Residential Photography

This is a brief foray into the wondrous subject of residential photography, originally created for Realty World personnel who do property display boards, called "RealScope" Boards. Of course, anyone in real estate can use the same techniques to his advantage. And if you just want to take pictures of your own house, or the the houses of friends, these instructions will be equally useful to you.

There are a great many details that you must mind carefully, but they all result from just a few basic truths about residential photography. This subject may seem difficult, but it is not. Take these suggestions and use them to do a practice board, perhaps of your own home, before you do one for "Real." You can use your practice board as a listing tool, showing it to your prospects and impressing them with your powerful sales tool. It is a good idea to have a display board on hand while you read this, so you can visualize the finished board.

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There are two major differences to bear in mind when thinking about how you view a house through your own eyes as compared with how you view a photograph of a house. These two facts have one important result- The photograph of a house will not look like the house.

The first difference concerns film’s relative insensitivity to light. Your eyes are able to simultaneously see very bright and very dark areas. Your ability to do this exceeds that of photographic film by many orders of magnitude. You can look at the exterior of a house in bright sunshine and still clearly see the details of the areas under the eaves. But when you take a photograph of a house taken in bright sun, the under-eave detail, and other shaded areas, will be much too dark to see. That is a fact you must remember when photographing houses. Incidentally, if you don’t know what eaves are, you’re in the wrong business.

The second difference concerns your brain’s ability to subconsciously edit the details in any scene you are observing. When you look at a tall building, you don't notice that the exterior walls converge as you look higher. But when you look at a photograph of this same phenomenon, it looks very odd. When you look at a house which has a powerline in front of it, you don’t notice the powerline. When you look at the photograph, sure enough, there that powerline is! This is a fact that you must remember while photographing houses. When you look at a photograph, you see all of the scene.

What kind of film should you use? Obviously, you will want color. Any name brand will do. Kodak, Konica, and Fuji all seem to work about equally well. For all-round performance for both interiors and exteriors, 200 speed film is probably best. Your particular camera and flash setup may favor some other film speed, but if you are familiar enough with your equipment to know that, you probably don’t need my advice anyway.

Flash.

You will need to use your camera’s electronic flash to take photographs of residential interiors. When you do that, you will become acquainted with some interesting technical details. Well, I think they’re interesting!

The first interesting detail is called the inverse-square rule. A light source’s effects vary, decreasing as the object to be illuminated recedes from the light source, as to the square of the difference in distance. In plain English, this means that, in flash photography, when it’s twice as far away, it will be one-fourth as bright. When it’s four times as far away, it will be one-sixteenth as bright. The practical result is that, when you are using flash indoors, if you want things to be equally well lit, you had better make sure they are about equally far from the flash.

The second interesting detail is that your flash actually works by emitting light out to the subject matter, and this light, in turn, bounces back to your camera’s lens and film. Well, strictly speaking, the light irradiates your subject, and it in turn radiates light back to your camera. But that’s really another subject entirely, isn’t it? Where were we? Oh yeah, bouncing light. Well, if you point your flash squarely onto a very reflective surface, such as glass, or shiny metal, or even highly polished wood, you will get a great big bright patch of white in your photograph.

The third interesting detail is that, contrary to what your flash or camera manufacturer may claim, your flash’s light output is not uniform across its coverage. It is brighter in its center than at its edges.

Now, if you combine these three interesting details (inverse-square rule, flash bounceback, and flash edge fall-off), the best method for interior photography will become obvious. What? It’s not obvious to you? Well, stop and think about it for a moment. How can you insure that the walls of the room will be equally bright? They must be the same distance away. How can you insure that a mirror or polished mahogany armoire won’t reflect a disturbing glare onto your photograph? You must not point your flash straight at a highly reflective surface. Okay, so you see that you should be pointing your camera towards the far corner of the room, with the two walls equally far from you, as in the diagram below:

“So,” you may be asking, “what about that flash edge fall-off business?” Well, I’m glad you asked. It just so happens that the flash edge fall-off just about cancels out the inverse-square rule. As you can see from the diagram, when you shoot into the corner, whatever is in the center of the resulting picture is farther away than the stuff at the edges. So it all comes out more or less equally bright. Isn’t that wonderful? Well, maybe not, but it is a convenient coincidence.

