Anatomy of an Interior Photo

All wood interiors are one of the more challenging subjects for interior photography, especially with a bright exterior window view and direct sunlight entering the space. Interiors are usually challenging when windows are involved in the scene, because of the extreme difference in brightness between the interior and exterior, and this problem is compounded when the interior has very dark surfaces, especially when the dark surfaces are on all sides, such as in the example below. 

One way to deal with the problem in some situations is to install large neutral density filters on the outside of the windows. However, this is sometimes logistical impossible or highly impractical and these are expensive and time consuming to install. In my opinion, using supplementary lighting is by far the most practical way to deal with this technical challenge. Further compounding the challenge in this example was the very wide view, which leaves no room to place lighting outside of the composition. Because of this I had to light from within the composition. Reflections of the lights on the walls meant that I had to do a variety of exposures with the lights in different positions and edit the lights out when doing the digital processing. Combining the various exposures together digitally so that the lighting blends together can be quite a complex process that requires minute attention to detail in order to avoid leaving unwanted artifacts in the final image.

For this example, I used 10 separate exposures to create the final image.

The following photos show the ambient lighting as the camera sees it, some of the lighting exposures that I used to create the final image, and the final result.

Ambient Exposure

Ambient Exposure

Lighting Exposure

Lighting Exposure

Lighting Exposure

Final Image

Recent Twilight Photography

Here is an exterior twilight shot of a home in Los Altos, CA, that I did for a recent real estate listing (by Ken DeLeon/DeLeon Realty). I can't emphasize enough the usefulness of this kind of shot for really making a home stand out. While many people tend to think of these kinds of shots in terms of high-end homes, more mainstream homes can benefit as well. However, not all homes benefit to the same degree. It really depends upon the setting and the design of the home. In this case, the home had very large picture windows and nice landscaping, which made it an obvious candidate for this kind of treatment.

Strictly speaking, this was shot at dusk rather than twilight, dusk being the period between sunset and twilight, and twilight being the few minutes between dusk (or dawn) and night. At twilight the light often becomes very blue or even purplish, which has lead people to refer to it as the blue hour (really just a matter of 5 or 10 minutes).

Generally speaking, twilight photos tend to be more dramatic than dusk photos, since there is often more contrast and the colors will be more intense. However, sometimes a more subtle effect is more appealing with some subjects. Sometimes the interior and exterior lighting doesn't balance out as well at twilight, although sometimes supplementary lighting can be added to account for that; however, with supplementary lighting for twilight photos, the result may not always be completely natural looking. Usually the difficulty in this regard is with adding light to the exterior rather than the interior. Even with dusk photos, supplementary lighting can be useful, however. In the case of this photo, I added some light inside the house, to better balance out the light from the windows.

12031 Hilltop Drive, Los Altos

Recent Interior Photography

A couple more photos from my shoot of 2020 Jackson Street, San Francisco (the Hellman Mansion). 

For each of these shots I used some supplementary lighting, ranging from a very small amount to fairly substantial. However, the goal is usually to try to make the scene look as though it is not obviously lit, unless you are trying for a special effect.

Dressing Room-Master Suite

Master Bedroom

Guest Bath

Getting it Right in the Camera

From time to time I see some photographers boast that, when they shoot photos, they "get it right in the camera," meaning that they produce an image that needs little or no processing or retouching after they take the photo. I especially see this comment from architectural and interior photographers who use supplementary lighting, who take pride in working this way and who seem to disparage photographers who do not work in this way as somehow less professional. I think this attitude comes from the days when transparency film was the standard medium for professional color photography. This film is very unforgiving and and provides very little flexibility for manipulating the image after it has been created. Color negative film provided more flexibility, but for various reasons was seldom used for professional purposes, with the exception of portrait, wedding and event photography (the end use for which is usually a photographic print, rather than a reproduction made with a printing press).

