Whether you're preparing your home for a professional shoot or creating content for your portfolio or socials, you want to ensure you're getting the most out of the space. If you don't have a lot of time or a huge budget here are a few quick and thrifty changes you can make to spruce up your interiors and make them pop in photos! Whatever your desired outcome with the images, these quick tips can be tailored to suit the style of your interior - let your creativity guide you!
Fresh flowers
Spring is so close, I can almost taste it! The easiest (and one of the cheapest) way to liven up your interiors for photos is to add beautiful fresh flowers. You can buy a few supermarket bunches for less than a tenner, or find beautiful floral bouquets at your local market.
Once you've sourced the goods, let your imagination flow. Get creative in the colour combinations - you can choose more neutral, earthy tones, or bright, vibrant colours, or a mix of both. Whatever you feel compliments your interior scheme. You can get creative with how you display them - pick a few of your favourite shaped vases and play around with volume and height.
Rotate your accessories
If your shelves/coffee tables/fireplace/dining table/window sills, etc. are looking a little neglected, one of the easiest ways to revamp a space, for free, is to swap out the accessories in each room. If you've got accessories that aren't living their best life in the bedroom, display them in the living room. Mix and match items you don't usually pair together.
Make sure to clean them first and play around with different ways to style them. Have a styling book gathering dust on a shelf in the dining room? Move it to the living room coffee table. Got a sad-looking vase, pushed to the back of a cupboard? Display it on the bookshelf. Think about where the eye will be drawn to in the final photographs, and either highlight or minimise this. This will instantly make your space feel more put together and fresh without you having to go out and buy a bunch of new pieces.
Update soft furnishing
A quick and easy way to add personality to a space is to add soft furnishings such as throw cushions, blankets, and rugs or to simply update the ones you already have. This doesn't need to cost a fortune either. If you already have a bunch of cushions, try washing the covers and plumping them up as much as possible (you can even do the chop if you're feeling fancy) to breathe some life back into them. If they're a little tired, you can replace the covers or the inserts and voila, they'll be looking brand new and ready to shine in the photos.
Rugs can be rather pricey, so play around with the ones you already have. If you don't already have any, look into getting accent rugs or runners. These are a lot more affordable than area rugs and can completely change the feel of a space.
Rearrange furniture
Before taking any photos, really think about the layout of the furniture. The layout may be practical but is this the best possible layout for creating elegant photographs? Is there a table pushed against a wall which would look better in the centre? Is there a chair that would draw the eye to the wrong place? Is the angle of the bed or sofa just right for your composition? Is the rug off-centre causing some wonky lines that would distract in an image?
The answers to all of these questions will depend on the desired effect (and the amount of space you have). You may want a moody or cosy aesthetic, a light and airy look with the space appearing as big as possible, or bold maximalist vibes. Once you know what outcome you want, you can rearrange furniture to suit this.
Add prints to bare walls
Nothing injects pizazz and pop into interior images more than walls adorned with artwork. There are a number of ways you can do this: find graphic prints in colours to compliment your interiors (you can frame them so cheaply nowadays!), thrift prints or originals, borrow framed pictures from friends and family for the shoot, move prints around in your own home, or, if you're feeling extra creative and have the time, make your own art! Minimalist abstract art is super easy to create yourself, you just need some paint, a canvas, and some inspiration.
Consider lighting
The aesthetic you want to achieve in your photos isn't only affected by things within your home but the light within your home. Us photographers harp on about quality, strength, and direction of light like our lives depend on it but it really does drastically affect the feeling of an image. Without going into an internet rabbit hole on the intricacies of lighting in photography, stick to the basics. Natural light and artificial light are likely what you'll have at your disposal.
Consider the season you're shooting in. The sun will be a lot lower in the sky in the winter months and obviously, daylight hours are reduced. The opposite is true for the summer months. Think about the time of day you want the shoot, daytime, dusk, or night. Think about how much light you want coming through the windows, whether you want to turn overhead lights or lamps on, or candles and fireplaces. If, for example, you create content of your home, this can be a great way to mix up similar shots of your home. You could show your dining table in the morning light, in golden hour, in lamplight, in candlelight. You could even show how different lighting affects the look of paint colours. This is a great way to use the light to your advantage and create a variety of beautiful images.
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