Comments on: The Bare Essentials to Get Started in Real Estate Photography

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:51:02 +0000

Hi guys, I just wanted to have your feedback on Olympus E-410, I bought this camera years ago, now need to use it for interiors shooting. May you indicate optimal parameters as I haven’t been happy with outcomes till now. Thanks for any advices. Mike

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:19:15 +0000

I just stumbled on this site and have been looking through the various nuggets of information — thanks for maintaining this resource! As a Sony Alpha user, though, I do want to correct your earlier statement regarding Sony’s system, which I will grant that in 2008 was more limited than today. However, every manufacturer has a “closed system” because they all have specific mounts — critisizing Sony seems a tad misguided to me. Sony’s lens lineup is increasing every year, and their glass runs the gamut from mediocre to world-class, just like the other manufacturers.

Sony’s Alpha series utilizes Sony, Minolta, Konica-Minolta, Sigma, and Tamron lenses designed for the Alpha or the Minolta Maxxum. Sony’s ultrawide is the 11-18mm, both Sony and Tamron versions (and older Minolta), but there are also the Sigma 10-20mm, the Sigma 12-24mm, and the Tamron 10-24mm for the Alpha. If one is using a full frame camera like the A900 or the recent A850, the KM 17-35 or the Sony Carl Zeiss 16-35 are options along with several others from Sigma and Tamron. Further, the Carl Zeiss lens is at the very least a match for anything in Canon’s or Nikon’s lineups.

One significant advantage of the Alpha system, inherited from Minolta, is the ability to use the onboard flash as a flash controller for wireless use of Sony or Minolta flashguns, with even the lowliest of bodies from Sony. With the purchase of one flashgun, you have the ability to do wireless flash. If you want to use an external flashgun as a controller (or have the full frame cameras without onboard flash), you can get the HVL-F58AM which can do ratio control of the latest flashguns.

I don’t work for Sony, incidentally! Just don’t discount them as amateur or professional photography tools.

By: Philgib

Philgib — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:30:25 +0000

For HDR, you need the exact same framing, so for stability, I :

- Use a cheap and strong tripod : Velbon CX540 for 70 US dollars
- pre-lift the mirror (lift the mirror 0.4 seconds before taking the shot to eliminate any vribration),
- because I haven’t found any remote control from the shops around me (south of France), I use the 10 seconds delay.

I do not use any flash. Maybe if one day I can find a wide-angle diffuser for a SB800, i will use one.

I found home owners and realtors to like it when you ask for the best time of the day for the best light available in the house. Looks professional.

By: larry

larry — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:08:40 +0000

Hi Candice,
As I understand your problem, you are using the built-in flash on your camera to optically trigger your external flash and the built-in flash causes a shadow because your wide-angle lens makes the shadow.

In the past, I’ve encountered exactly the same problem with the Nikon CoolPix 4300 so I understand the issue. I’ve done some searching on the net and from what I’ve been able to find the S5200 has no way built-in to trigger other flashs except optically (like you’ve tried). If the S5200 had a hot shoe or sync cord jack (which I don’t believe it does) you could use Cactus radio triggers (http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16766) to trigger your external flash.

Here is another alternative that would eliminate flashes all together. Use HDR (High Dynamic Range) where you shoot 3 shots(underexposed shot by 2 stops, correctly exposed shot, overexposed shot by 2 stops) from a tripod, then afterwards you combine the three shots with software like Photomatix (http://hdrsoft.com/).

For more information on HDR see the following posts that I’ve done on my blog:

http://photographyforrealestate.net/category/hdr/

Since your current camera will not sync other flashes other than optically, I don’t see any other alternative.

hope this helps.

By: Candice Joyner

Candice Joyner — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:12:27 +0000

I have a Fuji Finepix S5200 and I love it. I know that it says Canon, but with the market the way it is I can’t afford to buy one. Anyway I can make my Fuji work for the moment. Here’s my problem I purchased a wide angle lens—Opteka from ebay. Well my flash gets in the way of the lens so I have a semicircle of dark at the bottom of my pictures. So I was told to buy an external flash. I did that but the semicircle is still there because my camera has to flash for the external to flash. I’m a realtor. I’m not trying to be cheap, I might would hire a professional if we had any in my area—but the closest are in Nashville which is 4 hrs. away. I am closer to Memphis. But no matter what I would LOVE to learn how to take good pictures myself. I want to learn. Any advice on how to fix my problem? Could a more expensive wide angle lens work better. I just googled wide angle lenses for my camera and the Opteka come up. I’m not a pro by any means so I don’t know anything. Please help!!

By: Condo King

Condo King — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:58:22 +0000

Larry,

Thank for the input! I am a Realtor, I have been thinking about getting a DSLR to improve my photo quality. You have give me very good guideline.

This is a great website and I learn lot from it.

By: jeffegg2

jeffegg2 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:47:28 +0000

I find that Gimp is a more powerful editing program than Photoshop Elements. It does however have a steeper learning curve. Worth looking at for the budget minded….

By: larry

larry — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:31:16 +0000

Sean- perhaps you are right. Several weeks ago when I was building my lens page I noticed that Sigma, Tamron etc made lenses for Sony. I’ve also promised to expand the lens recommendation table to include Pentax, Olympus… I should add Sony as well. It’s on my list.

By: Sean

Sean — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:00:55 +0000

Larry:
Love the site and recommendations! Truly wonderful!
I think the recommendations for Nikon/Canon as gospel should be reconsidered. I am a Canon glass guy who has been given (for shame!) a new Sony DSLR. Sony glass is Minolta glass and I’ve recently been enlightened to the reality that the Sony A100, A200, A350 and A700 and soon A900(?) along with the full complement of Sony/Minolta Lenses (along with Sigma, Tamron, Tokina and of course Carl Zeiss) give you a ridiculous variety of glass for whatever you want to do. You should, perhaps rethink your position here.

Once again, great and informative site.

By: larry

larry — Thu, 29 May 2008 02:43:07 +0000

@Brian,
My last lighting post was:
http://photographyforrealestate.net/2008/05/01/beginners-guide-to-lighting-choices-for-real-estate-photographers/

Yes, you can use a 430Ex as a slave but the problem is that Canon infra-red system is meant for studio situations… in real estate most find that the infra-red system is too easily blocked and the off camera flashes don’t fire reliably.

There are to setups that work better:

1. Cactus triggers: see: http://www.gadgetinfinity.com/product.php?productid=16766 these are radio frequency and work through walls and around corners. The downside for these is they are plastic and fragile.. have some spares. They are also cheap.
2. The simplest triggering system for multiple flashes is optical triggering. If you find some used Nikon SB-26 or SB-80 or new Nikon SB-800 they have optical triggers built in… optical triggering is simple and reliable.

Note that both of these techniques assume you use flashes in manual mode.