Strobist Property photography part 2

This is what the camera did straight out in auto, you can see that the window at the left has messed up the metering big time and the room is totally under exposed, so how do you change it so that the room is properly exposed but you can still see out the window?

Flash is the answer.

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The shot above was with the camera all in Auto, it gave a shot of 1/30th, f2.8 iso 200 (matrix metering)

Now we stick the Flash on and keep everything in auto and we get

shutter speed of 1/60th f4.8 and iso200

But what if we try a slow shutter speed, stick it on to slow sync flash and this is what you get

A much better looking bright image but the window is totally blown out (which is not really a bad thing but i like to see a little out of the window)

So lets spot meter the window and put the shutterspeed up to the max sync speed (1/250th) and we get this

Great we can totally see out of the window, it was giving a reading of f5.6 not too difficult for the little sb900 on top of the camera. But I am going to want it a lot brighter, so I'll bring it down a stop to f4 so that the window is a little brighter than it is now. (as you can see outside a bit too much, even the guy walking past the window) and now make the camera spot meter off the black couch (sofa)

BlaaMooo!! look at that shot! so nice and bright inside and you can still see the outside,

Happydays and still with the flash set on TTL

But what about he angle? ooh lots of converging lines, lots of sloping walls etc (its not really an issue)

This is a lower down shot which is usually the objective if you are doing brochure looking shots or if your doing a magazine, as this stops you having sloping lines walls and chairs.  But if you are doing photos for a property management website then you want a more head level view so that people coming to see the place will have a better idea of what the layout and size of the room is before wasteing the time of the property manager by booking a viewing and saying that they didnt realise what the flat was really like.  Here you can bearly tell how long the table is, nor do you see the electric radiator at the far right.

Its a tiny difference, maybe only a foot in height but it changes the shape of the image dramatically.

Now add some D-lighting to lower the contrast of the shot.

This shot has in camera active D-lighting set to high.  It creates a bit more noise in the image but for web use it is not going to be a problem

    

Now onto the Kitchen

This kitchen has a pretty depressing window, looking straight out onto another wall. not the best look, you also dont get to see the nice big double built in fridge just to camera right. so time to head over to that side and take a shot.

Thats a bit better but the hallway looks miserable,  How to fix this?

Use a slow shutterspeed here around about 30th of a second should work.

Now point the camera so it is not taking in the bag on the floor

But there is a problem, the reflective pannels on the kitchen units are not doing me any favours

time to spin the flash around and blast it off the wall to camera right. This will make a big softer light hit the front of the kitchen units

Bingo! Here you get to see all the kitchen units, the position of the sink to the ovan to the fridge and you also see that the fridge is closest to the hallway which also looks nice and bright. Now all I needed to do was get in a slightly better position and help straighten up some of those lines.