As a good lover art I bet you belong to the group of those who visit museums or exhibition halls at least from time to time. And surely you do not go to them without your camera, because photographing museums is full of creative opportunities.
Whether you photograph museums It is something that you had not considered until today, as if it is something that you used to do, I would like to offer you some tips so that you can make the most of your visit 🙂 .
1. Advance preparation
If it is not the first time that you approach a museum, it is possible that you have already had a fiasco when you arrived. Not all museums allow you to take photographs, or bring certain material.
permissions
Check before approaching the museum, what is allowed to take and what is not, if it is allowed to use the flash, carry a tripod or even take photographs. It is best to check their website. so as not to be disappointed.
Look for example at a part of the rules for the Prado Museum in Madrid:
In this case, you could photograph in 3 places in the museum. In some you won’t be able to in any, and in some you won’t have a problem, but you should know what to expect before you arrive 😉 .
material preparation
Once you know what you can and cannot take, make sure you go with empty memory cards, well-charged batteries, and clean, undamaged lenses.
Photos
Knowing where you are going and what the place is like is always a way to prepare yourself for better photographs. For example, when deciding which lens(es) to bring.
2. The photographic equipment
In an ideal situation in which you could carry everything you wanted, this is the material that we would recommend.
- Tripod to gain stability and sharpness.
- EITHER monopod, if it is more comfortable for you.
- polarizing filter to remove reflections from surfaces.
- A 35 or 50mm lens. These are the focal points that I think can work best for you indoors. A wide angle that allows you to obtain a general view of the space, and a medium focal length to photograph the elements of the museum.
- How much more bright whatever your goal, much better, you’ll need all the light you can get ;).
- Batteries and memory cards.
3. The best settings when photographing museums
The settings will depend a lot on the type of museum you are going to photograph, especially the brightness and the space you have available. There are museums with huge windows and others that are very dark. You will even see a lot of difference between the different rooms of the same museum. However, these are some recommendations that will help you in terms of adjustments when photographing in a museum:
- Activate the Image Stabilizer If you don’t have a tripod. It will help you get sharper images.
- set a minimum shutter speed for the focal length you are using. Remember that a rough way to calculate it is 1/focal length=minimum shutter speed. Or, what is the same, if you have a 24mm, the minimum firing speed will be above 24s 😉
- ISO: There is no hard and fast setting. It is always recommended that you work with a ISO as low as possiblebut it is also a resource to upload it in case you find yourself in a dimly lit room, to obtain an image without judder.
- Diaphragm opening: if you need light, open the diaphragm, as well as if you want to blur the background. If, on the other hand, you want an image with a good depth of field, you should close the diaphragm to values such as f/8, however, remember that you will have less available light to work with.
- The white balance: you will surely find different light sources, it may be that the natural light that enters through the windows is combined with the artificial one that illuminates the works of art. In that case, it is important that you manually control the white balance so that the different shades of light do not play tricks on you.
- Work in RAW mode: this will solve both having to worry about white balance and will help you in editing the lights and shadows in the image processing.
- Right the histogram: a slightly overexposed image is preferable to an underexposed or dark one. So, if you have to choose between light and shadow, go towards the light 😉 you will have much better dynamic range in the scene and therefore better results. But without going overboard, because the very burned areas, there is no editor that can recover them 😉 .
- If you work freehand, hold the camera correctly to gain stability.
4. The space
On many occasions, museums are a work of art in itself. Due to the needs of space and light, they are often architecturally fascinating. Many times, the buildings themselves are worth a visit, regardless of the works of art they may house.
Photographing museums taking advantage of the very architecture they offer us, both externally and internally, is one of my first recommendations.
Exterior
- Take advantage of the lines of the buildings, trying not to twist them
- You can include a human element to give it scale
- Look for different points of view
- Look for natural settings
- Try the black and white edition
- play with perspective
- If there is an interesting sky add it to the composition (clouds, sunrise-sunset tones, etc.)
Inside
Take the opportunity to photograph the architectural elements from inside the museum. You can photograph them in themselves, beyond works of art or take advantage of them to add interest to your images.
- Ladders
- Windows
- ceilings
- skylights
- Doors…
- Take advantage of all the natural light in the room if there is one
5. Composition
In museums, nothing is randomly placed, which is why achieving interesting compositions is not too difficult.
- Take advantage of negative space
- play with the lines
- The natural frames of windows or doors to frame objects or people
- Add human elements to add interest to your images
- Make sure your image tell a story
- Apply the rule of thirds
- Play with the movement of the people passing through the museum
- Look for different points of view and, above all, look where others don’t see anything 😉
Conclusions
Photographing museums is full of creative opportunities. In them everything is studied, the architecture, the lines, the lighting and the arrangement of the works of art.
That is why it is very interesting to always take advantage of any visit to the museums, not only to enjoy the works of art, but also to get fascinating photographs :).
What do you think? Do you usually take photos in museums? Will you dare to do it from now on? We read you in comments 🙂