INTERIORS, PHOTOGRAPHING In addition to the considerations given under the heading " Architectural Photography," there are a few special points that should be noted. The view of an interior of a room, of a church, or portion of a large building, must necessarily be taken from within its own limits ; therefore a. wide-angle lens is necessary. If too wide an. angle is included, there is a risk of the perspective effect being exaggerated. About three-fourths of the longer side of the plate, or slightly less, should be the minimum focus employed ; and a longer focus is preferable when possible. By care in selecting the point of view the exagger ation of the perspective effect may be minimised.
One of the greatest difficulties in interior work is the presence of windows in front of the camera, especially if they command a clear view of the sky, and form an important part of the lighting of the interior. These windows throw a glare of strong light upon the lens, rendering it practically impossible to secure clear negatives with good gradation and tending to fog the plate. When these windows are not actually included in the picture, a " sky-shade " should be fitted to the camera front ; and if this sky-shade is adjustable in position it can be made to exclude all that part of the room where the undesirable windows are situated, without obstructing any part of the subject included on the plate. Another method of accomplishing the same purpose is to have a shield of card or thin wood. In either case, the value of the window in lighting the interior is fully retained.
Where tt window commanding a clear sky view is included in the picture it should be covered, whenever practicable, during the greater part of the exposure. There will be no difficulty in doing this when there are other windows which partially light the interior ; should it be the only window, it will be quite impracticable to include the whole of it and secure a successful photograph. If part of the window only is
included, that part only should be covered, while a shield on the baseboard of the camera pre vents the light from the remaining part from reaching the lens. At times, the sun may be streaming through a window that is not included in the picture, but the sunlight may fall on the floor within the field of view and cause an undesirable patch of light or an unequal lighting of the interior. A white blind drawn over such a window, or sheets of white tissue paper attached over that part on which the sun is shining, will form a remedy, these not only diffusing the light but illuminating dark corners in a way that cannot be attained by other means.
In all interiors the inclusion of a liberal pro portion of floor or foreground assists in giving a sense of space.
When a wide-angle lens is used in a room which is ten or twelve feet high, or when photo graphing a small part of a large interior, the camera should be placed much lower than when photographing a large subject with the same lens. A high or normal point of view when including floor very near the camera gives the impression that the ground is running up-hill, this effect being quite obviated by lowering the centre of the lens to about three feet from the ground.
It may be necessary to work with a small stop, as some portions of the subject may be very near the camera, and sufficient depth of focus may not be possible otherwise.
Precautions against the camera tripod slipping must certainly be taken. (See " Tripod.") It is necessary to acquire the art of capping and uncapping the lens as many times as may be necessary for casual obstructions—persons walk ing across, etc.—without shaking the camera.
Special points in photographing workshops are treated in the article " Factories, Photo graphing in." The subject of exposure in interior work is considered in detail under the headings " Exposure " and " Exposure Tables."