by Alex Brown | Mar 11, 2017
How real estate and interior photography can take basic HDR photography to the next step by adding some extra light.
I have always been a fan of real estate and interior design. When nothing else is on TV, you can always count on the beautiful homes and interiors that grace the screen of HGTV for hours of endless entertainment. I work for a realtor and it’s always so exciting when we get the pictures back from a new real estate listing. I love writing descriptions of homes based upon the interior photography that we get and then to see share those photos with others.
Real estate and interior photography is growing in popularity and demand. Not only do houses sell faster when they have professional photographs, they become even more memorable to buyers when the photographs are beyond impressive!
Capturing HDR images, or high-dynamic range is the common standard and practice for real estate, interior, and architectural photography. An HDR image is actually three separate images – one that is lit perfectly, one that has too much light, and one that is dark – that are then combined. By combing the different exposures, you are able to pull out certain details that a single exposure cannot get alone.
Here’s an example of a beautiful residential home that I took early this morning at sunset. The sky had finally cleared in Rexburg, producing this beautiful sunset. In my opinion, this photograph works well for the house because the sunset is memorable, however, it can still be even better.
An example of real estate photography of an exterior residential home with HDR.
I want to focus more on interior photography for this post, because this interior demonstrates this principle of lighting for interior photography so much better than my early morning attempt does. This is a normal HDR image of a section of the clubhouse at Mountain Lofts here in Rexburg, ID. I love the mix of the rustic feel of a mountain ski lodge combined with the luxury and high end finishes of an urban development.
Mike Kelley is an LA based photographer who set forth to figure out the secrets of architectural, real estate and interior design photographers. Mike Kelley has created beautiful images of buildings, houses, real estate listings and architecture around the world and he does so with one simple tool: a speedlight.
Speed lights are so awesome because they are portable and so powerful! Using a speedlight for real estate and interior photography is a lot like compositing an HDR in Photoshop or Lightroom. After opening up each separate photograph as a layer, you slowly mask them together until you have your interior or exterior photograph lit. Here’s what my speedlight-only image looked like after I finsihed compositing it.
A composite of 65 different layers that have been masked and blended together. Since I shoot in RAW, the file is about 10.65GB big!
I think this interior photograph with just the flash alone is pretty cool, but it doesn’t show off the space and the interior design! This – using a speedlight – is Mike Kelley’s secret when it comes to shooting real estate and interior photography! But wait… there’s more!
After compositing the separate flash images together, bring in the HDR image and you get an amazingly beautiful result like this! By compositing an HDR image and a flash composite, real estate and interior photography comes to life because of the depth that is created from the shadows by the speedlight.
Check out more amazing real estate and interior photographs by Mike Kelley on his website.
by Alex Brown | Mar 11, 2017
Whether you Airbnb, VBRO, or Homeaway, professional photographs can transform your property’s listing and increase occupancy.
Whenever I travel, I typically stay in hotels. Recently, I discovered the new craze when it comes to vacation rentals through sites like Airbnb and VBRO. I love real estate, interior design and architectural photography. Recently I discovered that this field isn’t really saturated with photographers so I decided to get some practice and build my portfolio in this area.
I started searching out through the various apps. In one case, one homeowner saw an increase of 39% in rentals after he had professional photographs taken. With this apart of my pitch, I reached out to a number of hosts on Airbnb and was able to get a few vacation rental photography shoots lined up.
Jacie and Justin were warm enough to let me into their beautiful vacation rental in Driggs, ID. Jacie designed and decorated the home. I fell in love with this home because of all the natural light that flooded the open concept floor plan. Here are some pictures of the outside of their property.
When taking exterior pictures for vacation rentals or real estate listing photography you need to make sure you keep them plain and simple, highlight the curb appeal and make sure all the lines are straight. It’s a bit hard to do the second one when you’re in the middle of winter.
Exterior Detail
It’s important to note that these photographs are going to sell this listing to potential vacation renters or even those who are going to buy the home. I wanted to get a shot of the house with its most prominent selling feature… the view of the Tetons!
View of the Tetons from the front door
Also, don’t forget to detail shots. I love the repetition of the vertical lines that this house has. Combined with the muted blacks, I wanted to showcase the contrast of the modern nickel handlebar.
Beautiful Front Door
To read more about vacation rental photography check out this article.
by Alex Brown | Mar 11, 2017
Whether you Airbnb, VBRO, or Homeaway, professional photographs can transform your property’s listing and increase occupancy.
Whenever I travel, I typically stay in hotels. Recently, I discovered the new craze when it comes to vacation rentals through sites like Airbnb and VBRO. I love real estate, interior design and architectural photography. Recently I discovered that this field isn’t really saturated with photographers so I decided to get some practice and build my portfolio in this area.
I started searching out through the various apps. In one case, one homeowner saw an increase of 39% in rentals after he had professional photographs taken. With this apart of my pitch, I reached out to a number of hosts on Airbnb and was able to get a few vacation rental photography shoots lined up.
