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Summary of Using HDR for Real Estate Phototography

May 19th, 2008

I’d like to synthesize and distill the information and discussions about how to approach using HDR for real estate photography.

First of all it is important to look a lot of real estate images and refine your ability to see subtle differences styles and lighting.

Next I think you must always be working to prevent committing the deadly sin of allowing the real estate photo to look unreal. The two ways this usually appears is what I call the “grunge” (walls look like they need to be washed) or “radioactive” look. In real estate work there is an expectation of reality so the more dramatically creative looks frequently see in HDR work is not appropriate for real estate work.

As an benchmark of realistic results that are possible with HDR look at the real estate images of David Palermo and Dan Achatz. David and Dan use HDR extensively and their work illustrates what is possible with HDR.

How do you approach getting realistic results with HDR for real estate work? Here is my summary:

  1. Shooting bracketed images: Use shutter speed to bracket. Many use 3 bracketed shots -2 EV, 0EV, +2 EV most DSLRs will do this with auto-bracket feature. Christian Bloch, in The HDRI Handbook, recommends spot metering on darkest part of image and lightest part of image and bracket all the way between light and dark in 1 EVor 2 EV intervals.
  2. Most popular software: Photomatix, Enfuse ( LR/Enfuse PC/Mac , Bracketeer for Mac, Enfuse Gui for PC, xFuse for Mac) Photoshop CS3 and Photomatix used together.
  3. Photomatix settings (starting point): Dan Achatz recommends (some place in the PFRE discussion group) starting values: Strength=20, Saturation=35, White Point=10, Black Point=10, Gamma=1.
  4. HDR books: Two good books on the HDR process are - The HDRI Handbook, by Christian Bloch and Mastering HDR Photography by Michael Freeman.
  5. Detail discussions: There have been some good detail discussions on using HDR for real estate photography in the PFRE flickr discussion group. here, here and here.

I’m sure there is something I’ve missed. Anyone care to add to the summary?

larry in HDR

21 Responses to “Summary of Using HDR for Real Estate Phototography”

  • Scott Pruett May 19th, 2008 at 11:00 am #

    Bracketeer is for Mac, FYI…

  • /dev/random › links for 2008-05-19 May 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pm #

    [...] Using HDR for Real Estate Phototography How to use subtle HDR effects for a realistic appearance. (tags: hdr photography) [...]

  • Athol Kay May 19th, 2008 at 3:46 pm #

    >>the deadly sin of allowing the real estate photo to look unreal.

    Agree, but curious if the Architectual Digest look we seem to strive for counts as unreal. Perfect yes, but also vaguely unreal as well. Maybe good for ultra high end, but in the $300,000 range?

  • David Lenhert May 19th, 2008 at 3:55 pm #

    Hi Larry, I’ve started using Photomatix and love it, although I admit I sometimes am a bit heavy handed with the strength. My question is: on your recommended starting point settings for Photomatix what do you recommend for the “Light Smoothing” setting?
    Thanks,
    Dave

  • m zigler May 19th, 2008 at 4:18 pm #

    theres hdr books? cant possibly imagine it being more than say 10 pages.

    “take 5 pictures of the same thing with 5 different exposures
    …press go in software”

    the end

  • larry May 19th, 2008 at 5:06 pm #

    @Athol - Excellent point! AD is about as unreal as you can get!

    @David - I use Light Smoothing on one of the highest 2 settings and Luminosity up towards the max. The other recommendations are Dan Achatz’s… I don’t know what Dan recommendations are for Luminosity and Light Smoothing. Dan has much more experience in this area than I do. Maybe he will weigh in here.

    @Zigler - Yes, The HDRI Handbook is 344 pgs. This is a weighty subject:)

  • Scott May 20th, 2008 at 5:46 am #

    M Zigler — yeah, I was shocked to discover that there are general photography books that are longer than 10 pages, too. I mean, really; set the camera to “Auto”, point it at something, push the button…….right?

  • Photo News Today » Blog Archive » Summary of Using HDR for Real Estate Phototography May 20th, 2008 at 8:36 am #

    [...] Source and Read More: photographyforrealestate.net [...]

