taking house pics.

rickj

rickj

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rick
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Hi I have been asked if I can take pics of someones house inside and out.as they are thinking of selling.
I have never taken any indoor pics with my DLSR :gag:
so need some help quick as I am doing it tomorrow.
this is what I am thinking 50D ( if it's here in time). 17-35 and flash. the big problem for me is what settings to get max D/F with everything in focus and as for the flash is it best to bounce off the ceiling or use the white pulley out thing.

Thanks in advance Rick
 
I'd use your 1d personally with the 17-35. You will need wide and I'm not sure 17mm on a 50D would be wide enough for the average sized house. I did a friends a couple of years ago and I needed the 12mm of my 12-24 on a 20D - and their house was bigger than average.
Mount it on a tripod, try not to use flash unless you need to fill some major shadows. If you have really bright areas don't be afraid to bracket them and then combine the exposures later.
Shoot raw for post processing white balance goodness.

The important part is making sure the camera is level on the horizontal plane so that the verticals are, well vertical.
 
I'd agree with Richard - you'll probably need the widest lens you've got.

Other than the initial compositions, lighting and white balance will be your main concerns to get the shots looking top notch - strobist did an interesting article on house photography here and here.
 
:agree: You'll need to use the widest lens / combination you can for the indoor shots :thumbs:
 
I agree with them. You better use the 1D because you'll need something wider.

In your place and without the proper equipment for this kind of stuff, I would wait for the natural light conditions that would allow me to use a long exposure (10-20seconds) without blowing the highlights outside of the house.

Use apertures no smaller than f/11 or f/13, to avoid diffraction problems.

Take the flash outside the camera and shoot it handheld multiple times.

After some tests you'll be able to achieve some very nice results for sure.
 
I have a feeling that there may be some guidelines on shooting interiors, aimed at estate agents. Might be worth asking around to find out if there are any restrictions on focal lengths etc.
 
I think, and I may be wrong, but an estate agent will not use the images you produce to advertise your property, they take their own.

Something along the lines of images that are used for adverts cannot be altered at all as it may be deemed to misrepresentation in the advert (i.e. using a fish eye lens to make a property look bigger and using photoshop to improve the image). I was told that they take their own to cover their own backs and unfortunately they do not always turn out that good.

Like I said I may be wrong but this was something I read somewhere, it may have been on here or on POTN.
 
Natural light should be fine. I did some internals recently with my 50D / 10-20 @ 1/30s that came out nice ( IMO etc ;))
 
thanks for all the advice and it has been taken on board.
50D just turned up ( thanks kerso) but looks like it will be staying at home.:nono:
so 1D mk2 17-35 and tripod flash in the bag just incase. and lots of shots.

Cheers all
 
Bracket your shots and put them through some HDR software, but keep it natural - its very effective for indoor house shots.
 
Paulmack said:
I think, and I may be wrong, but an estate agent will not use the images you produce to advertise your property, they take their own.
Click to expand...

It may be policy of some agents but not all of them. I was taking shots yesterday for the agent to use whilst selling our house.

FWIW Rick, I used the 17-35 on the 5D2 for most of them but had to drop to the 14L for several others. You should be looking for 90 degrees AOV or wider (according to the agent).

Bob
 
As above, go wide!

Here's a snap of my bedroom:



You could consider dark shots to show the mood... Give them a selection and let them choose!
 
Paulmack said:
Something along the lines of images that are used for adverts cannot be altered at all as it may be deemed to misrepresentation in the advert (i.e. using a fish eye lens to make a property look bigger and using photoshop to improve the image).
Click to expand...

I think it unlikely that someone would buy the house unseen on the strength of the photos :)

You could argue if you took the pics on a sunny day, it may not be as light on a regular day - I guess you just need to take care it is essentially a natural shot and relates to the property being sold.

But if the agent won't use them, use another agent!

Graham
 
I'd go for using bounced flash if needed on the interiors, to allow you to balance the exposure with the view through the windows. Much quicker and easier than faffing about with combining exposures in post (IMO).

All depends on the time of day and the weather of course. Be aware of combining tungsten house lights with daylight and/or flash.
 
Jayst84 said:
I'd go for using bounced flash if needed on the interiors, to allow you to balance the exposure with the view through the windows. Much quicker and easier than faffing about with combining exposures in post (IMO).

All depends on the time of day and the weather of course. Be aware of combining tungsten house lights with daylight and/or flash.
Click to expand...

Good call - see if you can get a CTO filter for your flash to avoid any WB problems.
 
thanks for all the help.
I went over yesterday and took a few shoots from out side they are going to have a look and if happy I will doing more for them including the inside.
Rick

_F4I0410copy.jpg
 
oh well you have your edit image box ticked so no doubt someone will be along soon and show you how it should be done
 
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