Taking pictures of house rooms

[nancyc]

Hi!

My hubby and I are in the process of adoption (yes!!!) and one of the requirements is to take pictures of the rooms in our house. So I'm looking for tips to make it look good. I have seen a couple of real states websites that display pictures and some are good and some are not... is there any tip to follow???

Thanks!

[RIDDLER STUDIOS]

This is a direct copy and paste - I found it when I was asked to do some photos of a Marriott Hotel.

Here are some things to consider when actually shooting the rooms.

1. Show only 2 walls at a time. If you show 3 walls you get a boxcar look which makes the room appear small and confined. If you show all three walls you also limit your placement of any additional lighting.

2. Level the camera, using an actual carpenter's level so that the walls are straight and there is no keystoning. If you do need to look down a bit you can correct slight keystoning afterwards in Photoshop.

3. Position the camera height at the same height as a person's head when sitting on a chair in the room. You can have the camera slightly higher than that but not by much, keep it within 12" of a seated person's eyes. If you do position the camera higher you will make the furniture look small, almost like childrens furniture. Most time spent in a room is spent sitting so that's a natural point of view and camera height for photography.

4. Use your lighting to make the far wall brighter than the forground so that the viewer's eye is drawn into the room.

5. Use a tripod, obviously.

6. Drag your shutter to a slower shutter speed to capture any ambient light from existing light fixtures in the room, use your off-camera flash output to light dark areas.

7. Use softboxs or perhaps umbrellas with your strobes to add fill light to the room and use grid spots to create spashes of light on far walls or other areas of the room.

7. If the outside view through the windows is blown out from the low shutter speed chosen for the interior ambient light, you have a couple of choices.

You can shoot a separate exposure for the window views and strip those views into the shot, replacing the blown out windows. Be sure to use an exposure for the window views that is about 1/2 stop above normal so that it looks brighter and reads properly as an outside view.

Or, you could gel the windows with ND gel.

Or you could just allow the windows to be overly bright.

If you follow these suggestions you'll be well on your way to creating natural looking room photos.


If you'd like, I could send you some links of some incredible home interior shots (not by me), that perhaps could give you some further ideas and/or insight. Just let me know. Either way, good luck!!


Riddler


www.riddlerstudios.com
www.flickr.com/riddlerstudios

[nancyc]

Thank you for the tips!! I will appreciate the links too!

[HotHolly]

There was an article in one of the little studio photography publications recently. One guy used a constant light source - hot lights - and his shots were wonderful. The lights gave a nice warm homey feeling too. It was Aug 2008. Here is a link if you want to look. Lots of info on shooting a room.

[CaptainTom]

I have a few under - gallery - architecture and interiors.

http://www.tomthompsonphotography.com/

The above posts have great recommendations. I would just add to make it look as natural as possible. Don't overdo the lighting. Long shutter speeds and a tripod are your friend. Some cool music helps set the mood as well, but that doesn't work with prints ( I've tried )....

[RIDDLER STUDIOS]

Here are a few links I found very inspiring - hope they help.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26409262@N03/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/80517281@N00/pool/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/photographyforrealestate/



Riddler


www.riddlerstudios.com
www.flickr.com/riddlerstudios

[AndrewCCM]

Interesting thread with some very good info.

Good luck on the adoption!

[boxofrocks]

Also, do what the real estate pros have you do when staging a house for sale: de-clutter. Even "clean and tidy" homes show better when most of the minutia is out of the room. Ever seen a model home? It is minimally equipped, and that's not just to save money on rental props. A room with less stuff looks larger and more inviting.

I only know this because we just recently sold our home. We filled up an entire 5x15 storage unit with our stuff removed during the staging process--and that was after the garage sale!

[venchka]

Available light with some fill flash works. Photograph each room at a time of day when it gets the best light through the windows. Keep the windows out of the frame. Get a wide lens if you can. 18mm on a 1.6 crop body isn't wide. Move out of the room and shoot into the room if you have to. Tripod and level!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Level front to back and side to side. Keep the camera fairly low. Seeing floors and the furniture on the flloor looks better than furniture cut off and lots of ceilings. If the lights are on dimmers you dial them back to the point where they look like they are on but don't get blown out. De-clutter!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then de-clutter some more. Use a polarizer. Reflections will kill an otherwise good scene. Bracket. Bracket. Bracket some more.

Good luck!

[nancyc]

John, Holly, Tom (x2) and Wayne, thank you for your tips!!!! I will definely use them with the house. Now, I want a bigger house like the ones showed in those links!!! However my hubby won't agree with me ;-)

Thank you Andrew and everybody for the good wishes. We really need good luck!

[nancyc]

BTW... what is a good wide angle lens for this task? My house is a little tiny one (~1300) and it is a townhouse. I have a 8mm 2.8 fisheye lens, but I can always rent something.

Anything to get a child!

[PIC]

Sheesk !!!
The above are just photo tips...they really dont care how good or bad a photog you are.
They care about what items are in your house and what kinda parent you will be.
Remove garbage, big doogs, clutter, drug tools, mouse droppings, any small sharp stuff, be in good and real comfy settings suitable for child of that age, etc.
If you spend more time on photo and lens etc you prob should reconsider being a parent.
Thats what they will think.
Spend your effort on whats important to them.

[venchka]

Sound advice EL.

Nancy, fisheye won't be good based on what EL said. If you have something around 18mm on a 1.6 crop body, or even a P&S, it will be fine. Save your money for the child.

[nancyc]

Thank you guys... and yes, I will keep thinking about lenses and photos.. that doesn't disqualify me as a good prospective parent. The idea of the photos is to impress, at least that is what I want to do!!!

Child will come in two to three years... so there is time to keep saving money ;-)

[CallMeAl]

I can't help you with the photo tips, but my wife and I have adopted two children and have been through the whole home check, evaluation, etc. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more about it. We are more than happy to help and share our experiences with adoption.