I usually take all the real estate photos without flash. The reason is that I want to generate warmth in the photos without having hot-spots in the front, and dark in the back (of the rooms). I do own studio flash units, but they take time to set up correctly for each room. My normal mode of operation is to take photos of each room without flash. This is much quicker as I can take 30 - 40 shots (I always take 2-3 duplicates of each shot) of an average house in less than 30 minutes without flash. If I were to take the time to set up my studio strobes in each room, it'd probably take more like 90 minutes to shoot the same house.

 

You can see some of my results here:

 

ALL of the above photos were taking without flash using a tripod and a somewhat longish exposure.

 

By the way, if you are concerned about the flash rating, it is usually specified in GN or Guide Number, which is a rating of how powerful it is. For instance, my on-board camera flash (digital Rebel) has a Guide Number of 43 (iso 100, ft) and my external hot-shoe mounted flash has a GN of 142 (iso 100 in feet), while my studio strobes have a GN of between 80 and 220 (iso 100 in feet), depending on the reflector used.

 

The higher the number, the more powerful the flash. To calculate exposures, take the GN and divide it by the distance to the subject will yield the aperture (f-stop).

 

Example: GN 142 divided by 10 feet = aperture of f/14 (iso 100) for proper exposure.      

 

 

Steven Hong, REALTOR, e-PRO

OK. I've taught some fellow agents some of my techniques and I'll post them here now. This is going to be just a summary of some techniques that'll help take better photos.

 

1. Equipment - Contrary to what people think, the more the megapixels isn't necessarily the better. One can do well enough with a 3.2MP camera, in fact, the first picture that I took (in the links below) was taken with an old Canon G1 3.2Mp camera. Today, I'd suggest a Canon G5 is enough, and it does have a hotshoe for those that want to use an external flash.

 

Wide angle lens is important. Most manufacturers will specify the lens in a 35mm equivalent form as well as the actual mm of the lens. An example would be: 5.4mm-16.2mm (28-84mm 35mm equivalent) or 18mm-55mm (28-80mm 35mm equivalent). Now, the camera I have is the Digital Rebel with the "kit" lens of 18-55. The wide angle at 28mm isn't wide enough to get the entire room, but I say, just take 2 pictures of the room and post both. I'm not a big fan of ultra-wide or fisheye lenses (such as what some of the virtual tour people use). I don't like the distortion, and I don't like the 360degree thingies, especially since they make a 10x10 room seem like 25x25.

 

Ideally, the camera with the largest piece of glass on the front probably costs more, and probably is the better lens. Also look for large aperatures (f2 is larger than f4 is larger than f8).

 

Tripod is the key. Even an inexpensive tripod ($30-50) will be worth the while.

 

2. Outdoors- Take the main, front picture of the house with the sun at your back on a partly cloudy / partly sunny day. This will help get the "blue sky" effect. I.E. If the house faces east, early morning. Use a 3/4 shot so that you can see most of the front of the house, and part of the side of the house. People can more easily judge how large a house is by adding the depth element.

 

3. Indoors- Turn off the flash, Turn on the lights, Close the blinds 3/4 way, Sunny Day. Use a tripod and shoot across the room with a longer exposure to compensate for the lack of flash. Bracket your exposures (i.e. take one photo, then take another overexposing by +1 stop, and take another at +2 stops). That way, you can choose what looks best when you get back to your computer without having to spend time touching up photos. A bright white window is better than a dark room.

 

The first photo example was taken at 1/15 second, aperature of f2.

 

4. Also, don't take pictures from above your head. Shoot straight across the room, otherwise the room will tend to look smaller. Shooting straight across also helps keep the vertical lines parallel and vertical.

 

5. Learn how to view the histogram on your digital camera. There should not be tons of stuff hanging off the left side of the histogram. Sometimes, a bunch of stuff will hang off the right side. That'll be the white light coming in the window. That's probably going to be ok. Otherwise the majority of stuff (the technical term) should be slightly to the right of middle. Read more about Histograms here:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

 

6. Don't try to get everything in 1 shot. Take 2 or 3 photos and upload them all.

 

7. There is no number 7.

Good luck, and send cash.

 

Steven Hong