Rudy Lopez Photography » Real Estate Photography

How to acheive natural tone for mixed light interior shots.

Rudy Lopez — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:30:14 +0000

The image above is an example of how to use minimal equipment to achieve natural tone to a complex image.

I needed to be able to show the three separate elements (living, dining, kitchen) in one shot while highlighting the space and the layout . The challenges in this composition include bright natural light from the dining area and an almost fully shadowed area in the hallway behind the fireplace. There are also three levels of overhead incandescent cans and lamps PLUS dark floors.

Composition:

Each shot is different, each photographer is different, and equipment differs. The best advice I can give on composition is to try several different angles and see what works best. For this shot, in addition to the details I mentioned earlier, I needed to be able to place a slave flash in to the frame without being able to see it. More on that in the Lighting Details section.

Here is the equipment:

Nikon D300, Sigma 12-24mm, Two SB-800 Speedlights, Tripod, and small tripod for slave.

EXIF: RAW, ISO640, 22mm(equiv), f7.1 @ 1/50th

I choose a relatively high ISO in order to maximize the Speedlight’s cone, while also keeping lower flash levels to avoid harsh shadows (I apply noise reduction and minor sharpening in Lightroom). If I need to make adjustments, I will open the aperture if it’s too dark, and increase the shutter speed if it’s too bright. The idea is to keep both adjustment as even as possible, going too far in either direction will provide undesirable results.

Exposure

first exposure

The first exposure I make is a plain shot at the meter setting with an aperture of f9. This will give me a starting point. My goal is to adjust the shutter speed until the incandescent lights (maybe a lamp or can) in the frame are at the point where they are barely about to be blown out. From that point you can begin to add light (and place the slave) until you have the results you want.

The first exposure for this shot happens to be right on the money (thank you very much), the artificial lights are bright but not blown out. I can now proceed to add my own light.

Lighting Details:

Camera: pop up the on-camera flash. This will trigger the slaves. You will need to go to the camera flash settings and set the on-camera flash to fire at the minimum level. This will be enough to trigger the slaves but not cast shadows in the shot.

Slaves: To turn the SB-800 into an adjustable slave, hold the SEL button for a few seconds until the menu pops up. Navigate to the flash settings, and press SEL to select. Choose SU-4 from the menu. Press SEL to save, then hold SEL until the menu disappears. The display will now say REMOTE , you may need to press the MODE key to enter manual mode. Now you will be able to adjust the light in increments as necessary.

Slave 1: Hand held. I use this unit to light the foreground of the shot. Usually at a bright setting (1/4) straight up with the diffuser on. The good thing about having this flash hand held is that you can move it around easily if you need to mitigate a shadow or something. There is definitely an art to doing this, and it is really fun to find what contortion works for a certain space. I set the camera timer for a few seconds, and that’s plenty of time to get into the best position.

Slave 2. On a tripod. I use a cheap pan head tripod, fully collapsed its about a foot tall and expands to about 4ft.

For this shot, I held Slave 1 three feet to the right and behind the camera with a flash level of 1/4, straight up with diffuser. Slave 2 was two feet tall behind the slim wall near the kitchen with a flash level of 1/64, straight up with no diffuser. It took me a few shots to fine tune the lighting and placement, but it’s easy to make adjustments.

Generally, the slave needs to be in the line of site of the main flash, although I regularly place the slave around corners or in different rooms with fantastic results.

Results:

The effect is very nice, all of the elements are lit evenly and naturally. Now, there is a shadow thrown from the slave by the dining room chandelier, anyone seeing it would not know that it was an artificial light, it looks very much like sunlight reflected off the table. By moving the light slightly, I could have thrown that shadow somewhere else without affecting the tone, it’s depends on what you like to see.

This shot took me five minutes to compose, setup, and shoot. With a compact setup and a good plan, you can cover a large house in just a few hours.

Middle of Nowhere: March 14, 2009, 500 road miles

Rudy Lopez — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:04:40 +0000

This is the first MONW post to implement a live map with the locations and shooting data for the photos. I am also working on a page that will have the photos from all MONW trips on a large map. Other future improvements will add GPS tracks to the map and other geo related info (weather, etc). Eventually, there will be a Middle of Nowhere site separate from Picherthis.

