Hotel bathroom photography by Michelle Chaplow
Many people ask us,
what´s the most challenging
room in a hotel to
photograph?
Without a doubt it is
the bathrooms and yes,
we love a challenge.
Park Hotel Vitznau Hotel Bathroom, Switzerland
Hotel bathrooms are one of the most complicated areas of a hotel to photograph. Sometimes small, often filled with shiny, reflective surfaces and always lined with mirrors, bathrooms present a myriad of practical challenges to the hotel photographer. But hotel guests love to see a sparkling bathroom – for some, a beautiful, luxurious bathroom could even be the hook that leads to a hotel booking. This means that the complex task of photographing a hotel bathroom well is worth rising to. For best results, we recommend a lot of TLC coupled with a sound photographic skillset to capture bathrooms in their best light.
We invite you to browse our portfolio of hotel bathroom photography here and please take the time to browse, our 12 very useful tips for hoteliers which explain how we create these images with such precision and quality.
How to create quality hotel bathroom photography: 12 tips from Hotel Essence Photography
1. Teamwork. To create a portfolio of inviting images, photographer and stylist should work hand in hand to achieve the best possible ‘look and feel’ for the bathroom.
2. Towels. No hotel bathroom is complete without high-quality towels. They should be pristine; our stylists work with the hotel to procure brand new towels for each photoshoot. We know from years of experience that even if a towel has been washed just once, it will never photograph as well as it did when it was brand new.
3. Our choice? We prefer deep-pile, white, fluffy, Egyptian cotton towels. They photograph well and are a classic.
Hotel The Serras, Barcelona, Suite 501
4. Space. Some bathrooms are small. But to maximise the appearance of the space, we use a 24mm wide angle lens.
5. Bathrooms should be pristine. After your housekeeping team have dealt with the room, always take time to double check for any blemishes on mirrors, chrome and glass. Remember: the camera ‘sees’ more than the human eye. A good stylist always has a soft cloth to hand for a final polish.
Hotel La Val, Mountain Spa, Brigels, Surselva, Switzerland.
Room 12 Suite Tumpiv
6. Bring in an element of nature. Even one flower in a bud base will enhance a bathroom by softening hard textures like granite, marble and ceramics.
7. We all know bathrooms have a toilet in them. Your guests don’t need to see it. Avoid making the toilet or toilet roll holder a feature in your images.
8. Use those mirrors. Although reflections present a challenge to photographers (and it’s worth double checking to make sure nothing unwanted has made its way into an image), mirrors can also be used to enhance and amplify small spaces.
9. Lighting. The common mixture of halogen, tungsten, fluorescent and even daylight can make colour balancing a nightmare in bathrooms. Sensitivity is key in portraying the room; avoid reflections and balance continuous and studio lighting.
10. Every hotel has a bathroom for travellers with reduced mobility, and it is reassuring to document accessible facilities.
Wellesley Hotel,Bathroom amenities,
11. Details. Amenities, towels, robes and cameo shots of the decor will help to capture the essence of the bathroom and convey your hotel’s story.
12. Sell your views. If a bathroom has an inviting view from the bathtub, that has the potential to be the silver-bullet, ‘take me there’ shot. Study the best time of day to capture the scene and schedule your shoot to maximise the natural light. A well-timed image of a bathtub view will be a real asset and could even become one of your hotel website’s hero shots.
Benbow Inn Bathroom Diagonal view River Eel Room 404
If you would like to find out more about photographing hotel bathrooms or need advice on hotel photography, just drop us a line