State Library Victoria photography guide: dome and rules
The domed La Trobe Reading Room is one of the great interiors in Australia. It is also dim, quiet and tripod free. Here is how to photograph it well, and respectfully.
Step out of the lift on the top level of the Dome Galleries and walk to the balustrade. Below you, the La Trobe Reading Room opens out in an octagon, desks radiating from the centre like the spokes of a wheel, each one marked by a small green lamp. Above you, the dome rises to its skylights. Almost everyone who arrives here does the same thing: lifts a phone, frames the whole room, and takes a picture that looks smaller and greyer than the real thing.
State Library Victoria is one of the finest interiors in Australia to photograph, and one of the most demanding. The light is soft and low, tripods are not allowed, and the room below is full of people working in silence. Here is where to stand, which settings get you a sharp handheld frame, and the rules to respect while you do it.
Can you take photos inside State Library Victoria?
Yes. The Library allows personal, non-commercial photography and filming, with conditions. Under its filming and photography policy, personal photography is limited to wireless handheld cameras and devices. That means no tripods, and no flash. Library staff and visitors must not be photographed or filmed without their consent. Some exhibitions are signposted as no photography, and staff directions and signage apply throughout. Photography for sale, promotion or marketing is commercial and needs to be arranged with the Library.
The La Trobe Reading Room is also one of the Library's designated quiet rooms, reserved for silent work and study, and phones must be on silent. Rules change, so read the current policy on slv.vic.gov.au before you visit.
The La Trobe Reading Room from the Dome Galleries
The reading room opened on 14 November 1913. It is an octagon six storeys high, and its dome measures 114 feet, about 35 metres, both across and in height. From 1959 until the redevelopment completed in 2003, the skylights were covered with copper sheathing; today daylight falls through them again, which is why the room glows.
Where to stand: the Library says the high views are from the Dome Galleries on level 6, and lifts run there when the galleries are open. Walk as much of the galleries as is open before you shoot. Each side of the octagon gives a slightly different view of the desks. For the classic overhead view, stand at the midpoint of one side, square up to the room, and let the desks radiate symmetrically below you.
Lens: the whole room needs a wide focal length: about 14–20mm on full frame, 10–14mm on APS-C, or the ultra-wide lens on a phone. A 24–70mm is useful for cropping into the pattern of desks and lamps. Keep the camera level if you want the galleries' verticals straight; tilt down deliberately if you want the floor pattern to dominate.
Never rest a camera or phone on the top of the balustrade, and never lean over it. Keep a strap around your wrist. A dropped phone falls a long way onto people working below.
Looking up from the reading room floor
The other famous frame is the view straight up into the dome. Walk quietly into the reading room, find the centre of the octagon, and point the camera directly up. When the camera is centred, the ribs of the dome radiate evenly towards the skylights and the galleries form rings around the edge of the frame. Move a step off centre and the symmetry collapses, so take a moment to line it up.
This shot is bright in the middle and dark at the edges. Expose for the skylights, or bracket three frames a stop apart and blend them later. Be quick and discreet: this is a working reading room, not a set. Do not photograph readers at their desks without asking, and keep your shutter sound off.
The Ian Potter Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall was the Library's original reading room, opened in 1856. It closed to the public in 2003 and reopened on 5 December 2019 after restoration. The hall has high ceilings, diamond and fish-scale shaped skylights, original timber floors and heritage marble staircases leading up from the Swanston Street entrance. By day it is a reading room; at night it can be used as an event venue, so it may be closed for functions.
What to shoot: the long perspective of the hall from one end, the skylight patterns overhead, and the marble stairs, which make strong leading lines. The light here is softer and more even than in the dome, so it is a good place to practise handheld exposures before you head upstairs.
The forecourt and the Swanston Street facade
The Library's front faces west onto Swanston Street, across the forecourt lawn, so the facade takes the afternoon sun. Late afternoon gives warm side light on the columns; blue hour lets the building's lit windows balance against the sky. Where to stand: the far side of Swanston Street for the whole facade, or the forecourt itself with a wide lens for the steps and columns. The forecourt is a popular gathering place, so people are part of the picture. Our architecture photography tips cover keeping those columns upright.
Camera settings for low light without a tripod
With no tripod, the aim is a shutter speed fast enough to stay sharp, with ISO doing the heavy lifting. A useful rule is a shutter speed of at least 1/focal length: 1/30 second is usually safe at 20mm, and image stabilisation can buy you one or two slower stops. Modern cameras handle ISO 3200 well, and a sharp, slightly noisy frame is better than a clean, blurred one.
| Shot | Shutter | Aperture | ISO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dome from level 6 | 1/30–1/60 sec | f/4–f/5.6 | 1600–3200 |
| Looking up from the floor | 1/60 sec | f/4 | 800–1600 |
| Queen's Hall | 1/30–1/60 sec | f/4 | 1600–3200 |
| Facade, afternoon | 1/250 sec | f/8 | 100–200 |
Brace yourself instead: elbows tucked into your body, feet apart, breathe out and squeeze the shutter gently. Shoot a short burst; one frame in three is often sharper than the others. Shoot raw so you can correct white balance, because the room mixes cool daylight from the skylights with the warm lamps on the desks. If manual exposure is new to you, our guide to shooting in manual mode explains how shutter, aperture and ISO trade against each other.
A sharp, slightly noisy frame is better than a clean, blurred one.
Best time to visit
The Library is open daily from 10am to 6pm and closed on New Year's Day, Good Friday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Opening time on a weekday is usually the quietest part of the day. Bright overcast days give the most even light under the dome; direct sun through the skylights can throw hard patches across the desks, which can be beautiful or distracting depending on what you want.
Getting there
The Library is at 328 Swanston Street. State Library Station, on the Metro Tunnel, has an entrance at the corner of Swanston and La Trobe Streets, and Melbourne Central Station is a short walk away. Trams run along Swanston Street past the forecourt. Check routes and times on transport.vic.gov.au before you travel.
The Library is one of many free places in the city worth photographing; our guide to Melbourne photography locations has more. Our Beginner Photography Workshop is held at State Library Victoria and covers exposure, focus and composition in exactly this kind of light.
Practise this
- From level 6, photograph the reading room at 1/15, 1/30 and 1/60 second, raising ISO to keep exposure the same, and check which frames are truly sharp at 100 per cent.
- Walk as many sides of the Dome Galleries as are open and make one frame from each, then choose the side where the composition is strongest.
- In Queen's Hall, make one frame along the length of the hall and one looking straight up at the skylights, and compare how each uses symmetry.
Questions, answered.
Can you take photos inside the State Library Victoria?
Where is the best view of the State Library dome?
Is State Library Victoria free to visit?
What settings should I use at the State Library without a tripod?
Published by CapturEDU, Melbourne photography education. Our educators are award-winning photographers with a Master of Arts in Photography (RMIT), AIPP and RPS membership.
