real estate editing: I do real estate photography and want to upgrade my editing for window pulls. I can not get the "darken" technique to work. I am using Adobe CC for Lightroom and...

canon Lee

I do real estate photography and want to upgrade my editing for window pulls. I can not get the "darken" technique to work. I am using Adobe CC for Lightroom and Photoshop. I shoot in SRAW, and followed many of the videos on YouTube that show how to do a window pull using "darken" mode. I take an ambient shot of the room, then a flash shot, then migrate to photoshop layers. When it comes to actually using the brush tool and darken mode, to expose the window pull it doesn't do anything. up to now I have been cutting the over exposed layer to expose the widow layer beneath, which is time consuming. Help needed.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Would you explain what a "window pull" is? And, could you explain the "darken" technique?

I don't do commercial real estate. I do take tourist pictures in "historic" buildings. Where I want the window views to mix with the interior detail I do a simple HDR technique. I set the camera to auto bracket and hand hold. Lightroom lines them up and combines them. I can post some samples if you want.

canon Lee

bsprague wrote:

Would you explain what a "window pull" is? And, could you explain the "darken" technique?

I don't do commercial real estate. I do take tourist pictures in "historic" buildings. Where I want the window views to mix with the interior detail I do a simple HDR technique. I set the camera to auto bracket and hand hold. Lightroom lines them up and combines them. I can post some samples if you want.

HI a window pull is when you are in room where the window is many time brighter than the ambient inside. Its a technique where you need to balance out the difference in the exposures. The darken mode is where you use the brush tool in a mask to brush in the contrast between the bights and darks, leaving a beautifully exposed window that looks natural to the rest of the room, All to often photos have a beautiful interior but the windows are burnt out or too light to see any of the outside. In real estate photography it is essential to be able to see the outside view, especially where I shoot, which is at the shore. Go to YouTube and type in real estate window pulls.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

I've always taken 2 shots from exactly the same position - one with the walls exposed correctly (let the window blow out) and the second one metering the window for proper exposure. It' relatively easy to cut out the properly exposed window and paste in into the shot with the properly exposed walls.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

canon Lee wrote:

I do real estate photography and want to upgrade m... (show quote)

I have no idea what you mean by darken mode, or window pull, never heard of either one!

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

canon Lee wrote:

HI a window pull is when you are in room where the... (show quote)

Lee,

When I'm in an interesting building, I look for windows with a view. No it is not for Real Estate brochures but has what may be the same goal. My typical procedure is to set the camera to automatically capture 5 bracketed RAW shots a stop apart. The camera is quick which makes hand holding feasible. Lightroom Classic puts them together in the HDR routine. The output is a DNG with lots of range for adjustment.

Attached is an example JPEG exported from a DNG. It is shot from inside a historic lighthouse on the Oregon coast.

(Download)

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

canon Lee wrote:

I do real estate photography and want to upgrade m... (show quote)

Don't shoot SRAW - It's proprietary.

You'll have better luck if you use a layer mask to "cut out" the blown out window, but there may be some bleed around the perimeter of the window if the difference in light is too wide. I used to use a blackout shade on the outside, then two exposures - one for the room with the blackout window and exposed correctly for the room, then another exposed correctly for the window.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Last time I did a RE shoot I just used a tripod and used a wide bracket. Or sometimes one shot for the room and another for the window. Since the camera was on a tripod there was no problem cutting out the window and placing it on a layer over the room shot.

As Gene notes, you sometimes have to work on the transition at the edge of the window. Often just a little feathering will take care of it.

canon Lee

to all that have responded. I am cutting out the window in layers. firstly taking a good exposure for the interior, leaving the window blown out, then I take a window shot with no flash and cut out the window. However I was looking into another technique I have not tried, which is called "darken" mode. I have a link below that shows how to. After following the instructions very carefully as suggested by the video, when I came to using the brush it did not work. The brush did nothing. I was wondering what I did wrong. The room I was shooting in had very low ambient light and lots of light coming through the window. Any suggestions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzPXZfP6fV4

Photocraig

When I was selling resort properties in the Lake Tahoe area, where the views often were worth more than the dwelling, I used film and the flash/ambient metering technique (with a flash meter). It is a pretty simple technique using a manual flash setting and NO post processing because it was analog. I then scanned the negatives into jpeg and cropped, etc. for the brochures and ads. TTL flash didn't work as well for me. I metered for the window to show the view. Then I metered for the interior, with a flash meter and manual flash to match the exposure metered for the window (s). It is basically the same flash metering procedure as balancing flash and ambient light levels.

Buuuutttt, Today, I use 2 exposures either metered or multiple bracketed ones and use the HDR blend function in LR.

Guaranteed, it is simple because I can do it repeatedly. Photoshop is an anathema for me. I can use it but is about a painful as a visit to to a retail store.

Good luck, Lee.
C

canon Lee

Photocraig wrote:

When I was selling resort properties in the Lake T... (show quote)

I suspect that the room being so much darker than the light from the window, caused me not to be able to get the technique to work. Seems to me that most well lit rooms can get a good window pull from just an ambient/flash shot. In the case of the very dark room, my ambient exposure for the window was totally blown out while the interior was very moderately exposed. I couldn't get a good balance from my ambient shot where the window was not blown. Adding the flash/TTL or M, helped to lower the light from the outside, but it still looked washed out. Am I making any sense? Has anyone tried the link I posted and tried it out? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzPXZfP6fV4

canon Lee

Photocraig wrote:

When I was selling resort properties in the Lake T... (show quote)

Some well lit rooms I have had some success with bracketed shots with HDR. But still, although the window was not blown out, It still looked washed out. I have found that the best way for me to get the best balanced window pulls is to use layers and cut out. this way I can adjust and balance each layer.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

As far as lighting the room is concerned I have 2 or 3 speedlights that I used to bounce off the walls behind me to increase the lighting in the room and decrease the dynamic range between the room and the window.

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

Are your layers in the correct order when you are brushing in darken mode?

canon Lee

DirtFarmer wrote:

As far as lighting the room is concerned I have 2 or 3 speedlights that I used to bounce off the walls behind me to increase the lighting in the room and decrease the dynamic range between the room and the window.

I too use more than one speed light.