So I'm getting into real estate photography.

[fuzzybabybunny]

http://www.victorlinphoto.com/...y/lightroom/index.html

I'm doing HDR and I'm trying not to overdo it, but at the same time I'm trying to give it just the right amount of wow factor to attract untrained eyes that aren't looking out for the classic HDR unrealistic look. How am I doing? If you were looking for a house would these pics entice you to visit?

I really screwed up this set BTW due to my noobness. Too much junk laying around in the kitchen, living room, and office. Photos are unusable. This is what I get for photographing a house where the residents are still actively living in it. I gotta act as maid service while doing this work.

EDIT:

By real estate I don't mean fine art real estate that you'd see in the magazines. I'm talking about regular houses for sale. My customers are realtors and they want images that attract people to their houses. These people generally don't have a discerning eye. My images also have to be churned out quick and easy because it's really a photo mill. And the images have to show the magnitude of the room, NOT the details of the furniture/decoration, because obviously those won't be coming with the house.

I'm trying to work towards the style of Vicaso:

http://seattle.vicaso.net/

They've been growing very popular and the realtors really gobble it up. Vicaso's expanding in my area (and throughout the US) so I figured that I'd better try to emulate. It's not about what looks good, or even realistic. It's about what sells.

 

[KevinCU]

*snorgle*

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Yeah... this should be in Digicams....

 

[destrekor]

May be trying not to overdo the HDR... but you DEFINITELY overdid the HDR.

Oh and come on... wrong forum. You're the mod of the damn forum this belongs in!

Furry, I am disappoint.

 

[ponyo]

Looks great. Always love your photos. How much is the house?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Nice pics but not the best angles and shots if you're trying to entice a buyer. Need to start from the front of the house. Be able to see the whole front. And more... Want to show rooms as if you're entering them, give them a sense that they're walking thru the house.

 

[destrekor]

For a more detailed critique...

With the whole attracting untrained eyes - remember, this is real estate. People have trained eyes when looking at photos of real estate. The photos are everywhere, and they know what good real estate photos look like.
Honestly, the HDR in those photos makes me think I'd be buying a home that is probably no longer there due to a nuclear bomb having just detonated in the vicinity.
Take a normal exposure photograph with polarization proper metering. I've seen your photos and unless it's all been simply guess work, I'd say you have that ability. In a bright outdoors scene, it's very easy to make a photo pop without using HDR. I've done it, with film shots even.

Use a polarization filter for the indoor photos too if keeping windows in the scene, keep it on a tripod and go for longer exposures. You'll get indoor photos that pop too.

I'm not a huge fan of HDR techniques. It can be nice for wicked sweet looking photos that are just serene and have that aura of strange to them... but I don't think it belongs in a normal, for print marketing photo.
At the most, I'd recommend dodging and burning, but that's my passion for film showing.

 

[virtuamike]

For starters, too much wide angle going on. Ease up. And you don't want halos with your HDR. Go for subtle.

My buddy's work

Galleries -> Interiors / Exteriors

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: virtuamike
For starters, too much wide angle going on. Ease up. And you don't want halos with your HDR. Go for subtle.

My buddy's work

Galleries -> Interiors / Exteriors

Some of those bodypainting pictures are... weird.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Looks great. Always love your photos. How much is the house?

I think this is something like $2.5 mil? In Palo Alto, CA.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Nice pics but not the best angles and shots if you're trying to entice a buyer. Need to start from the front of the house. Be able to see the whole front. And more... Want to show rooms as if you're entering them, give them a sense that they're walking thru the house.

The photos in the gallery are not in any order because I just threw them together on a whim to post up here. I normally order them like you said, a walk through the house.

And seeing the whole "thing" is the #1 problem with real estate shots because many times it's just impossible to get the angle. Walls in the way, lens isn't wide enough, etc. And pics of the whole front of the house. In order to get that I would have needed to cut down a tree, so I was forced to break it up into sections.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: virtuamike
For starters, too much wide angle going on. Ease up. And you don't want halos with your HDR. Go for subtle.

My buddy's work

Galleries -> Interiors / Exteriors

Believe me, for any other architecture situation, I wouldn't be running around doing wide angle HDR stuff. But this is just regular real estate stuff for maybe $150 a house. They don't want art. I don't have time to spend on making everything art anyway. Just need to make the rooms look big (because it's Cali and space is a premium) and make the images pop so as to entice people to look at the house (ex. OooOOoo shiny things!).

 

[xchangx]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: virtuamike
For starters, too much wide angle going on. Ease up. And you don't want halos with your HDR. Go for subtle.

My buddy's work

Galleries -> Interiors / Exteriors

Believe me, for any other architecture situation, I wouldn't be running around doing wide angle HDR stuff. But this is just regular real estate stuff for maybe $150 a house. They don't want art. I don't have time to spend on making everything art anyway. Just need to make the rooms look big (because it's Cali and space is a premium) and make the images pop so as to entice people to look at the house (ex. OooOOoo shiny things!).

I actually think your hdr's look good. However, you'll need to think hard about how much to charge vs how much time you will put into these.

I've thought about this at one point, but in the market where I live, the cost I'd have to charge will be too high. This is money coming directly out of realtor's pockets and since the market sucks now, they may be hesitant to spend extra money if their P&S can give them decent pictures.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: xchangx

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: virtuamike
For starters, too much wide angle going on. Ease up. And you don't want halos with your HDR. Go for subtle.

My buddy's work

Galleries -> Interiors / Exteriors

Believe me, for any other architecture situation, I wouldn't be running around doing wide angle HDR stuff. But this is just regular real estate stuff for maybe $150 a house. They don't want art. I don't have time to spend on making everything art anyway. Just need to make the rooms look big (because it's Cali and space is a premium) and make the images pop so as to entice people to look at the house (ex. OooOOoo shiny things!).

