PictureCorrect.com: 3 Secret Techniques from Real Estate Photographers

Since real estate photography has some pretty unique attributes, there are some secrets that most might not know about when starting with it.

And since we are dealing with inanimate pieces of property, we have a huge flexibility to our advantage that allows us to use different techniques that a photographer might not be able to use in another style of photography.

Let’s take a look at these three secrets and why they can easily help us.

1. Shooting Under Exposed

To the average individual, shooting under exposed might not seem like the right thing to do. They would think that we need to shoot at properly exposed so the shot can be well lit.

But we can afford to shoot images under exposed. Not only that but it would help us in the long term by retaining the details and highlights of a shot.

This would be used for one exposure shot images only. But don’t worry, we’ll get into another secret that discusses multiple shots soon.

There are several editing techniques that allow us to brighten up an image and still retain those details and highlights, such as using a brush in Lightroom or Photoshop to increase exposure in only certain areas of the image that are dark. This gives us much more control over the final image.

2. Shooting at a Smaller Aperture

This could also be another case of a typical individual thinking that we should shoot at a larger aperture (e.g. f/1.2 – f/2.8) than a smaller one (e.g. f/8 – f/22).

Of course, we would be trained to let more light in and probably adjust the aperture until we feel like the image is properly bright or lit.

But there’s something with aperture that also changes when we go larger, and that is the depth of field or the amount of bokeh that is produced at larger apertures.

Take a look at this chart to really understand how depth of field or bokeh (blurriness from your subject and background) works from the range of available apertures.

So, notice how when the aperture gets larger (and the number gets smaller. I know, very confusing), the background from the subject gets blurrier.

For real estate, we would technically want the whole image in focus and no blurriness at all, so we’ll want to keep our aperture relatively smaller.

Now we don’t have to take the aperture all the way to f/22 but we could stick around f/8 – f/11 and focus the camera on an object toward the second half of the image. Meaning, don’t focus on the farthest object but an object that is around three quarters of the way from your camera and the farthest point in the image.

Let’s just look at this example below to easily understand the complicating thing I said above about focusing.

Shot at f/8

Notice how everything is in focus with my aperture at f/8 and the focus point set on the flower vase in the red circle. We can see that the focus point isn’t the farthest object from the image and it’s not too close to the camera. It’s within that second half of the image range.

3. Shooting Multiple Exposures and Blending

When shooting real estate, our subject is never moving so we are able to plop our camera onto of a tripod to get the most stable shot for us.

That’s the beauty of working with real estate. So, we take that into account and develop a technique to use based on that advantage.

Voila!

We can take multiple exposures of one shot that we can then easily blend in post to get the perfect shot.

The way that this technique is accomplished is by taking a minimum of three different exposures (you could probably do two exposures but I think three is the best minimum).

One shot under exposed, one shot properly exposed, and one shot over exposed. Here’s a look at what that should look like…

And then here is the final image but blended together from the three exposures above.

By the way, the term for capturing multiple exposures is called bracketing. Simply put, we are bracketing the shots from under exposed to over exposed.

Nick, what do you mean specifically by under exposed, properly exposed, and over exposed?

Glad you asked!

As referring to the auto exposure bracketing indicator highlighted by the orange rectangle on your DSLR below…

Under exposed is when the bottom marker (which is currently under 0) is anywhere to the left of the 0—negative numbers.

Properly exposed is when the marker (where it’s currently at) is on the 0.

And over exposed is when the marker is anywhere to the right of the 0—positive numbers.

When ever you adjust the shutter speed, aperture or ISO, that meter will change and let you know where the exposure currently stands at.

And each number represents an amount of shutter stop. For example, the number 1 that is to the left, is -1 shutter stop, which is considered under exposed. And vice versa for the right side.

Now for the sake of the above example, I labeled the darker image as under exposed, balanced image as properly exposed and the brighter image as over exposed.

There may be some instances where the exposure marker is on the 0 (representing properly exposed) but the shot is still pretty dark.

This can happen when you have a lot of light coming in from a large window and it’s trying to compensate that large amount of light coming in.

So for situations like that, you would just want to bracket the exposures from dark to bright based on your own eye.