There is one minor fly in the ointment. Some people have the annoying habit of placing their television set in the corner, facing out into the room. If you find yourself about to shoot your flash onto a TV screen in the corner, rotate that TV a bit. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

Wide angle lenses.

I am assuming you are using a 35mm camera. If you are not, stop everything until you get one! Just forget about using 110 cameras, 126 cameras, and Polaroid cameras. They are okay for some uses, but not for this residential photography stuff.

You must use a wide angle lens for residential photography. A normal lens just won’t get you enough coverage, i.e. you won’t see enough of a room in a photograph. By “wide angle,” I mean less than about 35mm. Actually, the best lens for you is a 28mm lens. A 35mm lens won’t get you enough coverage. A 24mm lens will expose you to the risk of excessive convergence. Does your flash unit only spread out enough to cover a 35mm lens? Don't worry about that. Flashes don’t really have uniform coverage out to a given angle anyway. Flashes actually have a gradual fall-off, and there will be enough stray light bouncing around in the average room to give you the needed flash coverage. So, go with the 28 mm lens. Now, all you have to worry about is the dreaded...

Convergence.

Convergence is the optical effect you get when you photograph parallel surfaces, such as walls, with your camera held at some angle other than perfectly level. If you point your camera up, the lines come closer together at top of the picture. If you point the camera down, the lines come closer together at the bottom of the picture. If you are tall, and you absent-mindedly point your camera slightly down while photographing a room, it will look like this:

You don’t want that!

If you are short, and you absent-mindedly point your camera slightly up while photographing a room, it will look like this:

You don’t want that, either.

But regardless of whether you are short or tall, or, as Goldilocks would say, “just right!”, if you hold your camera level, the room will look like this:

Now, that’s what you want! If you are tall, you may find that you must scrunch down a little to avoid getting too much ceiling and not enough floor in your picture. Of course, that all depends upon whether you want more ceiling or more floor in your picture. And that depends on how the floor and ceiling look (decisions, decisions). Remember, unless you use a tripod and a spirit level, you won’t eliminate convergence entirely. But it will not be too noticeable, unless you ignore my advice and use a wider-angle lens, such as a 24mm lens. Then it’s just, “Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, I told you so!”

There are a few other nagging problems to consider. You’ll just have to cope with these problems as best you can, or ignore them. Ignoring them usually works fairly well. Often, a room will have furniture out in the center, especially a coffee table or a sofa. If you remember all that mumbo-jumbo about the inverse-square rule, you’ll know that this furniture will be relatively brighter in your photograph. Short of using a pro-style multi-light setup, or moving the furniture around, there’s usually not much you can do about it anyway. Maybe you can position yourself in a slightly different location so as to minimize the problem. But don’t forget that the two walls still must be about equally far away! Is this fun, or what?

Bright lights.

There is one more serious problem facing the would-be photographer of interiors. That problem is the possible presence of bright light, usually in the form of a window with lots and lots of sunlight streaming in through it. The typical “point and shoot” camera measures the amount of light present in a scene to decide if flash is needed. When the camera’s light sensor sees all that natural light from a bright window, it decides that no flash is necessary. What you then get in your photograph is a bright window and a dark room. If you are using one of these cameras, usually you can place it in the “flash on, no matter what!” mode and the resulting photograph will probably be fairly usable.

