Lifestyle Photography Indoors | Finding the Light

    Since I have began my lifestyle project and have been sharing a bit on my fan page I have noticed that I have been getting more and more questions about lifestyle imagery in general. I promise that I am not the know all/end all of natural light or lifestyle photography but for me it is a passion and something I am always striving to learn about.  There is something so special about what would be seemingly mundane to some.  I am always looking for a way to translate how I feel about or see things into my imagery. Since I can remember I have always been fascinated with photographs. Not just photography but the actual photos. In fact I have close to no images of my childhood not because my mother didn’t take any but because I used to steal them out of their albums as a child lol! I wish I would have let them be truly. But as a photographer I couldn’t imagine not using a gift for my own family. That is how I view Photography. As a gift.  We are here for such a short time on this earth so why not leave your footprint. Your mark on the world.  These are our keepsakes and memories. Our gift to our future generations. There is something mystical about being able to capture time and freeze it. The term “time in a bottle” couldn’t be more appropriate. As I started picking up steam with my business I noticed I was taking fewer photos of my children.  There were so many excuses and deterrents coming from me. “Oh but my house is a mess or Well I do this for work so I am just too tired to take my camera out.” And then I realized that was my burn out speaking. It really wasn’t how I felt. So I picked up my camera and started shooting for me again. For my children. And in just a short couple of months since I began I have come away with so many precious and treasured keepsakes. So how do I do it?

    Like all things lifestyle photography has it’s own science. A lot of times I am just shooting in my home.  We actually just moved into our place about two months a go. Before that we lived in a fairly tight apartment with big picture windows but with way less available light.  The new places has windows and ambient light at every turn. I know not everyone is so fortunate. My biggest tidbit is to make the most of what you have.  Find the windows in your home that work the best for you and focus on those. Now this is lifestyle photography so there will be times when you simply don’t have access to those windows and that is TOTALLY okay. The biggest tidbit I can share in the way of advice is you are shooting for YOU. Don’t be afraid to experiment. I admit that when it is getting dark out or I don’t have the light I crank up the ISO on the camera. Does that produce grain? Yes it does. Do I mind? No. This is lifestyle photography. The main objective for me is mood. I actually think the grain in those images help accentuate the mood in many times. Perfection isn’t practical with lifestyle photography. Actually I tend to embrace the imperfections. I love the blur. I love the out of focus images. The little things matter. They help tell a story. I get a lot of questions about particular settings on particular images. As awesome as it is to know things like that too get a feel for how an image was created the lighting situations are usually different for different people. Even the gear and the way different camera bodies handle light (for example a full frame camera and a cropped sensor camera are way different I have found from personal experience in the way the light is processed by the sensor.) My particular style of shooting involves a pretty wide aperture. There are times I do need to stop down a bit if I have a ton of things going on in the frame our multiple people but I really love a shallow depth of field. Especially when it concerns portraiture. During the day when the light is more optimal I can get away with a higher shutter speed and a lower ISO. As the sun sets or it gets dark in our home I usually compensate by having to up my ISO and pull back on the shutter speed. Now I recently upgraded to the Canon 5d Mark III. I can’t reiterate enough that gear does NOT make a photographer but like all things it is a tool and it helps. I have a lot of wiggle room now with being able to set my ISO quite a bit higher and dealing with less grain and a better white balance (Under exposure almost always accentuates and white balance issues you have.) Shooting in Full manual and RAW help me really get more creative without stressing too much since I can quickly clean up my images when necessary exposure wise too.  They are just more versatile and unlike JPEGS are non destructible.

    Gear does play a role.  I choose to shoot with all prime lenses. Do you have to use all primes to get beautiful lifestyle images? Absolutely not. It is just a personal preferences. I love primes because they are tack sharp, quick to focus in lower light and produce glorious bokeh and depth of field. They also tend to open up wider.  They are more compact and work extremely well in indoor situations.  I have a plethora of prime lenses since I don’t use zooms and like to have a variation of focal lengths at my disposal. I use just about all of them indoors and outdoors but my home has a more spacious floor plan so I usually have room to back up if necessary when shooting with a “tighter” lens. If you are using a crop sensor such as a Canon Rebel or 7d for example a 50mm will work fairly well indoors. Having a full sensor camera I can actually get more in the frame so I don’t always have to go as wide for lenses and can even use my 85mm when I need to but I always seem to prefer my 35mm indoors. Again total personal preference. I just love the lens in general. I keep a full list of my gear HERE though in case you are curious.  Your lenses will have a very prominent effect on your imagery though. Different focal lengths do produce different types of images.

    Some general tips for lifestyle photography from my own personal experience:

    -If you are shooting your kids let them be little. Messy faces, bedhead, crazy clothes are okay! I try not to be intrusive at all actually and tend to shoot my own families at the moments they tend to be completely in their own world or oblivious of me.

    -Change your perspective. Try different angles. Move around and get creative!

    -Keep your camera close at hand! You never know when an opportunity is going to present itself BUT don’t forget to savor the little things and be a part of the family so there are times when an IPhone will suffice just as well!

    -Your home doesn’t have to be perfect!!! I do tend to favor areas of my house that are less cluttered or pick up a bit when I tend to spend time in a particular room with my children but i don’t obsess. It is just part of our lives! I will however try to be conscious of blatant things in the background like a garbage can or a sink full of dishes LOL!