This MONW excursion covered 505 miles, including the towns of Limon, Hugo, Genoa, Cope, and Lindon. I left Denver at 11 am, arrived in Limon at 12:30. I found a deserted motel and quickly snapped a few shots of the slowly deteriorating structures. From Limon, I headed to Hugo where I found a few prime subjects. Heading Northeast from Hugo (with the sun behind me), I traveled the county roads, looking for abandoned structures. On HWY 71 near Last Chance, I found an old farm. The house was creepy (as most abandoned houses in the middle of nowhere are). All of the furniture was overturned and falling apart. Every surface was covered with bird shit, and there were more appliances scattered inside and out than the house originally was equipped with. This is clearly where people discard old, large objects when they don’t want to go to the landfill. Up a hill to the west of the house was the farm. An old truck, slowly rusting farm implements, and several ruined grain silos covered the large grassy area. The photos of the old truck are definitely my favorite images from this trip. I hit several other areas over the next few hours, eventually finding myself in Edson, Kansas. From Edson, I returned to Denver on I-70 arriving home at 830pm. It was a fun trip, allowing for plenty of time to reflect on the week that had just passed, and the week that was coming. The experience left me feeling relaxed, focused, and centered. There is nothing better than a freshly scrubbed brain.

[flickr-gallery mode="photoset" photoset="72157615212774903"]

How to get good exterior photos while shooting towards the sun

Rudy Lopez — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:30:53 +0000

North facing structures are notoriously hard to photograph. A beautiful home can look like a mash of very dark shadows and harsh angles if it faces north. This home in Westminster, Colorado has fantastic curb appeal, but it’s north facing front door and large garage doors make it a challenge to convey the drama contained inside.

Properly exposed north facing exterior

Exposure settings chosen by camera

Quick tips

Don’t worry about blowing out the sky, adjust the exposure until you can just barely begin to make out detail on the front of the building. You can boost the levels (slightly) in Adobe Photoshop or Apple Aperture 2 later.
Use your free hand to block the sun. Compose the shot until the sun is just barely out of frame. Look through the eyepiece while simultaneously moving your hand above the camera until your hand blocks the lens flare. Take the photo once the lens flare is obscured by your hand.
Stand in the shade of a tree or other structure. Even the shadow cast by a narrow light pole is enough to keep the lens in the shade.

Adding Artificial light to show detail:

Compose the shot so the sun is barely out of frame. Or, if you choose to have the sun in the frame, make sure it is fully in the scene.
Set your flash to sync with the shutter at 1/250 (the fastest flash sync speed for many cameras), adjust the aperture to accommodate lighting conditions. It’s not unusual to have aperture settings of 11 or higher. Note: the smaller the aperture, the more light required by your flash to compensate. The trick is to find the right balance.
Set your flash unit to Manual mode and fire at full strength (1/1) to start, then adjust down from there.

Courtyard scene with natural lighting only.

Courtyard scene with added lighting

An Introduction to Architectural Photography

Rudy Lopez — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:16:37 +0000

I am a professional architectural photographer working out of Denver, Colorado. I have photographed over 4500 homes and buildings, and I can claim Colorado’s highest producing Real Estate agents as dedicated customers.

Photographing homes and buildings presents a unique set of challenges for a shooter. There are any number of variables that affect each project, this is an outline on how to make the best photos possible under any circumstance.

Equipment

First, let’s talk about equipment. This is a basic equipment list, the ‘gotta haves’, if you will.

Digital SLR, at least 10mp. I use a D300 and a D200 for my daily work.
12mm lens (18mm after sensor accomodations). I use a Sigma 12mm, this lens provides zero barrel distortion.
Tripod with geared head. Making fine adjustments is critical for producing top quality images.
Hotshoe bubble level. Keeping things nice and level will improve your images greatly.
Flash Units. I use six SB-800′s, but you can get away with just one.
Expo Disc. White balance is a huge pain in situations where there are several mixed types of lighting. An Expo Disc will solve this.

Specifics

Let’s get into some specifics. The list below is more about the nebulous aspect of architectural photography, technical details will follow.

Taking fantastic photos of homes and buildings is less challenging if you remember these few things:

Let the building/home tell it’s story. Your job is to provide an accurate representation of the unit to your customer. If the home is dark, don’t try to blast it with light. If the home is bright, don’t shutter up the windows. A client will prefer images with dark corners or blown out windows to heavily flashed or shaded areas.
The house IS what it IS. You will inevitably run into a real estate agent or seller that sees the home as something it is not. You simply cannot make a $120k condo look like a $5 million dollar estate. Once again, your job is to provide an accurate representation to the customer. You may find yourself acting as a diplomat trying to explain this to an anxious seller.
Always remember that you are in someone’s home, not a studio or an office. Being formal and cordial is essential. You will be accessing all areas of a home, and you want the occupants to feel comfortable. Always be well groomed, and wear clean white socks every day (you will be removing your shoes in many homes). I have over 100 pairs of socks that look brand new. Clean socks that have discolored soles may as well be dirty.
Nature will always win. If you take pictures on a cloudy day, the images will show it. This is true of interiors and exteriors. There is a myth that cloudy days are better for shooting interiors, I have found this to be demonstrably false. If your client can wait for clear weather, then wait.
Over shoot. Take pictures from any angle you can find, as you gain experience, great shots will present themselves.

