Table of Contents
- Natural Light – Harnessing the Sun’s Glow
- Artificial Light – Creating Consistency in Lighting
- Mixed Lighting – Finding the Correct Balance
- How to Overcome Common Lighting Challenges
- Fix the Remaining Lighting Issues in Post-Processing
Key Takeaways
- Utilize natural light effectively during the golden hours and blue hours for exterior photography
- Master the use of flash units and HDR for interior photography
- Learn to balance mixed lighting conditions through gelling techniques and camera settings
- Enhance your final images with post-processing to perfect the light balance and color
In the visually-driven market of real estate, the adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is particularly apt.
Effective real estate photography can be the deciding factor in a potential buyer’s first impression of a property, piquing interest long before they view the property in person. And lighting is a pivotal element in crafting this compelling visual narrative.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the field, mastering various lighting techniques can drastically improve your real estate photography.
In this post, we’ll explore 8 key photography lighting strategies that bring out the best in residential and commercial properties.
Let’s dive straight in!
Natural Light – Harnessing the Sun’s Glow
One of the most powerful tools at a real estate photographer’s disposal is natural light. Taking advantage of natural light is all about timing and positioning. Here are some powerful photography lighting techniques to consider.
1. Golden Hour
To create stunning real estate photography, you should try to capture exterior shots during the golden hour, after sunrise, or before sunset, when the light is warm and diffused.
This time of day offers a magical mix of natural and artificial light resulting in a warm, inviting atmosphere that daytime photos can’t replicate.
2. Let the Light in – Open the Windows
For interior shots, open windows, curtains, and blinds to let in and encourage as much natural light as possible.
This creates a welcoming ambiance that artificial lighting struggles to match.
3. Leverage the Blue Hour
Did you know that using twilight photography as the main photo for your listing can increase views by an average of 76%?
Using the twilight period when the sun is below the horizon, can cast a beautiful bluish tone, perfect for showcasing properties with impressive outdoor lighting or cityscape backdrops.
Now, let’s move on to some artificial photography lighting techniques.
Artificial Light – Creating Consistency in Lighting
At times when natural light is insufficient or inconsistent, artificial lighting steps in to save the day. Here are some artificial lighting techniques to ensure well-lit property photos.
4. Use an External Flash
As you might know, many homes have insufficient natural light, making taking photos of them a daunting task.
Fortunately, an external flash can help you capture brilliant shots with ease.
Using portable flash units or strobes can help to fill in dark areas and balance the light sources within a room.
5. Soften Harsh Shadows With Softboxes/Diffusers
You can soften harsh shadows by attaching softboxes or diffusers to your flashes.
Softboxes are large rectangular boxes that diffuse light to create soft and even illumination. And diffusers are translucent materials placed in front of a light source to scatter and soften the light.
This approach can mimic natural light and reduce glare.
6. Shoot HDR
High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, where multiple exposures are combined into one image, ensures details in both the brightest and darkest areas of a room are preserved.
This technique is best used when the contrast of the scene exceeds your camera’s dynamic range. In other words, when you have trouble balancing a photo’s light. Overall, HDR adds a more dynamic range to photographs.
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Mixed Lighting – Finding the Correct Balance
Blending natural and artificial lighting can be challenging but rewarding. Color temperature differences between the two require careful white balance control to avoid distracting color casts.
7. Aim to Match Temperatures
Aim to match your artificial light’s color temperature with that of the existing ambient light as closely as possible.
8. Adjust Your Camera Settings
Use gels on artificial light sources to better blend with natural hues or adjust camera settings to manage mixed lighting scenarios.
For interior real estate photography, use these camera settings:
- Exposure Mode – Set your camera to Aperture Priority
- Aperture – For interior real estate photography, f/8 is usually the perfect setting to capture an entire room in crisp focus. From wide-open interiors like lobbies and atriums to more cozy rooms with greater depth, you may want to bump up your aperture a bit closer to f/16 for optimal sharpness
- Shutter speed – Capturing the perfect interior photo can be a struggle in low-light conditions, but with some clever shutter speed adjustments you can easily let more light into your shot! Slow it down between 1/60 and 1/2 of a second for brighter pictures full of detail. Don’t forget to use a good tripod and preferably also a remote shutter release to avoid camera shakes
- ISO – Try to keep your ISO below 400; closer to 100 is even better for keeping out noise in your photos. A slower shutter speed will allow you to set your ISO closer to 100
- Focus Mode – Single-Shot Autofocus
- Metering Mode – Matrix
Using these settings when shooting interiors will result in crisp and clear images.
How to Overcome Common Lighting Challenges
As with all types of photography, there might be some challenges to overcome. Not all properties will cooperate with your lighting plans.
Just take a deep breath, here’s how to adapt:
- Small Spaces: Use wide-angle lenses and bounce flash off ceilings or walls to distribute light evenly within small rooms
- Overcast Days: On days with poor natural lighting, make more use of your flash units and consider bracketing exposures to ensure you have options in post-processing
- High Contrast Situations: When dealing with high contrast, bracket your exposures for HDR processing, so windows and interiors are both correctly exposed
Each property tells its unique story, and through thoughtful photography lighting techniques, you can tell it well.
Remember to adapt to the given circumstances and make use of the tools at your disposal.
With the expertise in combining natural and artificial light effectively, your real estate photography will not merely showcase walls and windows—it will illuminate the potential for a place to truly feel like home.
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Fix the Remaining Lighting Issues in Post-Processing
Post-processing is the final touch and where you can solidify your preferred lighting balance.
Use editing software to adjust shadows and highlights for a more balanced exposure. And address any color discrepancies arising from mixed lighting conditions for a cohesive look across all photographs.
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- Improper exposure levels and color correction
- Blurred images that were taken without a tripod
- Harsh shadows, lack of light, etc.
- Noise reduction and image sharpening
- Lawn greening and sky replacements
- Twilight and day-to-dusk editing
- HDR editing
- Clutter and advanced object removal
- Line and angle corrections
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We hope this blog post gave you 8 photography lighting techniques to help you shoot stunning property photos. Before you go, you may also want to check out the following resources:
