Shoot professional looking real estate images with natural light alone, using Lightroom's Merge to HDR feature!
Do you want to break into Real Estate photography? Confused about where to start? Put off by the expense and learning curve required for flash lighting methods?
Well: STOP!!!!
Well: STOP!!!!
Make an in investment in your career today!
This guide is comprehensive, packed with tips and illustrations, but with useful summaries of all key points so that you can very quickly get an overview of the subject.
Do you want to know how to use HDR merging to turn out professional-looking real estate and architectural images?
Without having to use complicated additional lighting, the Merge to HDR function in ©Adobe Lightroom will enable you to create natural-looking and believable images which capture detail in bright highlights and manage to open up information in shadow areas. Nowhere is HDR more important as a solution than in Real Estate photography, where the contrast range of all but the simplest scenes tends to exceed the capture "window" of even the most sophisticated digital cameras.
Written by a practising professional photographer, this book will take you step by step through the whole process of tackling high contrast range scenes of property, both inside and out. Written in a clear style, with detailed illustrations and regular summaries, its aim is simple: to provide busy photographers with the tools to create compelling images which deliver for their clients. We'll look at subjects as diverse as achieving window pulls without needing to go into Photoshop, situations involving mixed lighting and even using HDR methods to shoot the exteriors of buildings.
Without having to use complicated additional lighting, the Merge to HDR function in ©Adobe Lightroom will enable you to create natural-looking and believable images which capture detail in bright highlights and manage to open up information in shadow areas. Nowhere is HDR more important as a solution than in Real Estate photography, where the contrast range of all but the simplest scenes tends to exceed the capture "window" of even the most sophisticated digital cameras.
Written by a practising professional photographer, this book will take you step by step through the whole process of tackling high contrast range scenes of property, both inside and out. Written in a clear style, with detailed illustrations and regular summaries, its aim is simple: to provide busy photographers with the tools to create compelling images which deliver for their clients. We'll look at subjects as diverse as achieving window pulls without needing to go into Photoshop, situations involving mixed lighting and even using HDR methods to shoot the exteriors of buildings.
Please note that this guide is confined to using ©Adobe Lightroom's own Merge to HDR feature. It does not cover other HDR programs or Lightroom plugins. It does not require the use of ©Adobe Photoshop.
Check out the complete Table of Contents below:
Introduction
How to use this book 10
Images 10
Who this book is for 10
A note about Lightroom and Capture One 11
Some terminology basics 12
Summary 13
Chapter 01: The problem : the limits of single capture 14
Introduction 15
The problem of high contrast scenes 15
The limits of our medium 15
The camera versus the human eye 15
What is High Dynamic Range? 17
Trying to match what the eye sees 17
Exposing for a high range scene 18
Getting it right for the highlights 19
Getting it right for the shadows 20
Getting it right for the mid-tones 22
Real world examples 24
Daylight scenes 24
Artificial light scenes 28
Why human vision can handle high contrast 30
The problem with interiors 33
The traditional solution 34
Enter the HDR solution 36
Summary 36
Chapter 02: The Solution: what HDR merging can achieve 37
Introduction 37
Exposure merging at work 38
A part way solution : the “Pseudo-HDR” file 39
Overview 39
The RAW and the cooked 39
What can we extract from a single RAW file? 40
The “pseudo-HDR” file 45
The limitations of the “pseudo-HDR” attempt 47
Why RAW trumps JPEG 53
It's all about the shadows 55
Summary 56
Chapter 03 : Shooting brackets for the HDR file 57
Introduction 58
A note about lamps 58
Bracketing: start with the highlights 60
What’s a stop? 61
Depth of field 62
More about the aperture 64
Smaller apertures mean longer shutter speeds 64
Diffraction : the price to pay for long depth of field 65
Manual systems are go 66
Practical essentials for shooting brackets 66
What about remote control camera devices? 68
The Histogram method 68
The major difference 69
Bring on the histogram 70
Using Live View and the histogram 71
Setting the aperture 73
If you have to shoot without Live View: CHIMPing 73
Nailing the highlights exposure 74
Moving through the sequence 76
Into the shadows… 78
How many brackets are enough? 80
Over bracketing and loss of contrast 83
Terminology: we’re not strictly “bracketing” 84
Final note : shooting in two stop increments 85
Summary 85
Chapter 04: Creating HDR images With Lightroom’s Merge to HDR feature 87
Introduction 88
Importing your images to Lightroom 88
Pre-process adjustments on import 90
The DNG file 90
Creating an import preset in Lightroom 90
Displaying your images in the Library module 91