(I hope I’m explaining this well and sorry if I’m saying too much. Just want to make sure everyone understands this well.)

You could even get fancy with it and do even more bracketing than just three exposures. For example, five brackets or seven brackets.

If you are shooting a shot that has a window in it and you want to capture both the outside and the inside, you’ll definitely be in the 5–9 bracket range.

Let’s quickly recap the three secrets of real estate photography that we just talked about:

1. Shoot under exposed if only shooting one shot images so you can retain detail and just boost in post.
2. Shoot with a mid-range aperture of about f/8 to f/12 to widen the depth of field, and focus the camera at an object within the second half of the image.
3. Shoot with multiple exposures to capture the highs and lows more independently, and then blend them in post to create a better resulting image.

Now take these new ideas and start using them today!

About the Author:
This articles was kindly provided by ApertureUniversity and Nicholas Cuervo.

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PictureCorrect.com: Interesting Photo of the Day: Boston Skyline

The city skyline always looks impressive in photos. In Chicago, you can ride a helicopter and capture aerial shots of the sprawling skyscrapers. Los Angeles can be shot from hiking up into the hills, revealing a sea of buildings surrounding the city’s tallest buildings. New York has a multitude of skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, ideal for capturing the skyline during the sunset. Photographer Andrea Fanelli captured this image in Boston:

“Boston skyline through a hole in the railing” by Andrea Fanelli (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

Fanelli used an Olympus OMD EM5 Mark II camera and Zuiko 7-14mm lens for this shot. His settings were 11mm at ISO 200, f/10 and 1/160 seconds.

One trick for enhancing an image’s depth of field is to stack images with different focus points. For this image, the first photo had the railing in focus and the second focused on the buildings. Then, he merged the two frames in Photoshop, increasing the depth of field. The stunning detail throughout the shot helps the foreground frame the beautiful background. Great work!

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PictureCorrect.com: How to Sync Strobes to a Camera

Now that you have your strobes, you must be thinking about the best way to sync them with your camera. Your answer is here. Jay P Morgan from The Slanted Lens demonstrates three ways to sync your camera with your strobes:

1. Using a Sync Cable

The most reliable and the simplest way of syncing your strobe with your camera is using a sync cable. A sync cable usually comes with your strobe, or you can pick one up from your favorite photography store. Whatever the source, a sync cable is extremely reliable; however, you’re limited by its length.

You also have the major issue of loose cables lying around on the floor and people tripping on them. Additionally, a sync cable will only fire one strobe. So, unless you have a way to connect more than one sync cable to your camera (which is likely) you can only fire one strobe.

2. Using the Built-In Electronic Slave

Most strobes come with an electronic slave mode. It makes the strobe look for a pulse of light. That pulse of light could be the flash from another strobe or the built-in flash on your camera. As soon as the pulse of light is detected, the strobe fires.

There is one problem, though, and that is directly related to using an on-camera flash. If you bring an on-camera flash into the equation for triggering the strobes set to slave mode, be very careful with the power settings. The power settings should be in manual and in the lowest feasible output. If the power settings are too high, the extra light will impact the overall exposure in the scene.

Another problem with this arrangement is that it is likely not going to work if the source of pulse is too far away. Additionally, if you are shooting under the sun, the pulse may not be detected by the slave at all.

3. Using Radio Slaves or Triggers

The third method to trigger your strobe is to use some sort of a radio slave or radio trigger.

There are many varieties on the market. Radio slaves are the best option when it comes to overcoming the distance problem, the multiple strobe setup, and the outdoor scenarios that were discussed above. The only problem with them is the price. These are way more expensive than a sync cable or an optical slave.

Which of these methods do you prefer, and why?

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PictureCorrect.com: Neutral Density Filter Tips for Long Exposures During the Day

In this article, I will discuss an important topic in photography. Although this can be treated as an intermediate to advanced technique, I will try to keep it as simple as possible to make it seem like a piece of cake to all my readers.

