Shooting Residential Homes - Tips?

John_Walsh · July 21, 2011

I've been shooting residential homes for a local contractor and wondered if you all had any techniques to share.

I'm looking to shoot f22 (ISO 100) for max detail, but my shots a getting a mix of overexposure (where the sun hits) and color saturation (shaded areas of the home). I can edit in PhotoShop, but there has to be a better way. Tough to capture correctly, as I need to shoot all angles of the home and include some sky/landscape.

Any thoughts?

~ John

Canon 50D | 17-40 f4 Cannon L Lens | Tripod

Qarik · July 21, 2011

1) if you can, pick a cloudy day
2) obviously shoot raw and full frame if you can
3) shoot barcketed and blend

There really is no way around over exposed underexposed portions of images unless you have the luxury of controlling the lighting. Best you can really do is shoot with camera that has high dynamic range, proper sun conditions, and multiple exposure if needed. Fix in post as needed.

John_Walsh · July 21, 2011

Interesting.

Can you explain the Bracketed and Blend technique? I've not heard of that one.

pathfinder · July 21, 2011

F 22 will give you unsharp images, due to diffraction. You will be better off at f8 - f11, though with slightly shallower DOF.

How are the photos going to be used?

Large prints? ( 20 by 30 inches or larger)?

Or in a newspaper article? Or online images less than 3 by 5 inches?

Bracketing is shooting 3-5 frames on a tripod, at different shutter speeds, to alter the exposure captured so that you can get retain in the shadows and highlights.

Blending techniques are done in Photoshop (or in Photomatix if you begin to shoot HDR) High Dynamic Range is a technique to capture the entire gamut of light from deep shadow to sunlit areas.

One needs some facility with Photoshop to make the most effective use of bracketing and blending techniques.

Stuck in Customs is a good site for an introduction to high dynamic range imaging.

John_Walsh · July 22, 2011

I had no idea about f22 and will take your advice.

The photos are used for a combination of print / web work. No larger than 2000 x 3000 px.

Very excited to try blending! I will read up and give it a go on my next shoot.

Qarik · July 22, 2011

f/8 will put everything into focus and your lens will be at it best performance around there. if you are using a wide angle the dof will be huge so you can even get away with f4 or 5.6

jeffreaux2 · July 22, 2011

I do some work for a local realtor. The stuff I shoot for her is for online viewing at about 3 x 5"

For these, the image quality can be quite poor yet still look terrific when sized for web viewing.

I shoot RAW and process in lightroom. Lightroom is great for global adjustments like white balance, which I bet is the "saturation" that you refer to.

I generally shoot with existing light and do not use flash. If you are using the home's incandescents, then try to minimize window light....if using window light try to minimize the incandescents. This will help with the white balance mismatch of those two different color temperatures.

I hand hold a 17-55mm F2.8 IS lens. The stabilization lets me hand hold to about 1/30 of a second shutter speed. I am typically at ISO 800 or 1600, and will use aperatures of F3.5 and smaller. I focus 1/3 of the way into the composition/frame. This maximizes what will be is sharp focus at F3.5.

I also apply some light noise reduction and sharpening in Lightroom.

At the reduced viewing size....er....final output size, the images are plenty sharp enough.

...and dont forget that shooting RAW can REALLY stretch the dynamic range of your camera. It allows lifting ofd shadows and recovering blown highlights (to a degree) in post production.

Be sure to vary the shooting angles!

ISO800, F3.2, 17mm, at 1/200. This is in my own home before we bought it, but shows how good F3.2 can look at wider focal lengths. Lots of window light here.

Another....different home interior....

F3.2, ISO800, 17mm, 1/30...mixed window and incandescent lighting

and last....

F3.2, ISO800, 17mm, 1/30 - incandescent lighting. Note the shades drawn shut on windows.

....and now....of those three I think this is the noisiest. This is the size as they appear on the realtor's website. At this size they are nice and sharp!

John_Walsh · July 23, 2011

I had no idea f3.5 could produce a nice, sharp DOF. These tips are great and are changing my, umm, perspective. Got a shoot on Wed and hope to apply many.

Also psyched to try HDR.

John_Walsh · July 28, 2011

Ok, now have Photomatix (looks really cool) and shot 3 locations with bracketing.

Trey mentions manually converting RAW files to JPEG before importing. What, if any, pre-processing needs to be done?

And what's the difference between tone-mapping in Photomatix vs. using the RAW adjustments in Photoshop? Do you recommend using a combination of both. If so, what has worked for you?

Shooting Residential Homes - Tips?

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