[Nass]

Yes, necessity, hence I liked the built in HDR. My only other exposure to HDR real estate stuff today here was this thread - didn't do much for me hence the Photomatix comments. Agree re cost of local drone hire, absurd. Looks to me like they're raking it for all it's worth.

[Scootatheschool1990]

Here's the latest! Fresh off photoshop LINK.

[kadajawi]

Well, I'll quickly go through them again.

1: House looks good, but the overblown clouds are quite glaring, no pun intended. Exposure bracketing would have helped (that's why I always do it, even when I don't think I need it).

6: The placement of the red things isn't as symmetric and straight as it could be.

7: I think with composition adjustment you could have maintained that viewing angle while showing more of the lower part of the kitchen, which is more interesting than the ceiling. Also it seemed to me that you shot down a bit, could have avoided it that way.

8: Ceiling looks weird... water damage or something like that? Can be fixed in post, though I don't know how truthful these shots have to be.

11: I'll talk about it a bit more at the end, but you've got some beautiful lights in that bathroom. Unfortunately the photo is over exposed, the flash too strong (IMHO).

15: Again I think the flash is a bit too strong. The light coming from the outside window is beautiful, and it's a nice, comfortable place. I'd darken the left and right part of the photo (especially what we see after the door). And make it a bit warmer perhaps.

One general thing I noticed is that you light up everything very evenly, and you don't let the lights that are already in the place work their magic. IMHO you fill in too much. Your flashes are also quite noticeable. Shots live through contrast, highlights, shadows, ... if it is too flat, it gets a bit boring IMHO, it loses emotion and warmth. Maybe next time you can do two versions, one with as much flash as you usually use, and one with that dialed down to, say, 1/2, 2/3, ...

[Scootatheschool1990]

Most recent shoot (one photo is not mine, but was from the previous photographer. The client only wanted certain photos in the house. I tried my hardest to get what she wanted. I was not happy with some of the results however. The house was too small to get tighter shots. Good house though, it held residents who were remodelers and took great care of it. You don't care about that though, here are the photos. link

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Last edited by Scootatheschool1990; 03-26-2015 at 12:50 AM.

[mikeSF]

very nice and good natural looking lighting too.

[Kerrowdown]

I found that on your latest shoot on some of the shots were a bit too tight on framing for my liking, your cutting into items of furniture quite awkwardly at the edges of the frame.

Have a look at some of the interior design magazines, you'll see what I mean. For example 1) At floor level the wall corners are missing, 3) Bed lower RH side, 4) Bed RH side, 5) Table Lower RH side, 6) Sofa Lower RH side, 7) Sofa RH side and chair along bottom edge, 9) Sofa LH side, 10) Table & chairs LH side.

And for the total opposite I'd crop... 2) I'd trim the blue off LH side, 8) Crop in a little both L & R sides.

I only way to resolve some of these would be shoot a wider lens, get back further, change viewpoint and if these options are not possible move the items into frame or exclude items completely.

It would IMHO just clean up the otherwise well exposed and sharp images.

[Nass]

Yeah, that was my thought too. On the pic you posted on the previous page, I think you should have moved the table and chairs on the far left out the way and framed the left edge to be between the pic and the end of the wall.

[Scootatheschool1990]

I found that on your latest shoot on some of the shots were a bit too tight on framing for my liking, your cutting into items of furniture quite awkwardly at the edges of the frame.

Have a look at some of the interior design magazines, you'll see what I mean. For example 1) At floor level the wall corners are missing, 3) Bed lower RH side, 4) Bed RH side, 5) Table Lower RH side, 6) Sofa Lower RH side, 7) Sofa RH side and chair along bottom edge, 9) Sofa LH side, 10) Table & chairs LH side.

And for the total opposite I'd crop... 2) I'd trim the blue off LH side, 8) Crop in a little both L & R sides.

I only way to resolve some of these would be shoot a wider lens, get back further, change viewpoint and if these options are not possible move the items into frame or exclude items completely.

It would IMHO just clean up the otherwise well exposed and sharp images.

Okay! I'll try that for the next shoot! Thanks for your time looking at the shots and reviewing them. I looked at a few magazine images and you're correct!

---------- Post added 04-02-15 at 06:53 AM ----------

Yeah, that was my thought too. On the pic you posted on the previous page, I think you should have moved the table and chairs on the far left out the way and framed the left edge to be between the pic and the end of the wall.

Okay, I will give that a go. The issue was that this house was extremely small for any decent shot like you're saying. The client also wanted tighter shots. But I'll make a mental note of keepingvorvexcludibgvthings in/out of the frame.

[jaywes]

I applaud you for showcasing your work and your business. I am an architect and very much interested in my future business including photography since I am just as passionate about them both. I also find it interesting that you stuck with Pentax as I've heard from a few architectural photographers I spoke with whom are against it. Some for right reasons when it comes to tilt-shift lenses and exterior high rise photography which I love and want to do. With the new FF on the way it will be a turning point on if I stay pentax or not. Thank you for inspiration if anything.

