Does this sound like a good plan? - With sample pics

[pgriz]

^ link now working, and I dont know what PC means.

try here: PC-E Nikkor 24mm f/3.5D ED: Digital Photography Review

It's a tilt/shift lens. Perfect for architecture, but pricy. And there's a learning curve to use it effectively.

 

[Ballistics]

^ link now working, and I dont know what PC means.

It's an extremely expensive tilt shift lens that allows you to control the shape of your object. I don't know if that's something that indoor photography would really benefit from. Architecture, most definitely.
But I think in this case, that's serious overkill.

 

[Ballistics]

Also 24mm is way too wide on a D7000.

 

[Parker219]

I would find out how much this pro gets for these pictures. Go to the houses, show him up, and then offer your services slightly (5%) cheaper.

I dont know, he only charges $89.99 for 45 photos. It looks like he edits each and every photo. If I charge $80, I dont know if that would be worth it for me. Ya know?

 

[Ballistics]

I would find out how much this pro gets for these pictures. Go to the houses, show him up, and then offer your services slightly (5%) cheaper.

I dont know, he only charges $89.99 for 45 photos. It looks like he edits each and every photo. If I charge $80, I dont know if that would be worth it for me. Ya know?

I wouldn't say that he's really "editing" them to the point where 45 photos would take over a half hour of your time. It looks like he's literally just taking the 3 bracket shots, combining them, clicking a preset, and moving on.

 

[Ballistics]

I would find out how much this pro gets for these pictures. Go to the houses, show him up, and then offer your services slightly (5%) cheaper.

I dont know, he only charges $89.99 for 45 photos. It looks like he edits each and every photo. If I charge $80, I dont know if that would be worth it for me. Ya know?

I wouldn't say that he's really "editing" them to the point where 45 photos would take over a half hour of your time. It looks like he's literally just taking the 3 bracket shots, combining them, clicking a preset, and moving on.

Put it this way, if you spend an hour at each house, and you can get 5 houses, and then spend 2 hours editing. That's 5 houses and 7 hours of work for $425. Putting it that way, does it seem worth it?

 

[Parker219]

^ Hm, yes, but then I wouldnt have time for my other Real Estate duties. I dont know, I could do SOME houses though. Might as well put my d7100 and new glass to use!

 

[pgriz]

Looking at his images, he's using a least two flashes in addition to the window lights. He's also not doing a very good job balancing the interior lights (which are very reddish) with the exterior/flash images that are blueish. Seeing the shape of the shadows of some of those where he used the flashes, the shadows are not very diffuse, so that tells me that he didn't use a wide-enough source like a soft-box or an umbrella. There's a lot of things in his images that a real pro would not show. In my photo club, we had a published architectural photographer show us his methods, and there is a LOT of preparation, including selecting the time of the day, balancing the colour temperatures of all the light sources, ensuring that none of the reflective surfaces pick up any of the light sources, and so on. He also swears by his tilt/shift lenses, and shoots full-frame. You could buy a nice car for what he has invested in his gear.

 

[Ballistics]

I gotta disagree pgriz, I don't think this guy is using any flashes at all. The only image I could see maybe
being OCF is the one in the kitchen. But there's no specular highlights. The shadows are harsh, but I bet it's window light.

Also, I'm willing to bet that your buddy who uses tilt shift lenses is making slightly more than $90 for 45 images.

 

[pgriz]

I gotta disagree pgriz, I don't think this guy is using any flashes at all. The only image I could see maybe
being OCF is the one in the kitchen. But there's no specular highlights. The shadows are harsh, but I bet it's window light.

Also, I'm willing to bet that your buddy who uses tilt shift lenses is making slightly more than $90 for 45 images.

Oh, yes. His cheques have at least three zeros in front of the decimal point.

As for the flashes - look for two things - the reflection off a shiny piece of furniture that is away from the windows, and the shadows on the ground of things such as foot stools. Not every shot - but more than one, if you are looking for those things, you'll notice.

 

[Ballistics]

I gotta disagree pgriz, I don't think this guy is using any flashes at all. The only image I could see maybe
being OCF is the one in the kitchen. But there's no specular highlights. The shadows are harsh, but I bet it's window light.

Also, I'm willing to bet that your buddy who uses tilt shift lenses is making slightly more than $90 for 45 images.

Oh, yes. His cheques have at least three zeros in front of the decimal point.

As for the flashes - look for two things - the reflection off a shiny piece of furniture that is away from the windows, and the shadows on the ground of things such as foot stools. Not every shot - but more than one, if you are looking for those things, you'll notice.

Yeah, there's really no well defined specular highlights. Which image would you say is a clear cut flash shot? Don't forget, there could be reflecting light from things outside, car hoods, barbecues etc that would focus light into the house.

 

[Parker219]

So d7100 with what ONE wide angle fx lens? I will worry about the rest later.

Wide angle and good for general use too.

 

[Ballistics]

So d7100 with what ONE wide angle fx lens? I will worry about the rest later.

Wide angle and good for general use too.

Id get a DX wide angle for this type of stuff. Seriously. Something that starts at 10mm like Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6D EX DC HSM Autofocus Zoom Lens 201306 B&H

 

[manaheim]

Parker... I did a lot of real estate photography. Mostly commercial but some residential.

You NEED to go as wide as you can. On DX that means one of the 10-xx offerings. Sigma has a couple decent ones too, btw. I have the first gen 10-20, so any wide shots you see on my site are from that.

Yes 10mm will be distorted, but you can tone t down a bit with software (PKlens is $15 last I checked and is indispensable for lens distortion and perspective correction.). If you go full 10mm it will be quite noticeable but for the most part your customers will never notice it. YOU will and WE will, but they won't. When and if you can get away with 12mm the distortion drops off significantly.

Btw, I typically set up on a tripod in a corner and hide off to the side. Fire a flash for a little fill, bounce off the wall behind and above you (watch for hotspots right above the lens) and you're good,

My site, btw... Http://www.impeng..com

Oh btw... The tilt shift lenses are sexy but crazy expensive. What you get from them that you don't get from PKlens is correction without loss. The more you correct the more you have to crop to square the image... So you have some loss of your width. Generally I find I'm ok with it and often I can squeeze in a little extra with some very quick clone stamping.

 

[pgriz]

I gotta disagree pgriz, I don't think this guy is using any flashes at all. The only image I could see maybe
being OCF is the one in the kitchen. But there's no specular highlights. The shadows are harsh, but I bet it's window light.

Also, I'm willing to bet that your buddy who uses tilt shift lenses is making slightly more than $90 for 45 images.

Oh, yes. His cheques have at least three zeros in front of the decimal point.

As for the flashes - look for two things - the reflection off a shiny piece of furniture that is away from the windows, and the shadows on the ground of things such as foot stools. Not every shot - but more than one, if you are looking for those things, you'll notice.

Yeah, there's really no well defined specular highlights. Which image would you say is a clear cut flash shot? Don't forget, there could be reflecting light from things outside, car hoods, barbecues etc that would focus light into the house.

Have a look at these:

Image 8: The matle-piece shows reflected flash at the upper left. Note the shadow of the fan in the mirror above the clock. The shadows on the inside of the arms of the soafas are well lit, and this would not happen with just window light.

Image 9: There appears to be a flash to the photographer’s upper right. Look at the reflection in the table leg, and the light fall-off from the near chair to the next chairon the left.

Image 15: There is a flash on the floor (behind the counter), shooting up – you see the shadow, plus two images of the blades (one flash – sharp, and one ambient – blurred). If you follow the shadows cast on the chairs, you’ll see them triangulate to a position to the photographer’s upper left.