Table of Contents
- Understanding the Problem of Glass Reflection and Glare
- How to Avoid Glass Reflection in Real Estate Photography
- Let PhotoUp Remove Glass Reflections from Your Photos
How to avoid glass reflection in photography is a constant issue for real estate photographers.
Glass surfaces reflect light, which can cause glare. Glass can also act like a mirror, capturing the camera, lighting, and even the photographer in the image.
Most properties have abundant glass, including windows, mirrors, tables, and other reflective surfaces.
This article will show how to avoid glass reflection in real estate photography.
But first, let’s understand why glass poses challenges to real estate photographers.
Understanding the Problem of Glass Reflection and Glare
Reflection, caused by direct light bouncing off glass surfaces, can obscure details and decrease image contrast. This unwanted effect often occurs when photographing smooth, shiny surfaces like glass, polished metal, or water.
The glare and reflections created can result in bright spots, washed-out areas, and a lack of contrast, significantly impacting the quality of your real estate photos.
For example, glare on windows can prevent buyers from seeing the views outside, which might be a selling point for the property.
Here are some other possible issues caused by reflections and glare:
- Obscured Views: Glare on windows hides or distorts the view
- Uninviting Interiors: Washed-out colors make rooms appear less appealing
- Distracting Reflections: The photographer or other objects might be captured in the reflection
Thankfully, you can minimize reflections without specialized tools using the following adjustments and techniques.
How to Avoid Glass Reflection in Real Estate Photography
Reflections from glass and shiny surfaces make real estate photography challenging, especially for beginners. Without the right skills, reflections, glare, and the light from a camera flash can ruin the entire photo.
There are several relatively easy ways to prevent glare, reflections, and other glass-related distortions in real estate photography. Let’s take a look at these.
1. Eliminate Unnecessary Light Sources
Although many people overlook this idea, it can be the solution if you get reflections from multiple light sources.
Typically, when several light sources illuminate a glass object, many light beams will hit the object at an angle, causing reflections.
The best way to prevent this is to switch off or cover the unnecessary light sources and only operate with the primary light source. Keep in mind that reducing the lighting might require you to use higher ISO settings.
For more tips, take a look at 8 essential real estate photography lighting techniques.
2. Make the Most of Your Camera Lens Hood
A lens hood primarily prevents light from varying angles from coming into contact with the front element of the camera lens. In most cases, the lens hood will come with the lens.
Simply attach it to your lens, providing a barrier that eliminates glares, reflections, and flares.
You can use any of the following lens hoods to prevent real estate glass photography reflections:
- Petal-like lens hood: Given its shape, this hood type is more flexible. These hoods work well with a zoom lens with a wide angle of capture but will not interfere when you zoom to the widest angle
- Cylindrical lens hood: The cylindrical lens hood’s design appears to be a perfect cylinder with nothing cut off. It can be used with a prime lens to capture close-ups of glass interiors
3. Experiment With Adjusting the Camera Angle
Remember that reflection is the bouncing back of light, which bounces back at specific angles in relation to the light source. Try to adjust the position of your camera, like moving it up or down or a few inches to the right or left.
You can also place the lighting source 45 degrees on the side of the object and still deliver a perfect image.
When getting the shot, your position should be right beneath the light source to avoid your reflection and ensure a reasonable distance between the light source and the object.
Do not place your camera at the same angle as the light source. Light reflects at the same angle that it hits the glass, making it more likely that it hits directly to your camera.
4. Add Backlighting or Additional Light Sources
Backlighting means the prime lighting source is behind your object, eliminating reflections and glares. This method also helps separate the subject from the background and creates a stunning contrast effect.
However, this technique might not help when shooting exterior windows if you are shooting in bright daylight.
If you’re going to use a flash, here is more information on the best external flash for real estate photography.
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5. Use a Polarizing Lens or Filter
A polarizing filter works the same way some sunglasses do. It separates the polarized light from the non-polarized, thereby reducing glare.
Polarized light is reflected from shiny surfaces such as glass and metal. By eliminating specific wavelengths of light, a polarizing filter reduces reflections that occur when shooting glass objects.
However, you should remember that using polarizing filters depends on the camera model you are using. For instance, many high-end cameras come with adaptors for built-in lens filters, which most low-end and smaller cameras lack.
Additionally, using polarizing filters has the disadvantage of causing light to be lost by several stops, which can be an issue if you take interior photos in low-light conditions.
Although slower shutter speeds can solve this, they can cause image blurring when shooting handheld.
Look at this additional information on the best polarising filter for real estate photography.
6. Increase the Focal Length
Using a lens with a longer focal length, such as 400 mm or even 500 mm, helps to magnify the object and make the subject appear closer.
Although the angle of view decreases, the increased magnification lets you step farther from the subject when shooting.
Depending on the angle of reflection, there is a higher chance of the light bouncing back and missing the camera lens.
By shrinking the background around the object, you eliminate the area of reflective surfaces, reducing the chances of getting glare.
7. Remove the Reflections During Post-Processing
Avoiding reflections in real estate glass photography can be challenging, even with the best camera lens, filters, and angle adjustments.
However, editing software like Lightroom or Photoshop can fix most of these issues.
Unfortunately, photo editing is a time-consuming process, and it can be tedious. Also, you know your time would be better spent shooting more properties.
This is why PhotoUp is here to help!
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Let PhotoUp Remove Glass Reflections From Your Photos
At PhotoUp, we simplify real estate photo editing and save you time. We offer cost-effective service and deliver outstanding results.
Our experienced photo editors can help remove reflections and glare from glass surfaces as well as editing for the following issues:
- Improper exposure levels and color correction
- Blurred images due to camera shakes
- 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
- And much more!
Our prices are unbeatable. They start at $1.10 per image, depending on your subscription and the complexity level of the edits needed.
We also offer dedicated photo editor services, allowing you to use the same editor or a team of dedicated editors for consistency, branding, and outstanding image quality each time.
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Finally, you’ll be pleased with our fast turnaround time of 12-24 hours. And we also accept rush orders.
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First, sign up for a free PhotoUp account – it only takes a minute.
Second, upload your images, select your export setting and turnaround time, and provide any other instructions. When your photos are finished, download your edited photos, and that’s it!
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Take a look at our real estate photo editing uploader demo to see how simple this is:
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We hope this blog post showed you how to avoid glass reflection in real estate photography. If you found this article helpful, you might want to read some of the following related posts:
