Currently our budget is locked down, but with the real estate market getting better here (my wife had two sales this week) it looks like somewhere at the beginning of May the funds will be released from my stock photography sales and I can go ahead and make some purchases.  However, again it comes down to what things I want to focus on.  With bird and wildlife photography removed, the following are the avenues I can take.

Macro photography – I will certainly make investments here.  Primarily my focus will be to expand beyond insects and very small things.  There are amazing tidal pools on the coast here, but the MP-E 65 isn’t the best lens for them as things like crabs and other marine life tend to be bigger.  I also would like to start photographing flowers, most likely using a tripod rather than the MT-24EX.

Travel photography – Nelya thinks that sales will be good enough to allow us to take a vacation this year.  I remain a bit skeptical as both kids start private school next year, which will really wallop our pocket books.  Still, if we are going to take a vacation there are some investments I can make here to improve my shots.

Real estate photography – Last week I blogged about my efforts in real estate photography and the wall that I have run up against.  Clearly there are some investments I can make here, though I am still uncertain whether I want to start working with realtors other than my wife.  Also, Nelya has mentioned she is happy with the shots as is.  Her concern is that I can do wide angle – which is easy with the 16-35 2.8L II on a full frame sensor.  However as she does higher priced homes we will likely start doing custom tours and print advertising, so I will need to improve my craft here anyways.

The following is the equipment I am looking at for each.

Macro photography

Canon 180L – This will allow me to greatly expand my macro photography.  This will for certain be on my list, so there is no dilemma here.

Canon TS-E 90 – I have long been interested in tilt shift lenses and this lens will be of great use for flowers and other interesting depth of field experiments.  I also plan to use it for product photography (though I don’t do a lot of it).  Right now I am heavily leaning towards putting this on the list – I would say about 90%.  The current dilemma is about everything else besides these two lenses.

Gitzo lateral arm – For shooting flowers and other macro subjects, I have already noticed that it is very difficult to position the tripod exactly where I need it.  This will significantly help the effort.

Really Right Stuff flash bracket – In order to easily put one of the MT-24EX flash heads above or behind the subject, this bracket would help greatly.  Unfortunately it is also extremely expensive, so I’m not sure right now whether it is worth it.

Books on insects – I went through a number of books on Amazon.com last night and picked out ones that will help me identify insects.  Currently it has been quite difficult identifying things.  However the price of the books came out to be quite high, so for now I will probably just ask on various web sites.

Reflectors and diffusers – This would greatly help me funnel available light in macro photography.  Even with the MP-E 65 I often wished that I had a large diffuser so I can see easier in the viewfinder.

Travel Photography

My current lenses actually do a pretty good job here right now.  On the next vacation I will use the 70-200 4L IS and the 16-35 almost exclusively, so I have no desire for another lens here right now.  However there are some things that could help.

Canon 1.4x teleconverter – This would increase my 70-200mm to reach to 280mm, which would likely help significantly.  I can also use it on the 180L and the TS-E 90 to increase magnification.

Singh-ray vari-ND filter - As you can see from the shot above, I love shooting water shots.  However I rarely get the opportunity except on vacations.  There is still a lot of water around the Pacific Northwest in case I wanted to take local water shots as well.  Note that the above shot is of Snoqualmie Falls, for those who are not familiar with it.

Singh-ray blue/gold polarizer – A friend of mine has it and it does a very nice job.  I already have a polarizer but I like the effect of this one.  The only problem is they do not yet make it in 82mm, so I can’t use it on my 16-35.  Granted, it’s not the best idea to use a polarizer on a wide angle lens due to even light but I would still like to have the opportunity.

Real Estate Photography

Canon TS-E 24 – For interior work this lens certainly interests me, not only for its ability to correct distortion but also because it can help me get shots without appearing in a mirror.  I would also use this for architecture shots when traveling.  However, it currently appears that my biggest issue with real estate photography is lighting, so I am unlikely to purchase this lens at this time.  If I were to purchase this lens along with the 180L and the TS-E 90, my entire budget would be spent.

Strobists approach – This itself is a dilemma.  How many flashes should I purchase?  What remote trigger should I use?  I currently own one Canon 580EX flash.  Most likely the other flashes would be the Vivitar 285s that the strobists site advocates so highly.  The following questions are currently pending.

1) Should I use speedlights or strobes?  Right now speedlights seem to be the obvious choice.  They are far more portable and I can use them for a variety of purposes – such as taking pictures of the kids.  The only question is whether they will generate enough light.  From researching the web the answer seems to be yes as long as I am not shooting huge interiors of multimillion dollar houses.  However I suspect for those rooms I can just use ambient light anyway.

2) What remove trigger should I use?  The ST-E2 is too unreliable so it comes down to the following possibilities.

    a) Pocketwizards.  These are well known and very well reviewed.  What I like about these are the advanced configurations possible and the ability to trigger the camera as well as the flash – something which I will likely try for some types of bird and dragonfly photography. The only drawback is all flashes must be manually set.

    b) Radiopoppers – These have not shipped yet but I have seen several blogs about them and they appear to be the real deal.  The main disadvantages I see with them are that they can’t fire strobes and can’t fire the camera itself.  The Pocketwizards also have far more advanced features.

    c) Cheap Hong Kong triggers.  I know of a number of people that use these and they do appear to work.  They are far cheaper than the other solutions, and can enable me to fire the camera as well as the flashes.  Of course, they are far less feature rich and I may find them not to be dependable in demanding situations.

So there is the dilemma.  I most definitely will purchase the 180L.  If I do not purchase the TS-E 90, I can probably get 4 Pocketwizard multimaxes, three Vivitar 285′s, and some umbrellas/reflectors, etc.  On the other hand I can go with the TS-E 90 and then either purchase the reflectors/diffusers, 1.4x teleconverter, and vari-ND filter, or I can purchase the reflectors/diffusers, lateral arm, and flash bracket.

I have changed my mind several times when making this decision, and I have until May to change my mind several times again.  However any feedback or suggestions will be greatly appreciated, as the advice given for my previous dilemma greatly affected my decision.

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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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