Some before and after photos from a recent photo shoot.
- I’ve been hired to shoot real estate videos before up in Breckenridge Colorado. After completing the videos the owners have asked me to return to also do photos as well.
- The photos are probably more important than the video because most people looking for a vacation rental will look at the photos first before they watch a video.
- Yes these DSLR’s produce amazing video but they also do amazing photos as well, so if you create videos for a living working this could be another source of revenue.
- On this photo shoot I used the techniques Mike Kelley uses, I didn’t buy his course but I think I got the idea from watching his YouTube videos.
- Something that surprised me is it actually takes longer to produce about 25 high quality images than creating a video! Each interior photo takes about 15 minutes to shoot because it would take me a few minutes to test different compositions and then about 10 minutes to take about 30 images with flashes. I used the CamRanger which help speed that up so it might have taken even longer than that.
- Post processing the images can take over an hour per photo. From the sometimes 30 photos to pick from I might use a dozen or so to blend together using the Mike Kelley’s method.
- For each interior I would produce an conservative HDR photo using the Fusion Photomatix method rather than Tone Mapping and decide if I wanted to use that as my base image.
- It’s kind of fun doing just a photo only shoot sometimes, not sure I would want to do it all the time, but it helps with your videos because when you study one photo for a long time it helps you see ratios of light better.
Very nice work Dave!
Have done a lot of that kind of work over the years, and the HDR use is critical. You mentioned the use of a gobo on the picture frame reflection – have done that a lot, usually with an assistant to get the light blocked “just right.”
Important add: When all the toning is completed, and before making perspective corrections, be sure to convert the image to a Smart Object! This will eliminate the jagged vertical lines you would otherwise get when fixing perspective and scale. Then rasterize and flatten the image.
@George thanks for the workflwo tip, I did not know about that!
Wow,,..what a difference you made to the rooms. I would hate to think how long it would take me, but I am inspired by you yet again! Keep up the great posts!
Thanks for this post, Dave. Real estate photography is especially difficult and very important to successful rentals, as you point out. You did a great job on these images. I’m a decent photographer myself but bec interior shots are challenging I hire pros to take photos of my vacation rentals.
I’m writing to underscore the value of the CamRanger. I hired a young photographer in Portland, OR (his name is Taylour White), to shoot a place I recently bought there and he used the CamRanger with such ease; he essentially perfected the image before pushing the shutter and because I could see the image on his iPad I could make suggestions. Taylour had the finished images to me within hours of the photo shoot. And aren’t they splendid: http://www.portlandpearldistrictrental.com
Keep up the great work, Dave. One reason I visit your site is to see what you’re shooting in the Boulder area, my hometown, and beautiful mountains nearby.
All the best,
Jane
Dave – excellent work! Thank for you for the ideas. Any chance you would consider a tutorial (for sale) of this process? I will cheek out the Mike Kelly materials also, but really like you style.
Thanks again
Jon
Hey Dave awesome video.
I’d love to see a video on how you actually do that flash technique. And a video on how you edit a room like you showed.
Thanks and keep up the good work!!
Mike
Dave, check out Scott Hargis. I shoot using his method to keep my post processing way down. He uses a multiple strobe approach. Also, the Photography for Real Estate blog is an awesome group of some of the best real estate photographers on the planet. I can get results similar to this with the slightest LR adjustments (less than 30 seconds) with one or two SB-80dx strobes.