Maine "Cottage"

jmphotocraft · October 7, 2015

Did a shoot for my Architect buddy yesterday... love his work...

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Thelensspot · October 7, 2015

Jack, very well done. Your lighting is excellent. I realize that you were shooting towards a window in #18 so that one was tough but you captured the interior detail very nicely. In #4, how would that look if the wood in shadow was warmed up just a tad. I think the angles you picked compliments the architectural work very well. I find these to be very pleasing to the eye. I am sure your friend is very satisfied with your work.
Regards!

jmphotocraft · October 7, 2015

Thank you Wayne. Most of these are 3 shot HDRs merged in Lightroom. For #4, I should probably take another crack at that, however it was kind of just a grab shot. The terrace below and back yard weren't really prepared for photography. In 18 I left the window overexposed because of the cars outside, and I was running out of time. Not ideal, but neither are the screens. Some day I will shoot a house where I can spend 4 hours and really relax and stage every shot perfectly. Usually I'm sneaking out on my lunch break. I charge the going rate for real-estate photography. My architect friend knows of and has had to use a specialty architecture photographer who charges $300 per shot. Nice work if you can get it!! I hope that cat is using medium format and tilt-shift lenses and doing all the staging.
:jawdrop

Sam · October 7, 2015

Nicely done. Wonderful house. Was this simply a pro bono shoot for your friend and portfolio?

The really sad part is that most real estate agencies don't really care about superb quality since they only post teeny weenie online images and are to be blunt cheap.

Disclaimer: One of the reasons they are cheap is that while the sales commission can start out pretty substantial it gets chopped up so may ways each individual person or business entity only gets a small portion and any one person or entity that puts out money to facilitate the sale doesn't get any additional money to compensate for said expenditure.

Sam

kdog · October 7, 2015

Nice place! I like the way you managed to handle the balance of exposure of the interiors against the views out the windows. One tip I learned from working with a high-end realtor is to use your angles to maximize floor space and minimize furniture. Try not to shoot with a piece of furniture in the foreground as it makes the room look small and cluttered. Change your angles or rearrange and even remove furniture in the room if you have to.

Edit: Having seen your other post I will say that my tip is probably more apropos for the $300/shot guy, than a $300 job shoot.

Stumblebum · October 7, 2015

What a wonderful house! Nice shooting too! Makes me want to move in!

jmphotocraft · October 7, 2015

Sam wrote: »

Nicely done. Wonderful house. Was this simply a pro bono shoot for your friend and portfolio?

The really sad part is that most real estate agencies don't really care about superb quality since they only post teeny weenie online images and are to be blunt cheap.

Disclaimer: One of the reasons they are cheap is that while the sales commission can start out pretty substantial it gets chopped up so may ways each individual person or business entity only gets a small portion and any one person or entity that puts out money to facilitate the sale doesn't get any additional money to compensate for said expenditure.

Thanks Sam. No, he's paying me. I don't need or want to work for free anymore for exposure. I will do it for charity occasionally though. True, many agents don't care about the photography. I have several thoughts on this that I can't say out loud, but there are competent photographers who are willing to do it pretty cheaply, and they do it well. These are full-time 'togs who will line up 3-4 houses in a day to make it worthwhile. Their prices around here start at $150 for a <3000sf home, all included. That's not worth it for me, so my prices go $150 for <2000sf, $200 for 2001-2999sf, $300 for 3000-3999sf, etc. I get clients who will use me for a few listings and then they find someone cheaper, or they buy a Rebel with kit lens and think they can do it themselves. By pricing myself above the full timers I figure I'm not "stealing" their business. I don't put food on my table with this money.

kdog wrote: »

Nice place! I like the way you managed to handle the balance of exposure of the interiors against the views out the windows. One tip I learned from working with a high-end realtor is to use your angles to maximize floor space and minimize furniture. Try not to shoot with a piece of furniture in the foreground as it makes the room look small and cluttered. Change your angles or rearrange and even remove furniture in the room if you have to.

Edit: Having seen your other post I will say that my tip is probably more apropos for the $300/shot guy, than a $300 job shoot.

That's a good tip and sometimes I will do that but in general I don't do much staging. Sometimes I think it's a matter of taste as I wanted to show the comfy chairs in front of the fireplace and the rockers in front of the wonderful view to entice the viewer to want to be sitting there.

Stumblebum wrote: »

What a wonderful house! Nice shooting too! Makes me want to move in!

Thanks!

Agnieszka · October 10, 2015

Beautiful photos and what a pretty house!

roaddog52 · October 10, 2015

Great photos

thumbof a beautiful "cottage". Reminds me of a small 6400 Sq./Ft "summer cottage" I once worked on.

[Deleted User] · October 10, 2015

Super job. I've looked at a lot of real estate pictures over the last four months because we are looking for a new home. It is amazing the difference professional pictures make, although sometimes they lead to disappointment when I see the property in person. Today for example, we visited a house that online looked like it had a large dining room and in reality I'm wondering if my china cabinet and table will even fit in it. My realtor said the point is to get the prospective buyer inside the house, so perhaps that's why some are a little unrealistic. On a positive note for us, the photographer must not have checked his/her white balance and the colors in the house were much more to my liking when I actually saw them.

We're in a simple condo and I'd love to do the photography myself before it goes on the market, but I don't have a tilt-shift lens. May study up and at least learn something, even if I do need to call on one of my photography friends for the published ones.

jmphotocraft · October 13, 2015

Thanks Angie, roaddog, KYLady. KY, I don't have a tilt-shift lens either. A lens that goes to the full frame equivalent of 17mm or 16mm will suffice. A tilt-shift lens would be ideal but as a part timer it would take too long for me to recoup the cost. You can work around not having one. The two biggest secrets are to keep the camera level such that vertical lines stay vertical, and to do HDRs. I wonder if that dining room you saw was taken with a lens even wider than 16mm FF. Perhaps the Sigma 12-24. I find 16mm can give realistic, natural results if you just keep things vertical. In a pinch you can shoot with the camera angled up or down in order to get the perspective you want and then fix the trapezoid distortion in post, in order to simulate the T-S effect. For example this shot:

If I had shot it with the camera level at that height, it would have been half sky. If I had kept the camera level and lowered the camera to get more of the deck, the ocean would have disappeared behind the railing. So I kept the camera high and aimed it down and straightened the vertical elements in post.

Here is the "as shot" version:

Of course, with a tilt-shift lens you can correct this in-camera at taking time.

[Deleted User] · October 15, 2015

Thanks, jmphotocraft, for the good advice. I'll save that information. No idea who shot the pictures or what they used. Rather than thinking they didn't fix them in post, it really looked tp me like they wanted me to think something other than what it was. Maybe I'm wrong. Appreciate your suggestions.

ThatCanonGuy · October 17, 2015

These are really impressive Jack. How high did you have the camera? They look like they're shot from pretty high up, but part of that is the straightening I'm sure.

jmphotocraft · October 20, 2015

They do? Well, I usually set the tripod with the viewfinder at about my nose level, so I guess about 5'5". Glad you like them, thanks.

Qarik · October 20, 2015

good interior shots. some advice (I have shot maybe 10 houses)

1) for exterior early morning/later at night to combat the harsh shadows
2) interior, typically shoot from the corners (very slight change s in height will help to correct recti-linear distortion and then just crop as well.
3) interior, close the window coverings..windows typically get blown out and you get the mixed lighting that is hard to correct in post
4) interior, don't be afraid to use bounced flash if/when needed
5) i find HDR is not really needed..just crank the shadows and highlight bars to even out the tonality

Maine "Cottage"

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