Real Estate Photography

[Chris Parrott]

I am looking for somebody that can help with getting bright white / focused images inside homes.
I have a Canon 5d Mark iii with 16-35mm lens and 600 ex-rt flash. I am beyond a "newbie" however very limited time spent with post production and raw images.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ysarex]

Tripod.

Joe

 

[dennybeall]

Light, light , and more light so you can get max DOF and color. If you have light problems you can't solve on site, such as bright outside light through window or not, you can go to post process and stack or merge shots. So, if you set up on a tripod and take multiple shots you will have the material to do your pp tricks. I mostly bracket at least 5 shots changing only shutter speed. If there are vastly different amounts of light then take 6 or 8 shots.
There are some guys that do RE for a living and they can tell you about using multiple strobes and such.

 

[tirediron]

Hire a professional who has the gear and knows what he/she is doing. One lens and one light are not going to cut it for high end real estate photography.

 

[Chris Parrott]

Hire a professional who has the gear and knows what he/she is doing. One lens and one light are not going to cut it for high end real estate photography.

The thing is the photographer I hire has the exact same camera and lenses. The pictures turn out perfect. I'll keep using the photographer, I just wanted to learn for my own knowledge.

 

[dennybeall]

Keep in mind that you could get all the photos for a high end real estate shoot with a single lens and flash BUT the amount of time, effort and processing you'd need to do to overcome the lack of the proper equipment would not make it a profitable effort in my opinion.

 

[cherylynne1]

Hire a professional who has the gear and knows what he/she is doing. One lens and one light are not going to cut it for high end real estate photography.

The thing is the photographer I hire has the exact same camera and lenses. The pictures turn out perfect. I'll keep using the photographer, I just wanted to learn for my own knowledge.

This is exactly why photographers get so offended when someone says, "Your camera takes great pictures!" When all is said and done, the most important aspect is the person behind the camera.

If you'd like to post a picture you took that you are dissatisfied with, I'm sure there are some people that could help you see where you have trouble and how to fix it.

 

[tirediron]

...The thing is the photographer I hire has the exact same camera and lenses. The pictures turn out perfect. I'll keep using the photographer, I just wanted to learn for my own knowledge.

Can you share a link to this person's work? I would be interested in seeing if we agree on the definition of "perfect".

 

[Chris Parrott]

...The thing is the photographer I hire has the exact same camera and lenses. The pictures turn out perfect. I'll keep using the photographer, I just wanted to learn for my own knowledge.

Can you share a link to this person's work? I would be interested in seeing if we agree on the definition of "perfect".

If you want to check out my site www.chrisparrott.ca and look at listing "8235 fairways west drive". These pictures are reduced for the website however I really do like the look and feel of them. The photographer uses 5d mark iii with 16-35 lense and I usually have a 24 hour turn around with him as well.

 

[tirediron]

Okay... that's pretty much exactly what I expected. IMO, those are 'okay' at best. The lack of lighting equipment is causing serious problems with reflections, almost all of the windows are blown out, and quite frankly, the staging is horrible ('though that's nothing to do with equipment). As mentioned, you could indeed return much better results with this gear, but it would take more time.

 

[407370]

...The thing is the photographer I hire has the exact same camera and lenses. The pictures turn out perfect. I'll keep using the photographer, I just wanted to learn for my own knowledge.

Can you share a link to this person's work? I would be interested in seeing if we agree on the definition of "perfect".

If you want to check out my site www.chrisparrott.ca and look at listing "8235 fairways west drive". These pictures are reduced for the website however I really do like the look and feel of them. The photographer uses 5d mark iii with 16-35 lense and I usually have a 24 hour turn around with him as well.

Those pics look like they have been HDR / Tone Mapped through Photomatix or similar. Some of the pics are of unfinished rooms with wiring hanging out the ceiling, not very complimentary for a $700,000 house.
The exact same set of pics is on the REMAX site.

 

[tirediron]

...The thing is the photographer I hire has the exact same camera and lenses. The pictures turn out perfect. I'll keep using the photographer, I just wanted to learn for my own knowledge.

Can you share a link to this person's work? I would be interested in seeing if we agree on the definition of "perfect".

If you want to check out my site www.chrisparrott.ca and look at listing "8235 fairways west drive". These pictures are reduced for the website however I really do like the look and feel of them. The photographer uses 5d mark iii with 16-35 lense and I usually have a 24 hour turn around with him as well.

Those pics look like they have been HDR / Tone Mapped through Photomatix or similar. Some of the pics are of unfinished rooms with wiring hanging out the ceiling, not very complimentary for a $700,000 house.
The exact same set of pics is on the REMAX site.

Personally, my favorite is the tipped over tricycle near the end of the set. Really? You couldn't actually pick that up and move it? It's on WHEELS for crying out loud!

 

[407370]

If the photographer is on a strict time limit then speed replaces quality.

 

[dennybeall]

Windows almost all bad, reflections everywhere, too much ceiling in many shots, Big Blue Trash Can, tricycle and the list goes on.
In defense of the photographer it could be the realtor only pays for this level of work. If the job pays only for an hour in the field and no post processing time then it's OK.

 

[deeky]

This is a bit of a tough home to shoot the exterior. Ditch photos 2-5 as they make it look like they are buying a garage. Unless it's a rare commodity in your area, they make it look like that's all you're getting. I'd also ditch 6&7 as they make it look really small. It may just be perspective, but perception is everything and that is the first look you are giving people of the home. Think of your photos and flow of photos as an actual showing of the home. I would agree to get rid of the utility room pic and also reshoot or crop the photo of the back of the house that highlights the fact that it's missing a deck on the middle level. That's a pretty big expense that a buyer is going to have to consider.

You have a lot of pictures in there and a lot of agents want to put pics in just to have as many as possible. Going back to the philosophy that this is your first showing, only put in the pics that will make them want to actually get into the house. Only use the best ones that tell a positive story. In my opinion, you would visually 'sell' this house better if you cut out 6-7 of the photos. When it comes to being a tease, less is more.

And then clean out the closets. They are really good size, but look like shoe boxes with all of that stuff.