Hardwood Floor to Shoot . . . Advice Please. :)

I have a hardwood floor to shoot on Sunday, which I've never done before.

My husband and I own a hardwood flooring installation company. Hubby's BlackBerry photos of his floors (he installs, I actually do nothing for this company) are not very good. They're horrid. He's using garbage photos of amazing floors in his portfolio, and I've been giving him a hard time about it.

He's just finished a walnut floor that he says is like nothing he's ever done before (whatever that means), and he'd like me to photograph it. I don't yet know if stairs were included in the install and finishing.

I'll use my 6d, and my 24-70 2.8ii as it is the widest angle lens I have. I can bring a tripod, but time will be at a premium. I can bring a 430ex ii with a diffuser (collapsible lightspere), but I won't have the time for anything fancier than that.

There shouldn't be any furniture in the rooms, but there could be window treatments and artwork on the walls.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for me? Hubby does truly amazing flooring work, and I'd like to do my best to capture it well.

neacail wrote in post #16669002
I have a hardwood floor to shoot on Sunday, which I've never done before.

My husband and I own a hardwood flooring installation company. Hubby's BlackBerry photos of his floors (he installs, I actually do nothing for this company) are not very good. They're horrid. He's using garbage photos of amazing floors in his portfolio, and I've been giving him a hard time about it.

He's just finished a walnut floor that he says is like nothing he's ever done before (whatever that means), and he'd like me to photograph it. I don't yet know if stairs were included in the install and finishing.

I'll use my 6d, and my 24-70 2.8ii as it is the widest angle lens I have. I can bring a tripod, but time will be at a premium. I can bring a 430ex ii with a diffuser (collapsible lightspere), but I won't have the time for anything fancier than that.

There shouldn't be any furniture in the rooms, but there could be window treatments and artwork on the walls.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions for me? Hubby does truly amazing flooring work, and I'd like to do my best to capture it well.

i would take the shots facing away from windows due to the glare that whey will cast across the flooring. Other than that, your 6D will do a great job with the coloring of the floor assuming that they are lit well. Use what lighting you can use from behind. 24 should be wide enough. Best of luck. Maybe afterwards you can post some shots from the shoot and we can judge and give advice from there? Kinda tough without knowing the specifics and seeing the conditions. Cheers!

JM Photos wrote in post #16669010
i would take the shots facing away from windows due to the glare that whey will cast across the flooring. Other than that, your 6D will do a great job with the coloring of the floor assuming that they are lit well. Use what lighting you can use from behind. 24 should be wide enough. Best of luck. Maybe afterwards you can post some shots from the shoot and we can judge and give advice from there? Kinda tough without knowing the specifics and seeing the conditions. Cheers!

I will definitely be posting the photos when I'm done to get feedback. Hopefully he'll have me shoot all of his floors in the future.

Our biggest client is a local remodeler who has a remodeling show that airs on TV in western Canada. These are very big, and very classy, homes. They don't even look at renovations valued at less than 200k. The homeowners sign piles of releases, and we have an advertising agreement with them.

It is a shame that hubby's portfolio is a disgusting mess. His work is truly exceptional.

neacail wrote in post #16669032
I will definitely be posting the photos when I'm done to get feedback. Hopefully he'll have me shoot all of his floors in the future.

Our biggest client is a local remodeler who has a remodeling show that airs on TV in western Canada. These are very big, and very classy, homes. They don't even look at renovations valued at less than 200k. The homeowners sign piles of releases, and we have an advertising agreement with them.

It is a shame that hubby's portfolio is a disgusting mess. His work is truly exceptional.

Well maybe after this shoot (assuming it goes well) you can start remodeling his portfolio

Good luck! There's only upside here - after he lands some awesome new contracts thanks to your photos, he'll be so thrilled that he may be amenable to any lens purchases you may have planned for in the near future!

I got some more details last night over dinner. As it turns out, this floor is interesting as it is a semi-gloss finish. That is highly unusual, as a matte finish is what has been fashionable around here for the last decade or so.

Other than that, it is 1500 square feet of walnut, living room, dining room, powder room (two piece washroom), master bedroom, walk-in closet . . . it can't be a very big house compared to what he usually does. Apparently they put in a lot of new windows, so hopefully I'll have a lot of light.

