RustyBug Offline Upload & Sell: On
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Kudo's for quickly figuring out that light is your friend vs. expecting HDR to be the miracle worker (although it can lend a hand at times).
+1 @ flash vs. room lights.
If the lights are a key feature, then I may snap a second exposure that lets them shine and put them on a layer to allow them to be seen. Balancing the lighting vs. doing it in post ... more than one way to skin the cat, and you'll learn your own approach preferences depending on the situations you run in to.
As to the yellow light coming from the bathroom ... the fact that you recognize the color diff it presents is about a million miles above where most folks start.
No worries about the lack of second light here (although I do have more than one and will put them in other rooms as noted). Some color correction and a gradient mask to feather it in concert with the falloff is pretty easy in pp for such a small variance. Of course, you can always go the other way and use it for creative draw (when desired).
Here's just a little bit of tweak on the crop, skew (note the picture) and the WB @ the bathroom door, and just a tweak at USM for sharpening (soft light offset).
Imo, studying your light colors and finding your (important) neutrals to mitigate cast is where you can separate yourself from walkthrough P&S (although I've got a buddy who does use a P&S very well with a couple of strobes triggered by the P&S dinky flash) RE pics. The same goes for falloff/distortion ... and those NASTY CYAN casts from under-lit rooms being filled with skylight WB casts from outside that all all over a zillion RE sites... BLECH !!! CHOKE !!! PUKE !!! GAG !!!
Sorry ... I digressed a bit.
Some folks take pictures of people ... and then there are portrait photographers that study their craft and know how to showcase desired characteristics, while minimizing the lesser desirable ones through the tools of their craft @ light & lens, posing, etc..
Likewise, some folks take pictures of rooms ... and then there are those who treat the room/building like a portrait that craft the image, rather than snap a pic. I gather you'll do well as the former with study and observation through your learning curve.
As you progress into RE, you'll find that the alignment of time to output / expectations can be a balancing act. I usually try to shoot about 20% - 30% of the images to be "portrait of a room" style and 50% documentary style to balance those things out and yet still let my RE agents know that I'm worth the extra $$$ beyond the P&S walkthrough shooters.
When I first started, I set out to do 100% of all rooms @ 100% "portraiture" ... about killed me, but killed my timeliness to produce and took too long in the homes. So I learned to pick my battles, and now I don'[t even shoot 100% of the rooms (I mean, if a home has 5 bedrooms, do we really need to see all 4 of the non-master rooms to get their vibe when they are cookie cutter).
For me, I've adopted a philosophy akin to a well dressed woman's attire ... strikingly enough to catch your interest and showcase her beauty ...yet, leave you wanting to go behind closed doors to see the rest. But, that will of course depend a bit on what your RE agents want you to produce for them as well. Some think MORE IS BETTER. Others want a few AWESOME shots and let the carrot dangle for the rest. You kinda have to be able to present either approach.
One thing to bear in mind ... RE agents have timeliness guidelines for MLS listing. Be sensitive to that. A lack of doing so will yield you a rep of unprofessional pretty quick in some circles. As with most things, show your strengths, minimize your weaknesses.
HTH ... GL
BTW ... I'd have no problem presenting this one. PP is part of the puzzle to be embraced along with the field challenges. Do you best (which ain't always perfect, that's fer sure) in the field, then finish it off in post to showcase the best with your best.
Edited on Mar 16, 2014 at 11:23 AM · View previous versions
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