  • Zac May 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am #

    While these techniques are fine and sometimes produce stunning results, albeit a trifle unreal at times, there are other techniques that produce results that many times look just as good and indeed better than HDR and better than using the shadow/highlight sliders.

    A favourite technique that I use sometimes is contrast masking - all you need is one shot, not 5. A good link for learning contrast masking is found in the luminous landscape site - http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast_masking.shtml

    Did I mention using a Fuji S3 or S5?

  • Kelly May 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 am #

    Enfuse works great for real estate HDR, however it does not align images so your photos have to be exactly in the same place. Anyone have any ideas how to align images that aren’t perfectly aligned?

  • larry May 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 am #

    @Kelly - it depends on which implementation of Enfuse you are using. The latest version of Enfuse/LR 2.0 does image alignment. See:

    http://timothyarmes.com/lrenfuse.php

    This image alignment “align_image_stack” is from Hugin. You may be able to used it before running other Enfuse interfaces but Enfuse/LR runs it automatically for you.

  • Phil May 23rd, 2008 at 5:14 am #

    Zac,
    That was great tip. Just tried the Contrast Masking on an outside HDR shot and it give it more punch without darkening the image. I liked the layer at around 40% opacity. I’ve used the multiply option on some, but at only around 20% due the darkening effect. I’d use it as an extra processing step with Photoshop action on the HDR image, rather than as a replacement

  • CARLOS May 24th, 2008 at 4:04 pm #

    M.Zigler I am with you 10 pages max, how hard is it?
    Most Shooters these days have little experience just buy a camera make a website learn on the road.
    Within two years they are Rock stars.
    Digital is brilliant but how many of the new shooters could use film?
    So what we have is more and more average shooters and good software to fix the images.
    oh and a lot of Rock Stars

  • Alex May 25th, 2008 at 1:03 am #

    Lots and lots of rock stars

  • Paul Gemignani July 7th, 2008 at 11:24 am #

    I was looking for some reference samples of HDR images. I found vicaso.net and was impressed. Great posts here, but is there a memebers section? Many of the posts are refer to flicker. Would be nice to share some work with the community. I have a sampel HDR shot up here: http://www.4waymedia.com/hdr.html
    Let me know what you think. Thanks! 4waymdia@gmail.com

  • Liam October 26th, 2008 at 2:53 pm #

    In the original post by larry:
    3. Photomatix settings (starting point): Dan Achatz recommends (some place in the PFRE discussion group) starting values: Strength=20, Saturation=35, White Point=10, Black Point=10, Gamma=1.

    Where can I find Dan Achatz article recommending this settings? In my opinion, 20 (Strength) is too strong in Photomatix for real estate photography. But the samples in his website look very natural to me. I wonder the samples in his website are set at 20.

  • larry October 26th, 2008 at 3:20 pm #

    Liam- I can’t find the flickr post where I copied Dan’s recommendations. You could search the flickr discussion group posts (http://www.flickr.com/groups/photographyforrealestate/discuss/) or just ask Dan.

  • Frank March 31st, 2009 at 5:18 pm #

    Are HDR scripts protected under copyright law—if I have a employee using HDR to make photos and they take it with them do I have legal protection…IP??

  • larry May 23rd, 2009 at 11:10 am #

    Frank, I don’t don’t think copyright will protect you… see: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html

    Technical companies have their employees sign non-disclosure agreements to protect the companies against employees disclosing trade secrets. I’d suggest you have a lawyer draw up a NDA for you to have your employees sign.

  • HDR Tidbits (links, news, inspiration) lets see how long this title goes | pixelens photography May 26th, 2009 at 7:05 pm #

    [...] never though how great using HDR would be for real estate, something I should look into! Check out the post over at the Lightroom Killer Tips [...]

  • Thomas Vercline June 10th, 2009 at 10:41 am #

    These look a lot like what VHT calls ‘clearshot’ photography at http://www.vht.com

    Maybe they stole your technique!

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