Because of the limited flexibility of color transparency film, architectural and interior photographers traditionally used a considerable amount of supplementary lighting, among other reasons to minimize color imbalances from mixed light sources and to reduce the contrast range of the scene to fit within the limited tonal range of transparency film. This process tended to require a lot of expensive lighting equipment and a degree of lighting skill not commonly found in other genres of professional still photography. With the advent of digital photography, some architectural and interiors photographers continued to use their traditional methods of lighting, generally only using the basic digital processing controls to finish their photos, except for doing the kind of retouching (in digital form, of course) traditionally done by airbrush artists when film was the only photographic medium. However, digital photography now offers a tremendous amount of control, both for solving traditional technical problems and for creative expression, and I don't see any reason to dismiss using the potential of digital photography as somehow less than professional. Certainly, if a traditional lighting method is giving a photographer the results he or she wants and needs, all well and good.  In the end, however, I think the end result is all that matters to the viewer or end user of the photos.

Palo Alto Master Bath

Here is a master bath of a home in Palo Alto, CA, that I shot for a real estate listing several months back.

Master Bath

Master baths are often one of the "money" shots for real estate marketing (along with living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and media rooms), especially for nicer homes, and thus these need to stand out and look especially appealing. This bath has been nicely remodeled and was in excellent condition. I did not have to do any remedial retouching or resort to an awkward composition in order to downplay any less-than-ideal elements. The ambient lighting was far from ideal for this shot, as  is often the case for real estate marketing photography, which must often be done on short notice and with little choice of time for shooting with the best light; therefore, I used supplementary lighting in the form of several small flashes placed strategically around the room, to even out the lighting and to highlight certain areas of the scene. 

This shot is a crop of a considerably wider shot. Many real estate agents favor extreme wideangle views because the agents want to show a lot of space within one photo. The crop above is the way I would tend to compose this scene for an architect, interior designer, product manufacturer, etc., and I think it provides a very good sense of both the space and the various finishes and fixtures.

"Do you do HDR?"

I occasionally get this question from prospective clients, and I always feel as though I have to be on my guard a bit when responding, because there are so many misconceptions about HDR among non-photographers, and even among many photographers. Even experienced photographers use the term HDR to refer to different kinds of processes, although always to refer to a process to deal with a very high-contrast scene, and usually to a process that involves digitally combining multiple exposures.

Some people are under the impression that HDR produces superior results and some that it produces awful, garish results. Actually, neither of these is inherently the case with any process that might loosely fall within the definition of HDR. Rather than confuse non-photographers with a discussion of what HDR is or is not and what its characteristics are, I would simply suggest that those who commission professional photographers determine whether or not they like a particular photographer's work and whether that photographer can satisfactorily handle the assignment.

For those who would like to learn more about the various techniques and definitions of HDR, I have several blog articles on the subject in the techniques category:

1. "HDR has More Pop?"
2. High Dynamic Range Imaging, Supplementary Lighting and Real Estate Photography
3. Michael Freeman Revisits HDR

2422 Clay Street-Kitchen/Family Room

Here is an example of the kind of interior photos real estate agents often prefer for their listings. This is a shot of the kitchen/family room in a beautifully updated Victorian home located in the Pacific Heights section of San Francisco. This listing is by David Bellings, with Coldwell Banker/San Francisco.

What realtors often prefer for their listing photos is a look that is light, bright and very wide, which can present some difficult technical challenges if a high quality result is desired. For one, very wideangle views can create a great deal of distortion, with a tendency for stretching at the edges of the frame (anamorphic distortion) and making objects very near the camera look much larger relative to those further away (scale distortion). Often these types of distortion cannot be avoided due to the nature of the space and what needs to be shown, so very careful positioning of the camera is necessary to at least moderate the effects of distortions. 

