WDCash wrote:
We are seriously thinking of selling our house. Looking at photos I see in many "professional" listings I think to myself. "I can do that". And based on what I'm seeing probably better, at least for showing off my house.
We live on the water. When we purchased our home it was the view that grabbed us, the house meant little. So I want to show the view in every picture that I can.
I started experimenting today with how to best capture the view from inside and still show the room. these are my attempts. This is a first try. (The room has not been prepared for doing this properly so please don't bother pointing out my slippers, the orange ditch bag or anything else that doesn't not belong in a display photo.)
1 is exposed for the room,
2 is exposed for the view
I shot 2 more between 1 and 2
I merged them as an HDR in LR and that is #3
For a first try I think this is gonna work out ok.
Question for those who know how best to do this
Is my method the best way to achieve my goal? Show the room and view in the same photo.
What type of depth of field am I looking for? I'm thinking I should stop down to f8, which I did to help keep the room in focus. Should I stop down more?
Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
We are seriously thinking of selling our house. Lo... (
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I would bounce a flash off the ceiling to provide. That should give you depth of field to show room and view
WDCash
Loc: Milford, Delaware, USA
PixelStan77 wrote:
I would bounce a flash off the ceiling to provide. That should give you depth of field to show room and view
Thanks Stan. That's helpful
More light. Lots more light.
Wide angle lens. If you don't have one rent one.
Remove as much furniture and personal stuff as you can. To give the impression of space the less "stuff" in the picture the better.
No family pictures.
Clear the countertops and desktops of everything. It's good time to get busy packing.
Go on Zillow or Redfin and look at the well exposed, well composed professional photos and analyze what they did right. Especially look at the high end $1 million dollar plus homes where someone has hired a pro. You'll notice every corner is well lit and all the normal clutter from real life is gone. No pots and pans, no spoons or ladles; you know all that stuff we all need to cook and live. Get rid of it.
Honestly, what you pay a good pro is going to come back to you in offers on the property ten times over. Hire someone that does it for a living. You'll get the money back and then some.
We recently were in the market and did a lot of looking on Zillow. Here's a random one in the area where we bought that was well done. Notice all the light and how the wide angle lens picks up so much of the rooms. Also notice the lack of much personal stuff. Every detail is staged to make the place look great.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2865-Lilac-Rd-Pollock-Pines-CA-95726/79778975_zpid/
twosummers
Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England
Maybe a wide angle lens, make sure camera is horizontal so no converging verticals. HDR is one option - I use 3 brackets 3 stops apart. Try and get "average" lit area in room as base. Maybe also choose a day that is not too bright outside or time of day. To get exposure that covers the range involved you will need HDR or composited layers. Or as has been suggested (and often preferred) is to expose for the view and try and bring the light inside up to the same (or as high as you can) level - that will need one or 2 speedlights or better. Colours and lighting are your challenges - flash can solve both. Shoot in RAW and then see what you can do in post with lifting mid tones and shadows. It can be tricky - I do this for a living and still it's often a challenge - good luck. PM me if you need help with shooting or editing advice. Use a tripod of course
Hopefully this link will come through & work. It's a short tutorial on doing a flash / ambient blended shot. Similar to your idea. This guy has tons of helpful videos & is a great real estate photographer.
https://youtu.be/WEo7tfp5Zds
I used to have to shoot interiors with exterior views in a single shot 30 years ago and we used a method called balanced flash. I think it is even easier now with flashguns that have TTL capability. Flash on TTL and if it has it "high speed sync", camera on aperture priority and something like f11 to f16 and angle off slightly so the flash does not reflect in the window glass. I don't know if this will save you work in post but may be worth experimenting with.
WDCash wrote:
We are seriously thinking of selling our house. Looking at photos I see in many "professional" listings I think to myself. "I can do that". And based on what I'm seeing probably better, at least for showing off my house.
We live on the water. When we purchased our home it was the view that grabbed us, the house meant little. So I want to show the view in every picture that I can. ...
I was doing contract bookkeeping work for a bed and breakfast in Guilford, Maine in 2016. The owner was retiring and had put the property on the market. I asked to take the photos for the MLS. Lots of rooms on three floors. It was my first foray into HDR with a D800 and an 18-35 Nikkor zoom. This series is for the fireplace den. Very dynamic room, looking into the main entryway, the kitchen door, the dining room through the french doors and the fire in the fireplace. I shot 7 bracketed exposures at about 1/3rd stop each at ISO 200. Touched up clarity in Bridge before HDR merging in PS.
I'm a photographer too, but when we listed our last house, our real estate person had a professional real estate photographer come in and there is no way I could even compete with his photos and I have been taking photos for 50 years of more. He used multiple flashes mounted on tripods with them triggered from his camera. The inside photos he took were done in the early evening so that outside light coming in through the windows would not confuse the camera.
Based on how he shot, I think you would get better results if you took view shots outside during the Golden Hours morning or evening and inside shots in the later in the evening.
In addition to the suggestions already made, consider taking the photo from the corner of the room, on the right side. This will eliminate the door and hallway and make the room seem larger. You might want a picture of the view itself rather than trying to show it off at the end of the room. You could also try taking a photo from a corner on the window side of the room. Try it from the corner opposite the desk. Attempting to get your view into the picture may actually be detrimental in that it is both denigrating the room and not showing to any advantage. In your photo.
PAR4DCR wrote:
Aside from all that has been said I would crop out the door frame on the left side of the image.
Don
.......needs much more auxiliary light on the interior - less bright on the exterior (earlier/later in the day). f8 sounds OK but test to be sure - you do want the outside (infinity) to be inside the DOF....
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ScottWardwell wrote:
I was doing contract bookkeeping work for a bed and breakfast in Guilford, Maine in 2016. The owner was retiring and had put the property on the market. I asked to take the photos for the MLS. Lots of rooms on three floors. It was my first foray into HDR with a D800 and an 18-35 Nikkor zoom. This series is for the fireplace den. Very dynamic room, looking into the main entryway, the kitchen door, the dining room through the french doors and the fire in the fireplace. I shot 7 bracketed exposures at about 1/3rd stop each at ISO 200. Touched up clarity in Bridge before HDR merging in PS.
I was doing contract bookkeeping work for a bed an... (
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Nice, but Why not have all the interior lights on ??
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imagemeister wrote:
Nice, but Why not have all the interior lights on ??
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That room is best when naturally lit as it was late morning when I took these. I had never seen the ceiling light on. The table lights would of been on in the evening. I wanted the viewer's attention on the fire. Besides you can't know how the an HDR series will ultimately work out until you are working on it.
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