The real estate and property market is a huge thing in many places and so real estate photography can be a good source of work and income for a photographer…but (There is always a but) the real estate photography market can be so flooded with capable photographers that it can be difficult to stand out amongst the crowd. There are many angles (no pun inteneded) one could take…like the pole and balloon photographers (for that elevated angle). There are the budget photographers that will charge anywhere from $50 to $150 per property for average to better than average images and there are a multitude of real estate agents and DIY home owners willing to accept their own efforts at taking pictures of real estate. So what can you offer if you don’t have a helium blimp and are not able to justify shooting for less than $400 per property? Time to get real.
Consider HDR reality for Real Estate
Despite it’s obvious quality advantage, HDR photography has yet to make a huge impact in real estate photography. This baffles me. Most photographers in this market are still content to use “old” splicing and masking techniques to deal with the typical dynamic range challenges (eg rooms with views to brighter outdoor scenes). A lot of this is due to the fact that many photographers in this market have been so busy in the past 5 years that they have not even heard of HDR photography! I believe there is a huge opportunity for up and coming photographers to get a “unique” foot in the door through the use of HDR techniques. Why? HDR done properly gives the photographer the power to truly reproduce what the human eye can see in terms of dynamic range in a scene. The other huge benefit is that HDR images have what slide film used to give photographers…”the shoulder”
What is the shoulder?
As digital sensors become more advanced it is getting harder to distinguish colour digital images to colour film…but not really. Film still offers one visible advantage to its users…shoulders in the highlights. What does that mean? It simply means that transitions into highlights are gradual rather than sudden. This is most visible in objects that are supposed to be curved or rounded in your image. The higlights on these objects are reached gradually (further enhancing its visual “roundness”). Objects that are supposed to “glow” (like light bulbs and the sun) really do seem to glow because of this “shoulder in the highlights”. The overall effect, put simply, is that HDR images look more real and less “flat” than ordinary digital images.
HDR images look more "real" than ordinary digital images.
Look at this image above. It looks more real than an ordinary digital image for the following reasons -:
1. There is detail in the shadows (you can make out rocks, and leaves under the fern)
2. There is detail and colour in the sky (which would normally be blown out to white in a normal digital exposure)
3. The clouds have “luminance” the appear to glow in fact…this is due to a good shoulder in the highlights but also a more realistic ditribution of highlight tones
4. You can see the leaves and their colour in the background trees (trees that would normally be a dark silhouette in a normal digital exposure)
Why is the HDR Advantage ignored?
Other than the clear quality advantage there is a huge marketing advantage for HDR photographers. Very few established real estate snappers know about it and even fewer know how to do it well. There is a problem though. HDR images require a little bit more post processing time (especially if you dont have a kickass processor in your computer…thankfully I do) so it will cost you more to create these images. The biggest problem I have found though is that most real estate agents and property sellers can’t see a “significant” difference between HDR images and normal ones. The ones who can are very likely photographer themselves (who of course tend not to pay for other photographers). In order for the market to appreciate the value of HDR it needs to be educated.
5.00am my alarm goes off. There is no yawn, no usual rebellion at the realisation of being sentient at this unGodly hour. There is only anticipation of the climb to the top of the world that I am going to embark soon. It is a place that marked the beginning of a huge turning point in my life (yes the careerclysm too) and I had not been there since that turning point so I was a little worried too.
I had not taken a sunrise shot in a VERY long time. I gave up on them a little while back out of boredom in truth and this morning began with no real intention of taking one either – but something happened to me on the way up the mountain that influenced that intention. It did not compell me. It simply made me stop and realise what a dick I have been for turning my back on the sunrise out of a sense of superiority. What was it that nudged me in that direction you ask?
A seemingly simple statement – uttered by a mate as we stopped halfway up the steep incline so that I could stuff my, now everted, lungs back into my heaving chest. He looked out to sea where there was a mad procession of oddly shaped cumulus clouds poking their ghoulish heads above the horizon and said
“It’s not going to be the best sunrise…but it WILL come”
Perhaps I could have laughed or even shrugged off the statement as obvious…indeed many would have, but not I and not on this day. Instead I took it for how it was intended and I encourage you to do the same. Take the Sun as it comes…because it will always come whether you are there to see it or not. Furthermore, why not be more than just “here” to see it? Why not add your own light to the day. Why not be bright and active in the face of day’s break rather than dark and passive. Be so bright and “present” that you must throw light back toward the sun I say!
Last week I shot the Girl’s night out event held on the Gold Coast. My brief included covering the various fashion, lingerie and swimwear parades aswell as capturing the general atmosphere of the event and sponsor stalls. My assistant and I had quite a challenge over the 2 night event but it was lots of fun.
I was sitting quietly next Penny the cat and noticed that despite her languid gaze and posture she seemed as regal as ever. I reached over and picked up my D200 with a 50mm on it and set up for the shot. Yeah I know – I do seem to always have a camera of some kind within reach. Even when I’m just chillin.
Shot only under very boring fluoro lights I decided to spruce things up in photoshop a bit. Why not make little penny into a hero as well? So I applied my “hero shot” rendering technique and voila!