ND stands for Neutral Density

ND filters are useful when you are looking for a specific type of effect under adverse lighting conditions. OK, OK. Let me break that down for you. What do you do when you go out on a sunny day and you know you are going to spend a lot of time outdoors? You get a cap and sunglasses. That’s right. You want to counteract the effect of direct sunlight so that you are not “blinded”. A camera works in a similar way. But not exactly the same way, as we are not “blinded” by continuously looking at a moderately lit scene. Let me explain more on camera terms with an example. Say you are taking a photo of a waterfall and you want to have that “creamy” and “silky” effect of the flowing water.

Photo by Sarah Fraser63; ISO 50, f/22.0, 30-second exposure.

The enemy of a slow shutter speed is the ambient light. Just try this experiment: Put the camera on a tripod in P mode. Making sure the flash is off, point your camera toward any object, and press the shutter half-way. Record the shutter speed and aperture setting that are automatically selected by the camera. Now change the mode to M and select the same shutter and aperture. Take the photo with this setting–it should not come out that bad. Now the fun part. Slowly reduce the shutter speed one tenth of a second at a time and see how the photo looks. You will notice the photo is becoming brighter and brighter, and at some point everything is so bright that nothing can be seen clearly. Pros refer to this condition as a blown-out photo.

But say you NEED slow shutter speed to get that motion blur. Of course, you can reduce aperture. But how much? F/16, F/22, F/39? There will be a situation in broad daylight when you have the aperture set to the camera-supported minimum, and still you are not able to lower the shutter speed enough to get that motion-blur without blowing-out the photo. Yeah, yeah, now we are talking photography.

You wish somehow you could reduce the amount of light reaching the camera sensor so that the photo isn’t blow-out, yet you can comfortably reduce the shutter speed to achieve motion-blur AND all this at a decent aperture setting.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome the ND filter.

The filter acts like sunglasses on your eyes, limiting the amount of light that reaches the camera sensor, eating up light so that you can take photos in broad daylight and still set the shutter speed as slow as one second (can you believe it? the flowing water will be as creamy as ever) at a reasonable aperture of F/22.

Photo by Neil Hall; ISO 100, f/8.0, .5-second exposure.

Standard settings I use for the silky/creamy water flow effect putting the ND filter on:

• Mode: Shutter Priority (TV)
• Shutter Speed: start with 1/10 secs and reduce it gradually till you get the desired amount of blurriness effect
• Aperture: F/13-22
• ISO: 100 or lower
• White Balance: AWB or Cloudy
• Metering Mode: Evaluative (if I have bright area in the scene, I do a partial metering)

Consider another situation, where you want to focus only on the subject, keeping the background out of focus. You widen the aperture to the smallest value your camera/lens supports (say F/2.8) and guess what, the photo becomes blown-out. You try to increase the shutter speed, but alas, even the maximum supported shutter speed is producing a blown-out photo. You guessed it right: the ND filter is again our rescue crew. Put on a ND filter and you can keep the minimum F-stop with a reasonable shutter speed and still get the subject in focus with rest of the scene out of focus (I am deliberately avoiding the concept of depth of dield to keep this article simpler.

Of course, you can try lowering the ISO to 50 or lower, but the effect of reduction of light, by lowering ISO sensitivity is negligible compared to ND filters. What I mean is lowering ISO is no match against the ND filter in reducing the impact of “amount of light” on brightness of the photo.

Types of ND filters

There are different types of ND filters available and they are classified based on the amount of light they block (or the darker/denser the glass is).

The greater the optical density, the more light it will absorb. So a ND filter is sometimes classified in terms of density

0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and so on.

The light blocking capacity of the ND filters is also measured by the reduction of f-stops. The more f-stops an ND filter will reduce, the less light it will allow to pass. Thus a 2-stop ND filter blocks double the amount of light of a 1-stop ND filter.

So this is one way of specifying the “darkness” of the filter. There’s another. Different manufacturers use different conventions. ND4 filter means a 2 stop ND filter. Huh? A little bit of math here…

Photo by Neil Howard.

ND2 means 1 stop ND filter (2=2 to the power 1) allowing 50% of light to pass (transmittance). ND4 means 2 stop ND filter (4=2 to the power 2) allowing 25% of light to pass. ND8 means 3 stop ND filter (8=2 to the power 3) allowing 12.5% of light to pass and so on…

If you are a little bit lost, do not worry; all you need to understand is that “darker” ND filters block more light. ND8 is darker, ND2 is less dark. A 0.9 ND Filter is darker and a 0.3 ND filter is less dark. A 3 stop ND filter is darker and a 1 stop ND filter is less dark, and so on and so forth. That should work for now.