I actually think your hdr's look good. However, you'll need to think hard about how much to charge vs how much time you will put into these.

I've thought about this at one point, but in the market where I live, the cost I'd have to charge will be too high. This is money coming directly out of realtor's pockets and since the market sucks now, they may be hesitant to spend extra money if their P&S can give them decent pictures.

Yeah, I agree. I think the going rate around my parts is $150-$200 for a virtual tour. This would include a custom domain, slideshow, stills, and maybe 360 panos. But I think with practice I can get a good system down.

I bracket 9 shots for each scene, and then batch process them using default settings with Enfure, which works right off of Lightroom. Then I take all the photos and apply the same retouch settings for all of them, do some quick touchups of the ones that didn't like the retouch settings, make the verticals straight (this is the longest part), and save as final. I would say 1hr to shoot the house and 1hr to process the HDR stills. Tack on 0.5hr to make the virtual tour. 2.5 hours, hoping for 3 houses a day, 7.5hrs of work, $450 a day?

I think realtors are willing to pay for good pictures because the market sucks. They'll do anything within reason to attract more people and increase the chances of selling the thing in this down economy.

 

[Auggie]

Wow... those pictures are incredible, FBB. Really good job. I think the HDR is perceptible, but only because you mentioned it... otherwise it would just look like a really vivid white/color settings. I think those pictures are outstanding.

 

[Auggie]

Just as a curiosity, how much setup cost is there to this? Camera/lens/tripod/software, etc? This is something that seems like it would actually be pretty fun to do as a side hobby/spending-money job.

 

[DayLaPaul]

I'm in property management which requires me to take a lot of photos of homes. My pictures look pretty bland. Yours are pretty bright and vivid. Very nice.

How easy is it to create HDR photos? I'm doing a quick google search and it appears that these photos are taken using multiple exposures and then software is used to pretty much combine the photos. Is that an accurate analysis? Would I be able to take photos like these using a standard Canon point and shoot camera (SD790)?

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I'm what you might call an untrained eye. I look at a picture and immediately form a good/bad opinion but I can't quite explain why I like/dislike a picture. Those pictures look incredible to me and the house is awesome as well.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Auggie
Just as a curiosity, how much setup cost is there to this? Camera/lens/tripod/software, etc? This is something that seems like it would actually be pretty fun to do as a side hobby/spending-money job.

Well, to take just stills (not panos) this is the minimum:

Tripod sturdy enough for SLR: $150
Ballhead: $50
Ultrawide Angle Lens: $400
SLR body: $500-$2000+
Remote shutter cord: $10-$100
Lightroom: $200
Enfuse and PTLens: $25 + donation
Hosting: $6/month

If you do panoramas, things get super crazy.

All the above PLUS

Panorama bracket and click-lock rotator plate for zeroing in on the nodal point: $200-$500
Fisheye lens recommended (makes life easier): $600-$1000+
Autopano to stitch together images: $150
Software for projecting and viewing the 360 pano: $25-$300+

If you don't do HDR, you want to light using external flashes, so add:

Multiple speedlights (flashes) @ $150+ a piece.
Remote triggers: $200+?

If you're a hobbyist you probably already have the majority of stuff to just take stills.

 

[virtuamike]

Originally posted by: Auggie
Just as a curiosity, how much setup cost is there to this? Camera/lens/tripod/software, etc? This is something that seems like it would actually be pretty fun to do as a side hobby/spending-money job.

Eh, there are better ways to lose money

 

[FelixDeCat]

Very nice pictures. I dont have the $, but Im ready to buy already.

ps. They only thing it needs is window coverings. I like to walk around the house in my birthday suit at night.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
I'm in property management which requires me to take a lot of photos of homes. My pictures look pretty bland. Yours are pretty bright and vivid. Very nice.

How easy is it to create HDR photos? I'm doing a quick google search and it appears that these photos are taken using multiple exposures and then software is used to pretty much combine the photos. Is that an accurate analysis? Would I be able to take photos like these using a standard Canon point and shoot camera (SD790)?

Bright and vivid is generally what I think people want for this application.

To do this you need a camera that can do exposure bracketing. Basically take 5-9 shots of the same scene, but at different shutter speeds (aperture locked) so that the images go from too bright to too dark. Being able to use a remote shutter cable is a huge plus to avoid vibration of the camera (it's best to have these shots line up perfectly). Generally standard point and shoots can't do this. More prosumer ones could though. I'd imagine that something like the Canon G5 could do this.

And yes, software such as Photomatix or Enfuse need to be used to blend these pictures together into one HDR shot:

HDR explanation: http://www.cambridgeincolour.c...high-dynamic-range.htm

With the right technique HDR can be quick and easy. I shoot 9 shots bracketed using my 9fps burst mode on my D300. Import into Lightroom, select those 9 shots and group them into a stack, and then set Enfuse to batch process and make into HDRs all the stacks that I have selected. During processing I get a sandwich or something. Come back and tweak the HDR output for a bit, and that's it.

 

[coldmeat]

It doesn't look like anyone lives in that house. Not because of the pictures, but because of the furniture. It looks nice, but not at all comfortable.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: coldmeat
It doesn't look like anyone lives in that house. Not because of the pictures, but because of the furniture. It looks nice, but not at all comfortable.

Heh, the people who live here styled their house straight out of a Crate and Barrel catalog. Looks nice, but I agree, probably not too comfy.

 

[ProfJohn]

So the software does the HDR work???

So me with my tripod and d70s could try something like this without a lot of time and effort?

Just bracket 5-6 shots of my living room and then let the software make it look pretty?