9 Helpful Tips for DIY Home Interior Photography

Teetime

Here is a tutorial I put together for photographing interiors. This is part 1 of 2 tutorials and focuses on the basics. These tips are mostly appropriate for all photography types including mobile phones. Part 2 will cover an advanced "paint-with-light" DSLR technique. Comments welcome.

jerryr

nice article Jerry...very well done !

Note : The pictures of the homes - especially when it comes to real estate -really enhance the marketing of the home.
I recently did a site for a realtor in which the photographer uses SmugMug to store the pictures and video.
You can tell the difference in the quality of video and pictures - not only from the delivery and storage in SmugMug but also the attention to detail of the photographer.
example : http://janicefolmar.net/listing/mls-736031-3013_shandwick_ct_hoover_al_35242

kdog

jerryr wrote: »

Note : The pictures of the homes - especially when it comes to real estate -really enhance the marketing of the home.
I recently did a site for a realtor in which the photographer uses SmugMug to store the pictures and video.
You can tell the difference in the quality of video and pictures - not only from the delivery and storage in SmugMug but also the attention to detail of the photographer.
example : http://janicefolmar.net/listing/mls-736031-3013_shandwick_ct_hoover_al_35242

That site doesn't work at all in any of three different browsers I've tried. When I click on any of the thumbnails, I get a little circular "working" animation, and the actual picture never displays. I'm assuming that's not a Smugmug site. Are you saying the pictures on it are hosted from a Smugmug site? When you say you can tell the difference, difference compared to what? Your post is very confusing.

Teetime

I had trouble with it also, photos came up but very slow.

jerryr

yes - the photos do come up - but slow. It is a wordpress site with a plugin that can read images from other photo sites such as SmugMug.
The difference is that the photos are not hosted in MLS which compress the images and decreases the quality.

Teetime

9 Helpful Tips for DIY Home Interior Photography - Part 2
I just added part 2 to this Home Interior Photography series. Part 2 is for more advanced photographers and discusses how to light a room with a single off-camera flash. Let me know if you have anything to add.

Thanks,

TonyCooper

The site and the the thumbnails come up quickly using Chrome. A short wait with some, but quickly enough.

The photos look washed out to me with a lot of reflection problems and perspective errors. Things like the
garden hose in the exterior shot make me itch to use PS on some.

Sam

Teetime wrote: »

I just added part 2 to this Home Interior Photography series. Part 2 is for more advanced photographers and discusses how to light a room with a single off-camera flash. Let me know if you have anything to add.

Thanks,

Nice tutorial. I appreciate your effort doing this.

I do have one question. I noticed on your website you quote $125.00 for a 25-30 real estate photo shoot.

You can't possibly be creating 25-30 finished images using the lighting / blending techniques in your part 2 tutorial.

When do you use this detail and time consuming method and do you have a standard price for an architectural / real estate shoot using this method?

Thanks,

Sam

Teetime

Sam wrote: »

Nice tutorial. I appreciate your effort doing this.

I do have one question. I noticed on your website you quote $125.00 for a 25-30 real estate photo shoot.

You can't possibly be creating 25-30 finished images using the lighting / blending techniques in your part 2 tutorial.

When do you use this detail and time consuming method and do you have a standard price for an architectural / real estate shoot using this method?

Thanks,

Sam

Excellent question Sam. I actually have had two levels of pricing. The $125 for a 25-30 shoot is for ambient lighting only. I do basic Lightroom editing (probably averages 1 minute per photo). The 2nd level was where I would bring in 5 speedlights and a couple of umbrellas and light each room. The shoot typically took about 2 hours with another 1-2 hours in Photoshop for 15 or so photos. These shoots would run $300-400. I'm now hoping to transition to the single flash, multi-shot technique in the tutorial (part 2). I haven't done one of these for hire yet, but it will be for higher end properties and I will need to quote it based on the amount of time I think it will take. I expect it could run $100-200 per room. I would prefer to do more of the latter than the $125 jobs ;-).

Sam

Teetime wrote: »

Excellent question Sam. I actually have had two levels of pricing. The $125 for a 25-30 shoot is for ambient lighting only. I do basic Lightroom editing (probably averages 1 minute per photo). The 2nd level was where I would bring in 5 speedlights and a couple of umbrellas and light each room. The shoot typically took about 2 hours with another 1-2 hours in Photoshop for 15 or so photos. These shoots would run $300-400. I'm now hoping to transition to the single flash, multi-shot technique in the tutorial (part 2). I haven't done one of these for hire yet, but it will be for higher end properties and I will need to quote it based on the amount of time I think it will take. I expect it could run $100-200 per room. I would prefer to do more of the latter than the $125 jobs ;-).

Thanks!!

Sam

Teetime

Part 3, the final part of this tutorial series is now online. It discusses how to get proper window exposure for interior shots.

james18

Teetime wrote: »

Here is a tutorial I put together for photographing interiors. This is part 1 of 2 tutorials and focuses on the basics. These tips are mostly appropriate for all photography types including mobile phones. Part 2 will cover an advanced "paint-with-light" DSLR technique. Comments welcome.

Thank you Jerry for sharing the tutorial here with us. Its gonna help both the beginner and expert photographers.

Queen Goodwin

Will check this out and see If I can apply it, thanks for sharing this

kreygscott

Teetime wrote: »

Here is a tutorial I put together for photographing interiors. This is part 1 of 2 tutorials and focuses on the basics. These tips are mostly appropriate for all photography types including mobile phones. Part 2 will cover an advanced "paint-with-light" DSLR technique. Comments welcome.

Hi Jerry,
Great tutorials. Thanks for this post.

jrogers

Thanks Jerry! Helpful information!