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Photographing your listings - problems & solutions. . . .

By
Real Estate Agent with Realty Executives

I have been meaning to write something like this for awhile because I think the issues in real estate photographs can really be summed up pretty easily. Here are the main issues in real estate photography (and really, photography in general): lighting, composition, angle of view. That's it, just 3 issues to deal with. Of course, dealing with those 3 issues involves lots of learning and either proper equipment or workarounds.

Lighting - the problem is that interior real estate photography requires shooting scenes that have MAMMOTH variations in light across the field of view. Those open windows in broad daylight are many, many times brighter than the dark corners of the room. How to combat that? Well, there are a variety of solutions (BTW no matter what you choose, rule #1 is turn on every single light in the house - it can only improve your photo by evening lighting out):

- ignore it and have blown out windows or cave-black corners. Not a great solution but the one many realtors have obviously opted for.

- creative composition - set the camera in the right place and you will have no windows or dark corners in the picture. Clever and avoids technical learning or expensive equipment but let's be honest, not realistic as long as homes continue to have windows and corners. Works for some rooms and some shots but not many.

- shoot at dawn or dusk or even after dark for interiors. This actually works pretty well. At those times of day, the sunlight hasn't reached max intensity so the balance between dark corners and bright windows is much lower, possibly even equalized with interior lights on. The downside? "Hi Mr & Mrs Seller, I'll be shooting your home tomorrow at 5:30AM so be ready!" It's tough to schedule every shoot for those magic times when the exterior light cooperates. BTW this may be even more important for exterior phtography where the sun is your only source of light. Overcast can also help out here but scheduling overcast doesn't work here in Phoenix. I don't know about where you live.

- Using photo editing software to correct exposure to existing shots. I use PIcasa (free from Google) and it actually does a pretty good job. You can drag up light levels in the dark areas to better match the light areas. The problem here is there just isn't that much room to manuever. If those dark areas are really dark, the software can't magically decide what is actually there as it lightens the area. All it can do is take black to gray and then white. It can't create color and texture. Drag light levels up too much and the picture starts to look like an art painting as it goes to noisy pixels. Works for small fixes but often not big enough fixes to cover the lighting range of a typical interior scene.

- HDR and/or layer masking/photoshopping - with HDR you take 3 photos of different exposure and combine them with software (Photomatix for one) and voila, proper exposure across the scene since the software picks properly exposed pixels all the way across the scene. Requires at a minimum a tripod and software but doesn't require a terribly fancy camera. You can achieve the same result with layer maksing in photoshop or even cut/pasting parts of scenes in photoshop. HDR actually works fairly well but will require one to learn how to operate their camera (with luck, only learning how to use the exposure compensation dial will be required although it will likely require more than that) and how to use the software (Photomatix has default settings that work reasonably well.) The downside is this increases your time spent on photos quite a bit since you are taking 3 shots of everything and then sitting in front of a computer merging them into one photo.

- flashes. Finally the pro solution. Buy a camera with a hot shoe and put a powerful flash on there and then buy some off camera flashes triggered either by the camera or the on camera flash itself and place them at strategic points around the room and you will get even lighting throught the scene which gives a pleasant picture. You can try to do this with a P&S camera but I can't say I would recommend it - their on-baord flashes are weak, weak, weak. REquires an outlay in cash for flashes and a new camera if you don't already have a hot shoe but for the most part, this is going to give you your best results. Some complain that this takes too much time but I have found that it takes no more time than HDR and often less once you factor in computer time. Plus you have more reliable results - you know what you have walking away from the shoot since you can review the shots as you take them. With HDR, if the merged photos don't quite work you have nothing and need to re-shoot.

 

Composition - composition is really as much art as anything. Take photos that make the room look good. How to do that? Well, that varies by as much as rooms vary which is to say, there is a different tactic for every room. I have a couple rules I try to follow:

- don't shoot the backs of chairs and couches as much as possible. I've seen way too many shots of the backs of couches on the MLS. Way too many. It's not always possible due to the way rooms are sometimes laid out but placing furniture in the way only makes rooms seem small. If you have to shoot the back of a couch, try to elevate as much as possible to get over the top of it with your angle of view.

- try different heights. Sometimes a low angle gives a totally different feel to a shot. This works well on counter shots where you can make a counter seem like it goes on forever by getting low to it and shooting along it. Also for bathrooms, a low angle can get you and the camera out of the mirror. For kitchens especially, I'll put the camera on a tripod and set the timer and shoot an overhead shot holding the tripod up and looking down on the kitchen. Really gives a sense of dimension to the room. Pole aerial photography can come into play here as sometimes elevated views are better.

- if you have a really wide angle lens (I have a Sigma 10-20 on a Nikon D40 so I can get as wide as 15mm equivalent), try not to get opposite walls in the shot. It can really make a room look narrow. This can apply even on longer lenses than that if you shoot dens or other rooms with a central double door where you can step back. They end up looking like tunnels.