Which filter should I use and when?

The ND filter you need depends on how much light you want it to absorb so that you can achieve the desired shutter speed or the desired aperture size at the ambient lighting conditions. (Remember the first statement in this article?) This depends on how much ambient light you are working in. So, overall, this is more or less experimental. The rule of thumb is that if you want a lot of motion blur or absolute silkiness, use the darkest ND filter (ND8) so that you can really slow down the shutter. If it’s dark (overcast, dawn or dusk), you may not need the darkest ND filter, because there is already less light. So you may try a medium dark filter (ND4) to achieve the same effect. For sports, to bring that motion blur, you may need just a slightly dark filter (ND2) if don’t want too much blur.

Do I really need ND filters?

You will most likely need ND filters (of various strengths) if you shoot landscapes a lot (like me, which you can see in my photoblog–75% of my best collections are landscapes). Or if you shoot sports a lot in bright daylight. But, as I said, you will KNOW you need a ND filter when you have reached your camera/lens limit of blocking light and do not have any further options.

Photo by mariusz kluzniak; ISO 100, f19.0, 30-second exposure.

BONUS TIP: You can always “stack” up one filter on the other to increase the darkness even more. But beware of vignetting on wide angle shots (18-20mm) with stacked up filters, along with other “combination” effects.

How many ND filters do I need to buy?

Well… in my opinion, you should get ahold of a 0.9 ND filter first, and then if you need to, go for a 0.6 ND filter. Then you can stack them up to get an even darker filter. I have rarely used my 0.3 ND filter.

When NOT to use an ND filter

A word (or sentence) of caution: Most ND filters are effective only on the visible spectrum of light and do not proportionally reduce ultra-violet or infrared radiation.

This can be specially dangerous if you are using ND filters to view sources like the sun or white/red hot metal or glass which emit intense non-visible radiation that is not blocked by ND filters. This  can seriously damage your eyes, as the source does look dim when viewed through the filter. Do NOT look directly at sun through the viewfinder even with an ND filter. You eyes are precious, especially if you enjoy photography!

Photo by Steve Corey; ISO 100, f/20.0, 1/6-second exposure.

Another situation to avoid using an ND filter is when the scene has a mixture of areas with higher and lower brightness (i.e., not uniformly lit). For example, during a sunset the horizon is bright but the ground is dark. Using an ND filter will make the darker spots more dark, thus losing the appropriate detail (this is opposite to being blown-out and is called burn-out).

What are the available varieties?

There are different flavors of ND filters available on the market. To start with, I would always suggest to go for multi-coated filters, as they are better quality than normal glass–and worth the price. The normal glass filters are cheaper and have a lot of side effects (color-casts) associated with them. Of course, there are pro filters that cost a lot, but then they are durable, scratch-resistant, and high quality.

Options include different brands like Hoya, Singh Ray, B+W, Tiffen, and Lee filters. These are GREAT filters with no color casts, but the cost varies with make and model. I own Hoya filter sets, and I am quite happy with the quality of the light reduction at a reasonable price. Singh Ray filters are relatively costly but with high optical precision. For experimental learners, I would recommend getting your hands on Hoya filters.

Why are these sunglasses for cameras called “Neutral”?

Good question. Because these sunglasses (should) “eat up” light of all wavelengths equally. This means during absorbing, no color is given preference over the other. Thus the term “neutral”. But not all ND filters on the market are made perfectly. Especially the cheap ones that create color casts on photos, as they cannot reduce intensity of all wavelengths equally. I recommended getting standard, branded, and quality ND filters (the multi-coated ones). Research on the Internet; read reviews and forums to find out the best ND filter to suit your needs and your wallet.

About the Author:
This article was written by Sudipta Shaw.

