Interior photography

August 15, 2022

Click here to view Li Gao’s interior photography portfolio.

In interior photography, there are walls thus white space. If your interior designer have designed the walls to be white (or shades of white,) you can bounce flash off walls to illuminate dark corners and brighten the space. Opposite is true when interior designer / architect designed dark colored walls, but you can easily bring a white reflector (or flat white board) to bounce your flash :)

Click here to view Li Gao’s interior photography portfolio.

When shooting interior photography / architectural interiors, you want to keep F aperture high & ISO low on tripod to get an ambient natural shot (3 multi brackets: dark, neutral, light.) Then flash bounce multiple locations for the best interior photography lighting to post process in photoshop.

Click here to view Li Gao’s interior photography portfolio.

Below compares lens vs flash bounce /natural light for interior photography

17mm (hyper distorts perspective but good for small space) vs 24mm (my go to camera lens for interior photography / architectural interior)
HDR in camera vs HDR in post vs moonlight flash bounce (my go to for interior photography / architectural interior)

Click here to view Li Gao’s interior photography portfolio.

Thanks for reading, until next blog!

Xoxo- Liv

Travel -chicago

October 17, 2021

Our protagonist’s journey began with an internet research to boarding an airplane. She arrived at Warwick Allerton, way ahead of her check in time. “Oh man I’m starving!” She thought and asked the concierge where’s the hotel restaurant. Unfortunately restaurants and bars were closed due to covid. “But human’s gotta eat…” she thought, so she walked to RL restaurant, ate delicious lunch while people watching and checked out their cool art collections on the walls, as well as the pieces in the lobby to the escalator down to and up from the bathroom.

When she finally checked into her room, she saw the cool drone shot art and snapped a picture (image below.) “Hmm… looks like it was shot before Chicago skyscrapers developed… hmm gold colored water and black and white cityscape…love the metaphor” she thought.

She decided to walk around River North Chicago, went into out of curiosity. Apparently this used to be Starbucks, they operated behind, but took over this summer and just opened the store. “People still come in asking for coffee!” laughed the store saleswoman. She then walked across Streeterville towards Lake shore drive and played with her new Ronin DJI :)

Later that evening, she ate dinner, explored the Chicago night scene, and went to sleep. Art for Life 2021 is next week… perfect excuse for our protagonist return to Chicago? Until next blog, thanks for reading!

—xoxo, L

Travel -Greece

October 16, 2021

Wanderlust bit me and I jumped on the opportunity to goto Greece. Here are some seascapes of Crete. I can already envision this location as scenes for a high-end automobile campaign (luxury car driven through the sand dust, Bonnie and Clyde style into a new uncharted territory) or a lifestyle photoshoot (luxury hotel opening or condos for sale) :) Until next blog, thanks for reading!

—xoxo, L

South Street Seaport District, Financial District, NYC New York, photographed by Li Gao.

What is Lens vs Perspective Distortion?

October 4, 2021

Lens distortion is produced by optical aberration within the glass. Straight lines in reality appears to be curved or deformed in the image. Straight lines are very important in architectural photography. I seen more heavy lens distortion in wide angle and zoom lens than in prime lens. The 3 main types of lens distortion are: barrel, pincushion, and complex. This can be fixed manually in RAW image processing softwares like Lightroom.

Perspective distortion, also known as converging verticals, is produced by where/how the camera is placed in relation to the subject. This can be fixed using a tilt-shift lens or in post production. Always start with lens distortion, then perspective correction.

Stay tuned for how to fix distortions for architectural and interiors photography. Thank you for reading. Until next blog!

-xoxo, L

When to use Prime vs Zoom lens?

September 28, 2021

Prime lens have fixed focal length ranging from 5.6mm to 800mm. To change the field of view, operator must physically move camera closer or further to subject. Use prime lens when you had time to location scout and pre-light, know the focal lengths you need for desired shots and scenes, or prefer quality over versatility. I use

24mm for architectural interiors photography
50mm for fashion photography
85mm for jewelry on model and beauty photography

Zoom lens have variable focal length. To change the field of view, operator remains stationary and rotates the lens itself. Use zoom lens when you prefer flexibility over quality, or you need to shoot same scene at multiple focal lengths with no time allocated to change lens, camera and/or light settings. I use

17-40mm for architectural interiors photography
24-70mm for fashion photography
70-200mm for jewelry on model and beauty photography

Here’s the takeaway:

Use zoom lens to determine your favorite focal length, then invest in the best prime lens available in today’s market that’s closest to your pre-determined focal length.
When confident, use prime lens. When doubtful, use zoom lens.

Thanks for reading. Until next blog!

—xoxo, L

How to shoot Jewelry on model photography?

September 27, 2021

Question: What’s the best in camera setting to capture jewelry on model photography?

Answer: ISO 100, 85mm, f/13, 1/125 sec.

Here’s the visual proof. For this jewelry on model test shot in my studio using strobe lights, all parameters are fixed except the variable F stop. Zoom in to the jewelry and you’ll see why f/13 produces the sharpest depth of field.

Stay tuned for how to light jewelry on model photography. Thanks for reading, until next blog!

—xoxo, L

jewelry photography nyc

jewelry photography nyc