 

Angle of View - this is the tough one because with a couple exceptions, the only way to get this is to either step back farther (usually not possible inside) or buy a camera or lens that is wide enough to cover the whole room. I started with a Canon Powershot A510 that maxed out at 35mm equivalent width. That's not wide and really not wide enough for real estate. I learned to compensate for it (see below) but it just isn't going to get wide enough for real estate. 28 is OK, 24 is better, but 15-24 is really where you want to be. Wide angle has one other huge benefit: due the natuer of wide angle lenses, they make rooms look larger than more normal lenses. The more telephoto a lens is, the more it compresses the objects in its field of view and the more wide angle the more it spaces objects out. I can't properly explain it but you can find many comparison shots on the web and wide angle lenses have this magical property and the wider the lens, the more it will do it.

- photostitching. This is where I started with real estate photos a few years ago. I had the A510 and it came with Canon's Photostich software which works great. (I have since downloaded Microsoft's free ICE software and it works great, even better than Canon's software with fewer erros) I learned to use it and got to where I could take really useable wide angle shots with just a little know-how. Most people think of stitching as something for landscapes but it works pretty decently for interiors with a little practice. You have to use a tripod for this. WIth landscapes, you can get away with hand-holding and rotating your body because there is a margin for error but with interiors the results are just too spotty. You'll end up with too many mismatched shots. You have to turn your camera sideways or you get shots that are panoramic and much too wide for display. Stitch together 2 35mm portrait images of a room and you get an image that is about equivalent to a 24mm wide angle lens in view (but not depth as discussed above). You have to put the camera in stitch mode or shoot in manual to get the same exposure on each image. Expose for the bright part of the room or the camera will blow out the windows when you turn to that side of the room. Shoot in an auto mode and try to stitch and you will get disastrous pictures since the difference in exposure will show up as a line down the middle of your picture that is just not correctable. I tried combining this with HDR and it can be done but it is a MASSIVE pain. Every shot is 3 shots in this side and 3 on that side, merge them in HDR and then stitch them with photostitch. Get one out of alignment and the shot starts to get soft or funny and. . . . .just don't do it unless you really want to get your inner computer-geek on because you will be spending a LOT of time in front of the computer. Similar to HDR, this suffers from the problem of not knowing exactly what your shots will look like as you walk away. No matter how fastidious you are, you will get photos that just won't align properly. For the most part, nobody will notice and it's better than narrow angle views of the corner of a room but it is a problem.

- the P&S lens adapter and wide angle converter. Tried this one too and it will get a much wider angle of view. I bought a Raynox 0.66x because it was the best rated converter out there and, well, it did give a wider angle of view, basically about the same as stitching photos. Unfortunately it suffered from the same problem almost all these lenses do - it is a comparatively cheap piece of glass and P&S cameras weren't really designed to have adapter lenses. Most that I have seen have 2 problems: they have strong barrel distortion (straight lines curve around the center) and they go very soft (blurry) in the corners and edges. The softness can be minimized by shooting at smaller apertures but at the expense of shutter speed. I shot mine at the smallest aperture I had which was f/8 which meant I was taking multiple second exposures at times in darker spots. These lenses are huge which means they block the flash on your camera (you can always spot the adpater lenses in MLS photos because they have a big dark semi-circle across the bottom. That's the lens blocking the flash.). The barrel distortion can be corrected with software (PTLens works great and is cheap) which means once again, more computer time. I didn;t use this for too long before I went to the next step which is. . . .

- buy a camera with a wide angle lens. Like I said, 28 is OK, 24 is better, 15-24 is where you want to be. P&S cameras are now getting down to 24-28mm levels and those will work for real estate but mostly they don't have hot shoes so you are stuck with the weak onboard flashes.I have the Sigma 10-20 (15-30 equivalent) and you can find it used for about $400. Every DSLR camera maker has a wide angle lens that goes to at least 18mm equivalent. I have a Nikon D40 which you can find used for about $350.

 

So there you go - I have tried just about all the solutions and ended up with a DSLR, wide angle lens, a shoe-mount flash and a couple offboard flashes.  Setting up takes a couple minutes, shoot a pic & check it out on the LCD, adjust settings or flashes and reshoot if needed and boom, I'm done. No muss, no fuss, no time spent sitting in front of the computer stitching or merging. I do a little editing but the pics are usually close enough that it only takes a second for each picture. I recommend biting the bullet and buying a DSLR (even one a couple genrations old), a wide angle lens, a shoe-mount flash and a couple cheap slave flashes. It'll take some learning but you'll finally get the pics your listing deserves and save a bunch of time (& frustration) in the end over the mid-way solutions I outlined above.

If that seems like too much, you should consider hiring a pro. They'll get good pics and require even less time.Yes they cost money but pics are important. We all know with listings now being plastered all over the Internet, pictures are the 2nd most important marketing item to selling the home after price. (Actually it might even be 3rd after staging - great pics of ugly homes don't do much good - however I view the two as related.) People don't look at the wonderful prose we create for our listings (other than for information), they look at photos.

