Promotional/ Real Estate Photography

fredjclaus

I was asked by my church to take pictures of the camp we own for a brochure they are doing. I jumped at the chance because Real Estate photography has always facinated me as does promotional photography. What do you think of the shots I got?

saikano

Imho,u need to remove some cables,towels,weirdly positioned chairs out of rooms,to look it more tidy,professional Also look out for shadows which fall on main objects. Overall it is good and nice work helping church

ivar

Not bad for a first time

saikano wrote: »

Imho,u need to remove some cables,towels,weirdly positioned chairs out of rooms,to look it more tidy

I would also try to limit the use of flash indoors as much as possible/dial it down as much as possible. Make sure you take the shots during the day (which you did), open al the curtains, and turn on all the lights that you can find.

On shots like this:

fredjclaus wrote:

I would also open the main doors, to give a more outdoorsy/inviting/less closed up feel. I would also crop it so the bar on the left side isn't visible.

fredjclaus wrote:

I would not use this photo, simply because that beam is too much of a distraction and it takes away from the room.

I'm not sure which lens you are using, but it seems to suffer from distortion; You can easily fix this in PS or something similar

Chris H

Thought I'd offer some pointers, I undertake architectural and interior work.

1. Clear the clutter from the room, I make no bones about shifting stuff out of the way and moving furniture if it suits the shot.
2. Use a tripod and switch the lights off. The main reason for this is artificial lighting rarely contributes anything to a scene unless the light itself is a main feature, and usually results in odd color casts in parts of the scene which are difficult to correct.
3. Shoot in RAW and take a shot of a neutral grey card for colour balancing later.
4. Avoid flash, too difficult to control. In high contrast scenes (most interiors), bracket 2 stops each side of metered and combine in Photomatix / Photoshop. I use Photomatix exposure fusion method as it gives the most natural results.
5. In single storey interiors set up the camera about half way between the ceiling and the floor and level it with spirit level (camera mounted if possible). This way your verticals will be vertical.
6. In situations where you can't shoot level (for instance where you are in a high space), do the best you can and correct the verticals later in Photoshop. You can also correct for barrel distortion at the same time.
7. For exteriors of slightly boring looking buildings, use a wide angle and get close to produce a more dynamic shot.

Sorry to yarn on, thought it might help for future shoots though.

Take a look at my architectural photography link below for some examples.

Cheers

Chris

r3t1awr3yd

Let me first say that I am not a profession at anything except computer networking lol. Here goes my opinion...

It looks like you're trying to balance an outdoor exposure (through the windows) with the interior by using a strobe... I've seen some work done this way that is absolutely amazing but not with one bare strobe. I'm guessing that's your setup. Right off the bat, you obviously have the eye to get the exposure balanced but you need to soften and town down the flash inside to look less fake and to avoid the color cast that people are talking about.

If I were you and had a space that I could work in with no pressure, I'd bring along some extra strobes and place them in different locations in the room as needed to create "lighting" if need by. I'd avoid the lights inside since your white balance could end up all over the place. That's never fun to edit, even in raw. (IMO!)

If I only had one strobe, I'd definitely shoot it through an umbrella or if it actually were me, through a softbox. I like what you're doing though!

EDIT: I'm a huge fan of the strobist blog so my perspective might be skewed.

Jane B.

It is not mentioned if there were more shots taken outside of other facilities (such as a lake). That is definitely of interest to those that you are trying to attract to use the camp.

I also feel that this is a different situation than a real estate shoot with the objective of trying to sell the property. It is to get you interested in coming to this camp rather than another. I think this also makes a difference in how much you “clear out” a room. In this case how you can set up the room for different size groups and different types of meetings, etc. is of interest.

fredjclaus

Thanks everyone for your honest tips. I'll try to do that next time, as this might be an area where I would like to offer services professionally some day.

I never noticed the barrel effect until you mentioned it, thanks.

Yes I did take pictures of the lake and some nicer trails at the camp. I didn't post them, but I guess I should have for the over all effect. It's a beautiful lake, where they have their 4th of July parade each year. that's another selling point of the camp. They are right on the lake, and the campers don't have to go far for the 4th. I think they do the fireworks from there as well. Although, I don't know how the different floats toss candy to the kids though being that the shoreline is about 1000 feet away.

fredjclaus

chris, those are some great shots on your site. Were all the interior shots done with natural light, or did you have some sort of strobe system as well?

Chris H

fredjclaus wrote: »

chris, those are some great shots on your site. Were all the interior shots done with natural light, or did you have some sort of strobe system as well?

Hi, yes they're all natural light. No need for strobes if you use a tripod. Believe me some of the spaces I've photographed look very gloomy in real life, but you can make them look bright with a tripod.

One other useful tip is on histograms. If you've shot an interior with a large amount of white walls, make sure the white wall portion of the image appears near the right end of the histogram, makes the image appear nice and crisp.

MLangton

fredjclaus wrote: »

chris, those are some great shots on your site.

Agreed. Bravo. We can all learn from this.

Enitsugua

fredjclaus wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your honest tips. I'll try to do that next time, as this might be an area where I would like to offer services professionally some day.

Next time? Can't you reshoot this? The shots as are wouldn't make me want to use this camp.