Las Vegas Real Estate: Talking Photography
I’ve written before on the importance of professional photography, when you list your home. Today I’m going to talk to one of my photographers, Nina Bacigalupi, about different aspects of photography and how it relates to real estate.
Jason: We shot a home over the weekend, and I noticed the initial photo was very dark before you processed it. It was near sunset, but it wasn’t that dark. Why did you shoot the home in such a way?
Nina: When you’re trying to shoot something like the exterior of a house, especially when you have a great sky or sunset, you can’t expose the sky and the house at the same rate. For instance, if you expose for the house only, you’re going to lose the brilliance in the sky. If you expose for the sky, more than likely the house will be dark, like this example. Post processing will allow you to get the detail back out of the house, without losing the sky. This way you can have both parts of the image properly exposed.
Jason: So in other words, you get the whole picture, no pun intended of course.
Nina: Correct.
Jason: I see a lot of other photos, where the sky seems completely gone, or they photoshop in another sky, and it doesn’t look quite right.
Nina: I think we have amazing skies here in Las Vegas.
To elaborate more (without giving all of my secrets up,) in post processing, I selectively adjusted the exposure on the house only. So in this case, I lightened the exposure on the property, and then independently adjusted the sky to how I wanted it. I sharpened the house just a touch, and then added contrast to both the sky and the house, to make those details really pop. The end result was a picture that captured the awesome sky near sunset and the aesthetics of beautiful home.
Jason: As far as interiors go, these are tough to shoot. Can you talk to me about these?
Nina: Shooting interiors like can actually be pretty challenging, even for professional photographers, much less an agent trying to do it on their own. Getting the angles right and having the camera aimed in the right direction is really important. But so is the light, and the exposure too. A lot of times if you’re using a wide angle lens to try and capture the interior, you’ll get something called barrel distortion. This is when your straight lines, like walls and doors, will take on a curved appearance.
Jason: Is that the same as a fish eye?
Nina: It’s not the same thing. Fish eye, you’re going to get a LOT of barrel distortion.
Jason: I’ve seen a lot of that on the MLS over the years and it looks horrible. What causes that?
Nina: I agree, it looks bad. The fish eye is actually a special lens. It is considered an ultra wide angle lens, and you can get an amazing degree of sight when you shoot with it. But the trade off is you get that distortion. You can take it out in post processing, but I don’t like to shoot with it at all to be honest.
Jason: There is something you do, that is really cool. You take a series of pictures for the interior, and then “stitch” them together later on. You capture the entire room this way and no distortions.
Nina: It’s an easy way to get the entire room, especially when it’s smaller interior. You can piece together multiple images, until you get almost a panoramic view of the room.
Jason: I see a lot of post processing, that I have to admit, doesn’t look too hot. At what point does post processing become a negative for the industry?
Nina: I think post processing is extremely important, if it’s done right. The problem is that often it is not. Just like in the first example we talked about. A photographer may get the sky, or the house, but often isn’t able to get both. You really must have a fine touch when it comes to this. When you over process an image, then they don’t look real. Or the colors will look completely unnatural. Or the sky will be swapped out, but it doesn’t look quite right, the shadows are off, or whatever.
Jason: What is High Dynamic Range, can you explain this?
Nina: HDR is when you take multiple images at different exposures of the same room. When you piece them all together, it will enable you to bring out the details in both the lighter colors (such as the scene out the window) and the darker colors, such as the grain in the wood floors. The problem with that is, a lot of times people overdo it, and it doesn’t look natural. Done correctly however, it can produce an awesome photo. HDR is a little challenging to say the least.
Jason: Let me ask you about these public shaming sites, like Bad MLS Photos etc. How do you feel about these? I mean, they’re really funny, but at the same time, they’re really not. As a photographer, do you just cringe seeing them?
Nina: They look so lazy. Just lazy.
Jason: Would you pay somebody six percent to sell your home if they took pictures like that?
Nina: No way. In fact I would be angry. Very angry.