How Pros Get Light and Bright Interior Listing Photos

Do your listing photos have this problem?


Dark interiors accompanied by bright ("blown-out") windows are usually a result of the limitations of your camera when confronted by a high-contrast lighting situation.

Digital cameras are not able to "see" as well as the human eye when it comes to light and dark areas of a scene. They automatically determine the exposure, or the amount of light they let in, usually based on the average amount of light. (The more expensive your camera, the more control you have over how the light is metered.)

The result can either be fine or lousy, depending on the level of contrast. When shooting indoors, the light coming in the windows can be so bright that it fools your camera, making it think the whole room is bright. It then reduces the exposure, causing your room to look like a cave and the windows to look like there's a nuclear blast detonating in the front yard.

There are three ways to deal with this very common problem:

1. Take the photos at just the right time of day, when the light coming in the windows is balanced with the light level in the room. That can be impractical, because these conditions may not occur at the same time of day in each room. And you usually can't schedule your photography according to available lighting conditions anyway.
   
   
2. Use flash photography to compensate for the relatively low light level inside. This also can be impractical unless you are a pro with lots of lighting experience. To solve the lighting problem, it may be necessary to use multiple lights, which must be simultaneously triggered by your camera. That kind of lighting setup is usually only done by professionals, or very dedicated amateurs. Even for professionals, a lighting rig can be too time-consuming to deploy for real estate photo shoots. On the other hand, if you are using an inexpensive point-and-shoot digital camera with built-in flash, the light provided by your flash will seldom extend beyond 6-10 feet and is not sufficient to illuminate an entire room.
   
   
3. Use HDR photography to blend multiple exposures together into one, more natural-looking image. "HDR" stands for "High Dynamic Range" and is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques. Done well, HDR accurately represents the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows, so that you don't get blown out highlights or black shadows with no detail.
   
   When shooting for an HDR photograph, the photographer takes several (usually 3-5) identical shots in RAW mode at different exposures. Then those mulitple images are composited into one blended image. The blending process occurs during the digital editing stage.

Here's an example of a room that was taken without HDR (left) and with HDR (right).
HDR enabled the view outside to be seen rather than "blown out," and details hidden in dark shadows inside the room become visible. The result is a more natural and attractive photo.

The photo on the right was also enhanced in other ways as explained here on our photo staging web site.