[Scootatheschool1990]

I applaud you for showcasing your work and your business. I am an architect and very much interested in my future business including photography since I am just as passionate about them both. I also find it interesting that you stuck with Pentax as I've heard from a few architectural photographers I spoke with whom are against it. Some for right reasons when it comes to tilt-shift lenses and exterior high rise photography which I love and want to do. With the new FF on the way it will be a turning point on if I stay pentax or not. Thank you for inspiration if anything.

Great to meet you Jay.

Thanks for your words of encouragement. I'm so happy to inspire.

I wanted to become an architect once in my life. The 24mm TS from samyang will be available for the pentax full frame. The canon 17mm tse is the only TS Pentax won't have. I hope you can get into tilt shift once the ff comes out.

[kadajawi]

I applaud you for showcasing your work and your business. I am an architect and very much interested in my future business including photography since I am just as passionate about them both. I also find it interesting that you stuck with Pentax as I've heard from a few architectural photographers I spoke with whom are against it. Some for right reasons when it comes to tilt-shift lenses and exterior high rise photography which I love and want to do. With the new FF on the way it will be a turning point on if I stay pentax or not. Thank you for inspiration if anything.

But Pentax has (limited) tilt shift built right into the camera. Only once you can actually afford to buy a TS lens will Pentax be limiting you. And even then, just take a panorama, fix it in post. Or even a regular shot. There's plenty of resolution to be able to correct the perspective a bit... especially since you can do quite a bit in camera anyway.

I agree with the criticism... rearrange the place for every photo if necessary. Just small details... look through the viewfinder or on the live view screen and check the borders etc.

I maintain my criticism of your flash usage, while it improved a lot IMHO the flashes could be dialed down further in some shots, for example the bedroom (if that is natural light, I apologize. But maybe try to block the window then, just a bit?). If you are using them, the idea is that the viewer shouldn't notice you did. I'd also consider getting some gels for the flashes in order to get the color temperature to match more with the actual lighting in the place.

Countershot.jpg for example doesn't look like there were any flashes involved, and it looks really good. There is some contrast, some warmth going on.

Check out the works done for David Hicks David Hicks , a high profile interior designer from Australia, now working internationally. Likewise, Ong & Ong from Singapore: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.651735138219074.1073741844.149094338483159&type=3
Now I suppose the photographers who did those shots weren't the hit and run kind of photographer, but look how the shots seem to lack the existence of a flash. Maybe they used flashes, maybe they didn't. To me the use of a flash subconsciously tells me that this is not how the place is going to look like. It's all natural light here, and if the exterior is overexposed, so be it. In my work I often found that even though I could recover what was outside the windows, I didn't want to do that. I'd rather have a nice, white, overblown translucent curtain hang in front of it, hiding what is behind.

In any case it doesn't take too much time to do HDR in post. Create a 32 bit TIFF in a HDR program, load it in Lightroom and adjust the sliders like you would with a normal shot, just that you have much more data to work with, you an recover much brighter highlights and darker shadows.

I know that you usually don't get the kind of projects I did, or the photographers who did the projects linked to above, but I think it can still be applied. And the house in your last shoot is a pretty nice project. It's one of the sort of projects that could be the basis for your portfolio, and your way into better, higher end projects IMHO. Maybe you can try to track down the previous owners of that house, see if you can do some work for them?

Btw., Bath1 is tilted.

[jaywes]

Great to meet you Jay.

Thanks for your words of encouragement. I'm so happy to inspire.

I wanted to become an architect once in my life. The 24mm TS from samyang will be available for the pentax full frame. The canon 17mm tse is the only TS Pentax won't have. I hope you can get into tilt shift once the ff comes out.

Really!? Tough life- it's mostly love-hate relationship and feast or famine.. haha. As I've read the current rokinon/samyang is a full frame lens. I have interest in it if the FF is worthy I really want to stay Pentax and build my collection. Otherwise I may jump ship. Depends on a lot.

But Pentax has (limited) tilt shift built right into the camera. Only once you can actually afford to buy a TS lens will Pentax be limiting you. And even then, just take a panorama, fix it in post. Or even a regular shot. There's plenty of resolution to be able to correct the perspective a bit... especially since you can do quite a bit in camera anyway.

I respectfully disagree. Those professional photographers in the architectural realm, maybe not in the real estate too much, have said TS is almost exclusively utilized. In computer afterwords is cumbersome and is not ideal especially if you need to do a whole set of images that way. Mid to high rise buildings are even more difficult to achieve this with. Interiors of (1-2 family) houses may be/probably are acceptable. I have seen the in-camera shift options. It's interesting. I'm weighing my options. A jump to Canon may be in the cards. We shall see.

[kadajawi]

I am not saying that a TS lens isn't ideal... it is. If you can, use one of those. But they cost, and unless you have one of those Pentax is the better option. It is Canon + normal lens < Pentax + normal lens < Canon + TS lens.

Correcting in post is rather trivial. Lightroom does it with the push of a button, and it usually works. I'd recommend doing that anyway, cause you won't always get it right in camera/may not notice. There is also other (very easy) software that can do it, with more control. Can't remember the name now.

So yeah, if you can afford TS lenses, by all means. That is the best case scenario. If you can't, get a Pentax.

[Scootatheschool1990]

Here's the latest

[Scootatheschool1990]

And a Second house