    -Experiment with different lenses. You may surprise yourself. It really helps lend different perspectives to your photographs. A fish eye and a 50mm are going to yield totally different results!

    -Learn to master shooting in manual and know your camera.  Being able to choose my settings on the fly now through lots of time and practice helps me not miss a thing. I don’t have to fumble or guess it kind of comes second nature now but it wasn’t always that way.  Using your camera everyday or as frequent as possible will really help you get more cozy with your camera and before you know it you will be flying through your settings. I would say it took me a year and a half before I got there but it is different for everyone and you may find yourself catching on a lot quicker. My biggest tip is if shooting small kids I try to keep my shutter speed over 1/125th or higher if I can get away with it and if you aren’t familiar with shooting wide open you are going to miss focus quite a bit so try stopping down to begin with and opening your aperture more and more as time goes by and you get more comfortable.

    -Play with light. I have a huge picture window in my home office. I am fascinated with the light it produces. When I am looking to capture a portrait of my kids and they are actually in the mood to cooperate I place them in different areas in relation to the window. I like to watch the way the light hits them differently and adjust the settings on my camera accordingly. I also love to really play with shadows.

    -Simplify your photo processing. I tend to choose a lighter more airy processing for indoors.  I even prefer black and white almost 100% off the time. Shooting in RAW I can make any general white balance tweaks or quick changes to my exposure I need but I try to get it as right as I can straight out of the camera. The goal is to accentuate what is already there, not fix what isn’t.

    Another tip to help you “see” and find the light is to place your subject near your light source. Now slowly turn in a clockwise motion with your subject while they move with you and watch how the light changes around them and the shadows differ on their face. I noticed when i really started to become more detail oriented and studied the light (not just on people but all around me) I started to really grow.  Even now I am always watching for it everywhere even when just driving around in the car!

    Have fun and practice! Don’t stress yourself out. The more you use your camera the more akin you will become to different situations and settings. Baby steps are okay! Take it one day at a time!

    I hope this helps some!! Here are a few of my lifestyle images from the past couple of months.I included the settings, lens and the unedited version to give you an idea of how I work. 🙂 I don’t convert everything in black and white I just happened to grab all black and white photos here but you get the idea. I also usually do most of my cropping in camera but once in a while once I get something in Photoshop I will decide it looks better in a different way!

     

    Shot with a Canon 5d Mark III, A Canon 35L and the settings are ISO 100, F-Stop 1.4 and SS 1/340

    Shot with a Canon 5d Mark III, 35L ISO 100. F-stop 2 and SS 1/200

    Canon 5d Mark III, 35L, ISO 100, F-stop 1.4 SS 1/1000

    Canon 5d Mark III, 85L ISO 100 F-stop 1.4 SS 1/125

    14 Lovely Comments  •  Leave a Comment for Sarah

    14 Beautiful Souls Commented

    1. Meg Koning says:

      Thank you so much for this article! I just got back from my first lifestyle shoot, and although it went really well, I had to crank that ISO! I really find the steps helpful! However, I noticed that your ISO is still very low in these pictures, and I’m wondering if that’s because your f-stop is also so low?

    2. […]  What are your thoughts on lifestyle photography? My thoughts on Lifestyle photography (something I am majorly passionate about) is to let children be little. Let them have messy faces and bed head. Try not to intrude or impede on their play time or whatever it is doing. Just capture it. Think outside the box on angles. Watch the light. Think about your focal length. I actually wrote a post on this recently here. […]

    3. Dawn Shiree says:

      Sarah, thank you so much for taking the time to share these tips! We all know your time with your family is so precious… putting together blog posts like this are a true gift to your fellow photographers and know that we do appreciate it. <3

    4. Dana says:

      Great tips for beginners and everyone in between. TFS.

    5. tim says:

      thanks for sharing. have been loving all of the lifestyle work you produce and am very inspired. thanks for sharing.

    6. CrystalBelle says:

      Love this! Sometimes I get into a mindset that my house is too messy or cluttered and instead of using that as an excuse I need to challenge myself to capture the moment!

    7. Sarah … you are awesome to write and share this. As always … I LOVE your work. To pieces. 🙂 – Heidi

    8. Thanks so much for sharing your tips, Sarah! I have been loving your lifestyle photos on both Facebook and Instagram. I’m inspired!!

    9. Nancy Wyatt says:

      Love all your photos and you are amazing for giving us so much insight!! Thank You!! Love using your actions and LR products too! Hugs from Conroe, TX

    10. Kaylley says:

      You’re truly talented and I am saving to have you take our photo’s! I just love your work and love your EYE, editing style everything.

      Thank you for being YOU!

    11. rachelkaminky says:

      One day I would love to write a guide to Mamas with pictures and examples to share with them how to capture every day stuff and make it frame worthy 😉 You write beautifully and people can benefit so much from this! (I did.) What a nice thing to share. Thank you!

    12. Sarah says:

      LOVED THIS! What an absolute joy to read. I’m having a love affair with my 28mm at the moment, you’ve made me want to get in my camera bag and have a good old rummage about! I too have lately been making ‘excuses’ not to shoot in certain lifestyle situations, but I think it’s because I’m scared I won’t produce something ‘just right’ thanks for writing this. It’s given me the kick start I need to get back on the horse! 🙂 xx

    13. Colie says:

      Great tips! I would only add for those looking for light don’t be afraid to move your furniture!

    14. Heather T. says:

      What sweet pictures!! Thanks for “working” this Sunday!

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