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21 July 2021
A Guide to Home & Garden Photography
With the rise of influencers on social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram, there are tonnes of inspiring interior and garden design accounts to follow, admire and gain ideas from. Photographs provide a snapshot of our living spaces and a little porthole into our daily lives.
Whether you want to take photographs to share with family and friends, a large social following or simply as a memory of the journey. This simple guide is sure to help make the most of your project and showcase your nest in all its glory, with some helpful Home and Garden photography tips from our expert marketing team.
Exterior Photography
1. Clean Up
By cleaning up the area you plan to Photograph, you can instantly make the paving look miles better, It also helps to remove too many overcrowding elements such as excessive garden furniture and other things that may obscure the view of the paving.
A clean area with minimal distraction lets our Petworth Flagstones shine.
2. Shoot from Multiple Angles/Heights
Waist height and eye level can both produce interesting viewpoints, try them out, but avoid putting the camera too low as it can look unnatural.
TIP: If your garden is on an incline, try shooting from the lowest point and facing upwards, you may get a great view of the paving!
Shooting to the side can give a great perspective of the house and our Honey Cathedral Paving
TIP: By shooting from the side you can see how the perspective shifts and guides the eye along the photo from left to right,
all the while showing off the fantastic paving laid in front of the property.
3. Staging & Framing
Before you get your camera out it’s a great idea to get a lay of the land and use your eyes first. What do you see? Are there any interesting garden features or furnishings?
By first making sure that the interesting elements are arranged you can then look at properly framing the photo, ensuring a balance between the paving on the left, the water feature in the centre and the seating to the right gives a balance with just the right amount of intrigue.
A well-framed and staged Photography of Honey Cathedral Paving and Brick Pavers around the seating area
TIP: Use the Rule of Thirds
to help frame your photo, individual elements work well at cross-sections (e.g. the chair in the bottom right) while others can work if they stick to one column as seen with the paving running up the left column of the Photograph.
4. Clear Skies & Natural Light
When shooting outside you have no control over the weather conditions so often you have to wait until the right day and the right conditions.
Clear skies allow for great use of natural light to come into your garden, and a bright and sunny day helps to show the best your paving can be.
Creative use of lighting also allows for some great shadows of shrubbery, flowers and other garden decorations. These can really breathe life into your Photography and give your images something unique to your garden.
Shadows of plants finding their way across our gorgeous Petworth Flagstones.
Interior Photography
1. Lighting
The use of natural light cannot be overstated, especially for interior photography, it is one of the single most important ways to ensure great photos.
Natural light is softer than artificial lighting and often helps to reflect the natural colour of your home and stone flooring as opposed to using artificial light.
We would always recommend trying to take photos without turning the lights on in your home first. By allowing natural light to enter the room, you can create natural shadows and allow the room to come to life. It can be difficult to get the right amount of lighting inside, when the photo looks dark or underexposed, there is the temptation to turn on artificial lights to help brighten the room, try to avoid this.
Likewise, be careful if you adjust your camera settings before shooting to compensate, you can be in danger of overexposing your photos which can be more difficult to fix.
When editing photos on the computer or even on your phone it’s easier to make a dark photo look brighter than it is to make a light photo look darker.
2. Use Angles & Straight Lines
By paying attention to straight lines and focal points in your photos, you can take gorgeous shots of your flooring.
Long rooms allow for a naturally occurring perspective view that carries the eyes through the area, this works by using a central point of focus and “walks” you through the area.
In conventionally square or wider rooms make sure that you keep any lines straight such as tables, countertops or support beams. This helps to keep the photo looking straight and natural to the eye.
3. Use the Space
Don’t be afraid to move things around a little and clear some space for your perfect photo, there is a balance between leaving the room bare and overcrowding it.
By focusing on just one feature or piece of furniture, it allows light to fill the room and gives more space for the flooring to breathe.
Notice how the door is ajar? It lets you get a little sneak peek into the next room without taking focus away from the current room. This technique helps to make the photo come alive and allows the viewer to step inside as well as having the bonus of letting more natural light in!
This technique works best when the same flooring is laid in multiple rooms as it allows for a continuation of what you are seeing in the main room.
Using the space in this room lets the Old Provence Flooring breathe.
Customer Photos
If you have bought paving or flooring from us we would love to see your beautiful homes and gardens! Tag us on Instagram using @westminsterstone and #westminsterstone or send us an email.
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