Shooting at home: The Garden
With many of us currently at home or in lockdown, opportunities for photoshoots are mostly confined to where we live!
Don’t worry – even if you don’t have a home studio, there is still a huge range of subjects you can shoot at home which will be relevant for the publishing industry.
In this series of posts we’ll be sharing our tips for shooting at home. We’ll also suggest popular concepts and themes for book publishing which can be shot in different rooms and spaces wherever you live!
The Garden
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, take advantage of it! You have a great space for shooting in natural light, and there are lots of popular cover concepts that you could try out.
Picnic tables and deckchairs are seen frequently on women’s fiction covers. Set them out with tablecloths, flowers, drinks in glasses, lanterns…
A swing can be an evocative image relating to childhood and innocence;
Lawns, neat hedgerows and picket fences can be used to create an impression of suburbia;
Gateways, archways or gaps in hedges can also be great focal points, or used to suggest secrecy and intrigue.
And of course, there are many possibilities with flowers, leaves and branches.
Tip for Home Shoots: Find Natural Light
Most of us don’t have professional lighting gear at home, so the best place to start in planning a home shoot is to identify when and where natural light falls in different rooms. Plan your day and make sure you get the best lighting in each room.
Setting up a table close to a window can give you enough light to shoot still life. Windows can also be great for framing people and creating silhouettes.
Be on the lookout for interesting shadows and high contrasts which can make everyday objects look interesting and dramatic!
We hope this gives you some starting points for home photoshoots – over the rest of this series we’ll suggest some themes and book cover concepts that can be shot in each room of the house!
Find more tips for photoshoots:
Photography that sells: how to make your imagery more commercially attractive
