Archive for March, 2008

A HDR Tutorial Using Photomatix

March 31st, 2008

danjryan in the flickr discussion group points out an interesting little HDR tutorial over at abduzeedo.com.
HDR topics are some of the most popular subjects these days. And I can understand why if done well HDR techniques can save time and equipment costs when shooting interiors, which in real estate photography is important. However, the crux [...]

Confessions of A Photoshop Sinner

March 30th, 2008

I need to confess. I’ve committed grievous sins. I’ve used Photoshop to modify the physical appearance of the exterior of a home we are going to put on the market this week. Not just once but twice. The evidence is in the comparison photo to the right.
This all started when my wife Levi [...]

Video Intro To the New Adobe Photoshop Express Beta

March 28th, 2008

Over at photoshopinsider Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski made the above video introducing Adobe’s new, free photo editor online photo sharing site. Wall Street Journal also has an article on the new product.I finally got to use Photoshop Express. Turns out the site doesn’t seem to work quite right when I use Firefox on my [...]

The HDRI Handbook by Christian Bloch

March 26th, 2008

I’ve been reading Christian Bloch’s book, The HDRI Handbook, and finding it useful in learning HDR processing. Christian is a visual effects artist who works in Hollywood and has created effects for TV shows StarTrek, Invasion, Lost, as well as several movies. Christian’s book has a companion site at: www.hdrlabs.com/book. This site has some good [...]

Photomatix vs Enfuse: Two Ways To Do HDR

March 24th, 2008

I did a shoot this weekend of a new listing we have and decided to use both my usual lighting technique (primarily on camera flash) and Enfuse and use what ever worked the best. It turned out not to be much contest; I like the Enfuse results best. Here are a sequence of photos that [...]

Tourbuzz.net Launches New Tour Hosting Service

March 23rd, 2008

I just tried out a new do-it-yourself tour site that was launched not to long ago called tourbuzz.net.
The site is designed with photographers in mind because it allows a photographer to create an manage many client’s tours and put the photographer’s branding on tour as well as the agent’s branding information.

The Seattle Photography For Real Estate Is A Go!

March 20th, 2008

A quick update on the April 25, Seattle Workshop (details are here): We now have more than enough committed attendees registered to announce that the workshop is a go for sure! Scott Hargis’s session on lighting with multiple strobes is a popular attraction and drawing people from all over. So far we have attendees [...]

Stunning Interior Images Without Lighting Equipment

March 18th, 2008

Think you need to use lighting equipment to get a bright interior? Think again! This tour is shot by a company based in Seattle called Vista Estate. Vista Estate’s approach is to shoot with no lighting equipment. This is one of their sample tours that shows what you can do without any extra [...]

Adobe Recommends Uninstalling Lightroom 1.4

March 17th, 2008

The Lightroom 1.4 update for Mac and Windows has been temporarily removed from the Adobe.com web site. Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1.(Mac, Win) until a further update can be provided.
This decision is based on errors found in the 1.4 release. You might want to [...]

David Palermo’s Recent Meeting With Julius Shulman

March 14th, 2008

Recently reader David Palermo had the opportunity to spend over an hour with one of the great architectural photographers, Julius Shulman at his LA home. With David’s permission I am reposting his description of his meeting with Shulman here just as David posted it on the PFRE flickr discussion group:

The Best of The Bad: So Bad It’s Good

March 13th, 2008

Thanks to Justin Soles for passing this link on to us. It’s from IntoTheBox.tv. This is one of the funniest video’s I’ve seen in a long time on real estate video.

Shooting PAP With Minimum Equipment and Effort

March 12th, 2008

Today I’ve been testing my PAP (pole aerial photography) equipment because this weekend I have to shoot a new listing we have where the home is sited well above the street and there may not be room to use my usual technique of standing on the roof of my pickup. I thought it would be [...]

Enfuse: One of The Most Important Tools For A Real Estate Photographer

March 11th, 2008

I had an interesting time this weekend shooting the same property that I’d shot back in 2004. The property is a funky little A-Frame on a remote lane on Tiger Mt near Issaquah, WA. My wife Levi has sold almost every home on this lane over the last 5 years.

New Poll: How Much Do you Make A Year As A Real Estate Photographer?

March 7th, 2008

In the discussion of the post this week on the subject of What to charge as a real estate photographer some readers requested that I do a poll on what real estate photographers make. As usual the poll is on the left hand side-bar.

A Introduction to HDR On TWIP Podcast #9

March 6th, 2008

I wanted to point out that for those interested in an introduction to HDR (High Dynamic Range) Alex Linsey has created a nice little introduction video to HDR software and processing. You can download it or get it as a podcast via iTunes.