Real Estate Photography

I tried my hand at Real Estate photography today, much harder than it looks. I used my Canon 5D-III, 17-40 f/4L lens, two Godox V860-II flash units and the Godox X1-C controller. I had a good tripod head (Manfrotto 3437), separately adjustable in three directions, but not a geared heat and I used a little level that fits in the camera hot shoe. You must have the camera level to kept the vertical lines straight. I also used a Pixel TW-283 wireless shutter release.

In its simples form the idea is to expose for the windows and use your flash to bring the room light up to match the window. However, it is very hard to get the flash into the right location. Even harder in a small bathroom. To see how the pros do it, there are tons of videos on You-Tube to show you what to do before, during and after you take the picture.

Shoot Location

Yesterday I was talking to a lady about doing a family portrait session with her and her two girls. This afternoon my wife and I went for a drive to check out some of the local parks, looking for a good location for the family portrait session. In Sartell (MN) we found a small neighborhood park at the corner of Pine Cone RD. N and 1^st St. N. Lion’s Park is very picturesque with green lawns, picnic benches, trees and flowers. It even has a small vine covered gazebo with flowers all around. I think it will make a great location for pictures.

Down by the Lake

We were up at the lake this weekend, visiting my wife’s sister and her family. I took some pictures down by the water, I have always had a problem with water pictures. There is a reflection off the water that messes up your exposure. For these photos, I bumped the exposure up one stop. Anyway, this is something I’ll have to work on.

Umbrella Softbox

Godox and Neewer make some very reasonably priced umbrella style soft boxes (https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-centimeters-Octagonal-Speedlight Photography/dp/B00PIM3I6I/ref=sr_1_24?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1500749277&sr=1-24&keywords=godox+softbox). The drawback is the way the flash and part of the light stand are inside the softbox. This arrangement limits the movement of the softbox. The pivot point for the softbox in inside the softbox.

There are several companies that make a boom arm that allow you to mount two or more flash units inside the softbox while keeping the flashes in the center and putting the pivot point outside of the softbox. This arrangement allows you to have full movement of the softbox.

I have the 32” version with two Godox V860II or two Godox V850 flashes inside. The V850’s are manual only, the V860II’s are full TTL and manual.

Roadside Wildflowers

Took these pictures alongside the road near my house.

The camera I used was a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 100mm macro lens and a Canon MR-14EX macro ring light.

Real Estate Photography

I did a quick Real Estate shoot for a company in Minneapolis this morning. They wanted 10 to 15 shoots of the exterior of the building. This was my second try at doing Real Estate photography. One of the tricks to Real Estate photography is to have the camera level. If the camera is level the vertical lines will appear straight. If the camera is not level the vertical lines will curve. I added a sky to these photos, not one of my best jobs.

New Speedlite

Just got a new speedlite that I’m very excited about. It’s a Godox V860-IIc with TTL & HSS (TTL=through the lens, HSS-high speed sync) and a guide number of 198. Rechargeable Li-ion battery pack and charger. What more could you ask for? Well how about a built-in radio trigger, TTL mode, Manual mode and multi-mode. All for $165 from Amazon. I also picked up a Godox X1T-c radio trigger transmitter that mounts on top of the camera. This unit allows you to control the speedlite from the camera.

Speedlite

I plan to use this speedlite with a couple of small soft-boxes I have. One is the SMDV diffuser SpeedBox-S50 (21”) and the other is the SMDV diffuser SpeedBox-S60 (24”). I hope to do some portrait work later this week or next. I will publish the results.

21" Softbox

24" Softbox