A room rarely looks in a photograph the way it feels when you stand in it. It comes down to lines that sit straight, light at the right hour and the one angle that shows the space. For hotels, agents, developers and interior designers - inside and out, with aerial shots on request.
A room rarely looks in a photograph the way it feels when you stand in it. As an architectural photographer in Berlin I therefore work on three things: the lines, the light and the point of view. Verticals stay vertical, the horizon sits level, and the camera stands where a person would actually stand. That sounds obvious, but it is the difference between an architectural photograph and a wide-angle snapshot in which the walls tip backwards.
Light inside a building can only be moved so far. So we look beforehand at when each room has its best hour: a breakfast room lives on the morning, a lobby often on the blue hour, when the interior light and the sky are equally bright. Where daylight is not enough I add light carefully - enough that corners and ceilings keep their detail, little enough that the room still looks like itself.
For hotels and hospitality the point is a set that belongs together: room, bathroom, lobby, restaurant and exterior in one handwriting, so the website does not look assembled from five different shoots. Where it fits, people belong in the frame - a laid table, a guest in an armchair, someone at reception. Rooms without any trace of use look clean, but rarely inviting. On request I photograph the food of the house in the same appointment, so rooms and kitchen match in light and colour.
For listings and sales documents what counts most is that a property is shown honestly and completely: layout, ceiling height, view, condition. I photograph flats, houses and commercial spaces inside and out, and deliver the pictures in the formats portals and printed brochures need. For new builds and refurbishments a before-and-after frame is worth planning in - the comparison is often the strongest picture in the whole set.
Some buildings only explain themselves from above: the position by the water, the courtyard, the roof, the neighbourhood. Where a drone flight is possible and permitted, I add aerial shots to the set - as stills and, on request, as a short video sequence. In Berlin by no means every location is cleared; we settle that before the appointment so there are no surprises on the day.
Architectural photography happens on location anyway - in Berlin, in Brandenburg and, on request, beyond. My studio is at Karl-Lade-Strasse 36 in Berlin-Lichtenberg; furniture and products can also be photographed there individually against a quiet background. You get the finished pictures within five working days. I have been photographing since 2003 and work in German, English and Bulgarian.
Tell me about your project - I'll get back to you within 24 hours.
Request a shoot+49 157 528 899 87 · info@mlesemann.com