Technical Tips

Here are some technical tips to ensure that you are getting the best shots possible:

Use wide apertures and long shutter times, this will provide warmth and will keep the shots from looking like crime scene photos. Add a touch of flash (1/64th) to combat color shift and to add highlights to the scene. I generally keep my ISO at 400 or 640. Anything faster is too grainy, anything slower shifts the colors too much.
Take advantage of the wide angle. A 12mm lens will allow you to get great shots of even the smallest powder room, and will show large spaces very accurately.
Stand back. Hold the camera to your eye and back up until you have the widest shot you can get, then you can set the tripod down and compose your shot. Don’t be afraid to include doorjambs into the shots, it will give the viewer a natural sense of depth.
Keep the camera below eye level of an average person. I have mine set to around 4.5ft, the lower angle will take the images out of the ‘snapshot’ category.
Keep your sensor clean.
Take light measurements from the darkest part of the scene and adjust your exposure from there. It is always better to underexpose than to overexpose.
When shooting exteriors, think of the building as the center point of a large circle. Walk the entire circle, shooting every time you see an appealing angle.

Workflow Tips

Here are some tips regarding computer processing and data management:

Edit the images as little as possible, get the best shot you can while on site. People are getting very savvy and will be able to pick out a heavily manipulated image in a heart beat. Limit your edits to color correction and resizing, if possible.
Develop a data management strategy. Shooting is only half of the job, you will need to keep your images organized and safe. I get calls several times a week from agents asking for images from last week, last year, or the year before. Being able to find them quickly will make you look more professional. I have 1 TB of space that holds my images in Aperture libraries, finding an image is as simple as doing a search for the home’s address.
Develop an efficient workflow. The last thing you want is to be spending more time at the computer than you did actually shooting. Use an application like Aperture 2 or Adobe LightRoom to manage your files, you will not be sorry.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. Just like all types of professional photography, you will need experience to define your style, and it’s your style that will bring in the $$$. So my advice is to shoot shoot shoot. One last note, be passionate about your images. People ask me all of the time if I get bored shooting houses everyday. They don’t understand the satisfaction I receive from the work, and that’s the way it should be.

Good luck shooters!

Denver Architecture – East 6th Avenue

Rudy Lopez — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:55:56 +0000

There is no shortage of great stories/photos that feature lavish, multi-million dollar homes. Just pick up a copy of Colorado Homes and Lifestyle and you will find a dozen top notch properties. But Denver has more to offer than stately manors, estates, and swanky lofts. Each neighborhood has its own character whether it’s the brick bungalows of Mayfair Park or the winding green belts of HIghlands Ranch. It isn’t hard to find beauty in all places, it’s just sometimes you have to look past the noise (and everything else) of Colfax, or the mind numbing aesthetics of the newer suburbs. I have a lot to say about suburbs and urban sprawl, but I will save that for another time. I will just say now that my view of the ‘burbs has softened after being in a couple of thousand tract houses from far east Aurora, to Lonetree, to Highlands Ranch. It is clear to me that it is not the houses that make a good neighborhood, it’s the people that live in them. You don’t see a lot of children playing in the streets of the really fancy areas, it would be pointless. Most of the kids in these areas have acres to roam in the back yard, not to mention every convenience inside the home. There is simply no need to play in the street. By contrast, there are some Saturdays where it is practically impossible to navigate the ‘burbs because of the neighborhood activity. My point is that there are trade-offs in life, you heard it hear first.

One of the first areas I explored when I moved to Denver was E 6th Ave, a wide avenue that runs east-west from Speer Blvd to Quebec Blvd. The area between Colorado Blvd and Quebec Blvd is wide and park-like, the grassy median separates the traffic, and has a jogging trail that courses through huge trees. The length of 6th from Speer Blvd to Colorado Blvd is one way traveling east out of downtown, and provides easy access to Cherry Creek Mall and the shops of Cherry Creek North. E 6th Ave is a very convenient way to get across town almost any time of day. The buildings along 6th Ave vary from very busy commercial to quiet residential.

This home is located on E 6th ave, between Colorado and Quebec. Constructed in the early 1900′s, remodeled in 1932, and again in 2007, this home has had many occupants. The current owner is a local builder and he was pleased to point out some of the unique features of the home. The crown moulding is original, formed with plaster on-site. Their workmanship has held up for over 100 years. The arches in the home provide a sense softness to the rooms not often found in homes of this age. The most recent remodel made major changes to the interior of the home. Many walls were ripped out, providing an open feeling that most people prefer, as opposed to the closed in, maze quality of the original layout. A large, bright bathroom was added to the master suite.

The outside of this home is extraordinary. There is a nice patio on the east side, and the front door is elevated from street level, with stone stairs framed by massive brick pillars. The white window frames work perfectly with the light colored brick. You can bet it is just as beautiful under a blanket of fresh snow.

This home will never be in Architectural Digest, and most people don’t give it a second look as they speed by. But it is a special place, one of several hundred thousand that are all around us.