Balancing the indoor and the outdoor light

[MortenCopenhagen]

This is part 1 of 19 in the Storefront Photography Series. Click/tap here to see the Series Index. 

I like this week's photo of a local Tea shop in Copenhagen because of the dynamics between daylight and indoor light and the storefront/sign lighting. If the photo was taken at midday the golden light from inside the store and from the sign would not have been so bright and visible. And if the photo was taken much later the building would have been too dark to show up in the photo. Maybe 2 minutes earlier would have been even better.

Some photographers talk about the golden hour - this is an example of the golden minutes for storefront photography. Try avoiding sharing storefront photos where the windows are completely black.

Some editing was done in  Google Photos prior to uploading it to Google Maps. This will be explained in detail later in this series (week 3 is particularly relevant).

Further tips:

1. Notice how the vertical lines of the teashop are straight up and down (plumb). This is possible if you avoid tilting your phone while taking the shot.
2. Notice where the name of the shop is positioned in the frame. This allows the image also to show the entire name when cropped to a square format as often used on Google Maps.
3. It was raining a bit which made the light from the inside have nice reflections on the sidewalk.

Cheers

Morten

Update July 23: I added an interesting set of photos here. 

[SholaIB]

Hello @MortenCopenhagen 

Thank you for these detailed and well explained post. I always marvel at how dedicated and informed you are about the maps and connect in general. Thank you for your timely response on posts and questions here on connect always.

Now this is a very good practise of photography skills if anyone wants to. To be able to practically follow these details I believe you'll have to;

• Have permission of the store owner 
• Have the time to spare 
• A decent good phone or camera 
• Be a good local guide 😉.

Now there are cases of crowd enjoying the night out,noise etc and other factors that also affects our Photography out here in West Africa. It's practically difficult or impossible in some cases to mange the crowd (...and traffic) or keep people out of your photos. This is good tutorials and will help in uploading quality photos on the maps. This will surely increase your views as well,no wonder you have that much. Many thanks for the post Morten.

Cheers 

[MortenCopenhagen]

Thanks, for your kind reply, @SholaIB.

Yes, I have often been waiting seemingly patiently for people to move so I can get a clean shot (without recognizable faces). Going early or late is often best. Also, lighting wise. Certainly avoid rush hour. 

In my culture there is no expectation from shop owners that we should ask for permission when shooting from public ground. But shooting from inside stores should be done only after asking for permission. But this can vary from country to country.

Having a decent camera phone is for sure key to capturing good photos for Google Maps.  I use a Huawei P40 pro and 90 percent of the time HDR-mode is turned on to be able to avoid getting black windows with no helpful information.

Cheers 

Morten 

[Ewaade_3A]

What I like most about this photo is the hues, it reminds me so much of Grayscale. 

Now, I have my questions;

• Does the kind of Phone camera used affect how the photo comes out?
• The other question you have promised to attend later, would, I will wait

Paul taught us about the Golden hours, can't  remember them now but I apply it in my subconscious.

This nicest I have taken of a store front in the evening in a long time is one of Jofes Filling Station. For some reason, I am unable to upload the picture here.

Nice photo and I will sure be following these series @MortenCopenhagen 

[SholaIB]

That's a great advantage @MortenCopenhagen 

The liberty for photo shootings. Out here in West Africa for security reasons and other unknown issues permission is often needed. 

Not all though, but some. It's difficult to explain how you are trying to help improve the maps and help the buisness too.

Time is very precious here,it's compared to money really. We haven't much time to spare because of other activities. Those are not excuses now !!! We still have to manage to contribute quality to the maps.

All the best for other series on your card. 

Cheers 

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @Ewaade_3A 

Thanks for your comments and questions.

Is this the image you tried to upload?

Photo by Ewaade 3A

I see a nice balance between ambient and artificial lighting. The name sign really pops out.

But...  

Why did you not wait for the truck to move?

Why did you include so much of the road in your shot?  In week 5 the post is called "How to crop perfectly for Google Maps". It will explain how to remove unnecessary and uninteresting parts of your photos prior to uploading them to Google Maps.

Also, the place is called "Jofes Filling Station", but since the name sign is "Jofes" only you could suggest an edit to remove the category text from the business name. 

