Classic Problems New and Old Real Estate Photographers Need To Deal With
Many times real estate photographers will have to solve on-the-job problems and sometimes the answers aren’t always easy. Larry Lohrman, the blog owner of “Photography for Real Estate”, a blog post for discussions about real estate photography, recently got this question from one of his readers:
Professional photographer, John, a wedding and portraiture photographer asked:
“I upgraded my camera from a D-90 to a D7100 and I still get this reddish brown color cast in a lot of interiors. I have tried adjusting color balance to the flash mode or sunlight mode instead of A (auto mode) with little success…. I have tried raising the color temperature manually and that sometimes helped in certain rooms, but not too often. It seems the auto mode works the best then I adjust the color balance in photoshop as needed but this a lot of extra time… Do you know of anything I can do to get more accurate exposures on interiors?”
Real estate photographers, including those just starting in the business and also the experienced ones, have to deal with many problems while photographing a property. Knoxville real estate agents are not always aware of the obstacles that their professional real estate photographer has to deal with on the job. Every day their job is to help make a house look good while at the same time dealing with houses not being ready for photographs, rainy days, overly bright windows and last minute cancellations, as well as technical issues like white balance, fill flash, color cast, verticals, and more.
In recent years photography has become the most important aspect of any real estate marketing campaign, selling a Knoxville, TN home is just like selling any product, It's important agents understand as much as possible what really goes into the photography of their listings, and as equally important too it's important for the photographer to know his business and to know his or her product. In the photography business, being a Knoxville real estate photographer is much more than just taking photographs, they have to be a marketing person too.
Larry's response to the question:
“Color balance: Interiors photographers have to deal with color balance issues more than other photographic situations because of many temperatures of light sources in rooms. Different light bulbs can have different color temperatures. The reddish brown can be old incandescent. John was shooting JPG so when the color balance came out of the camera off he had a hard time changing it. The best way to deal with color problems is to shoot RAW. Shooting RAW makes your life much easier in post-processing. Lightroom is designed to deal with RAW files quickly and easily! You can make color adjustments to a RAW file that you just cannot do to a JPG!
Using flash in interiors: John was shooting with his flash on his camera resulting in a very flat looking lighting. It is much better to keep your flash off your camera when shooting interiors, the results have flat looking light when the flash is on the same axis as the lens. Put it on a light stand, that doesn’t slow you down that much.
Verticals and barrel distortion: John wasn’t correcting verticals or removing barrel distortion. When shooting weddings and portraits neither make much difference but in interiors they become a big deal. Learning to use Lightroom is the fastest and easiest way to correct verticals and remove barrel distortion.”
These problems are minor and not so hard to work out, the more experienced the photographer the better they’ll be at handling any situation. Knoxville has many really good experienced photographers, and the Knoxville housing market is one of the stronger markets. if your a Knoxville real estate professional, probably what’s best to take away from this blog is to choose the experienced photographer, they will provide you with better service and better photography, you’ll end up selling your listings quicker and you'll make more money.
Mike ONeill is an experienced real estate photographer. www.mikeoneillphotography.com Contact us today for a promotional discount to try our services.