I am going to share with you the secrets to perfecting your indoor photography.

Shooting photos indoors can be a challenge, but it can also be very exciting.

What is Indoor Photography?

Indoor photography refers to photos taken indoors: be it portrait photography, real estate photography, or product photography. It can also include artistic projects, such as still life photography or photojournalistic images.

Each interior space will be unique and offer different possibilities, but there are some basic rules to bear in mind that will make the process smoother.

Let’s dive into some tips to help you improve your indoor photography.

1. Camera Settings

Shooting indoors typically means there’s less light than outdoors, so you need to amend your camera settings to accommodate this.

You’ll need to think about your ISO, aperture, shutter speed, and white balance.

Here are the best camera settings for indoor photography that works for me:

ISO: 100 if I am on a tripod. If hand-holding, I will boost it up to 800 or even 1000.
Shutter speed: 1/100th if handholding. If n a tripod I will go much lower.
Aperture: f/4 or less for indoor portraiture. F/11 for real estate, interior design photography.
WB: Custom or preset
Photo Format: RAW
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority
These settings work great as a starting point, but let’s see how you can customize them to be more creative depending on your subject, available light, and artistic needs.

2. Boost Your ISO in Low Light

The most common way to increase overall exposure in low light locations is to raise your ISO settings, but be aware this does increase the chance of noise, or grain, in your photos.

However, depending on the type of work you’re doing, grainy photos can be embraced. Having grain in your photo can add to the mood of portraits or details.

3. Open up Your Aperture

One way to increase your exposure than open up your aperture.

Doing so lets more light reach the camera’s sensor through the lens. However, be aware that a large aperture narrows your depth of field. Which could result in a blurry background.

This works very well for indoor portraiture, fine details, or small items.

4. Correct Your White Balance

Modern cameras do a good job of getting the correct white balance in ‘Auto White Balance” mode. However, for best results, I find it is best to adjust the white balance (WB) settings manually.

Setting WB is especially handy if you are shooting JPG format instead of RAW. JPG only stores limited details of an image.

If you’re in a space with indoor lighting and not much sunlight, you should set your white balance to match the type of bulbs in the lights.