So this week my dear mother asked me to help her enter that Smith’s chips competition where you have to design a new flavour for them. I roll my eyes up and curse the marketing genius that managed to design yet another publicity campaign aimed at the “get rich quick/ you have to be in it to win it” sector of the TV watching community. I told my Mum that the flavour has probably already been designed and that all they are looking for is public interest. It will in fact just be a lottery. She isn’t convinced. She has a good feeling that her flavour idea will be the winner and that I must help her shoot the photo that the competition requires you submit as part of your entry. I cave in and decide to use this as practice for commercial and advertising shoots. Here is the final shot.
Hing as Model and photographer
This shot is achieved not in a studio but rather in my my Mum’s hallway using one speedlight high right and a speedlight flashing the wall behind me about two stops higher than the main light. I then composite the different elements in and blend in a red background to finish off.
When people ask me “Hing, what do you get out of photography?” I used to answer in a different way each time. This was mainly because I found it difficult to answer in one breath. I’m sure you all can empathise with me here. Photography is so many different things and appeals to so many different parts of my life, my character and my spirit that it is nearly impossible to sum up in a sentence or even several. However, in recent times I have come up with a short answer to that question that seems to fit. I simply say “Photography is a way of connecting with everything”. Sounds good doesn’t it? Well, someone recently called my bluff and questioned what I really meant by that…you see sometimes I am guilty of saying things that “feel” like they are true without actually first thinking about what I’m actually saying. It can undo me sometimes but in this case It hits pretty close to the mark.
Photography actually is a way of connecting with everything! When I am in photographer mode (whch is about 75% of the time…the rest is sleep) I am connecting with the environment I’m in. trying to absorb it, understand it and record it and this is no superficial act. In fact, it is the limitiations and “imperfectiness” of the small black clicky box in my hands that forces me to connect with my immediate universe at a level of detail and understanding that is not required by any other pursuit I know of. Consider this -:
In order to take a “Great Photo” you must first know and consider the mechanics of how your camera/lens/flash work. Then you need to consider the “behaviour” and character of your subject and environment. You also need to know the behaviour of light on your subject and how that might translate into an image in your camera – and that’s just the physical stuff. To take your photos to another level you might need to look with the eyes of an artist and consider principles of colour and composition. If you’re subject is a person you may need to consider personality and character – how am I going to get this shy lady to smile for this bearded stranger with a camera? If you want that special sunset or misty sunrise you might need to know the local geography and meteorological patterns. The choices you make about where and when to push the shutter button is a direct result of your own ego, your agendas and vision so it might be useful to be aware of your own feelings too. Perhaps you are taking a picture to communicate something to others so you might also need to be aware of the symbolic sensitivities of your intended audience. How many other activities require this almost “omniscient” level of care and connection? (yep you heard me…we photographers are Gods of our world!)
So in essence, photography requires you to engage with the reality, ethereality and oftentimes, surreality of a moment in time and space. How cool is that huh?
The Timeless Traveler can be seen at the eumundi markets. He is a living black and white photo standing motionless for hours on end reminding us all that time is precious, fragile and fleeting…like a feather on the wind. As photographers we can take those moments and make them last for all eternity.
My cuz Rowan invited me to come watch a gig last night and I saw it as an opportunity to flex my photo muscles. It has been a little while since i’ve been able to shoot for me so I looked forward to shooting his gig. I always look forward to shooting music performances becasue usually the stage lighting offers so many challenges and wonderful opportunites for dramatic lighting (and you all know what a drama queen I am when it comes to lighting).
When I arrived at the set I was disappointed with the lights. There is usually at least one main spotlight that is strong and hard that the protagonist may wander in and out of but on this occassion – nothing like that. Only a few dull coloured spots were lighting the stage in green and red. I thought to myself “I’d hate to be red green colour blind” when it suddenly hit me – here is an opportunity to test out a cool trick for black and white photography.
back story – For the past few months I have become obsessed with black and white portraiture. I have been experimenting with the use of filters to increase contrast in digital images and have discovered some interesting results when illuminating the subject in green and then processing later in the red channel. I have not written about this at great length becasue I am not yet a master of it but look out for an upcoming article.
This shot is a combination of bounce flash off the low ceiling and dull green light from the right. Then there is a little bit of photofiddle with the channel mixer and levels in post processing. The result is very nice I think.
These shots are done using on off camera speedlight set on a light stand and swivel bracket. The stage lights were awful so it is a good idea to bring your own flash to gigs like this.
I’ve decided to develop a portrait style that customers can opt for if they are looking for a more dramtic style of portrait. I’m calling them heroshots portraits and styling them off the kind of images you see of hollywood stars in movie posters. I think it would be kind of cool to portray the average joe as a hero for a change.
Christian and the boys before the wedding
I wanna see ordinary people depicted as heroes for a change – Here Christian and his boys toast the powers that be before he walks down the aisle
The technique is common in graphic design and advertising but does rely on correct lighting by the photographer. This particular shot is actually a composite of three different shots. Why?
Well, I wanted all three guys lit strongly but I only had 2 little speedlites (SB600 and SB800) to work with. So in order to get the srong dramatic lighting for the shot I envisioned I need each guy lit from either side (some call it sandwich lighting) so I directed them to stand very still and took three shots of them each time having my assistants move the light to the next guy.
You can see the three composite shots by clicking below.
Okay, so now my website comes equipped with it’s own blog. Yes, this blog is aimed at appealing to the googlebot search engine but I think I will find this blog a handy expression tool in its own right. So, if you want to keep up with the random (and somtimes planned) happenings of a guy with a camera and a mission then please bookmark this page and check back every now and then. Thanks!
