SET-BUILT INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographing set-built interiors involves a completely different skill set to photographing real interiors. It is necessarily a team effort working with set-builders to manufacture backdrops for photography either in a photography studio, or within a house or even within a retail store or shop.

The beauty of the room set approach is it can be tailored to the precise requirements of the shoot. All the elements of the interior seen in the image can be designed and made to order.

With my room set photography I specialise in lighting the set entirely artificially to look like natural lighting. That might involve recreating raking sunlight or soft cool directional daylight or back lighting.

Alternatively deliberately stylised lighting such as quasi-ring-flash techniques of round the camera lighting can be employed for a more surreal feel.

All of this is of course, by definition, harder than it looks. But once the lighting is set the team can work all day photographing in identical lighting conditions. This allows whole catalogues of objects can be photographed in very similar conditions but for hours at a time or on multiple days as if the earth has stopped revolving and the clouds set in aspic. And it can appear to be a glorious sunny day on the photo shoot as storms lash the building outside.

Often this is necessarily more complex work involving a larger team of people - stylists, set builders and photo assistants are commonly involved but since the shoot can be planned in detail in advance those costs may be anticipated and planned more carefully than when reliant on capricious weather.

And with all my photography my work is shot to the highest technical standards using exceptional equipment and optics.