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PictureCorrect.com: Interesting Photo of the Day: New Zealand Summer Storm

How many times do you look at a landscape shot and think about how calm everything looks? Other times, you can see the action, whether it be wind, animals, or cloud coverage moving across the image. In this case, the purple flowers calmly stand in unison as the dark clouds approach from the once illuminated skies above. The last rays of sunshine can be seen poking through behind them. As the viewers’ eyes move up the image, the storm cloud draws nearer to the peace below it. This photographer expertly captured the difference between the scene on the ground and the one above it:

“Summer Storm, New Zealand” by Will Patino (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

Landscape photographer Will Patino ventured out into a New Zealand storm to set up his equipment and capture this stunning shot of a field of lupine before the flowers were destroyed by the weather. The menacing clouds bearing down on the plants contrast beautifully with the graceful, vibrant nature of the foreground.

When shooting landscapes, a little drama can never hurt. According to Patino, this storm quickly moved past the nearby mountain range, bringing with it hail, lightning, and echoing thunder. Would you dive into the frenzy to attempt a shot like this or run for cover?

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PictureCorrect.com: Why Camera Settings are Sometimes Insignificant

Are you one of those photographers who asks other photographers what their camera settings were when they took a shot you really like? Try not to do that in future, especially around Tony Northrup! In this video, Northrup explains why asking for his camera settings frustrates him and does you no good whatsoever:

Back in the early days of film photography, settings meant everything in order to get correct exposure. Nowadays they aren’t so important, especially if you shoot RAW and fix your photos up in post-processing.

Beginner photographers constantly ask Northrup what settings he used on some of his most popular images. But every shot has a detailed back story; it’s clear that he spent a lot of time and dedication preparing for each shoot.

What he had his camera set at for each one is irrelevant. The important details are in all the months of planning and visiting the places where he took the images before he even set up to take a photo.

He learned everything he could about his subject and the light conditions there, and then one day everything was just aligned right for him to take the shot. Knowing his settings will not get you the same image he did; there are so many other factors that are important.

Composition, art, planning and light are also necessary ingredients to make a great shot. You need to know when to raise your ISO or change your shutter speed, and you can only do that by knowing your camera gear and practicing.

Note in the information underneath the video that Northrup tries to clarify things further. He’s not trying to say that you shouldn’t learn to understand camera settings, or that they don’t matter. What he’s saying is that knowing someone else’s camera settings won’t help you, because you won’t have the same light or circumstances they did, and you probably don’t have exactly the same gear they do either.

What’s your opinion? Is it helpful to know someone else’s camera settings?

“You can’t just learn people’s EXIF data and get any useful information out of that; it’s almost always useless.”

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PictureCorrect.com: Slow Shutter Speed Photography

Shutter speed works two ways on your camera: it can be used to freeze motion so everything in the frame is nice and sharp; or it can be used to blur motion so some things in the frame are blurred, giving the picture a unique look. You may be shaking your head at this; but sometimes I want to actually slow down my shutter speed to create blur in my image, giving it somewhat of an artistic expression. These are images that probably don’t exist in the real world, as viewed through a pair of normal eyes; but with a slower shutter speed we can create beautiful, artistic expressions that otherwise might have never been seen.

Photo by June Marie; ISO 100, f/22.0, 6-second exposure.

Camera Settings for Blurring Motion

When taking slow shutter speed shots, I sometimes use shutter priority mode on my camera, which is the Tv (time value) setting on my Canon camera and the S setting on Nikon cameras. And now with my camera in shutter priority mode, I’m going to slow my shutter speed down to 1/15 of a second to start. Depending if you’re shooting in daylight or dark, you might have to tweak your f-stop a bit to get the desired effect. In lower light situations, you want to keep the ISO as low as possible—like around 100—because the camera is actually letting more light in with the slower shutter speed. For different effects, you might try using a zoom lens and zoom in and out while you take the shot.

Photo by Sitoo; ISO 160, 1/20-second exposure.

What I like about slow shutter speed photography is getting the contrast between the things that are in motion and the things that are absolutely still in the same shot. This gives you some really neat images—like a river’s water flowing over the rocks.

Photo by Christophe Surman; ISO 640, f/5.0, 1/8-second exposure.