The typical old-fashioned automatic electronic flash unit used on a non- “auto-everything” camera senses the light returning to the flash unit and turns itself off when sufficient light has been sensed. Here again, the problem is that the sensor sees all that natural light and gets fooled into turning itself off too soon. You get a photograph with a bright window and a dark room. If you are using one of these old-fashioned cameras, you must use its built-in light meter to meter the light in the bright window. Then you must set the exposure and flash so as to get an acceptable balance of natural light and flash illumination. I use one of these superannuated cameras, and I have learned to do this light-balancing trick. I wouldn’t recommend that you try this trick for the very first time at your listing. If you want to learn how to do it, learn at home. (I understand that the same rule covers doing the Macarena.) Try to get the window about twice as bright as the interior. If you have absolutely no idea of how you might accomplish this, you will be a very frustrated person, indeed.

Some of the new “auto-everything” cameras (like the Canon EOS series) have computerized exposure systems which are supposed to be sophisticated enough to detect this “bright window” problem and take the proper corrective action. As much as I personally dislike “auto-everything” cameras, they are your best solution to this “bright window” problem. As is the case for the rest of these suggestions, it is best to try out your methodology before you start doing property display boards for actual listings.

Other interior motives.

Use up the whole roll! Film is cheap! And you don’t want to have to go back and do the job over again, do you? Use between ½ and ¾ of your film for interior pictures. There are two reasons for this: There is usually more to photograph inside, and interior photography is more difficult, with more chances to screw up. And remember, bathrooms and utility rooms, unless they are really top-notch examples, are not usually great subjects for photography. And if you are photographing a beautiful country estate, with horse barns, tennis courts, and a beautiful big pool, but the house is not up to Architectural Digest standards, then go ahead and do more...

Exteriors.

Photographing exteriors is fairly obvious stuff. Hold your camera as level as possible. Look in your viewfinder. Everything in there will be in your photograph! Unless the site is very constricted, you can use a somewhat longer lens, resulting in a more natural looking photograph. I have a 43-75mm zoom lens for my old Fujica ST705 camera, and the 43mm setting gives a nice compromise between wide angle coverage and that natural look you get with a 50mm or 55mm lens. Perhaps you have a zoom lens with a range of about 28mm to 70mm. This would be very useful for all your photographs, interior and exterior alike.

Get a nice shot of the front of the house with its nice green lawn. This is usually the picture you should use for your enlargement. If the lawn isn’t nice and green, get a little more sky and a little less lawn. Oh, and that big oil spot on the driveway won’t look great, either. Photograph the backyard, the pool, the garden, and whatever else looks good. The key phrase is “looks good.” The photographer edits by choosing where to point his camera. Your property display photographs are a great opportunity to make a good first impression. The less appealing characteristics of a listing will be obvious soon enough. Make that first good impression with your camera, and the interested buyer will be more forgiving of the negatives. Also, your seller will be happy to see you showing his property in the best possible light.

Exteriors are much easier than interiors. Nevertheless, there are many ways to goof them up. Lesson number one is the same one that you first heard when you got your first camera- do not point your camera towards the sun. The resulting photographs will have what we call “backlighting.” A backlit subject tends to be underexposed because the sunlight coming into the camera’s light sensor fools it into underexposing the subject. Unfortunately, sometimes you will have no choice but to try to get a usable photograph of a backlit subject. As in the case of the “bright widow” problem, there are three answers, one for each of the three types of cameras.

If you have one of those cheesy “point and shoot” cameras, you must hope that it has some sort of exposure override which allows you to increase the exposure by one or two stops. (You don’t need to know anything about exposure stops. Just think of them as being “a bit more or less light.”) If you have an exposure override, you have an increased chance of getting a usable photograph. If you don’t, you don’t.

If you have one of those old-fashioned “nothing automatic” cameras, you are in luck. All you need to do is walk right up to the back lit subject until you are in its shade, and take your exposure metering off it without the direct sun’s influence. Then step back and take your photograph, ignoring the meter’s conniption fits. Remember to shade the camera’s lens with your hand or with one of those rubber folding lens shades. This is just about the only situation where your old-fashioned camera will give you an advantage.

