Photography for Hotel Interiors and Architecture

Interior and architectural photography involves a strong understanding of composition and lighting in order to properly highlight a building or room without distorting its proportions. When working with hotels, the property has had the interior and exterior design carefully curated to reflect its brand aesthetic.

As a hotel photographer, I enjoy working with marketing teams who are passionate about showcasing their location to future guests. If you’re looking to work with a photographer to create images that truly reflect your space, there are a few things to consider to enhance your visual marketing:

• Architectural Lighting in Hotels

• Spacing in Hotel Interiors

• Materials and Textures in Interior Design

• Highlight Hotel Interiors with Props

Architectural Lighting in Hotels

One of the most important factors to consider when shooting a hotel is how you are going to balance natural lighting vs. artificial lighting to your advantage. 

Does your property feature chandeliers, round ceiling lights, sconce lights, etc. vs. how much natural light are you able to get with the windows?

When I photographed the lobby for The Kins Hotel, I noticed that the property had a mix of beautiful light setups that I wanted to take advantage of to really advertise the space for the client. From the light beaming from the reception desk to the chandeliers, the warm tones really set the stage for a positive first impression.

I also noticed that the hotel had sconce lights both inside and outside of the property. Photographing the property at a different time of day is important in getting a variety of images for your marketing assets and can highlight specific features of your hotel’s architecture that makes the property stand out.

Spacing in Hotel Interiors

When capturing images of your hotel, you want to showcase the actual space of each room and not distort anything. As a result, it’s important to have the right lens that will be wide enough to capture the full interior, but not so wide that it distorts and warps the room to look unnatural (an issue you can find with really wide lenses).

As a photographer, I try to choose different angles to provide for each client so that they have an option as to which photo they feel best represents their space. Since not all rooms will be the same size, it’s useful to see if the final photo reflects how wide the room seemed during the day of the photoshoot.

Bathrooms can be particularly difficult because there’s likely less space to work with. 

Materials and Textures in Interior Design

It’s useful to find spaces in your property where there are a mix of textures like marble and wood panel walls. The contrast between two different textures can make the space look dynamic and interesting. You can see an example of this in the Kins Hotel lobby.

Some of the bathrooms in the hotel also have a mix of tile and marble. The white and gray colors in the materials are similar, but the different textures and patterns of tile and marble adds interest to the space.

Use Props to Highlight Hotel Interiors

For hotel rooms, you might find it useful to add some props to not make the room look so bare. For example, you can include decorative objects on a shelf, and take close-up shots and wide-angle shots to fill in the space. You can see an example of this in the Kins Hotel lobby.

During the photoshoot of this hotel, the clients wanted to include a bowl of fruit on the table of the kitchen space in one of the deluxe suites. The fruit adds a pop of color to a fairly neutral room.

For dining spaces, it might be a good idea to add paintings on the walls to reflect the vibe of the hotel.

Hotel Interior and Architectural Photography with Brian Brown

Brian Brown is a professional photographer who has worked with boutique and chain hotels to provide photography services for marketing and advertising purposes.

His experience in producing images for hotels makes Brian a viable photography partner for your marketing assets.

If you’re interested in receiving photography for your hotel property, don’t hesitate to reach out to see if your business is a good fit and get a free quote.

CONTACT BRIAN

Feel free to explore some hotel photography behind-the-scenes blog posts:

Pacifica’s Marina del Rey Hotel

Hilton’s Wayfarer Downtown LA Hotel