We may be able to get in to take photos a second time, in around a month. I hope we can, as the baseboards (while installed) are not yet painted. And, there is no toilet or sink in the powder room yet. Who knows what else is missing or incomplete.

JM Photos wrote in post #16669043
Well maybe after this shoot (assuming it goes well) you can start remodeling his portfolio

I hope so. We can't go back and re-shoot what he's done in the past, but we can try to ensure that moving forward things are done in a better manner.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #16669063
Good luck! There's only upside here - after he lands some awesome new contracts thanks to your photos, he'll be so thrilled that he may be amenable to any lens purchases you may have planned for in the near future!

Over dinner last night I did happen to mention to him that there is a type of lens, which I don't have, that was better suited to architectural work: as it would allow me greater perspective control. The seed is planted.

With a semigloss finish, glare may be a problem. You'll need to avoid strong light unless you want to show off how shiny these floors are. If I may offer suggestions without having experience as a professional floor shooter: (1) Go early or late in the day, when the sun is low. Or pick a cloudy day if you can. (2) If there are window coverings, take trial shots with and without them and then choose. You may have to bring temporary curtain stuff (lightweight fabric plus painter's tape to stick it up? folding screens?) for south windows. (3) The beauty of walnut is the illusion of depth. You seem to see through the surface. So take a few close shots of small areas in lighting that reveals this effect.

I've only shot real estate photos a few times and never was never focused on the flooring specifically but I think the same basic principals apply. Stay wide and nail your exposures. I've had much better success using a tripod and longer exposures than trying to create my own light, especially with just a single speedlight. If having blown out details in the windows will bother you, you can always bracket or hang some curtains like the previous poster mentioned.

If I were going to do it think I'd try and get a high and wide shot to show how the flooring looks within the space, then a low and wide shot to focus more on the floor, and then I'd get one focused just down on the floor to show the details more up close. The speedlight might be useful on that one.

Oh my.

I spent most of Saturday shooting the floors in our house to try to get a grip on my approach. I settled on properly exposing for windows and using fill flash to light the interior. It went pretty well, but I realized that I needed at least one more flash. I figured I'd give it a shot with my 430ex ii, get feedback, and then decide if I really needed to purchase another flash.

Had I actually tossed more AA batteries in my bag, I probably would have been able to follow my plan through to execution. My flash was good and dead.

To throw a further kink into my plan, the house was not as ready as I expected. Here are a couple of snaps to illustrate what I walked into:

I'm bitterly disappointed in the way this worked out. I'm not happy with the exposure. I'm not happy about the fact that the house isn't level, and ALL of the swag lights hang incorrectly as a result. The unpainted baseboards aren't clean, the floor vents aren't yet installed, and the windows appear unfinished.

I really like how that one with the background layer turned out. Don't beat yourself up over the stuff that was beyond your control like the trim, etc, you'll nail it when you go back. I still think a tripod and bracketing is easier than exposing for windows and using speedlights but thats just a personal preference.

dcnats wrote in post #16677215
I really like how that one with the background layer turned out. Don't beat yourself up over the stuff that was beyond your control like the trim, etc, you'll nail it when you go back. I still think a tripod and bracketing is easier than exposing for windows and using speedlights but thats just a personal preference.

I'm going to test multiple exposures and stacking them in PS, with images from our house. The technique would clearly be a really good addition to my toolbox.

I did pick up a 600ex-rt today. The 600 can trigger my 430 as an optical master, so that will give me another option of the 600 can light enough of the room.

I also picked up a Manfrotto 410 geared head. That will be really useful for my landscape stuff, too.

I'm thinking that for future floor shoots, I'll basically do the same thing that I've done here for layout. I'll try to get one clear image of the floor which shows off all of the colours, and I'll place interior shots on top of it. Hopefully it will be interesting and showcase his work well.

I think we're going to do up simple 7x6 softcover photobooks for his portfolio. I can have those done quite inexpensively, so they'll be a minuscule investment compared to the potential return.

I honestly think that this could go very well with window coverings. Maybe temporary or a quick install of black curtains could really help. Then you could use your lighting equipment to expose the flooring and not have to worry about the horrendous light that comes through the windows. Not sure if that is possible for you to do though.

I hate to tell you but those are not properly exposed windows, they are blown out badly.

tcphoto1 wrote in post #16687554
I hate to tell you but those are not properly exposed windows, they are blown out badly.

Hey look, it's Captain Obvious