When photographing residential interiors, I sometimes use extra lighting to improve the final images. Today, I want to go through how I shot an impossible bathroom and solved my issues with some creative lighting. To start, here is a frame with just the ambient light. My main issue was that the bathroom was literally surrounded by glass, which meant a lot of reflections, including my own. The bright mirror lights were also not great. So you can understand the setup, I created the lighting diagram below, with the bathroom floor plan. Keep in … [Read more...] about Interior photography: Lighting an impossible bathroom
real estate
Join Skylum for a real estate and architecture webinar
This Wednesday, April 17, be sure to mark your calendars for Skylum's live webinar with Master of Photography Steve Rutherford. It all starts at 7 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. PDT. Steve will cover various topics surrounding real estate and architecture photography, including: What the real estate industry demands from our photography What’s needed to start in real estate photography and the gear you’ll need Engaging with the agent or customer Why lighting is not the most important thing in real estate photography Ensuring image … [Read more...] about Join Skylum for a real estate and architecture webinar
Get started in real estate and architecture photography with a Skylum webinar
If you've been wanting to take the plunge into real estate and architecture photography, now's your chance! Join Steve Rutherford, Master of Photography, for a special Skylum webinar on Wednesday, April 17 at 7 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. PDT. With a long list of awards, high demand for his creative vision and hundreds seeking his training courses and seminars, Steve is clearly a photographic professional on the move. He is recognized as a Master of Photography in New Zealand and an Associate of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography. … [Read more...] about Get started in real estate and architecture photography with a Skylum webinar
How to NOT ruin real estate HDR’s
I recently bought a house, so I was looking at loads of real estate pictures. Most are simply informative pictures, and most are made with a smartphone. Real estate pictures can be fun to make, however, and when done well they can help sell a house more quickly. HDR is a great tool to make good real estate photos, but if you let your imagination run away you can end up with a picture that belongs more on a movie poster than the MLS. Let me share a few ideas to help you make the most of your HDR's for real estate. Time of day As with all … [Read more...] about How to NOT ruin real estate HDR’s
How to make real estate interiors with HDR in 9 steps
Making real estate pictures can be a lot of fun and even profitable. The thing is, you can easily spend way too much shooting and finishing them to make it worth your time or worth the realtor's time to hire you. Or maybe you're a realtor and you need to make these kinds of pictures for your client. Either way, using HDR is the fastest way to get great looking real estate photos. Here are ten tips to shoot them fast and finish them fast so you don't turn real estate photography into a money pit. 1. Shoot on a tripod You need to use a tripod … [Read more...] about How to make real estate interiors with HDR in 9 steps
Five tips to photograph architectural interiors
Editor’s Note: We welcome Michael Muraz, an international award-winning architecture photographer, bringing technical precision and creative passion to his fine art and commercial work. Based in Toronto, Michael travels extensively, photographing buildings and leading workshops all over the world. Join Michael for a workshop at photographyunfolded.com. After exploring architectural abstracts, let’s dive into the world of architectural interiors! It can be a pretty wide category, with clients ranging from realtors to high-end interior … [Read more...] about Five tips to photograph architectural interiors
Stories From The Set: Robert Wicker’s Golden Hour
Vanelli travels across the country, talking to some of the top photographers in the field as they share their experiences while shooting on set. You'll soon learn that even seasoned professionals encounter roadblocks during photo shoots. By staying calm under pressure, they rely on their skills to overcome these obstacles to capture an amazing shot. Sit back, relax and enjoy a Story from the Set. Nature and Real Estate photographer Robert Wicker shares how he uses Golden Hour to capture award-winning Real Estate photos. Golden Hour & … [Read more...] about Stories From The Set: Robert Wicker’s Golden Hour
HDR 101: Shooting Brackets
Human eyes are incredible for viewing the world and seeing into shadows and highlights all at the same time. The basis of HDR photography is making several exposures at varying brightnesses and combining them in a powerful software app like Photomatix so we can view a photograph the same way we view the real world--into the shadows and highlights at the same time. We call it “bracketing” or “shooting for HDR” or “shooting brackets.” Every interchangeable-lens camera I’ve seen for sale in the last seven years offers automatic bracketing, but … [Read more...] about HDR 101: Shooting Brackets
Instant Replay: Panoramas and HDR with Ron Pepper
Join Rob Sylvan and Levi Sim with their special guest Ron Pepper, a photographer who makes a living shooting panoramic and HDR photographs. Pepper puts these special photographic techniques to incredible uses, and he's a wiz. We'll show you what scenes make a great panorama or HDR, how to keep it organized, how to put it together and finish it off, all launching from Lightroom. Be sure to check out these excellent videos by Howard Pinsky for tips on using the new features built into Lightroom for making Panoramas and making HDR's, … [Read more...] about Instant Replay: Panoramas and HDR with Ron Pepper
HDR Exposure Fusion with Photomatix Pro
Ron Pepper walks us through HDR Exposure Fusion with Photomatix Pro for interior real estate photography and how to fix overexposed exterior windows. https://youtu.be/NtkxDSl07VY Download a trial of Photomatix Pro at www.hdrsoft.com. View more HDR tutorials in the HDR Learning Center here on Photofocus. … [Read more...] about HDR Exposure Fusion with Photomatix Pro
