I’ve been decorating

Over the past five days I’ve done a lot of work on my apartment. I painted the ceiling of the living room and juggling space, something I never got round to doing, despite living here for 3 years. I bought and laid carpets too. I built a table/shelf for the back of the couch, and generally made the place look presentable. Here are some extreme before and after photos…

February 2007, before I moved in (that is the property agent with Pola):

The same room today:

The juggling space is the big empty area. All my practice gear is kept in the cases on the right hand side. Behind the camera is another 4 meters of space, which I’m currently using to build the stage of the new show I’m working on.

Also, here’s some quick photography tips for taking photos of rooms:
– Use a rectilinear wide angle lens. Photo one is a point and shoot, probably at 30mm. The second photo is using my 10mm, and makes the room look HUGE. The rectilinear lens also keeps all the edges and lines straight, unlike a fisheye lens.
– Get low to the ground. The lower you are, the more space there seems to be above camera. Of course, the ceiling in this room is about 4.2 meters, so it’s going to feel lofty anyway.
– Turn on all the lights. This room has some big windows, but they face into a yard surrounded by 6 story buildings, so the light isn’t great. The more light, the better the photo.
– In post processing, boost the brightness even more.
– Make sure the white balance is set so the white walls aren’t pure white. They should be slightly orange, to give warmth. Certainly not the blue of the top photo, which is lit by the camera flash.

Here’s the room again, zoomed in a bit.