Interiors - Bathroom 1

[Leonie]

I had three bathrooms to photograph today. They are challenging rooms with very limited space, variable lighting and lots of reflective surfaces to record unwanted reflections. This was the first room I worked on today and a little pressured because the customer was hovering. I used my 24-70mm lens mostly at the widest end and as a result there is distortion but I guess that's pretty much unavoidable in such a small room. C&C welcome.

http://www.photozo.com/album/data/500/IMG_5252s.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/album/showphoto.php?photo=162976)

http://www.photozo.com/album/data/500/IMG_5257s1.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/album/showphoto.php?photo=162996)

http://www.photozo.com/album/data/500/IMG_5326s.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/album/showphoto.php?photo=162978)

http://www.photozo.com/album/data/500/IMG_5329s.jpg (http://www.photozo.com/album/showphoto.php?photo=162980)

[ahiezer]

i cant get over how neat the toilet looks! lol i've never seen one like that before

[JimL]

Paint Shop Pro X2 (and as far back as I can remember without looking it up) had a handy dandy tool called the "Mesh Warp Tool" which entails using a grid with movable grid lines that cause the section of photo to either move or not move when lines around it are adjusted. The advantage is that after you adjust one photo from your 24-70 mm lens with a photo taken at 24 mm so that it is straight you can save the mesh and any other photo taken at 24 mm with that lens can be corrected with two clicks (load the mesh and apply the mesh). This is perfect for any type of building shots inside or out if, for instance, you are working with a real estate person or an architect.

You have your lighting down pretty well and it definitely shows the room off well.

My son-in-law does custom tile work for upscale homes (15-25 thousand +materials) for some bathrooms or kitchens and I have been on him about getting a portfolio made from some of his work.
Part of the reason he doesn't is that his customers don't wish to have their custom work displayed for various reasons and the other thing is that he has been getting jobs based on word of mouth and doesn't see the need.
I think I will show him these shots as a "suggestion"

Jim

[Leonie]

Thanks Jim, the Paintshop fix sounds quite easy to use. I think your SIL should have a portfolio. We get nearly all our work from referrals and repeat business, but having a website or portfolio definitely has a positive influence on a customers decision to contract us. That information we have learnt directly from our customers themselves. They also love to have their new bathroom photographed and if we're not quick enough they chase us to find out when their photos will appear on the website because they want to show it off to all their friends and colleagues.

I've tried to fix the distortion as best I can. I'm not very familiar with the tools in Photoshop for this type of thing as I don't do it often so please tell me if I could have done better.

[brucep]

Your flowing water adds a wonderful, "you are there" touch to these, Leonie.

Jim, in PS you can use Smart Objects to do this. No matter what you put into the corrected Smart Object, it gets (un)distorted the same as the previous image was. Recently, I've been using this feature to distort the scene (http://www.photozo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10467&highlight=) (supposedly) seen through a translucent bottle of wine.

[yellalablady]

Great bathroom. Do you do the remodels or just take the photo? I love the toilet.

[JimL]

Your flowing water adds a wonderful, "you are there" touch to these, Leonie.

Jim, in PS you can use Smart Objects to do this. No matter what you put into the corrected Smart Object, it gets (un)distorted the same as the previous image was. Recently, I've been using this feature to distort the scene (http://www.photozo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10467&highlight=) (supposedly) seen through a translucent bottle of wine.

Just learning PhotoShop CS4 and the very nice thing about smart objects is the ability to resize photos or portions of photos without distortion by scaling a photo or promoted selection up or down. I didn't know you could save the smart object and insert other pictures into it. I'll give that a try. If nothing else I can use that technique to resize photos for Photozo without having to guess.

Jim

[zeeman]

They are really nice, Leonie. Working in Real Estate myself, I often have to photograph very small houses that are extremelly expensive, so I have to show the best of it, and its certainly challenging. Bathrooms are a nightmare sometimes, but I found a way around focusing on the little details instead of the full room, and it sometimes work.

[belongus3]

Yeah really love how the bathroom looks..very neat..any special tools u used for photoshop?

[OnlyElise]

I, too, have had to photograph (and video) very small bathrooms for real estate ads and commercials, and it can be a tough fit! And having a hovering customer can make it even more stressful. I really like how you shot these; even though you said it's small, it looks like there's plenty of room to move around from your angles.

[DSRay]

Very well done for such a challenging subject!