Real Estate pictures - Need feedback Please

[Surfsquish]

I'm using 5D with Canon wide angle zoom lens.

Pictures Georgetown Celebration

Feedback would be greatly appreciated..

 

[tirediron]

Moved to a more appropriate location.

 

[tirediron]

FWIW, I had a quick glance through the gallery (WAY too many for which to provide decent C&C) and a number of issues jumped out at me. LOTS of blown highlights due to failure to balance inside and outside light, the carpet desparately needed raking, your angles/perspectives are less than optimal, and there are numerous white balance issues. When doing this sort of work, you usually needs lots of interior lights (I use 6-8 speedlights for these sort of shots) so that the window light does not create blown areas, and gels to ensure that the light is balanced and matching.

 

[deeky]

Along with what tirediron said....

First and foremost, identify what is going to sell the property. Are you a realtor/rental agent? If not, spend some time talking with them. An empty corner of a room with one blown window isn't motivating to a potential buyer. It makes it look stark, bland, and like there is nothing else to highlight in the property. I avoided these in my listings if at all possible or just didn't show a picture of that room.

Work on your perspective correction. First, get down and shoot lower. I shot a lot of shots from my knees. Then touch it up in post. The distortion can actually make the room look smaller, which is exactly what buyers don't want.

Staging - if at all possible, get something in there, even in new construction. It isn't going with the property (usually), but sells the property. Doesn't take much, but is important.

Consider how many photos you want to put out there (if you have the choice). Give them enough that they really want to get into the property to see the rest, but not so much that they can eliminate the property based on your shots. It's a tough balance, but also very important.

 

[KmH]

Many of your images were made using mixed lighting - sunlight and incandescent (tungsten) light.
Post process, it is pretty much impossible to fully correct color casts when mixed lighting was used to make the image.

The way to handle mixed lighting, and to a large degree why flash is used, is to overpower the incandescent lights in the room with the flash.
Most flash units have pretty much the same color temperature as sunlight.
Understanding White Balance

Those photos having a strong orange-ish color cast were made solely with incandescent light, though the camera's white balance was set to sunlight.

 

[manaheim]

+1 to everything that was said here.

Also look into HDR for mixed lighting rooms.

Also watch barrel distortion from your lens.

 

[imagemaker46]

Nice house, but the pictures don't do it justice. What everyone mentioned is correct, for me the white balance really kills all the interior shots.

 

[Surfsquish]

I reduced the temperature and exposure to get rid of the yellow colors. Please let me know if interior shots looks better? Appreciate everyone's feedback..

Celebration, FL 2

 

[tirediron]

There's marginal improvement, but the main issues (the carpet, blown windows & overhead lights) are things that you can't do anything about in post. The only way to really correct this is by reshooting with a proper set-up.

 

[nycphotography]

In addition to what was said above, I see lots of skewy lines. I'd pull SOME of them out to vertical, like the towers and trees at the market.

SOME of the mixed lighting and blown highlights can be fixed in post (if you have the raw files), but it's time consuming. Work in layers. Expose the raw once for the shadows, once for the highlights, and once for the midtones. Fix the color balance in each to reflect the dominant light source for each.

Now stack the 3 in to layers (two at a time) stsrting with the "best" on top, and the corrective layer underneath. Erase through from the best to let the corrections surface. You can erase w/ soft edges, you can partially erase (like 50% ink 50% flow), etc. then you can collapse the layers. then insert the OTHER corrective image under your working image and repeat.

You can selectively fix color balance just on a toilet for example, then erase the toilet in your target image and let the corrective one show through. then collapse the layers and repeat w/ an exposure correction for the mirror. Then collapse and repeat w/ a correction for the color balance of the walls. etc etc etc. This is KINDA like HDR, except it's selective and you control it area by area by using layers and erasing (as described above) or masking (google it and learn).

When you're all done you then correct the perspective and crop.

 

[tirediron]

In addition to what was said above, I see lots of skewy lines. I'd pull SOME of them out to vertical, like the towers and trees at the market.

SOME of the mixed lighting and blown highlights can be fixed in post (if you have the raw files), but it's time consuming. Work in layers. Expose the raw once for the shadows, once for the highlights, and once for the midtones. Fix the color balance in each to reflect the dominant light source for each.

Now stack the 3 in to layers (two at a time) stsrting with the "best" on top, and the corrective layer underneath. Erase through from the best to let the corrections surface. You can erase w/ soft edges, you can partially erase (like 50% ink 50% flow), etc. then you can collapse the layers. then insert the OTHER corrective image under your working image and repeat.

You can selectively fix color balance just on a toilet for example, then erase the toilet in your target image and let the corrective one show through. then collapse the layers and repeat w/ an exposure correction for the mirror. Then collapse and repeat w/ a correction for the color balance of the walls. etc etc etc. This is KINDA like HDR, except it's selective and you control it area by area by using layers and erasing (as described above) or masking (google it and learn).

When you're all done you then correct the perspective and crop.

Or take 2 hours and re-shoot; probably quicker than trying to deal with all of the problems in post!

 

[nycphotography]

...
[a lot of time consuming crap]
...

Or take 2 hours and re-shoot; probably quicker than trying to deal with all of the problems in post!

I don't disagree. I did say its time consuming ;-)

 

[jamesbjenkins]

To echo what some others have said, as well as bring my own C&C, possibly your biggest issues is the completely incorrect perspective/composition. The first RE set I posted here had the same issue, and I was soundly chastised for it. The two biggest pet peeves to a realtor who cares to pay for professional images are inaccurate color and inaccurate perspective. Simply put, straight lines need to be straight and distortion is a huge no-no. Your color/WB are also a big problem.

If possible, this whole set needs to be re-shot.

Shoot on a tripod with a hotshoe-mounted bubble level to ensure proper perspective. As others have said, multiple speedlights should be used. I'd recommend f/11 or so, as in RE photography, your typically want to see everything. If you pick the time of day properly, you can shoot at your flashes' max sync speed, at f/11 and ISO 100/200 and be able to fully control the lighting with your OCF, and you can gel as needed to get the colors to match.

 

[julianliu]

I would do some lens correction, to straighten the lines and so on... it's particularly importantly when shoot architecture with wide angle lens.

 

[nmasters]

FWIW, I had a quick glance through the gallery (WAY too many for which to provide decent C&C) and a number of issues jumped out at me. LOTS of blown highlights due to failure to balance inside and outside light, the carpet desparately needed raking, your angles/perspectives are less than optimal, and there are numerous white balance issues. When doing this sort of work, you usually needs lots of interior lights (I use 6-8 speedlights for these sort of shots) so that the window light does not create blown areas, and gels to ensure that the light is balanced and matching.

What kind of speedlights do you use?
I am considering purchasing a few.