What can i do to make my interior pictures pop

Hi All.

Been a while on the forum, thanks to all the amazing people out there who spend time to teach others how to be better photographers.

I am trying to improve on my interior photography skills, so I decided to try it out. I read up a few tips, and below is my setup/what I did.

• Camera Canon 500D
  
• Lens: Usings a sigma wide angle lens 10 - 20mm
  
• Tripod: Yes except in tight areas like bathroom/toilet
  
• Settings: AP Mode using F11 throughout and ISO at 200.
  
• Flash; Speedlite mounted on camera, I do have a secondary flash but i will need a new wireless trigger. Will it make any difference here ? In all cases, the flash is always pointed upwards.
  
  

1. Advice and recommendations on how to improve the pictures.
   
2. The pictures have not been edited at all, all I simply did was to export from lightroom using presets of sharpening for screen and 80% quality.
   
3. In terms of quality, since i am not a pro, i am unsure whether this is what it should look like without edits or I am missing something.
   
4. Lastly, in lightroom, any recommendations for what to do to make the pictures pop (settings etc).
   
5. Any other useful advice would be greatly appreciated.
   

Full disclaimer, I have very little experience in real-estate photography, but IMO, they all look amateur-ish because of the on-camera flash. It is blatantly obvious that you used a flash, which is never a good thing when you are trying to show how something naturally looks as if the viewer was actually standing in the room. If you aren't confident in using off camera strobes, or just don't have the equipment yet, I would see how things look with a tripod, narrow aperture, and long exposures. I'd also try to make use of all those recessed lights. For what its worth, they still look better than 90% of the real estate pictures I've seen online.

Short answer - HDR (high dynamic range) -used judiciously (it's easy to get carried away) is what you probably want to look into. Many real estate photos use HDR for that "pop". Once you know what it is, you'll recognize it instantly.

https://www.digitaltre​nds.com …/what-is-hdr-photography/

An example of mine, though this is a landscape photo:

IMAGE LINK: https://mikester.smugm​ug.com …Seascapes-etc/i-LdjBbLx/A

mannetti21 wrote in post #19313740
Full disclaimer, I have very little experience in real-estate photography, but IMO, they all look amateur-ish because of the on-camera flash. It is blatantly obvious that you used a flash, which is never a good thing when you are trying to show how something naturally looks as if the viewer was actually standing in the room. If you aren't confident in using off camera strobes, or just don't have the equipment yet, I would see how things look with a tripod, narrow aperture, and long exposures. I'd also try to make use of all those recessed lights. For what its worth, they still look better than 90% of the real estate pictures I've seen online.

Thanks for the feedback, looking at the photos now I see what you mean about using a flash and the use being obvious. I see this within the bathroom and the reflection in the tiles, are there any other places where perhaps a longer exposure could suffice especially if using a tripod.

In real estate photography, when is it essential to bounce a speedlite on the ceiling ?

TustinMike wrote in post #19313770
Short answer - HDR (high dynamic range) -used judiciously (it's easy to get carried away) is what you probably want to look into. Many real estate photos use HDR for that "pop". Once you know what it is, you'll recognize it instantly.

https://www.digitaltre​nds.com …/what-is-hdr-photography/

An example of mine, though this is a landscape photo:

IMAGE LINK: https://mikester.smugm​ug.com …Seascapes-etc/i-LdjBbLx/A

Also, as manetti21 said, off-camera lighting will make a big difference, by filling in those darker corners.

Thank you so much for the tip, very useful information. I have been reading a lot about it and I cannot wait to try my hands on it. In my shots, I do not have the luxury of photoshop only lightroom and hence would not be able to do a lot of edits, is it essential to use a speedlite flash as one of the pictures to merge ? I have just watched a video where a flash was used to expose the outside light, in my case where you have the bifold door its all washed out in white with no detail especially on the floor. I will shoot using a fast shutter speed to have a merged photo ready for HDR. Do I need a flash ?

I actually don't shoot that much indoors so I'm definitely not an authority, but the little bit I have done, it really does make a big difference, even if just using bounce-flash. Hopefully others here will chime in.

Of your three links, in two, the lights are on. I prefer those two.
For colurs to pop, they need to be present.
IMHO don't even compare interior shots with colours to your colourless interiors.
More so, don't compare shots where an experienced designer has carefully positioned just as carefully chosen items.

Your links are like human models shot after hair, makeup and wardrobe. Your shots have none of those. I know you said you are aware of this, but you did say that's what you want to achieve, which is impossible.

You can turn the lights on.

Choderboy wrote in post #19313830
Of your three links, in two, the lights are on. I prefer those two.
For colurs to pop, they need to be present.
IMHO don't even compare interior shots with colours to your colourless interiors.
More so, don't compare shots where an experienced designer has carefully positioned just as carefully chosen items.

Your links are like human models shot after hair, makeup and wardrobe. Your shots have none of those. I know you said you are aware of this, but you did say that's what you want to achieve, which is impossible.

You can turn the lights on.

Thanks for the candid opinion, for the shots i want to take, if i leave the lights on using HDR do i need flash ?

With the camera on a tripod, I suggest taking the photos with and without the lights on and comparing the results. The longer your exposure, the more noticeable will be the color distortion from the ambient lights (if they're incandescent or fluorescent), so also try shortening and lengthening the shutter speed to get the effect of the turned-on lights the way you want them. Too long a shutter speed and the yellowish lights (if they're incandescent) will create yellow splashes of light on white surfaces. I like to find the shutter speed that shows the lights being on without them illuminating too much else.

In the photos you linked, if you look at the shadows, you can see where they placed additional strobes to fill in/even out the light. For the two photos of the window with the silver globes on the windowsill, they had a least one flash from the upper left (see the shadow in the paper holder and the shadow of the paper against the window frame) and possibly another flash on the lower left (see the gold disk throwing some gold reflected light onto the wood behind it). The light on the paper holder may have been snooted or flagged, since the paper holder and paper (as well as the silver globes) cast a shadow, but the lamp post does not, and the lamp post is darker on the side facing this light source. Given the warm tint on the paper, the book in the foreground, and the base of the lamp, I suspect they had a warming gel over this light (or it was an incandescent hot light).

I only did a little RE photography, but I found it very challenging. Useful things were some large umbrellas, sometimes aimed through a hanging white sheet, and then small flashes with flags or snoots to highlight specific areas. I also found myself having to fill in dark areas with a few separate flashes on low settings, just enough so the shadows did not go black; these I would put on the floor under small umbrellas aimed into the area where I needed a little extra light.

platforminc wrote in post #19313880
Thanks for the candid opinion, for the shots i want to take, if i leave the lights on using HDR do i need flash ?

plimsol pretty well said what I didn't, but was thinking. I think the shots you linked, with lights on, had a very good balance of light, for, in some shots, the three types of light sources - natural, flash, interior lights.

I think your shots are good, empty subjects without colour is out of your control.
I think HDR is good for where you have bright exteriors seen through windows and doors.
For other shots, just the use of shadow / highlight tool (mainly the shadow) will be enough.

I don't use Lightroom so am not familiar with it's tools. Shadow / highlight is the Photoshop tool.