My Technique to Photographing Your Home Listing

February 12, 2016  •  Leave a Comment

There is a multitude of different techniques that can be used to photograph a home and make it presentable. Unfortunately, there is a just as many ways to make a beautiful home look horrendous with poor technique. From using the different types of cameras from cell phones, point and shoots and DSLR's to the different techniques on lighting from using 1 exposure, multiple exposure fusion (HDR High Dynamic Range), 1 flash on camera or multiple flashes off camera. All of this equipment and lighting techniques are very relevant today because all are used in real estate photography by somebody either agent or photographer.

Today I will be talking about the techniques that I currently use to make your home listing awesome. My equipment includes a professional DSLR camera with multiple high quality lens from wide angle to telephoto to be able to capture large and small spaces as well as those great detail shots. All of this is supported by a heavy duty tripod to give maximum clarity and sharpness. To light my scenes I use up to 4 flashes off camera which helps to accurately expose the interior and retain the window exposure. By using flash I am also able to accurately portray color and eliminate any color cast created by lamps and outdoor ambient light.

To give you a better idea of my lighting techniques here are a couple of examples.

 

Base Exposure

DSC_0162Regular Exposure: No Flash

As you can see with this images we have a very high contrast situation where it would be impossible to balance the window exposure with the interior exposure without using either exposure fusion (HRD) or flash. For this scene I use multiple off camera flash units to help balance the window light with the interior light. I first setup a light on a stand from the right to help light the room as seen below.

 

Flash from Camera Right

DSC_01631 Flash added from Camera Right By adding one flash from the right side of the image I have illuminated the whole scene and am on my way to balancing out my window light with my interior exposure. But I feel like the left side of the image is still a little too dark so I add another light from camera left to help balance out my whole scene.

 

Adding Flash from Camera Left

DSC_0167Adding Flash from Camera Left


By adding this light from the left I have illuminated the left side of my scene and under the ceiling fan. Because of the extra light I was able to pull out an even better window exposure and create a nice balance of light to the scene. For extra measure I did add one more light to help open up the shadows under the bed which can be seen in the final image below.

 

Final Image

DSC_0169-EditFinal Image For my last example is a bedroom scene with the same lighting technique to bring out a nice balance between the window exposure and interior exposure.

DSC_0150Before DSC_0153After 2 Flash Setup

 

Conclusion

While photographing your listing I am using professional equipment as well as lighting techniques to make you home stand out over your competition. I prefer to use multiple flashes to better expose the scene while retaining color accuracy and nice balance of window and interior lighting. In a future post I will compare and contrast Exposure Fusion (HDR) and Multiple Flash setups and give you my reasons for choosing to use multiple flashes in my technique.

 

 

 


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IMG_2871IMG_2871 I am a family portrait and real estate photographer based out of Akron and Canton Ohio. I love what I do and enjoy sharing my knowledge and experiences to those who care. Throughout this blog you can read all about my photographic adventures whether its from a current body of work or vacations with my family. 

 


 


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