Today we want to share some secrets with you.good interior photography and tell you why you need a stylist there. For a more detailed story, we talked to leading industry experts — Natalia Obukhova and Yulia Chebotar Natalia Obukhova and Yulia Chebotar are stylists who have worked in the interior photography industry for more than 30 years. They actively share their vast accumulated experience with aspiring designers and decorators, as well as those who want to reach a whole new level in the art of getting gorgeous photos of apartments and houses. By the way, on January 31, their lecture will be held in Moscow, dedicated to the rules and techniques of good styling. How to beautifully photograph an interior without overdoing it with accessories? What is the secret to the correct arrangement of light? Are the principles of interior photography different for a portfolio and for publication in a magazine? Natalia Obukhova and Yulia Chebotar will answer these and other questions on January 31 in the Quantum Studio architectural light showroom (Red October). Information about the event is available at , and we are publishing an interview with experts provided to us by the founder of the design lecture hall, Olga Kosyreva.
— Why do you need a stylist on a shoot ifthe designer has already come up with everything, selected everything, and is generally an excellent decorator himself? - The camera sees the space a little differently. What was perfectly selected by the decorator may not be the right scale or be too colorful in the frame. The simplest thing a stylist does is move furniture, creating a harmonious composition in the frame. I have met very few designers who are excellent decorators themselves. And this is not a reproach to them. Some are simply not interested in this, some do not have time, and for others the client literally bursts into the apartment with his personal belongings. But the object needs to be photographed. For a magazine, for a portfolio. If people have been living there for a long time, then the stylist clears out the space, frees up from under the client's things what the designer has chosen. Or the other extreme: there is little time, the object is handed over without any decor at all, it is necessary to urgently photograph before the tenants arrive. Then we fill the space with things to give it life. And emphasizing the designer's idea, we continue his work in details, even in flowers, in bouquets. — What is the difference between a decorator and a stylist? — A designer looks at his object as a combination of an idea and technical implementation, he sees joints, a beautiful connection of the baseboard with the door frame, seams on the parquet, tiles from Spain, special wallpaper on the walls, vintage fabric on the chairs, etc. A stylist, entering the object, sees a story for a magazine or portfolio. — Is it possible to turn an average or not quite successful interior into a good one using styling? So to speak, to embellish it before the shoot and make it more attractive? — Everything depends on the initial data and on what the decorator needs. It happens that the interior looks so wild that it can no longer be helped: an unsuccessful layout, furniture, ceilings, windows, textiles and paintings. If everything is not so bad, the decorator trusts the stylist, and there is an opportunity to take something out or not to take it off, then accessories, flowers and all sorts of photo tricks can improve the picture. Although you still won’t change the situation radically.
— Is it possible to radically improve orcorrect the mistakes of a project when it is being shot for a magazine? And is it necessary to do this? — For a magazine shoot, everything is more complicated: it is impossible to get by with just close-ups, it is necessary to show the entire space, and the bar is initially high. So, in my opinion, trying to re-shoot an interior with a stylist that has already been rejected by the magazine is pointless.
— What are the most common mistakes andWhat are the shortcomings that designers make when shooting their projects? - Most often, there is a lack of history, and therefore - a lack of life in the project. Just showing all the corners of an apartment or house is one thing. To make the reader think about what kind of person lives there, how he feels there, to want the same feelings and to look for this designer - that's the job of a stylist. Sometimes a designer does not work with the personal belongings of his clients. Or ignores them, or leaves everything as is. The camera sees all the little things and can show a mess on the shelves (if this is not the idea of the story) where everything seemed to be fine. In addition, not all the decor that can live well in space lives well in a photo. The designer chose it and may not want to remove it or rearrange it: after all, in life everything "works". As a result, the frame is a disaster. The same vase in all the rooms, ugly folds of curtains or bedspreads, wrinkled pillows, prints on the glass, and so on. The stylist walks around and rearranges, adds, lays out, straightens, wipes, hides and moves. In every frame. The angle changes - the scenery changes. — What are the funniest, strangest and most instructive stories that have happened to you on set? — If you take into account all the shoots, both interior and staged, there are already so many stories that you can write a book. I can simply list what we shot in the heat and in the hellish cold; we shot furniture in the forest, in the garden, in the stable, in the botanical garden, in the dolphinarium, in museums and parks and millions of times in studios. We shot fabrics in a thunderstorm at the fish market in Istanbul, and lightning struck our generator. For the sake of colored smoke, we detonated smoke bombs inside the bathrooms, and everyone almost died of carbon monoxide poisoning. We were filming on a raft on the river, and the movers, like barge haulers, were dragging the raft with furniture, a TV and me, and the summer residents were almost falling off the bridge from amazement. We were filming a creative project in Georgia at a market, and all the men at the market abandoned their stalls and went outside so as not to embarrass the naked model. Jean-Louis Deniot was helping three French movers screw in a light bulb during our shoot. One very good photographer fell into a pool with electric rays during an interior shoot. During interior shoots, the owners sometimes fed us black caviar, and sometimes, on the contrary, did not give us water to drink. Somewhere the film crew was shown incredible relics, rare, very expensive things, and somewhere, on the contrary, they asked not to even touch anything, although the things and furniture were quite ordinary. In general, there are a lot of stories, I have a good job.
Sources:photographs by Olga Tuponogova-Volkova for AD magazines (www.admagazine.ru), Vogue, Vogue Kids, Tatler, Brides and others. Stylist Natasha Obukhova. Art project by photographer Fyodor Markushevich and stylist Natasha Obukhova.
How to photograph correctly - secrets of interior shooting