A slow shutter speed might give the water a harsh blur, but at the same time, the landscape around the river water will be in focus. You can make the moving water in a fountain look like glass by using a shutter speed of about 2 seconds or slower with a tripod attached to your camera. This will give your image a unique look of motion being blurred in the water and the fountain and scenery in sharp focus.

Photo by axbecerra; ISO 200, f/22.0, 13-second exposure.

Preventing Camera Shake

When I use the slower shutter speeds I often set the timer on the camera or use my shutter release cable to eliminate any camera shake when pressing the shutter button. But using the shutter release cable, you may want to go to a manual focus to prevent the camera from refocusing and causing your image to be out of focus.

When it comes to night time shooting, I always make sure I have my tripod: this eliminates camera shake from slower shutter speeds, but it also helps achieve shots that include the blurring light motion of passing cars. You can really get some neat shots at a 4 second shutter speed.

Photo by Chris Dart; ISO 100, f/8.0, 5-second exposure.

Getting More Creative

You’ll notice that when you’re in shutter priority mode, the camera calculates the approximate f-stop when you set you set the camera at a desired shutter speed. If you want to get more creative, you can take those settings and switch your camera to manual mode and put those setting in manually; that will give you a starting point. You can also get some cool shots at night without the tripod by using manual mode and shooting at just under a second while moving the camera around.

Photo by Andrew Stawarz; ISO 800, f/4.0, 30-second exposure.

Slow shutter speed photography is just another way to be creative with your camera while having a little fun with intentional blur. Keeping an open mind with photographic creativity is what separates photographic art from a plain snapshot.

About the Author:
This articles was written by Alan Slagle. “I’ve been doing photography all my life and it’s a great way to get away from life in general. I believe digital photography has no rules so I do a lot of experimenting and that gives me a chance to write an article about my experiences.”

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PictureCorrect.com: Interesting Photo of the Day: Manhattan Skyline at Sunset

Is there a more breathtaking, more photographed scene than the Lower Manhattan skyline? Add in a sunset and it magically gets even more stunning. The pink, warm light reflecting off the impressive architecture and the East River adds a dramatic effect for picture-perfect shots. This long exposure of the skyline by photographer Colin Kelly beautifully portrays the calm, peaceful mood as the sun sets against the buildings:

Long Exposure of Manhattan Skyline at Sunset by Colin Kelly (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

This image was taken from Brooklyn Bridge Park after Kelly wandered around the piers looking for the perfect shot. He uses a Nikon D3300 on a tripod with a 16mm Rokinon and 10-stop ND filter.

Camera Settings

• ISO 100
• f/11
• bulb mode
• 150 seconds

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PictureCorrect.com: Trying new Techniques when Bored with Photography

Has your photography or cinematography work lost its appeal? Photographer Peter McKinnon wants to inspire you with some ideas for breaking out of a creative rut. If you ever fall into a rhythm that becomes repetitive and starts to feel more like work than creativity, these tips could be very useful:

McKinnon normally shoots his portraits during the day for the lighting. To switch it up, he flips the script and ventures out into the night with his subject to find a neon light or brighter location. Changing the scenery and lighting can always help you to appreciate a new look in your work that sets itself apart from your routine portraits. Positioning your subject in front of neon lights and shooting toward them creates an effect that is very popular among Instagram photographers today. Find a friend to work with and give it a try!

Another tip he shares is to grab an extra lens and try photographing through the back of it. If you have a lens with a wider element in the back, it will work effectively for a completely new look. The composition will be positioned upside down, but you can always flip it right side up when it’s time to sit down and edit. This trick works well for when you have to go out and photograph a subject or scene that you have already worked with countless times. Finding alternative methods of innovation can be tricky, especially when you feel uninspired and stuck on how to find a new viewpoint.

You can also head out to your local department store and scour the shelves for materials that will create an awesome effect in your photos. In his example, McKinnon purchased a cheap piece of plastic with a pattern on it that he used to cast an appealing shadow on anything that the light shone on. Items around the house will work, too!

There you have it! Hopefully, these tips help you to look at your creative funk as a temporary setback that can be repaired. Overall, just keep shooting and finding new ways to put a creative spin on the work that you normally do. Creativity knows no bounds!

For more creative ideas: The Long Exposure Photography Guide at 52% Off

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