If you have one of those “auto-everything” EOS-type cameras, it will probably handle this backlighting problem without any worry on your part (except, of course, for the lens shading). Again, I would urge you to try it out in a test session before doing the real thing. If it can’t cope with backlighting, turn off the “auto-everything” controls and meter the shade, just as if you had one of those inferior old-fashioned cameras.

The finished product.

Okay, let’s assume that you have successfully photographed your project. Now what? Get your film developed, quickly. Any of the one-day turn-around places will do. You usually can get two sets of 3½ x 5 inch glossy prints or one set of 4 x 6 inch glossy prints for the same price. If you want to crop your pictures and really fine tune your photography, get the 4 x 6 inch prints. But I think you will do better by getting two sets of 3½ x 5 inch prints. You can then make up two display boards, or have extra prints for your own records.

Right when you pick up your prints, look through them and make sure you have enough usable photographs. Then, pick out the best shot of the property, which is usually one showing the front of the house. Immediately order your enlargement, or enlargements. Order 8 x 12 inch glossy prints. They are usually the same price as 8 x 10 inch prints, or almost the same price. And send back the 3½ x 5 inch print with your order. Tell the clerk you want the enlargement to match the small print. “Why,” you must be asking yourself, “should I do all that?” Well, you see, color printing is not an exact science. And believe it or not, the small prints are usually better color renditions than the enlargements. So by sending back the small print, you have a much better chance of getting an acceptable enlargement. Also, since 35mm film frames are 1½ times as wide as they are high, when the photo processor makes an 8 x 10 inch print, he must decide which part of the picture to omit. The 8 x 12 inch print is better than the 8 x 10 inch print because, by ordering the bigger print, you get to decide which part of the picture to omit. And yes, it can matter! You will need an accurate way to trim your enlargement to fit the space on your board. A standard school-type paper cutter works well. Just make sure you use a ruler to hold down the print near the cutter blade. This insures a smooth, even cut. And don’t cut off any of your fingers. You’ll need them for something, eventually. They come in handy for counting up the number of listings you’ll close without any major problems cropping up to drive you crazy.

I’ve found that the best way to attach the photographs to the display board is with two-sided scotch tape. And you can make a much more presentable board if you use your computer to print out a little descriptive panel to tape onto your board instead of just using a felt-tip marker to write on the board. It will look better, and you can reuse the board more easily.

The World Wide Web!

You surely must realize that the Web is the up and coming place to advertise your listings. The photographic techniques discussed here will help you get pictures which are suitable for use on a web page, whether it's yours, a broker's, or some sort of web-based MLS thing. Obviously, you'll have to get your photos into a form usable on the web. And, depending on the setup, you may have to learn HTML. Including these subjects would make this already long article a lot longer, and this is really about photography, not HTML coding and photo scanning.

Here’s a last suggestion for you.

Often people realize, too late, that they have very few good pictures of their old home. When you sell that listing, you might consider giving the display board, or at least the photographs, to your seller. Your photography, especially if it is well done, may fill a void in your seller’s collection of mementos. You may be surprised at how much goodwill such a minor courtesy can earn you. Of course, if you are selling a property with only bad memories for the owner, maybe you should consider skipping this last suggestion entirely.

Final notes.

You can do a fairly good property display board using a “point-and-shoot” camera with a 35mm lens, so long as it has both a “flash on, no matter what!” mode and a “back-lit” mode. But you can do better with a an EOS-type camera with a 28mm lens and/or a zoom lens that goes out to at least 45mm. A straight 28mm lens is better than a zoom lens for interiors because it will have a larger maximum aperture, allowing you to see your subject matter more easily. If money is no object, get a 28mm lens, a 35mm lens, and a 50mm lens. If money is really no object, hire a pro to do your photography, and get it done right.

Have a comment? Send to rsturge@inreach.com

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