The other challenge is lighting. I believe that supplementary lighting is essential for most residential interiors, since the ambient lighting in many homes is often far from ideal. Add to that the fact that most real estate photos must be shot at times when the ambient lighting is not even at its potential best. Therefore, supplementary lighting serves, at minimum, a remedial purpose. Beyond that, however, added lighting can be used creatively, to further enhance the photo beyond mere remediation. However, if one were to try to light a scene such as the one above with lights to the side of and behind the camera, the areas nearer to the camera would be much brighter than those further away due to light fall off. There are no places within this view to place lights so that they cannot be seen. Furthermore, positioning lights within the scene would create unpleasant reflections and hot spots, especially on the cabinets and in the stainless steel appliances. The solution to this challenge is to shoot multiple exposures with lights placed in different positions within the scene and then to mask out the lights and the resulting reflections with Photoshop. Sometimes this masking process can be as easy as simply splicing two images together right down the middle. Other times, as in the above example, more exposures are involved and complex, detailed masking is required to eliminate reflections and even out the tones, among other things.

The process I describe above is not necessarily only for creating the kind of photos as in this example. It offers the opportunity to exercise a considerable amount of control over the end result, for creative reasons as well as for solving technical problems. However, in addition to Photoshop expertise, the process requires a very good eye in order to balance all of the visual elements, otherwise the results may be less effective than using simpler methods.

Update: This property went under contract within 3 days of going on the market. It was previously listed by another agent in December 2011. I think my photos are considerably better than the ones used for the previous listing. Could they have played apart in how quickly this property has gone under contract? It is not always easy to determine such things. No doubt a 5% price reduction, good staging, a tightening market, and one of the top realtors in San Francisco played a part as well.

"HDR has More Pop"?

I recently received a request for a quote for a photography assignment, among the requirements for which was that the photos be done using the process known as High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI or HDR for short). When I asked why the requirement for HDR, the client's representative explained that it was because HDR has more "pop".  I think what people are referring to when they say this that they are seeing photos created with this process that have a high degree of color saturation, often to the point that photos look unrealistic and garish. This may help the images to stand out, but in my opinion the over-the-top HDR look does not lend itself well for marketing images of buildings. On the other hand, I have seen plenty of images made with HDR that look flat, muddy, dark and grungy, that is, without any pop at all. It really is not about the process. It is about the photographer, although to some degree the subject matter will play a part as well.  With a dull subject and dull lighting, even the most talented photographer is going to struggle to produce compelling results, no matter what process he or she may use. In my opinion, the solution to such a situation is often the creative use of supplementary lighting.

While it is possible to produce compelling and realistic images using the HDR process, it can be very hard to do, since the process can be difficult to control, and, in my opinion, it is not that suitable for all kinds of subject matter and lighting conditions. Furthermore, it is quite possible to use Photoshop alone to produce images with as much pop as anyone might need. From what I have seen, the vast majority of experienced architectural and interiors photographers who are producing high-quality work for architects, interior designers, magazines, advertising companies, hotels, builders, etc., either do not use HDR, or use it only occasionally for particular situations. Where one typically finds HDR being used frequently for commercial photography is in the field of real estate, where photographers use it as an expediency to meet the requirements of assignments involving low budgets, high quantity and rapid turnaround, and where high quality is often not a primary consideration.

By the way, when I use the term HDR,  I am referring to the 32-bit, moving-point process that is the subject of Michael Freeman's book Mastering HDR Photography: Combining Technology and Artistry to Create High Dynamic Range Images.

Twilight Photo-1321 Harker Avenue, Palo Alto, CA

Here is another in my series of residential twilight photos, a craftsman style house located in the Community Center area of Palo Alto, CA.

This is from a recent listing by one of my real estate clients: Ken DeLeon, DeLeon Realty.

Recent Work-3180 Cowper Street, Palo Alto

Here is a double page ad for a real estate listing in a recent edition of the Palo Alto Weekly, which uses my photos.

 I think this is a good example of how twilight photos can enhance the presentation of a property. Also, since this ad is destined for newspaper usage, which typically has relatively limited reproduction quality, it is useful to have images which will hold up well in that medium. I think twilight photos achieve this, with the right subject. Also, brightly lit interior photos will tend to hold up well with newspaper reproduction, and this is achieved most consistently with supplementary lighting.

