Photography for Real Estate / Discuss

dan_achatz    says:

Here are some ways to clean it up.

First, get your camera out of ISO 1600. You should be shooting Iso 100.

Second, add flash fill. It will make you images much sharper and give you better contrast

Third. HDR needs contrast to work. Shoot a three shot bracket, I think you will find it works better, then adding more exposures.

Fourth, final color correction needs to be done in Photoshop or light room.

Here are some tools that will help. The sponge tool can take the saturation down around a lamp. The replace color tool. Is very powerful. It can take the color cast out of an image. And in the HLS tool can take down the Saturation on just the yellows or just the reds. Remember the history brush will paint you back to the start.
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

dan_achatz    says:

I made this from the three middle exposures. I layered in the window from one of your dark exposures.

These are all post effects.

Sorry about the grid. I don't own noise ninja, I never needed it before. The trial copy leaves a grid.



Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
dan_achatz edited this topic 32 months ago.

fuzzybabybunny:) says:

Thanks for the tips!

I use a Nikon D300 and its max range between single shots is only 1EV. So if I wanted a range of -2 to 2 EV, I would need to shoot 5 shots instead of the 3 shots that Canon uses would only have to shoot.

1. I shoot at ISO 1600 because of my large -4 to 4 EV range. Towards the +4 EV end I'd be shooting at really slow shutter speeds if I use ISO200 and I'm not sure if the mirror slap would make the picture blurry as a result. I could do mirror lock up, but that would slow down my picture taking. Right now I just put it on 3fps and go through the 9 shots in 3 seconds.

2. I'll try to do the fill flash, but is this necessary? I use HDR so that I don't have to deal with flash. Not to mention the flash recycle time would dictate how quickly I can take each bracket.

3. As I mentioned, I can't take a three shot bracket because someone at Nikon thought that it'd be a good idea to limit the bracket range to just 1EV. Besides, Vicaso uses 9 shots, and they do terrific HDR.

4. I'd like to do 100% of my work in Lightroom because it is so much faster than pulling individual shots into PS for processing. But I'm not sure if this is possible anymore because it doesn't have the Replace Color tool...
Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
fuzzybabybunny:) edited this topic 32 months ago.

boligfoto says:

HDR is much a matter of taste, I prefer a little more midtone contrast.
But here is my humble attempt. :-)

Blended all in Photomatix
pasted the darkest window
some dodge and burning
midttone contrast (contrast master)
color replacement tool to remove blue cast on bed

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/10698095@N06/3994438430/]
Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
boligfoto edited this topic 32 months ago.

dan_achatz    says:

The way HDR works is that it is trying to fill in the white spots with the the dark image material and the dark spots with the middle image material. If all you have is gray then it can not do it's job effectively. 3 Shots. plus and Minus 2 EV is best. Try 5 instead of 9. It should help.

All I ever shoot is HDR. Sometimes I have my 5D MK II at ISO 50. If you have a good tripod nothing will move. I shot this shot today with three exposures. 1second, 4 seconds and 30 seconds. www.flickr.com/photos/26020525@N02/3993382461

And this one at 1/10, 1/40 and 4/10th. www.flickr.com/photos/26020525@N02/3987953291

And this one at 1/4oth, 1/60th and 1/10th. www.flickr.com/photos/26020525@N02/3955193688/

As far as flash fill goes, you don't need much. A single strobe bounced into the wall behind you a 1/8 power will make a huge difference. You should be able to get 5 pops in a row at 1/8 power.
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

dan_achatz    says:

boligfoto,

Blended shots are different then HDR. It serves the same purpose, but the methodology is different.

Blended shots can only use what you have, and you only have very limited control over what you get..

HDR is the stuff of magic. You can pull things out of the woodwork that you can never get from a blended shot.

