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How Do I Get Good Photos when the Sun or Weather Does not Cooperate?

By John Mosier

Real Estate Agent with Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert DRE #SA554748000

January 26, 2013 02:23 AM

Does anyone have answers to this question? I have a couple of listings where the house faces the north. Here are a couple of examples:

Cabin on Lot 4, Shadow Rock Ranch

Both of these cabins are relatively cute but I do not have good pictures to show them well. I have thought about trying to get picture on an overcast day but they are about a 2-hour drive to get there and both are on dirt roads, so I really don't want to go there in the rain. If I set the exposure to show detail in the shadows, the rest of the scene is too bright to bear. I do not do HDR myself and these properties are too remote and too small a potential to hire a professional.

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Lenn Harley

Lenn Harley, Homefinders.com, MD & VA Homes and Real Estate - Leesburg, VA

Real Estate Broker - Virginia & Maryland

I am of the opinion that any photo is better than none. If you can't get natural light, you just can't.

OR, use lunapic.com to lighten subjects.

Jan 26, 2013 02:45 AM

Adrian Willanger

206 909-7536 AdrianWillanger-broker.com - Seattle, WA

Profit from my two decades of experience

John-that is always a challenge, I agree with Lenn, I typically take lots of photos and then use an editor to do the best I can.

Jan 26, 2013 02:55 AM

Charles Stallions Real Estate Services

Charles Stallions Real Estate Services Inc - Gulf Breeze, FL

Buyers Agent 800-309-3414 Pace and Gulf Breeze,Fl.

Pictures look good to me, I am with Lenn any picture is better than none

Jan 26, 2013 04:00 AM

John Mosier

Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert - Prescott, AZ

Prescott's Patriot Agent 928 533-8142

I agree with all of you. Any picture is better than none. These cabins look better when viewed along with others where the light is better. However, I do believe it is important to have a GOOD photo of the front of the property. I do play around with the brightness and contrast but sometimes that does not improve the photos very much.

Jan 26, 2013 04:06 AM

Iran Watson

Georgia Elite Realty - Marietta, GA

Marietta Real Estate Agent - Photographer

One option is to take several exposures, a correct exposure and then 2 or 3 on either side of it. This way you can capture the entire dynamic range of the scene and then 'assemble' the best parts in editing software like photoshop. If you are not comfortable doing that kind of post processing yourself you can send the files to a retoucher and for about $5 an image they can do it for you. All you need is a tripod and a camera with an automatic bracketing feature, which most cameras nowadys have.

Jan 26, 2013 01:07 PM

John Mosier

Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert - Prescott, AZ

Prescott's Patriot Agent 928 533-8142

Thanks, Iran. I have had a professional photographer do HDR photography for me. It was way more expensive than $5 an image. We used HDR to take indoor photos where there is a great view through open windows. If I am selling a $ mm house, that is not a big deal. It is when I am selling a $50,000 cabin.

I do have a camera that is capable of the bracketing and a tripod. It is worth a try. Thanks again.

Jan 26, 2013 01:34 PM

Iran Watson

Georgia Elite Realty - Marietta, GA

Marietta Real Estate Agent - Photographer

If you can bracket the exposures on a tripod all you need to do is find a photo retoucher, not necessarily a real estate photographer, to do the blending. I did a post a while bavk on photo retouching. I have some links there. Or, simply do a search, there are not that hard to find really and most charge less than $5 an image to do that kind of blending. They can also do a sky replacement if it is too cloudy or overcast.

Jan 27, 2013 04:23 AM

Lee Jinks

Jinks Realty - McAllen, TX

I really like the photo retoucher suggestion. That's something I wouldn't have thought of. My first thought would be to take the photos when the sun is at your back (on the front of the house). If there isn't a time of day when the sun is shining on that part of the house (north facing house), then shoot it just before the sun comes up or right after it sets (twilight shot). Finally, there are situations that require the house to be shot at exactly the wrong time of day. In that case, I put the camera on a tripod and shoot multiple exposures with flash units up close to the house. Then I layer them together in Photoshop. I wonder if we could get a retoucher to do the layering. Here's an example: layered

It's not one of my favorite examples, but it is a photo I needed to get when the sun was directly behind the house.

Jan 27, 2013 06:17 AM

John Mosier

Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert - Prescott, AZ

Prescott's Patriot Agent 928 533-8142

Thanks, Iran, for the attention you are paying for this post. I sell land as well as residential listings, so I have a lot of photos with great clouds. I will spend a little more time getting bracketed photos.

Jan 27, 2013 06:25 AM

John Mosier

Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert - Prescott, AZ

Prescott's Patriot Agent 928 533-8142

Thanks, Lee, for your comments and your example. I have so many software applications that I am totally overwhelmed by learning experiences that I must go through. Years ago, I drew my line in the sand and said I would not learn Photoshop. I may want to revisit that decision. Speaking of examples, here is one for you.

Reflection on a REALLY Muddy Pond

This is a really muddy pond that seldom has water in it. It is one of my listings but I feel it necessary to let people know the pond usually does not look like this.

Jan 27, 2013 06:34 AM

Iran Watson

Georgia Elite Realty - Marietta, GA

Marietta Real Estate Agent - Photographer

The thing with shooting brackets is that you can often pull back a usable sky exposure from one of the darker brackets. Then you can use one of the brighter exposures to mask in the house itself. The result is similar to what Lee is getting firing the strobes at the house. You will need to tweak the exposures to get them to blend well but its not that difficult, especially for a retoucher that does this kind of thing day in day out.

John, Photoshop is an incredible tool. It is pretty much all I use to do my editing nowadays, and I do a considerable amount of editing every week. It has got a bad wrap in some circles because of the misuse of the software. I assure you it is not inherently evil or even a little mischevivous, its all about how the person uses it.

Jan 30, 2013 01:18 AM

John Mosier

Realty ONE Group Mountain Desert - Prescott, AZ

Prescott's Patriot Agent 928 533-8142

Thanks, Iran for your comments. For me the problem with Photoshop is the amount of learning experience I have to go through to get proficient with it. I am totally swamped with learning technology. I have a new camera with GPS and even a compass in it. I will be better after I get some experience in running the camera. I have a new tablet and its capabilities as a GPS is phenomenal.

Jan 30, 2013 01:59 AM