lighting and angles to capture them properly.
This frequently involves lying on the floor to get a good shot of the floor tiling and the toilet, something we have done many a time. Oh, the glamour of being a photographer. Thankfully, they were much nicer than the train toilets we had to photograph a few years ago but that’s another story!
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