On the other hand, if you are new to it, you can seriously damage your reputation.
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

boligfoto says:

Dan
I totally agree, but the warm friendly atmosphere you are master in making, I thought easily come to work incorrectly when out of the window can see that it is a sunny day.
It will have space to look dark, which probably is not the big problem with your weather, but here in Scandinavia is bright and sunny in short supply, so we often let windows burn out on purpose to show how much light comes into the room.

As a Nikon user, I hate the yellow / orange glow which is often dominant in mixed lighting, as in the ceiling in his sample, and uses far too much time rooting around in the hue and selective color, to curb saturration in these colors.
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

dan_achatz    says:

I know it's a matter of taste, but I really like the warm tones. They make me feel calm and happy.
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

A Hurst    says:

Victor,

did this in picturenaut, used all images.

images processed in Picturenaut using the photoreceptor tonemapping setting, all other settings default.

Post was slight levels, contrast, sharpening [no noise reduction], didn't bother with the window, not much out there.


Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
A Hurst edited this topic 32 months ago.

A Hurst    says:

Victor,

this one with only thee shots. 3102, 3104, 3106

mages processed in Picturenaut using the photoreceptor tonemapping setting, this one had a slight tweak of the gamma curve setting, all others default.

Post was slight levels, contrast, sharpening [no noise reduction], didn't bother with the window, not much out there.


Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

A Hurst    says:

Victor,

this one same three shots as above, but processed in Photomatix. The difference in handling the noise between the two programs is immense..

This was tonemapped with Details Enhancer. Post was some minor levels adjustment, sharpening [no noise reduction] . I did no colour manipulation on any of these images.


Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

Marcus Newey    says:

@ boligfoto
'As a Nikon user, I hate the yellow / orange glow which is often dominant in mixed lighting'
Why do you think this is a nikon issue? sounds like you just need to adjust the wb.

You've done the best job of getting the whites clean on these images though.
Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
Marcus Newey edited this topic 32 months ago.

boligfoto says:

@ Marcus
Unfortunately it is not a question of white ballance, Nikon's way of handling highlights have always been a problem, I started with D1 back in 1998 and although it has improved this problem is not solved. try to see the statue pedestal.

See also the white cloth, where Canon has a much softer roll out. I have photographers working with Canon, whose images are easier to edit, but beyond this I am very pleased D3 14-24 and my shaved 10.5 mm for panorama.

For the same reason I started using multible exposure of all non HDR flash pictures, set the camera to take 2 multible exposure, 1 with +1 flash and one without flash -1 camera blends so the 2 exposures and gives a better result. If I use HDR exposure blending I do normal exposure with flash and +2 and -2 without flash. I get a better and more even color tone in this way.

The problem with the wrong colors primarily of saturated yellow / orange, is very difficult to solve since the outcome is different depending on the raw converter is used, why I think that camera profile is the primary cause of the problem, specifically the new Adobe profile is poor, with green and magenta splotches near the burned areas. But finds that highlights are treated better in DXO which in turn gives less shadow detail. We use actually sometimes a Canon profile in DXO where the problem is worst, but otherwise corrects us with hue / saturration and selective color to avoid color casts in bright area.

I know that most would seem that this is a small problem, but when we take many pictures with bright wood varieties, it is important that they have the right hue. It's like getting food with a spice you dislike about , the only thing you can taste is just that spice. :-)

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/10698095@N06/3994914021/]
Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
boligfoto edited this topic 32 months ago.

Marcus Newey    says:

Interesting comparison, not sure how much I can take from the top two as the light has changed significantly between the two frames [see shadows from railings , top center]
The white cloth does look bad though in comparison to the Canon file, assuming all else was kept the same,but the nikon file does look maybe half stop or so brighter overall.
That said the canon does seem to be holding the highlights and revealing the shadows better. Until they both shoot DNG there's no real way to make an absolute comparison.
I do struggle to get my Lightroom D200 files to look anything like the NX versions, just can't stand to use NX though.

