Room lighting

mike3767 · Jan 5, 2011

I'm a real estate agent and would like to know what would be best to use for lighting rooms for pictures to place on my multiple listing service website. I'd say the average room is 15 X 15. Most forums talk about lighting for portraits but not lighting up rooms themselves.

Bram · Jan 5, 2011

Turn the lights on you'll be surprised.
Try and use an external and bounce it off the ceiling. Stand in the corner, try and bounce the flash about 5ft in front of you at the ceiling.

CCericola · Jan 5, 2011

When I shoot interiors I just use the room's lighting, no flash, tripod and wide angle lens (be careful not to distort though)

Christie Photo · Jan 5, 2011

It's a tough question. There's no simple answer.

The problem is you'll have more than one source of light and they will be of differing color temperatures. The results will likely be warm (yellowish) light from indoor incandescent lights with cool (bluish) light from the windows.

I suspect this will be OK for you except for more valuable properties where potential buyers demand something more professional.

The best, simple answer I can give you is get the widest lens you can, put the camera on a decent tripod, turn on all room lights, set the camera white balance to auto, set your aperture to f11 and shoot a bracket of varying shutter speeds.

But don't forget to call in a professional for the bigger investment properties.

-Pete

mike3767 · Jan 5, 2011

The one problem I would have is in the daytime, if your taking a picture in a room with windows, it will appear washed out. I can't imagine taking pictures with closed blinds. Would I have a better outcome to take picture at dusk indoors? As for an external flash, is that like a strobe with soft box or like a Canon 430?

Bram · Jan 6, 2011

External is anything not on your camera. I would use your external and put it on your camera, as I mentioned above bounce it to light the room up. I assume the ceiling is white lol so it'll bounce nicely.

Christie Photo · Jan 6, 2011

mike3767 said:
The one problem I would have is in the daytime, if your taking a picture in a room with windows, it will appear washed out. I can't imagine taking pictures with closed blinds. Would I have a better outcome to take picture at dusk indoors?

If the sun is hitting full on the windows, closing the blinds (perhaps partially) is not a bad way to go. And sure... shooting at a time of day when the sun is setting or rising, or on an overcast day, would bring the level of light outdoors closer to the lighting indoors.

mike3767 said:
As for an external flash, is that like a strobe with soft box or like a Canon 430?

I don't know your level of skill. Flash (especially a single flash) will provide light that falls off rather quickly. If you feel working with strobe is something you're ready to tackle, that is the best way to go. But you're gonna need multiple strobes (at least two, but often as many as five), and that means stands, modifiers and the knowledge to use them.

-Pete