Your thoughts please - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

06/23/2011 08:02:58 AM · #1

Photos have been corrected and posted below in a separate post. Thanks.

I've been dabbling with interior photography a bit and would love to start a side business doing this. I took these as practise shots and would like some feedback please.

What are your thoughts?

Do they show the house as you would like it to be if it were your own and for sale?

How about the coulours?

Lens distortion?

I didn't do all the window work so some are very bright. I'll mask in the outdoor views later on.

Thanks for looking and double thanks for commenting or just leaving some feedback.

Any interior photographers here? Would love to know how business is in your area. Lighting tips, white balance with natural and artificial lighting, etc.

Cheers

Message edited by author 2011-06-25 06:50:12.

MargaretNet

Sony DSC-RX100 VII

06/23/2011 08:10:20 AM · #2

I am not an interior photographer so my comments would be as a prospective buyer - nice house and nice sharp photos but to me a bit too much lens distortion. Also, a lot of real estate agents use HDR to solve the "window light" problem. It is a good practice to put all lights on in the house to add interest.

giantmike

Canon EOS R6

06/23/2011 08:15:14 AM · #3

Very nice clean rooms and details. That's a big win already.

The window light bugs me a lot, but a standard buyer likely would never notice. You seldom hear non photographers complaining about blown highlights.

But the lens distortion is really messing with me. As a buyer I see that and I lose confidence in how large/small the rooms really are.

FourPointX

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

06/23/2011 08:25:15 AM · #4

agree re: lens distortion. as a buyer i'd wonder if the seller was trying to misrepresent size through "camera tricks"

raish

Olympus C-2500L

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

06/23/2011 08:37:38 AM · #5

Less furniture, less clutter. The bedroom was ok and the kitchen is fitted, but less stuff on the counter and really minimalise the furniture in the other rooms. It looks like you've already tried to do that, but yer estate agent's photographer can carry all the necessary furniture in his car, complete with some sort of minimal vase and flowers.
Sloping walls from lens distortion a super no no. Actually faking the size, like maybe making the ceiling look a bit higher, is strangely permissible.
Of course, there is a circle of hell reserved for estate agents, and no doubt they'll drag a few of their photographers in with them...
The lighting and points of view are good.

Revecca

Nikon D5000

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

06/23/2011 08:45:25 AM · #6

I agree with everyone else. The images look good. In fact, The house is very appealing to me, but the lens distortion is a bit too much. It definitely seems like you're trying to trick the viewer (at least in real estate).

I am not TERRIBLY bothered by the windows. I don't think they're completely blown out and I don't think they take away from the actual home since the lighting inside is excellent instead of underexposed.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/23/2011 09:25:35 AM · #7

Let's be clear on our terminology, though: there's no obvious "lens distortion" here, just wide-angle distortion from pointing the camera down sharply. Lens distortion would be pincushioning or barrel distortion.

But this wide-angle distortion is a real problem, in some of the shots it's absolutely over the top. In order to avoid the keystoning (that's what it's called) you need to have the sensor plane oriented on a true vertical. Lacking a tilt/shift lens, this means you'll need to include too much ceiling and then crop in post. To some extent you can correct the keystoning with perspective control in Photoshop, but there's only so far you can go with that.

Here's what the LR looks like with the perspective correction, and the forced cropping that comes with that:

Arguably, this is a more useful image than the original, for all that it's not as wide and spacious. It doesn't look deceptive, so it's easier to trust it.

R.

Message edited by author 2011-06-23 09:34:34.

raish

Olympus C-2500L

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

06/23/2011 09:40:48 AM · #8

I'm no photographer, but I have to do this sort of thing to display my work:
//www.hyllernemine.blogspot.com

ctrl-j
ctrl-t
right click - perspective
drag out a bottom corner
enter
ctrl-t
right click - skew
drag the top corners until it starts to look right
enter
ctrl-t
stretch upwards to make up for the flattening effect of previous transformations
enter

or whatever, but it's not a lot of work...

Revecca

Nikon D5000

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR

06/23/2011 10:29:59 AM · #9

Bear_Music, thanks for clarifying the terminology.

Dr.Confuser

Nikon D800

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

06/23/2011 10:37:02 AM · #10

I shoot real estate for local agents. Typically I get $300 to $700 for each property and deliver 10 to 30 images. I have developed a quick workflow that produces consistantly good results. See my post early in this thread.

As has been pointed out, the lens distortion and over bright windows diminish the quality of these photos. Having said that, I do like their clarity, the crisp focus.

digifotojo also shoots great video and still real estate imagery.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

06/23/2011 10:52:28 AM · #11

Originally posted by raish:

ctrl-j
ctrl-t
right click - perspective
drag out a bottom corner
enter
ctrl-t
right click - skew
drag the top corners until it starts to look right
enter
ctrl-t
stretch upwards to make up for the flattening effect of previous transformations
enter

or whatever, but it's not a lot of work...

To elaborate on this, "cntrl-j" creates a duplicate layer, and "cntrl-t" opens the "transform" dialogue box (same as image>transform). The workflow is spot on, except I have found that when using perspective adjustment (as opposed to skew) you can often eliminate the need for a second, skew adjustment by dragging the center anchor on the top or bottom edge left or right after you've made the basic perspective adjustment.

R.

06/23/2011 07:19:26 PM · #12

Thanks for the great comments, lots of good tips. That's what I wanted.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D

06/24/2011 11:04:41 AM · #13

I took your advice and corrected the images and you were all right. :) They look a lot more natural when viewing and I'm sure the customers will appreciate this view rather than the warped view from the other images.

Two new ones.

Thanks again for the help folks, much appreciated. :)

All done in LR using the lens correction module. No photoshop was used to modify these images.

Also, nobody noticed the HDR on these and that, I think, is a good thing. The windows need work, photomatix didn't do a great job on them so I'll either have to learn photomatix more or do them in ps via masking. The k_corrected and kdr_corrected were done this way.

Message edited by author 2011-06-24 11:10:38.

raish

Olympus C-2500L

06/24/2011 12:16:18 PM · #14

Strewth - well done - good luck with the punters :-)