Your multiple exposures mixing strobes etc sounds like a lot of trouble to overcome a quite small percieved problem, but like you say once you've fixed on an issue it's difficult not to obsess on it.

PS, sorry to veer OT, I did have a go at running the original files through enfuse and didn't get a vey good result, certainly worse than fazzababy's own hdr.
Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
Marcus Newey edited this topic 32 months ago.

jeffbartol says:

David Eichler says:

Here's my version.


[http://www.flickr.com/photos/38368143@N08/3996905143/]

3 exposure fusion with Photomatix. Used exposures 3103, 5 and 7. Pasted in the window from the darkest exposure. Not trying to neutralize all color casts, just keep them under control.

I would have used some flash here, with or without merging exposures, which would have helped to tone down the color casts from the tungsten lights.

I don't know why the iso 1600. I would use a low iso.

Also, for exposure merging especially I would suggest using the most flare-resistant lenses and filters possible.
Originally posted 32 months ago. (permalink)
David Eichler edited this topic 32 months ago.

D.Sutherland - RetouchCanada    says:

Heres my version.



I processed everything in Adobe Photoshop...there was a very high noise level in this image and I noticed that there wasnt quite a dark enough spare for the view.

To whiten the whites and clean up the color casts I used a mix of curves, hue/sat, and color layers. A nice fill flash with minimal hot spots/flash shadows would have been nice as it would have given me a better idea of what the actual colors of the room are. Also, if these were shot in RAW, it would have been much nicer to set up the spares as well as color balance to image.

Hope this helps.
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

johnherbst    says:

Love seeing all the different versions!
Posted 32 months ago. (permalink)

Clarity Northwest - Matt says:

I'm late to the party but here's my attempt.

Andrew Mayon says:

It's funny that Post Processing is like Economists...you give 10 Economists the same information, and they come back with 10 different answers. It is very interesting to see how others handle and process that information.

GREAT stuff everyone.

@Dan Aschatz...what is HLS? Is that Highlights and Shadows??
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

Jonarrrrrr says:

I'm still blown away that the D300 is limited to just 1 EV.

Is the D200 similar in this respect?


Also, virtually all of the masked-in windows look artificial to me, and I really doubt that it's worth the extra effort. Thoughts on this?

Jon
Originally posted 30 months ago. (permalink)
Jonarrrrrr edited this topic 30 months ago.

Marcus Newey    says:

Yep, D200 autobracketing max 1ev between each, max seqence of 9. Not sure why such a 'limitation' should 'blow you away' though.
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

Michael Asgian says:

Jonarrr, how many stop would you like to be able to shoot for a hdr? Personally I think 9stops would suffice ANY scene possible. Why need more?
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

Jonarrrrrr says:

Didn't know about the max sequence of 9; guess that would cover ya.
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

Binfocus says:

It would seem I'm at about the same point as jonarrr and fuzzybabybunny. I'm trying to use HDR without flash as well, and actually getting whites to be white. I'm also surprised at the lack of autobracketing with the major camera makers and HDR, but in many instances there still a ways back and catching up to HDR imaging altogether.Takes a long time for those big wheels to turn.
As far as windows go, I guess you can make them as clear as you want depending on If you think the outside view is worth showing or not.I'm finding it a bit difficult to get rooms looking non-HDRish. Flash would help, but that introduces more variables to contend with, but do think it helps with post processing later on.I think it will also cut back on how many exposures you'll need to use.
To play the devil's advocate for a moment, how many shots here really reflect whats actually in the room at the time anyway? Everyone here likes to adjust the image to what they "think" it looked like, and isn't hindsight great? Just as Andrew said" It is very interesting to see how others handle and process that information."
It doesn't make anyone "right" or " wrong", but how true was it to what the room actually looked like, or does it really matter anyway?
Posted 30 months ago. (permalink)

Christian Boo says:

Bracketing:
www.hdr-photography.com/aeb.html
Posted 29 months ago. (permalink)