The first townhouse stair I shot in Brooklyn was thirteen feet wide at the street and about nine feet of clear space on the stair itself, and I brought a 16mm because I assumed a narrow house needed a wide lens. What that lens did was bow the newel post into a curve and make a fine railing look like a funhouse. The right answer in a narrow house is a longer lens and a wall to work from, or a two-frame stitch, and I have shot stairs and built-ins in Park Slope and Carroll Gardens that way ever since. The house is narrow. The photograph does not have to be.
Level the camera and keep the verticals vertical
A stair is a set of parallel lines running in two directions at once, and a joinery detail is a set of parallel lines running in two more. Any tilt shows. I set the tripod so the sensor is square to the wall and the level bubble is centered, then I raise the camera to about four feet, not eye height, because that is the height where a railing reads as a railing rather than as a hand near a wall. Vertical convergence I correct in post, but I only correct what the camera did not already get right; the more tilt I leave in, the more the crop costs me. On the landing I check the newel against the door frame behind it, since the eye follows that line and half a degree of lean is visible to anyone.
Make a narrow space look deep, not wide
The mistake in a townhouse is going wide to get everything in. A 24mm to 35mm lens on a full-frame body, with the camera pulled back against the opposite wall and maybe through a doorway, gives a straighter and more useful frame. Where the room is too tight to back up, I shoot two frames from a shifted tripod head and stitch, which keeps the verticals parallel and the newel straight. If I have to go to 20mm, I keep the important joinery in the center of the frame where distortion is smallest and let the corners fall. A hallway shot that fits the whole stair and bends both handrails has failed even though it fits.
Working the light from a shaft, not a window
Brownstone stairwells are usually lit from above, through a skylight, a light well, or a glass door at the top flight, and that light falls straight down the stair and leaves the treads bright and the risers dark. That contrast is the character of the space and I do not flatten it out. I expose for the treads and let the risers go deep, which is what the house actually looks like at noon. Where there is a single window on the parlor floor, I bounce a white card off the opposite wall for fill rather than adding a light. In a thirteen-foot house a reflected fill and a long exposure on the tripod beat a flash every time, and the walls stay the color they are.
Stairs first, then the joinery
I shoot the stair as a whole before I shoot anything tight, because the whole frame is what proves the geometry. Then the details: the newel base and its plinth, the bullnose where the handrail turns, the shoe rail against the stringer, the stair nosing. A railing is judged by its transitions, and a photo of a transition is a close frame with the camera square and the light raking along the profile so the round of the handrail reads as round. Built-ins get the same discipline, one frame square to the face, one at 45 degrees for the shadow, one tight on the shelf and cabinet junction. Cabinets and stairs in these houses were fitted by Brooklyn Millwork, and the frames that hold up years later are the plain, level ones, where the grain runs true, the reveals are even, and nothing in the picture draws attention to the photographer.
Frequently asked questions
What lens do I need for a narrow townhouse interior? A 24mm to 35mm on a full-frame body covers most stairwells and built-ins without bending the frames. Go wider only when you have no other choice, and keep the important joinery out of the corners.
How do I keep verticals straight on a stair? Level the tripod, square the sensor to the wall, and correct any remaining convergence in post. Tilting the camera up to include the full height is what bends the newel in the first place.
How do I light a dark stairwell without a flash? Expose for the daylight from the skylight or light well, let the risers fall dark, and bounce a white card off the opposite wall for fill. A long exposure on a tripod keeps the walls their real color.