Photomatix Pro Workflow Tips for Real Estate Interiors
Making photographs indoors during the full light of day can present a variety of exposure challenges to real estate photographers in terms of dynamic range. From light spiking through windows to shadows lurking behind walls, the eye will adjust to balance these harsh conditions automatically. Our cameras in-turn rely on the photographer's vision and decision-making to produce the necessary range of exposures required to cover the gamut and generate a realistic composition of the scene in post. Regardless of the style of shooting, wherever … [Read more...] about Photomatix Pro Workflow Tips for Real Estate Interiors
LIVE HDR Hangout with Photomatix Expert Ron Pepper
While many have heard of (or even tried) HDR, chances are we're not making the most of the process - in fact we're likely overdoing it. To help you learn more, we've lined up a top expert for an interactive discussion and webinar. To learn more about how Google Hangouts work, click here. Mastering HDR & Photomatix Pro with Ron Pepper Thursday, April 9 at 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST Register Here For those interested in learning more about the High Dynamic Range shooting and processing technique, you're invited to join us next Thursday, April … [Read more...] about LIVE HDR Hangout with Photomatix Expert Ron Pepper
Adding Custom Audio to Virtual Tours with Songfreedom
Music, as we know, is a big part of marketing. Retailers use music in their stores to help put shoppers in a buying mood. Restaurants play music to create the desired ambiance, etc. The same principle certainly applies to the highly competitive, visually-motivated world of real estate marketing. Every property on the market needs an effective image tour, and every good tour needs complimentary audio to establish a positive pace and feel. Building on our recent series on Getting Started with Real Estate Photography, in this short video we'll … [Read more...] about Adding Custom Audio to Virtual Tours with Songfreedom
Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Upgrading the Client with Video
Today we'll continue our look at real estate photography by exploring another service we can provide our customers. These days its essential to deepen the relationship with the client and expand what we can offer, and video can be an ideal solution for certain upscale and commercial projects. Video Services Some agents or owners might be interested in more than still imagery to properly display a property and it's setting within the community. Upscale properties may require additional attention via smooth-motion video capture. For instance, … [Read more...] about Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Upgrading the Client with Video
Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Virtual Tours & Pricing
Having covered all the bases from shooting to add-ons, all that is needed now is a place for our gallery to call home. Today we'll wrap-up our look at real estate photography by exploring a powerful virtual tour ally, and conclude with a few thoughts in regard to pricing. Virtual Tour Hosting I would encourage any interested parties at this point to take a look at a turn-key virtual tour hosting platform and consider paying a few bucks up-front in exchange for a wealth of appeal and flexibility. Tourbuzz.net offers a straight-forward platform … [Read more...] about Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Virtual Tours & Pricing
Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Processing Images
In the last couple of articles we've been discussing a few tips, techniques and insights into getting started with real estate photography. In part one, we covered exteriors shooting, moved inside for a closer look at interiors shooting in part two, and examined making floor plans. Today we'll explore a few useful post-production tips that will make life easy as we take advantage of the bulk arranging power of Photoshop Bridge CC and harness the processing power of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) to make select edits quickly across multiple images at … [Read more...] about Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Processing Images
Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Floor Plan Services
In the last few articles we've been discussing a few tips, techniques and insights into getting started with real estate photography. Now that we've covered shooting and processing, today we'll venture into the world of add-on services with a look at floor plans. While one may think good images would be enough, adding a simple floor plan will serve in not only showing off the interior layout and dimension, it will provide an effective overall visual that viewers and prospective buyers will appreciate. For those asking themselves, How do I … [Read more...] about Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Floor Plan Services
Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Interiors
Editor's Note: All gear for this post provided by our friends at LensRentals.com. In the last article, Getting Started with Real Estate Photography - Exteriors, we discussed a basic approach to a typical real estate exteriors shoot plus all the gear I used and rented from LensRentals.com. Today, we'll get into interiors shooting and run through a few good habits to keep in mind moving forward. Picking up where we left off in the last post, it's time to kick off the shoes and head inside, starting with a quick pre-shoot … [Read more...] about Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Interiors
Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Exteriors
One excellent way for a photographer to get established in the local market is to consider adding real estate work to the portfolio. While real estate photography can certainly encompass large commercial and resort-scale projects, here we're going to focus on the more common kind of residential MLS (Multiple Listing Service) imagery we're all used to seeing in the grocery store entrance. MLS Photography is not fine art photography, it is a practical service provided to homeowners and listing agents that, when done well can have a positive … [Read more...] about Getting Started with Real Estate Photography – Exteriors
