Buchanan Studios Blog

Every now and then an assignment comes along that just blows your skirt up. I got a call a few months ago from Washington Gas Co. for some images of specific neighborhoods in DC for an upcoming customer publication they’re producing. After a cold winter nothing beats getting out on the street for some nice golden hour / twilight shooting.

Tivoli Theater in Washington, DC

National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC

International Spy Museum in Washington, DC

New images from the SpringHill Center Christmas showhouse.  Nursery by Gifted Notions and den by Julie Bass of Decorating Dens

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Last week we had a shoot at the home of a furniture designer I do a lot of work for. David Iatesta and his crew are very talented and we had a lot of fun shooting the job.

We photograph a lot of real estate interiors and exteriors. Some of our photos are for real estate agents, some for home builders, and some for interior designers and others in that trade (click here to see some.) As much as we would love to have every real estate salesperson in the Mid-Atlantic call us for every home listed, we realize that’s just not realistic. Instead we’ve put together a few tips for real estate professionals who want to make their listings look their best.

1.  Interiors
Interiors can be tricky. There’s usually relatively strong light coming through the windows which can ‘fool’ the light meter inside the camera. Also, the light coming from outside (daylight) is of a different color temperature than light traditionally used on the inside (incandescent.) When we come into a space to photograph we bring lots of our own lights to supplement the interior lighting. If you would like to spend the money on the equipment we’d be happy to come out in a consulting capacity and spend a couple of days showing you how to use it. Again, probably not realistic. Instead we’ll focus on a few small things you can do with the average digital camera to make things better.  

• Use a tripod. This one factor will have the biggest impact in the overall quality of your photos. A tripod allows the camera to use a slower shutterspeed (more on that in a bit.) without the usual camera shake. A tripod also has the side effect of slowing you down and forcing you to look closer at the photograph you’re about to take.  
• Use the manual exposure compensation. Most mid to upper level digital cameras have at least exposure compensation. Exposure compensation is simply telling the camera to brighten or darken the photo from what it thinks is the correct exposure. Today’s digital cameras are very smart, but you’re still smarter.  If you’ve shot a scene and it looks too dark on the screen, use the exposure compensation to brighten it up. This is also where the tripod comes in handy. Often when using exposure compensation the resulting shutter speed is very long. If you were to hand hold the camera while making a long exposure the image would be blurry due to hand movement.
• Shoot at the proper time of day. The aspects of light changes throughout the day, and those shifting qualities can make a room shine. In some cases, it’s necessary to shoot different rooms of the same home during different parts of the day.
• Keep the camera level. Using a tripod is a huge help with this as many of them have built in bubble levels. Nothing says greenhorn like a room that tilts.
• Use a wide angle lens.  Most consumer level digital camera have a medium wide lens (35mm or equivalent)  While this is ok for the average user, it may be worth investing in a wide angle adapter or supplemental lens for your particular camera.  This wide angle will allow you to capture more of a room.
• Consider adding supplemental lighting. Purchasing thousands of dollars worth of photographic lighting is helpful, but not required. Flood lights from Lowe’s work wonders in lighting up a dull basement.

2.  Exteriors – many of the same rules apply.

• Use a tripod
• Keep the camera level
• Use manual exposure compensation. The sky is usually MUCH brighter than the ground. As a result, objects on the ground (ie, the home) can be underexposed. Use exposure compensation to help alleviate this. Even if your particular camera does not have an exposure compensation feature it may have a backlight feature that will brighten the exposure somewhat and help in this situation.
• Use manual white balance. Daylight changes color throughout the day and using automatic color balance will neutralize these color shifts. Sometimes that’s ok, but one advantage to shooting at sunrise and sunset(more on this below) in the beautiful golden color of sunlight. We don’t want the camera canceling this color away.
• Shoot at the proper time of day. Shoot with the sun hitting the desired side of the building. If the building faces east, shoot at sunrise or close to it. West, sunset. If the building is facing north or south it’s a bit trickier. The sun never moves to the north (in the northern hemisphere at least) so the front of the home will never get direct light. In that case a pre-sunrise or dusk shot my be your best option. With a south facing home, determining when to shoot can be tricky. Since the sun moves from east to west, along a southerly route, the face of the home will get receive sun at a very high angle. This generally results in a less than great look. In general, shoot either as late or as early as the site will allow. Try to avoid shooting during the middle of the day whenever possible.
• Pay attention to the weather. It’s obvious that you don’t want to shoot on an overcast day but there are other factors as well. If it’s a particularly humid day the air will be hazy and the photos can be flat and dull as a result. If it’s very windy the camera can shake even when on a tripod which will result in blurry images. In general a nice clear day with high barometric pressure is ideal.  

We’re back from Chicago and getting things cleared from our desks.  Jen say’s the conference was great, she learned a lot and is looking forward to putting it into practice.  I also had a productive trip, took in some meetings and got some exploring done.  I’d forgotten how much I like the city. (the fact that it was in the 80’s everyday I was there probably helped)

The food and architecture sections of the website now have 20 samples each, as opposed to the original 10