A wide-angle lens is the standard tool for photographing hotel rooms, lobbies and restaurants, because it lets you show a whole space from inside it. The same lens can also make walls lean, stretch furniture near the edges and make a room look larger than it really is. Guests notice when the room they booked does not match the pictures. Here is how to avoid distortion when using a wide-angle lens for hotel photoshoots.
Understand the Types of Distortion
Three different effects are usually called “distortion”:
- Lens distortion: straight lines bend outwards (barrel distortion) or inwards. It is a property of the lens and is easy to correct in software.
- Perspective distortion: vertical lines converge or lean when the camera is tilted up or down. It is caused by the camera position, not the lens.
- Wide-angle stretching: objects close to the camera or near the edges of the frame look stretched and oversized.
1. Keep the Camera Level
The most important rule in interior photography is to keep vertical lines vertical. Mount the camera on a tripod and use the built-in electronic level or a bubble level, so that the camera points neither up nor down. If the walls, door frames and curtains are straight in the viewfinder, most of the work is done.
2. Choose the Right Height and Perspective
Go lower than eye level. A camera at around chest or waist height, level with the horizon, shows furniture more naturally and balances the amount of floor and ceiling in the frame. Be mindful of the angle of your composition as well. Shooting straight at a wall gives a calm, symmetrical image, while shooting from a corner shows more of the room but increases stretching at the edges.
3. Select Your Lens Carefully
Avoid using an excessively wide lens. It is tempting to fit everything in, but ultra-wide focal lengths exaggerate depth and make a room look bigger than it is. As a guide, try not to go wider than about 24mm on a full-frame camera unless the space is so small that you have no choice. If you can, step back, even into the doorway, and use a longer focal length instead.
A tilt-shift lens is the specialist solution. Its shift movement lets you include more of the ceiling or floor while the camera stays perfectly level, so vertical lines remain straight.
4. Watch the Edges of the Frame
Stretching is strongest at the edges and corners. Keep round objects, such as lamps, plates and round tables, and anything close to the camera away from the corners. Move a chair or a bedside table a little if needed, and never place people at the edge of a wide-angle frame.
5. Use Natural Light and Prepare the Room
Use natural or natural-looking light and choose your shooting angles with the windows in mind. Thin curtains help to soften very bright windows. Before you shoot, smooth the bed linen, straighten the curtains and tidy cables and small items. Preparing the room properly saves a lot of retouching afterwards, and tidy, straight lines in the scene make any remaining distortion less noticeable.
6. Correct Distortion in Post-Production
Most editing software can correct lens distortion automatically with a lens correction profile. If no profile is available for your lens, you can correct it manually. The same programs have perspective tools that straighten converging vertical lines. Leave a little extra space around your composition when shooting, because these corrections crop the image. Shooting in RAW gives the best results.
Quick Checklist
- Tripod set up and camera level
- Camera at chest height or lower
- Focal length no wider than necessary
- Nothing important in the corners
- Room tidy, bed and curtains straight
- Lens profile and vertical correction applied in editing
By following these tips, you can keep distortion to a minimum and produce hotel photos that are attractive and, just as importantly, honest about the space.