By the way, Ken DeLeon was one of the top 3 real estate agents in the country for 2011, in terms of dollar sales volume. Go Ken.

Some Observations on Lighting for Architectural and Interior Photography

A few personal observations related to architectural and interior photography that may provide photographers and those who commission them with some food for thought:

• The camera does not see the way the human eye does. 
• Lots of visual information does not necessarily make for a compelling photo.
• The quality of the ambient lighting in many interiors, especially residential, is often not of very high quality. 
• More than anything, it is the quality of the light that is most important in a photo. 
• An ordinary subject with great lighting will look infinitely better than a great subject with poor lighting. 
• Even interiors that make use of a great deal of ambient daylight and/or have well-designed artificial lighting are often affected by substantial compromises due to cost or functionality considerations, with the result that the ambient lighting could use some kind of help, whether in the form of real or (digitally) manufactured supplementary lighting. 
• While some remedial processing can be done in Photoshop, to compensate for poor ambient lighting, Photoshop is not all powerful. That is, you can't always "just photoshop it" and expect to get high quality results. 
• Tastes, styles, talent, budgets and markets will differ. 
• The ambient lighting for a building will never be at its best for all parts of the building at any one time of day. 
• A great deal of light does not necessarily mean good light.
• A very low light level can sometimes be very attractive.

The above observations are in no particular order of importance.

Enhance Your Internet Viewing Experience: Calibrate your Computer Monitor

The management of color for digital photography is an extremely complex subject, of which most amateur photographers have little or no understanding. Basically, color management has to do with the whole process of color digital photography, including how photos are processed and viewed. For most amateur photographers, a thorough understanding and application of this process is not practical. However, there is one part of the process that could be practical for non-professionals and would greatly serve the medium of digital photography: calibration of computer monitors. 

The brightness and color rendition of computer monitors changes over time, and the stock monitor brightness and color/contrast monitor settings are generally not ideal for viewing photographic images. Furthermore, the ambient lighting conditions under which a monitor is viewed will have an effect on the viewer's perception of the image (applies to viewing printed images as well). Conscientious professional photographers will calibrate their computer monitors with special software and hardware that enables them to achieve a more consistent and accurate view of photos on their monitors. This specialized software and hardware is not necessarily terribly expensive (although more elaborate and versatile versions can be), nor is it difficult to use for someone who is at least moderately comfortable with installing and using various kinds of computer software.  Here are a couple of examples of monitor calibration tools that are reasonably accessible for the average computer user: Colormunki and Pantone Huey.  Both of these products can be had for under $200.

Ideally, for best viewing of images, the monitor calibration should take into account the nature of the ambient room light. However, even calibrating a monitor without regard to the ambient room lighting can make for a much more accurate photo viewing experience than simply using the stock monitor settings, or, even worse, badly manipulated monitor settings.

Some professional photographers will occasionally go to the extent of calibrating their clients' monitors. However, this is not practical in all cases. Furthermore, serious photographers are interested in disseminating their work to the widest possible audience, in a manner that represents their work as accurately as possible. Since the Internet has now become the preeminent medium for viewing photographs, it makes sense to try to ensure that the photo viewing medium enables viewers to have the best possible viewing experience.

Recent Work-Living Room

Here is a shot from a real estate listing (276 Loucks Ave. in Los Altos) that I shot recently for Julie Tsai-Law, Alain Pinel/Palo Alto. The staging is by Karen Salveson, of Miss Conception Design. The paintings are by Chris Ehlers.

I used a fairly substantial amount of supplementary lighting here, and each room had at least two lights in it.

Go With a Trackball for Digital Photo Editing

After working with a mouse for a long time for my photo editing, I started to develop some strain in my little finger. I was using that finger to help stabilize the movements. This year I switched to a Logitech trackball and it seems to be working out much better. Here is what I use: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/mice-pointers/trackballs/devices/wireless-trackball-m570.  You can develop hand strain with a trackball too if you overdo it, but I think this trackball is better than a mouse for photo editing. I also frequently make use of a Wacom tablet/stylus (similar to this: http://www.Wacom.com/en/Products/Intuos/Intuos4Medium.aspx), which has the additional benefit of lessening hand strain by using the hand in a different way from a trackball or mouse.

