The image below shows the original, as it came out of the camera, on the left, and the processed image on the right.
Real Estate photo processing is as important as getting the right composition. The photos have to stand out among hundreds of listings. They need to be bright, with natural colours and they need to entice people to see more.
Click and drag on the photo to see the original on the left, and the post-processed image on the right.
This is what I do in Lightroom to achieve it;
- Apply lens corrections and noise reduction on import. I also add the one-click vertical corrections. If the one-clicks don’t work, I use the manual slider.
- Adjust White Balance
- Increase Exposure and Contrast
- Reduce Highlights and increase Shadows.
- Pump up the Whites, for punch, and move the Blacks to the left.
- Increase Clarity and Vibrance.
- Move down to the Colour section, and reduce the saturation of both Orange and Yellow.
Each image is processed individually. Many real estate photographers would add blue sky to the upper window, but my objective is for the picture to look natural and not doctored. I’m not trying to make a great photo, I’m trying to get someone on the internet to view the listing.
The photo was taken with a Canon 5D MkII and 17-40L lens. The 560 Flash was bounced off of the wall and ceiling. The exposure was F5.6 at 1/100th of a second and ISO 640.
Nice to hear other photographer’s methods to their madness. Good work. And to the point. Thanks for sharing!