Jacie and Justin were warm enough to let me into their beautiful vacation rental in Driggs, ID. Jacie designed and decorated the home. I fell in love with this home because of all the natural light that flooded the open concept floor plan. Here are some pictures of the outside of their property.
Living Room with Wood Burning Fireplace
Kitchen with Gourmet Appliances
Master Bedroom
On Suite Master Bathroom
Master Bedroom
Guest Bedroom
Kid’s Bedroom Over Garage
Second Bathroom
Sauna
Sauna
To read more about vacation rental photography check out this article.
by Alex Brown | Mar 4, 2017
Three cool examples of how special effects can make photography exciting, different and artistic.
Special effects in videos and movies are cool, but I personally like special effects in photography even more! Wherever you are, whatever you have, these three special effects can make your regular photos even better.
SPLASH
Macro water drops are one of my favorite things to photograph! Last semester, I dropped into the world of macro water drops (no pun intended) and recently, I tried at it again. When taking this macro water drop picture, I used macro tubes on my lens which increases the distance from the sensor to the subject. I actually changed the entire tones of the water to blue, then masked it out to reveal the original orange water drop.
SUGAR
With a super fast shutter speed I was able to catch the small sprinkles of sugar as they fell onto the strawberries. I love how in this picture there isn’t a heavy stream of sugar, yet a shuffle of sugar.
SPEEDLIGHT SATURATION
Using color gels with speedlights are fun and different! I love the first picture of Sam with the split lighting of the red and blue gels. The second picture I love the soft and subtle lighting on Janae’s face and the fur of her parka.
For more cool examples of special effects in photography, check out Megan Graham’s blog post on special effects.
by Alex Brown | Mar 4, 2017
How a speedlight can take an ordinary portrait and turn it into an epic portrait
Recently, I went with a group of BYU-Idaho students on a photo expedition to Bannack, Montana. While at Bannack, I was able to teach them about the awesomeness of a speedlight, specifically with a large rouge flashbender. As students rotated through my station, I was able to see the formula for making an epic portrait:
- Expose for the background
- Shoot into the sun!
- Always start at 1/1 power on your speedlight
- Adjust your flash settings before you adjust your camera settings
By the end of the last rotation, I could not believe how easy it is for a photographer at any skill level to turn a portrait into an epic portrait!
Only a few weeks prior to going to Bannack, I was able to follow these four steps in order to create some epic portraits of Jill Weaver:
Background Exposed – without Speedlight
Subject Exposed – without Speedlight
Epic Portrait – with Speedlight
Epic Portrait – with Speedlight
Also, take a look at more epic portraits I took of Baylie:
Epic Portrait – Baylie Madyson
Epic Portrait – Baylie Madyson
Epic Portrait – Baylie Madyson
If you want to see some more amazing epic portraits, check out photographer Sam Hurd’s Epic Portraits on Fstoppers.com
by Alex Brown | Mar 4, 2017
A quick and easy solution for any photographer to have studio quality lighting on the go.
One of the most important aspects of photography is lighting. Lighting is key to a picture because it helps in creating dimension and emotion. Even without lighting, photographers can achieve and take amazing pictures.
On my recent photography workshop in Victor, Idaho, we learned a technique that allows any photographer to get studio quality lighting on the go. Whether your a product or portrait photographer, this lighting technique is perfect for any mobile photographer.
Speedlights have become one of my main go to items in my photography bag. The power that you get from a speedlight is unmatched when you compare and consider the portability factor.
Speedlights are great for a mobile photographer because they can be mounted on stands, tripods, or even be hand held. Typically whenever I like to shoot, I prefer to have a lighting assistant as I am able to get better lighting from different, obscure angles.
However, having a lighting assistant isn’t always possible. Plus, I’m not a big fan of having a speedlight mounted on a fixed stand. When I shoot with a speedlight, I love to be able to change the position between each shot, and a stand makes it hard for me to do that when I’m alone.
If you’re a mobile photographer, always on the go, there’s an easy solution for you. My friend, mentor, and professor, Caryn Esplin taught us the magic of MTS: Mobile Triangle Snoot.
It’s important to mention that MTS is not meant to have a black background. MTS is meant to have shadows and highlights that allow the subject to be exposed while the background is tastefully exposed. Here’s an example of a product shot that I was able to capture utilizing the MTS method.
The best thing about MTS is it looks like you’re not even using an off camera flash. In this case, the reflection you can see on the front of the bottle is from the windows – not from the snooted speedlight. By shooting the speedlight we direct the light in combination with its power setting.
To wrap this post up, take a look at these two portraits I took of Caryn Esplin herself. The thing I absolutely love about the MTS technique is that it looks like I didn’t even use a speedlight, however, you can tell because of the great round catchlight in her eye!
For more lighting techniques for the mobile photographer, take a look at Brian Hirschy’s blog post: Mobile Lighting for Travel Photography.
