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Flambient photography has become a game-changer for real estate photographers, providing an effective solution to achieve stunningly balanced and vibrant images. 

Combining flash and ambient lighting, this technique is ideal for accurately capturing a property’s interior while maintaining the right brightness, color, and detail. 

In this blog post, we’ll explore what makes flambient photography so effective, share some secret tips to master this technique and discuss how busy real estate photographers can streamline their workflow by outsourcing flambient editing to PhotoUp.

Let’s jump in!

What Is Flambient Photography?

Flambient photography merges two primary lighting sources: flash and ambient light. 

By combining flash-lit and natural-light exposures, photographers can create images that are well-lit, color-corrected, and visually compelling. 

The process involves taking multiple exposures—some with flash and some without—then blending them in post-processing to produce a balanced photo. 

This method reduces harsh shadows, enhances color accuracy, and provides a polished, realistic look.

Why Flambient Photography Is Effective for Real Estate

Flambient photography produces vibrant, visually compelling images with a natural, well-balanced look that appeals to potential buyers.

In fact, 87% of homebuyers found images to be among the most useful features of listing websites when looking for new homes. Additionally, viewers spend 60% of the time checking images, and only 20% read the listing description.

This underscores the importance of creating visually pleasing, high-quality images that make a strong first impression and encourage buyers to explore a property further.

Here are some benefits of flambient real estate photography:

  • Balanced Lighting: Flambient photography allows you to capture a well-balanced scene without harsh shadows or blown-out highlights. This balance gives the image a natural look, appealing to potential buyers and emphasizing the best features of a room
  • Enhanced Color Accuracy: The flash helps neutralize color casts that can arise from ambient lighting sources, like artificial lights or sunlight coming through windows. This makes walls, furniture, and decor appear more true-to-life in the photos, giving viewers an accurate impression of the property
  • Improved Detail and Texture: The addition of flash brings out textures and details in various surfaces, from wood grains in furniture to fine textures in fabrics. These details can make a property appear more inviting and showcase the quality of the home’s finishes
  • Consistency Across Images: The flambient technique ensures a consistent look across all images in a property shoot, creating a cohesive, high-quality presentation. Potential buyers appreciate seeing consistent, beautiful photos as they explore the home’s online listing

All in all, the combination of flash and ambient lighting can make rooms look more inviting, showcasing properties in the best possible light.

Have You Ever Thought To

Outsource Photo Editing?

Try it today with 10 free edits from three professional photo editors.

Flambient Photography Expert Tips & Tricks

Mastering flambient real estate photography can take some time, but these tips and tricks will help you achieve high-quality results:

1. Use a Sturdy Tripod

With flambient photography, you’ll be capturing multiple exposures for each shot, so a tripod is essential for maintaining alignment between the flash and ambient shots. 

A sturdy tripod also reduces motion blur and keeps each frame identical.

2. Set Up Bracketing for Exposure Variance

Set your camera to capture multiple exposures at different brightness levels. 

A typical flambient setup might include two ambient shots (one correctly exposed and one underexposed) and one or two flash shots, depending on the lighting needs of the room.

3. Position the Flash Carefully

For an evenly lit room, use a flash pointed at the ceiling or a nearby wall to diffuse light without creating harsh shadows. 

Avoid aiming the flash directly at shiny or reflective surfaces, as this can create glare and unwanted highlights.

4. Control Flash Power

Keep your flash power at a medium level, adjusting based on the size and brightness of the room. 

Too much flash can create a harsh, unnatural look, while too little might not be enough to counteract color casts and shadows. 

Aim for just enough flash to fill the room with soft, even light.

5. Blend Images Carefully in Post-Processing

The magic of flambient photography happens in post-processing. 

Use software like Photoshop or Lightroom to blend your flash and ambient exposures, preserving the details and evenness from the flash shots while retaining the natural feel of the ambient shots. 

Layer masks are invaluable here, allowing you to selectively reveal or hide parts of each exposure to create a perfectly balanced image.

6. Adjust White Balance and Color Correction

After blending, use color correction tools to fine-tune the colors and eliminate any lingering casts. 

Proper white balance is essential for a professional, realistic appearance that potential buyers will find inviting.

7. Use Noise Reduction and Sharpening

Ambient shots in low light can introduce noise to your images, especially if you’re using a high ISO. 

Apply noise reduction to keep your images crisp, and follow up with sharpening to emphasize textures without introducing grain.

And there you have 7 effective tips that will help you capture and create stunning real estate photos using the flambient method. Mastering this technique takes practice, but the results are worth it. 

If you want to achieve professional-grade images but have more time to focus on what matters most: capturing stunning photos that make properties shine, we have a great solution for you which we’ll look at next.

Have You Ever Thought To

Outsource Photo Editing?

Try it today with 10 free edits from three professional photo editors.

Outsource Flambient Real Estate Photo Editing to PhotoUp

While flambient photography offers incredible results, it can be time-consuming to edit all the exposures. 

This is where outsourcing your editing to a trusted service like PhotoUp can help you save valuable time and effort.

Why Choose PhotoUp? 

PhotoUp specializes in real estate photo editing, including flambient photography. Our experienced editors can manage all aspects of flambient blending, color correction, and detail enhancement, ensuring your photos look their absolute best. 

By outsourcing, busy photographers can focus on their core tasks—shooting properties and growing their business—without getting bogged down by the editing process.

With competitive rates and a quick turnaround of 12-24 hours, we make it easy for real estate photographers to meet their clients’ needs efficiently. 

How to Get Started

Our user-friendly platform lets you upload, review, and approve edits seamlessly, giving you more control over the final product while saving time and money.

Getting started is super easy – this is what to do:

Step 1. Sign up for a free PhotoUp account.

Step 2. Upload your photos to our easy-to-use software.

Step 3. Choose the level of editing that you need and provide instructions (optional).

Step 4. Wait for PhotoUp professional editors to edit and return the photos in less than 24 hours (48 hours for virtual staging).

Step 5. Download and start using your beautifully edited photos.

PhotoUp Real Estate Photo Editing Uploader Demo

To see how easy it is to get started with PhotoUp, check out our real estate photo editing uploader demo:

Wait! There’s more…

We Can Handle Your Marketing Too!

PhotoUp Custom House Portrait
PhotoUp Custom House Portrait

PhotoUp offers so much more than just editing. We are a complete one-stop-shop for real estate marketing services and also provide powerful tools such as:

You can find everything you need to enhance and market real estate photography in one user-friendly software, or have one of our virtual assistants do it for you.

Why not take advantage of all these services to expand your product offerings and become more valuable to your clients?

Sign up for a free PhotoUp account and start growing your photography business today.

Plus, for a limited time, you even get 10 free credits you can use on any of our services when you sign up for an account!

We hope this blog post provided you with some effective real estate photography flambient tips and tricks to help you enhance your property photos. Before you go, you may also want to check out the following resources:

Stina Pettersson

Professional Blogger

Stina is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, and professional blogger who's passionate about real estate photo editing, being outdoors with her pup, and sweaty gym sessions. She loves the written word and has been writing for publications like Forbes and Thrive Global. Originally from Sweden, she's called South Florida her home since 2013.

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