Menlo Park Twilight

250 Gloria Circle, Menlo Park, CA. Listed by Ken DeLeon, Keller Williams-Palo Alto.

This image was used as the lead photo in the ads.

More and more real estate agents are discovering what architects and lighting designers have known for a long time: twilight images can really make a building stand out, even with low budget printing.  And agents are requesting these kinds of shots more frequently, and not only for their higher-end listings, but for solidly mainstream ones as well.

Technical note: the lighting inside the garage was primarily fluorescent, which looks green to the camera when using a daylight color balance setting; therefore, I selectively balance the color in the garage windows to match the tungsten lighting inside the rest of the house.

Twilights-Continued

Another in my ongoing series of twilight shots on this blog.

I shot this on a very dreary, rainy day. The sky was especially bad, and didn't take on much of that blue twilight look that you can generally get even on overcast days, so I replaced the sky with a better one. As with a number of the previous twilight examples, some of the windows were dimmer that others, so some selective retouching was needed to balance these out better. For really extreme differences, or when there is no light at all in some windows, it is best to add some light to the inside.

I shot this Palo Alto, CA, home for a real estate listing for Steve Pierce and Adam Touni of Zane MacGregor Real Estate.

Woodside Twilight in Black and White

I really enjoy doing black and white photos, but I don't have many opportunities to do black white for commercial jobs. I shot this for a real estate listing by Scott Dancer, Coldwell Banker, Woodside, CA, and I delivered it to the client in color.

Many architects and architectural photographers feel that black and white can help to emphasize the design of the structure. One of my favorite architectural photographers, Ezra Stoller, shot mostly in black and white. And the mostly widely known architectural photo, by Julius Shulman, of Richard Neutra's Kaufmann house, is in black and white.

Michael Freeman Revisits HDR

Michael Freeman, the author of Mastering High Dynamic Range Photography, takes another look at the HDR technique in this blog article: http://thefreemanview.com/techniques/hdr-revisited/

Mastering the Art of High Dynamic Range Photography has become one of the foremost reference books on this technique. However, Mr. Freeman had stopped using the technique several years ago, in favor of another multiple exposure technique, known as exposure fusion, with which he feels it is easier to achieve natural looking results than with the HDR/tonemapping process.

Mr. Freeman's article has some useful illustrations, and it reflects his disappointment with the multitude of poorly executed HDR images that one finds now all over the Web. Recently, I have been noticing quite a bit of poorly done HDR in low-budget marketing materials.

Adobe Lightroom's JPEG Compression Settings

Here is an interesting Web article regarding Adobe Lightroom's jpeg compression settings: http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/jpeg-quality

The article includes useful comparisons of the effect of different jpeg compression settings with different kinds of photos. One conclusion of the article is that one size does not fit all with regard to these settings. With the same setting, different photos can exhibit very different amounts of jpeg compression artifacts.

More Twilights

I love doing twilight shots. However, it is not often that conditions are ideal for these, in which case extra Photoshop work is required. The idea is to wait until the interior and exterior light is perfectly balanced.  However, often the interior lighting is very uneven, and elaborate supplemental interior lighting for these shots is often not in the budget for real estate photography. In addition, even when the sky is blue in real life, with the best overall balance, the sky may appear dull and greyish in a photo, so enhancement or replacement of the sky with Photoshop is required. For both of these photos, I replaced the sky. In the top photo, I also added a little supplementary lighting to the upstairs. In the bottom photo, the upper windows were not lit because I didn't have access to the attic, so I had to manufacture some light with Photoshop. With  both photos, I had to do some selective modification to the color and brightness of individual windows to balance them out, in addition to a variety of other retouching. It is partly because of this extra processing work that I charge more for these kinds of photos.