Hello my friends, I hope you are well during the lockdown! I know, you are bored at home, and you want to be creative? Let’s be creative together! Here are indoor photoshoot ideas and tips to inspire you!
I promise you don’t need a perfect Pinterest apartment with hundreds of plants, lamps, and other decorations. During this quarantine, we are having so much fun creating indoor photos and videos at home in a minimalistic apartment. And we wanted to share our ideas and tips with you, to help you to be creative and also create photos at home!
Most of the time we are creating outdoor photography during our travels, so it’s not easy for us to create indoor photos! But as we loved challenges, trying new things and we had more time during the quarantine, we tried to create photos at home. And I have to admit we love it!
Many of you asked us on Instagram how to do it and how to find indoor photoshoot ideas? This is why we wanted to make this post to inspire you! Are you ready? Let’s go! 😉
Creative Indoor photoshoot ideas and tips
Imagine everything you can create without limits
First of all, you need to get creative and imagine everything you can do at home without limits. If you are also usually a travel/ outdoor photographer, you will need to get more creative! It’s a real challenge, you will have to change your perspective. And also reconsider every part of your home! Sometimes we can create awesome photos with things we never imagined!
Anyway, if you have an idea, experience and try to do it even if it seems crazy or difficult to do! Trying and testing is the key, especially for indoor photography.
Explore your home and exploit every corner
Look at everything in your house and imagine everything you could use to create photos: a window, a bed, a bath, a chair, a table, plant, your kitchen… There is no limit! Try to find somewhere or something that can be cool to create a photo. You can get inspired on Instagram and Pinterest, there are so many cool ideas!
For example, you can create a portrait in the bath, one with a reflection in the window, or maybe just the landscape by the window.
Search for the light
If you’re looking for great indoor photography ideas and tips, you should play with light and shadows! Usually in indoor photography, the most important is not the background, contrary to travel photos. The most important is the subject and the light!
You need to observe how the light is entering in your apartment and wait to have a ray of light on a wall or even on the floor. Then, you can think about what to create with this light.
You can wait for the end of the day, the golden hour and the sunset are the best. And then play with the light and the shadows to create something original, bright, contrasted and with pastel colors! For example, for the photo on the right, we opened the window to orient the light and we used the ladder we at home to create a frame!
You can also take night shots and take photos of the moon if you have a lens adapted!
Use objects to enhance your photos
Also, you will need to use objects to create awesome indoor photos! You can use some of them to play with the lights and shadows as windows, a glass, a colander, a curtain, a fabric…
But you can also use some objects to decorate the photo and add something special, like a plant, flowers, a candle, a book, or even a lamp. These objects can also be used as a frame in the first plan to create a bokeh (a blurred background).
A few indoor photoshoot ideas
- Bath with foam or flowers
- Through the glass of the shower
- Plants as a frame
- Using fabric to play with the light on the face
- Use a window and water to make a rain movie scene behind the window
- In the kitchen with food cooking something (pasta, pancakes)
- Playing with a glass to orient the light and make a special effect
- Photos in bed with books, plants
Technical Indoor photoshoot ideas and tips
Use the right lens
If you want to take portraits, a 50mm or 35mm lens is perfect. Especially to create a good bokeh. But you can also take a portrait with a 28 mm if you want to add a bit of background.
On the contrary, if you are looking for landscape shots by the window, opt for a 16mm or 28mm. And if you want to take night and moon photos, the best is a 200mm or a 400mm. If you don’t have many lenses or the perfect lensfor the situation. Try to adapt yourself!
Set up your camera accordingly
If you want to learn photography, you should read our post about how to set up a camera and start shooting! You will learn everything about the exposure triangle.
Golden hour and sunset
For all the golden hour and sunset photos, we set up the camera on A (aperture) or on the manual mode. Then, we put F 2.0 because it’s dark, so you need to open the aperture to allow the light to enter the lens. Next, concerning the speed 1/100 to avoid a camera shake and let the ISO 100.
During the day
For a photo during the day, when the light is stronger, you need to increase the speed (around 1/500) to reduce the light and close a bit the aperture (around F 20). But not too much if you want to keep a bokeh (blurred background)! During the day, find an object to orient and reduce the light because it will be too strong to take photos directly into this light.
You can play with fabric to make an effect with the light. This can be an item of clothing or a curtain for example. On the contrary, if you are in a room that doesn’t have a direct source of light like a bathroom, open the aperture and decrease the speed. Don’t be afraid of low light, you can fix it during the post-production!
Use a tripod
If you are alone at home or if you want to take couple shots, use a tripod! This is also great to be sure to not have a camera shake!
You can also read our post about 10 tips to improve your photos!
Post-production – Editing
Don’t forget that post-production, editing, is very important for indoor photos. Inside, the light is darker, you will need to find a balance to make it brighter and keep a moody effect!
If you want to edit your photos like us, you can find all our Lightroom presets! We are editing all our photos with them.
Get creative, get inspired
I think the most important thing to have indoor photoshoot ideas is to be inspired! You need to think about old movies, vintage photos, and so on. Feel free to go on Pinterest and Youtube to find more ideas!
It’s totally normal to be inspired, nobody can create if they are not inspired. But obviously it’s totally different from copying someone. Try to be yourself and create something that is showing your personality!
Have fun and enjoy creating at home!
The most important when we are creating is to have fun and create original photos that show who you are! Once again, don’t be afraid to try new things and experience new ideas! It’s the key to create original indoor photos!
That’s it my friends! We hope you like these indoor photoshoot ideas and tips! I can’t wait to see your creations! Feel free to tag us and send us your photos on Instagram! And come to see all our creations! @chiarabarrasso and @jelafaille