The better camera the better photos you will get. If you had walked closer to the pump the photo would have been better (not wasting so much space on the road) and if you do some post-processing (edit) the image in Google Photos prior to upload it can be improved quite a bit. This will be covered in 2 weeks where the topic is "Make your shots look brighter and better". I think your current camera is plenty good if you learn to frame better and how to edit them. 

Cheers

Morten

[Ewaade_3A]

First things, first 😘 that's  a peck for you!

Please teach me how you made the photo appear here. 

Let's  not wven get on to how you knew the exact one I was talking about 👏🏽👏🏽

You are such a wiz! A tech Guru! wallahi! We don't  deserve you! Like what?!

Thank you. Now, let me return to read the full comment @MortenCopenhagen 

Now, to the remaining part;

I want to say a huge thank you for all the tips you have shared with me.

1. I took the photo from the Pedestrian walk which is right in the middle of a long expressway, I was taking a brisk walk back home and did not expect the picture to come out half as nice.  From the comments made by Shola Bello,  I will share with-you-for-free that; taking photos  of places is not something that is readily welcome here and the truth is; I do not have the time to explain myself to anyone as to why I am taking a photo of their place. As a matter of fact 98% of the photos I have on Maps are photos I took without permission. Now, this JOFES has a background story,  if you go and check the '360° imagery' of the place, you will see it is a work-in-progress. Because of cultural ethics here, how do you explain to these people that their place that has been closed down for a while and only recently reopened for business, you are taking the pictures? They will ask for your ID card and all and may end up harassing you, I am not interested in that. So, I have mastered the art of taking photos without people noticing
2. Why did I show so much of the road? Now, you have mentioned it, I will  work on that.  I really love to show the road 🤣🤣🤣 to give people a feel of the access road that leads to a place, many of my photos are like that. 
3. I will take the advice of working on my photos a little more before uploading. I still have a backlog from May.

Thank you so much for sharing with me, I will be following yhe series keenly like I mentioned earlier...

That reminds me; the name 🤔, down here, we automatically  add 'filling Station or Petrol ⛽️  station' to the name of every GAS station even when the owners do not put it on the post, is this a bad thing?

If only JOFES is on Maps, people will still know it is a filling  Station right, which Gopgle Maps call 'Gas station', we don't  call it 'Gas' here.

What do you suggest I do?

Especially  as this JOFES  has both a Gas station and a Supermarket?

[MehadeHasan]

Great post @MortenCopenhagen. 

[MortenCopenhagen]

@Ewaade_3A 

There was only one image with a nice balance of light from you on that pin. We just need to start flagging the image on a desktop. Then a copy in the highest resolution is shown. Right-click and save it to your harddrive. Don't forget to abort the flagging procedure.

I'm not disputing whether permission is needed in your part of the world. I'm just sharing what it is like here also.

But there is in my opinion no excuse for the amount of road in your shot. 2 possible solutions that do not put you in harm's way:  Zoom in or crop the unnecessary parts away before uploading.  You can easily learn to do this. Just hang on. 

The naming rules for Google Business Profile are quite clear. The name needs to be as they consistently use it. That includes the name sign on the storefront. Clearly, the two names on the storefront do not include "Filling Station". If they read  "Jofes Filling Station" then the name on Google Maps should be that long. The category is shown right below on Google Maps, and when Maps users make a text search for supermarkets or Gas stations, there will be no doubt. So it is not up to us, the rules are very clear. And many businesses try to sneak in category or location stuffing in the title, but this is not allowed unless they use it consistently and is is part of the official name.  Here we have a chain of Gas stations named "OK". They love to extend it to "OK Tankstation" even though it is never used and is just a repeat of the category just below. I regularly check if this is ok (pun) or reversed by the owners 😉

Cheers

Morten

[Ewaade_3A]

Thank you, Morten, I appreciate your constructive feedback but I must confess, I do not understand the flagging you have just tried to explain to me, please can you go over it again, step by step, please.

@MortenCopenhagen 

Following your suggestion,  I have edited the name  and my edit has been approved. I still wonder why you said; "only you can do that".

Is it that it is only people within a certain demographics can edit the name? Or is it because I recently uploaded a photo to the place? @MortenCopenhagen