This post has become a book so I'll cut it short (yes, I wanted to post more) and let you mull it over. Now go out and get yourself some good photos!

Comments (12)

Jeana Cowie
RE/MAX Real Estate Limited - Paramus, NJ
Broker Associate, ABR, CRS, GRI, SRES

Eric,

Thank you so much for all your photography insight. I am going to print this out for future reference as well.

Excellent stuff!

Jeana Cowie, Broker/Sales Agent, Re/Max Real Estate Ltd., Bergen County, NJ

Nov 19, 2009 03:02 PM
Eric Lee
Realty Executives - Phoenix, AZ
e-PRO, SFR - Phoenix, AZ

Jeana - Wow, you're a fast reader :-) I hope it's insight and not just a lot of babble as I wrote it in one shot pretty much straight through. I guess the point I was trying to make is I tried all the halfway solutions and just found them to be unsatisfying and I definitely could have saved a bunch of time by getting the right equipment to start with. . . . .

Nov 19, 2009 03:09 PM
Gary Coles (International Referrals)
Venture Realty International - Las Vegas, NV
Latin America Real Estate

Eric,  Great post with a lot of information.  I was not familiar with Microsoft's Image Composite Editor -- so I am going to check it out.  Thanks for sharing.

Nov 19, 2009 03:14 PM
Eric Lee
Realty Executives - Phoenix, AZ
e-PRO, SFR - Phoenix, AZ

Gary - Microsoft's ICE works great. I wish I had been using it when I was doing all my stitching of real estate photos. I still use it for panoramic views as needed. . . .

Nov 19, 2009 03:24 PM
Sherry Chastain
Hendersonville, Nashville, Old Hickory, Lebanon Tennessee - Hendersonville, TN
Realtor, Selling Homes, Lake Properties,Luxury Homes,Short Sales

Ah..........I wish I had you to photo the engineers home istead of me. I got the dog, 1 corner of the empty box in the dining room, and the top of the baby swing in the master. Being an engineer it wasn't aceptable either.   A good trick I"ve learned is if you have a bright room and not a pro flash.....point the camera a an area in the room that has good lighting and hold the picture taking button down, then reframe your shot and shoot. Evens the light out pretty well.

Nov 19, 2009 03:33 PM
Sherry Chastain
Hendersonville, Nashville, Old Hickory, Lebanon Tennessee - Hendersonville, TN
Realtor, Selling Homes, Lake Properties,Luxury Homes,Short Sales

Always proof before you push comment. Ha!

Nov 19, 2009 03:34 PM
Eric Lee
Realty Executives - Phoenix, AZ
e-PRO, SFR - Phoenix, AZ

Sherry - Everyone misses things in shots. Pros miss things in shots. (although from what I can tell, their misses are of a different nature than ours.) It's going to happen. Hopefully by becoming more aware of the mistakes, we can avoid them in the future.

If you have a window or dark corner in the center of the frame, you HAVE to lock exposure elsewhere and then reframe. Good call on that one. I've seen a lot of MLS photos where the agent pointed the camera right at a window and turned the rest of the room into a cave. Windows are tough.

Actually you bring up another good point - taking good photos (or paying to have them done) demonstrates professional competance to your clients. Nothing worse than having clients point out flaws in your photos.

Nov 19, 2009 03:46 PM
Elite Home Sales Team
Elite Home Sales Team OC - Corona del Mar, CA
A Tenacious and Skilled Real Estate Team

Eric these are great tips and I will save them and use them.  Thanks again.

Nov 19, 2009 04:35 PM
Michael Cole
CPG Tours - Corona, CA

Hi Eric,

Great tips! And I think your comment about 'half-way solutions' is right on. There really aren't any short cuts. If it's not done right, it's going to show. Thanks for sharing.

Nov 20, 2009 12:06 AM
Gene Allen
Fathom Realty - Cary, NC
Realty Consultant for Cary Real Estate

Thanks for the information.  Always good for a refresher course and some new in there also.

Nov 20, 2009 12:52 PM
Lee Jinks
Jinks Realty - McAllen, TX

Right on!  I've struggled with suggestions for agents to take good photos and I think you've summed it up very well.  P&S with 24mm lens, but DSLR with 10mm lens is better, but even better is a pro.  Again right on with necessary techniques for fixing common problems in real estate photography.

Nov 20, 2009 02:51 PM
Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

Hi Eric -- I can relate to this post as I have taken a couple of good photography classes, have a Nikon D80, SB600 flash, Sigma 10-20 and I'm learning quite a bit, and from fellow ARers like you, Lee, etc.  I'm debating about getting an extra flash or two for external lighting, but I'm having a hard time understanding the options and integration with my own camera.

Jul 28, 2010 03:39 PM