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Blending Exposures in Photoshop

By
Real Estate Agent with EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates 9506757

My typical real estate shoot is usually a bracketed exposure series processed in Photomatix and overlayed with a flash shot in Photoshop.  I find I can move through a house quickly and get some great real estate photos of a listing with very little process time.

Overall many would find anyone of these shots acceptable.  It was a cludy day and the room was well lit so the differences are not so drastic.  The exposure fusion shot starts to have trouble with color so thats why I like to add the flash shot and some of the corners get to dark.  The single available light shot has highlights starting to blow out by the window.  The flash shot, well looks to flashy, but you can exposuse your highlights and get a truer color rendition.

The final blended photograph pulls in the hghlight detail, reduces color shits and brightens up shadow areas.  You can full adjust each based on your preferences and get a very nicely balanced shot.  As your contrast increases the more critical it becomes to use this technique.

Video Tutorial

 

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Kevin Vitali is a real estate agent servicing northeast Massachusetts.  Kevin brings strong internet based marketing to the his home sellers, including professional level photograpy.  If you are looking to sell your home and want to know how top level photgraphy can help sell your home quicker and for more money call Kevin at 978-360-0422

Show All Comments
Janis Borgueta
Newburgh, NY
Retired RE Salesperson

Great tutorial. I need photoshop. Expensive to buy though. It this in the cheaper version?

Mar 31, 2013 02:13 AM
Kevin Vitali
EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates - Middleton, MA
Helping Massachusetts Home Buyers and Home Sellers

I used to do it in Elements but it didn't have the auto align feature.  I don't know if newer versions have it.  I do the monthly subscription for the adobe creative suite.  It is $50 a month and you have access to all the Adobe programs.

Mar 31, 2013 04:29 AM
Dan Tabit
Keller Williams Bellevue - Sammamish, WA

Kevin,
I'm going to book mark this so I can bring it up when I'm shooting my next listing. I need to update my photo editing software and have been considering elements.  I'd love the full version of Photoshop, but I can't justify it yet, although I'm going to look into that subscription.  Great job showing how it's done.

Mar 31, 2013 01:53 PM
Lee Jinks
Jinks Realty - McAllen, TX

A slight shift in the placement of the flash, and I think I'd like the flash only version best.

Mar 31, 2013 10:02 PM
Kevin Vitali
EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates - Middleton, MA
Helping Massachusetts Home Buyers and Home Sellers

Where would you suggest placing the flash Lee? 

I find the flash shot just a little to flashy.  There are 2 flashes used one bounced behind me,  and then bounced to the corner of the wall and ceiling to the right.  Unfortunaley there was a stare case to my left which made it very hard to get great bounce behind and to the left.  I exposed for the highlights so the window and furniture did not blow out then matched the flash to that exposure.

I also didnt like the hard shadows of the lamp shades and the chair starting to overexpose which is why I blended the two shots.

Mar 31, 2013 11:34 PM
Kevin Vitali
EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates - Middleton, MA
Helping Massachusetts Home Buyers and Home Sellers

Dan-  Im not sure if Elements has the auto align feature.  I used Elements 5 prior to the Adobe subscription and manaully aligning took forever and was not all that great.  The subscription is $50 dollars a month and between Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat it is worth the monthly subscription price.  You also get access to all their programs, I just started using adobe Premiere and After Effects for video editing though I must mention you need to be using a 64 bit machine to use that.

Here is the tour for this home which includes the photos and my first full motion video http://fusion.realtourvision.com/34882. Both the stills and the video were edited in Adobe products.

 

 

Mar 31, 2013 11:43 PM
Lee Jinks
Jinks Realty - McAllen, TX

In that case you did well.  I was thinking moving some light a little more to the left to reduce the shadow behind the corner in the middle of the room.  There's also some reflection in the picture on the back wall to the right.  The solution there might be to put something behind the frame to change the angle of the picture just a little.  Overall I think they are all great shots.

I recently subscribed to creative cloud so I'm using Lightroom 4 and CS6.  I really like having layer mask which I didn't have with Elements. And now that Google dropped the price of the Nik Software collection, I plan to play with HDR Efex Pro.

Apr 01, 2013 12:08 AM
Kevin Vitali
EXIT Realty Beatrice Associates - Middleton, MA
Helping Massachusetts Home Buyers and Home Sellers

I was standing in the very small foyer and maybe could have snuch another light to the left against the wall along the staircase.  Good suggestion about tilting the picture, Thanks Lee.

Apr 01, 2013 12:46 AM
Douglas Belcher
Chateau Realty - Nanaimo, BC
RE/MAX, Nanaimo ABR ePRO SRES

You can download Photoshop CS II for free now.

 

Apr 07, 2013 08:04 AM
Wendy Tomm
Beyond the Walls - East St Paul, MB
CCSP, RESA-PRO, BBB - Wpg Realtors

Hi Kevin. Thanks for sharing your post.

Apr 08, 2013 09:50 AM
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