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A success in real estate photography

Recently I had the chance to take some shots of one of my wife’s properties.  I am still working on my real estate photography, and I am not yet at the stage where I really want to be.  I currently take all of the shots with my 16-35 2.8 II on a tripod.  Although people seem to like the shots, I more and more feel that I should move towards the strobist approach.  Mainly I feel that the lights are blown out, as well as the windows with views.  I tried creating HDR pictures from some of my shots but the results looked fake so I didn’t use them.  The following is a panorama I took that wound up on the top of the flyer.

In the ultimate comment to my shots though, was the fact that several agents commented about the pictures and the property sold after being on the market for less than a week.  While the Seattle market isn’t nearly as depressed as elsewhere in the country, that is still pretty impressive given the current state of things.

I enjoy taking panorama shots whenever I photograph a property and the above shot isn’t too bad in my opinion.  Still, the shot is significantly darker on the right than on the left and the sky outside is blown out a bit.  I think here using the strobist approach would have helped, as I could have set the flash used on the right side a bit stronger than that on the left.

Currently when I make my panoramas I use a macro rail to help balance on the nodal point of the lens.  I then make sure the tripod is absolutely stable and use all manual settings – focus, white balance, and exposure.  I currently use Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006 to piece together the panorama, though I have heard there are better programs out there to do this.  Eventually I may get the Really Right Stuff pano kit – though it’s a bit pricy.

One of my favorite shots actually is of the outside.

The property had a decent sized yard in the back, but I wanted to emphasize it by putting the lens close to the ground.  I think I achieved that here and the lighting on the house came out pretty decent.  My only regret is not cropping out the unit to the right.

Bathrooms in condos and small houses I find very challenging.  The space is small and I need to make sure both myself and the tripod/camera are not caught by the mirror.  This often requires a bit of trickery in the tripod placement and angles.  The following shot shows how tricky it can be.

Here I was relatively happy with the lighting and exposure, but if you look closely you can see the mirror caught one side of my tripod.  My wife said it wasn’t very noticeable but I was still a bit embarrassed.  The lighting in the shot I think is OK, though it is a bit harsh towards the top.  Again I think that using speedlights here would have helped – though I would have had to make sure nothing bounces off the mirror.

The above shot is another technique I sometimes use in small bathrooms.  Here I hid behind the shower curtain and took the shot from above the curtain rod.  I succeeded in holding the camera still enough for the shot and not being caught in the mirror, but the shot is badly overexposed at the top right.  The angle is often a bit weird in my opinion.  Sometimes these shots work out well, but I don’t think it worked out very well in this case.

Here’s one example where the placement of the camera had a dramatic effect in the final shot.  Here is the first shot I took of the child’s room.

Here the room looks rather busy – mainly due to the toys and television in the corner.  I cleared a spot on the shelf and took the following shot from the opposite corner.

This is the exact same room, but it looks much better from this angle.  It even looks a bit larger.  The lighting is better than some of the other shots, though it is a bit blown in the top.

This was the first use of one of my new toys – the Angle Viewfinder C.  I received this as a gift for my birthday several months ago and initially I had coveted it for macro photography.  However, when combined with the MP-E 65 the viewfinder is simply too dark and it is too difficult to track subjects.  Therefore it remained unused in my bag.  I decided to give it a try for real estate photography and I now cannot imagine how I took photos before.  After using it, I simply think it is a required accessory when doing interior photography.  Very often I needed to fit my camera in tight places and this allowed me to still frame the shot without multiple attempts.

The following shot shows where the 16-35 can sometimes cause issues.

Although this shot was used in the actual listing, there are several obvious problems with it.  The primary issue is the distortion – as evident from the table seemingly “sliding” down the room.  This is the consequence when using ultra wide angle lenses on a full frame body.  I doubt any wide angle would improve the situation here.  Probably the best bet would be to use the TS-E 24, though I then lose some width.  The other major problem is the shot is significantly darker on the left side than one the right.  The strobist technique could probably have helped here.  The final smaller issue is that the light and window in the kitchen are both a bit blown.  To resolve all of these issues I most likely would have had to take the shot with a TS-E 24 and use three off camera flashes.

The following shot is the one I liked the most of the interior, though it was not used for the listing.

Of all the shots, I think the lighting here comes closest to my goal.  The carpet on the left is a bit brighter than that on the right – which seems a bit unnatural given the window is on the right.  However, the window itself is not blown – though the sky is a bit.  The window in the kitchen looks fine, though the shot is a bit darker in the upper left corner than it should be.  I think two speedlights would have improved the shot – but still it isn’t too bad the way it is.

The final shot I will discuss today was used in the listing.

This shot suffers from many of the same problems, though I don’t think it is too bad compared to most of the real estate shots you see today.  The top and bottom of the image are a bit too dark.  This isn’t due to the lens, but is due to the fact that the living room was darker than the other rooms (see the panorama at the top).  The lights in both the kitchen and the dining room are a bit blown, as is the sky outside.  I have a feeling to get this shot right I would have needed two speedlights in the living room – one on the couch and the other on the right side, then one in the kitchen and one in the dining room.  Given only three speedlights, I could have probably escaped with not putting one in the dining room.

Still, despite these issues I think I am improving my real estate photography and the house did sell quickly.

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Tags: critique, photography, real estate, Real Estate, strobist