CalevPhoto

My first million dollar shoot

This weekend, I had the opportunity to shoot my first property over one million dollars (1.243 million to be exact).  The property is in a hot neighborhood and is priced hundreds of thousands below its competition, so I was excited to finally shoot a house like this.  The house was also the largest I have shot to date.

Of course, I actually had the ‘opportunity’ to shoot this house twice, as my original pictures taken at night turned out so bad that I needed to reshoot.  The following is what I learned from this shoot. Continue Reading…

How not to photograph a million dollar house

On Thursday I receive a call from Nelya at work.  She had finally received permission from the bank to list the house!  “Great”, I replied.  “We can photograph it this weekend”.

Of course, we didn’t have until the weekend.  The property had to be listed that day.  The real estate world does not wait for photographers, so I managed to beg a 40D off of one of my friends (I am still waiting for the 5D Mark II) and I went to the house that night to photograph.

It was that night that I learned how not to photograph a house.

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Real Estate – Where to put the second light

Recently I have started playing around with multiple off camera lights with my real estate photography.  I use a Canon 580EX and 580EX II triggered with three Pocketwizard MultiMAX units.

By the way, my wife wanted me to mention that this home has already sold, but if you would like to discuss selling or buying a home with her you can contact her from her web site.

The first light is rather easy to place.  Typically I attach it to a silver umbrella, then sometimes bounce it off a wall or aim it straight at the room but reduce the power.  Sometimes this is enough to light a room.  For example, in this room I wound up using just this one light – which was to the left of the camera.

The tricky part comes with what to do with the second light.  First, I have come to realize that the second light isn’t always necessary.  For many pictures, it is best left turned off and to the side.  However, there are times when having the second light really helps.

Continue Reading…