Five tips on taking interesting photos at a museum

Most people who visit a museum feel like taking a photo of every possible exhibit on display. This often consumes a lot of your time and your photos don’t seem to capture the real beauty and greatness of the exhibits. For many people, it is quite hard to take a good photo at a museum, but here are some tips that can help you do a better job.

1. Think about your equipment

Using a professional camera leads to better photos, but you don’t need expensive equipment to take good photos at a museum. You can use one or two lenses in a range of 24mm to 70mm or a smartphone with a nice camera. What you do need to be careful about is whether you can use flash at the museum or not. In some museums, it is prohibited to use flash as it can damage the exhibits and you certainly don’t want to do that.  

2. Pay attention to lighting

Light plays an important role when taking photos and museums don’t always have the best lighting so you should make sure to pay attention to this. Before taking a photo, you should find the source of light and see how the light rays fall on the exhibit and find the best angle to take a photo from accordingly.

3. Consider having people in your photos

Most people like to take photos of individual exhibits or a few pieces without any people around them. However, your photos can be more interesting if you consider including people while observing the exhibits. This will make your photos look spontaneous and unique and it can give you a different perspective on a certain exhibit.

4. Take a look at the interior of the museum

It is obvious that most visitors want to see the exhibits at the museum, but there may be other amazing things to see and take a photo of at the museum. Many museums have specially decorated interiors with astonishing ceilings or columns and staircases. Instead of focusing on just one exhibit, you could take a photo of a whole display room or a few exhibits in one frame. A photo of a large room with good lighting taken from a specific angle will definitely be more interesting than just another photo of an exhibit and the wall behind it.

5. Consider photographing the museum’s architecture

Many museum buildings are works of art themselves. Museum architecture is quite special as museums must be able to host different exhibitions and keep the exhibits in proper conditions. Therefore, before entering a museum, take a moment to look around and pay attention to the museum’s architecture. Maybe you will want to take a photo of the wonderful building before you move on to taking photos of the exhibits. Even if you need to crouch or lie down on the ground to capture the whole building, it will surely be worth the effort.