Selecting the main shoot folder 91
Setting the display to sort images by capture time 91
Running the Merge to HDR process 92
Selecting your images 92
Bring up the Merge to HDR preview 93
The Merge to HDR options 93
Auto Align 94
Auto Settings 95
Deghost 95
Create stack 95
Running the Process 95
Locating your merged HDR DNG file 96
Summary? 98
Chapter 05 : Processing the HDR file quick guide 99
Introduction 100
The problem of viewing HDR files on screen 100
Tonemapping 100
The goal: moving beyond auto 100
Auto Adjustments in Lightroom 101
Applying auto adjustments post-merge 101
What can auto do? 102
Exposure adjustments 102
Contrast 103
Highlights 104
Shadows 105
Whites 105
Blacks 106
Clarity 107
Vibrance 107
Saturation 107
Auto Tone Adjustments : the algorithm exposed! 108
Opening up the detail 108
But shutting it down again? 110
A pattern at work? 112
Bringing back the color 113
Fine tuning the Auto Settings 113
Flying solo 113
A preset to mimic Auto Tone adjustments 115
Summary 115
Chapter 06: Batch Processing: the key to profitability! 117
Introduction 118
Speed is of the essence 118
Batch processing 118
Overview 118
The Stack 118
Let’s get stacking 119
It’s worth it! 119
Setting up the Library module 120
A bit of housekeeping 121
Stacking 121
A suggested stacking workflow for batch processing 123
Batch Processing in Lightroom 124
Get set…. 124
Double check 124
Adding the merged file to the stack 125
Running the Process 125
Locating your merged files 125
Auto Stacking 126
Introduction 126
Programming Auto Stack 126
Caveats! 128
Summary 130
Chapter 07: Other HDR options : Capture One and Lightroom plugins 132
Introduction 132
Enfuse 133
Aurora Pro 134
Photomatix 134
Capture One 134
Chapter 08: In depth guide to processing HDR Files and creating time saving presets 135
Introduction 136
Tonemapping review 137
Exploring the file’s range with the Exposure slider 137
The piano keyboard metaphor 139
You are the conductor! 139
Lightroom auto adjustments 139
Review of the controls 139
Gearing up to go manual 140
Basic Develop Adjustments 140
Introduction 140
High dynamic range : with limits! 141
Exposure 141
Finding the Midtones 141
Highlights 144
Shadows 145
Re-establishing contrast 147
Whites 147
Blacks 148
Contrast slider 149
Clarity 150
A map for basic adjustments 152
Dealing with loss of color saturation 153
The Vibrance and the Saturation sliders compared 153
A note about color profiles 154
Can a preset be created? 155
Manual Adjustments post-preset 156
Exposure and tonal range 156
Re-establishing contrast via Blacks and Whites 156
Clarity check 156
Vibrance 156
Summary 156
Chapter 09: local adjustments 158
Introduction 159
The adjustment brush in Lightroom 159
Local tonal adjustments one: general tonal 160
Why the need for local adjustments anyway? 160
Splitting shadows and highlights adjustments 161
Shadows adjustment example 163
Highlights adjustment example 163
Highlight and Shadows adjustments to the same image 164
Avoid Exposure-only local adjustments 165
Brush basics 165
Start with the mask, not the effect! 167
Enter the Auto Mask feature 168
Fine tuning the mask 170
From masking out to adjustment effects 170
Layering effects 172
Local adjustments two: getting rid of color casts 173
Introduction 173
Types of color cast 173
Fixing Color Casts 174
The desaturation approach 174
The white balance approach 175
Summary 177
Chapter 10: Window Pulls without Photoshop 179
Introduction 180
A multitude of methods 181
The problem 181
Process 182
Exploring the view with the Exposure slider 182
Why Highlights recovery alone won't cut it 184
Brushing in 186
Follow-up with auto mask 187
Other areas to include in the “pull” 189
A worked example 190
A preset specially for HDR window pulls 193
Exposure 193
Temperature 194
Tint 194
Whites 194
Clarity 194
Dehaze 194
Saturation 194
Sharpness, 195
Noise (reduction) 195
Avoid the “wall poster” look 196
Finally : avoiding the “cremated” windows look 197
Conclusion 199
Summary 200
Chapter 11 Shooting Exteriors with HDR methods 201
Introduction 201
When the wind blows 203
The difference between multiple impressions and motion blur 204
The old fashioned solution 205
Lightroom Merge to HDR’s de-ghost function 206
The deghosting solution 206
How does it work? 210
Ghosting and noise 210
Note re: workflow 212
Post processing HDR exteriors images 212
The building and ground level 212
Treating skies separately with AI masking 213
Masking off the sky with AI 214
A suggested preset to optimize skies : 215
Masking out the building with AI 217
A suggested preset for building exteriors: 218
Summary 219
Chapter 12 : Mixed Light Shooting and White balance 220
Introduction 221
What is mixed Lighting? 221
Process 225
White balance only works in one direction 226
Mixed lighting puts a spanner in the works… 230
Decide on the main source 230
White balance for the main light source 231
The really simple fix: the ”halfway house” 234
The simple fix: subtract the offending color. 237
Fixing warm casts 238
Fixing blue casts 239
Let the HSL tab make the decisions 240
The complex fix : the adjustment brush to the rescue 241
Spot the flaw! 241
Local hue adjustments 241
Bring back the blues 241
Bringing back yellow/ orange hues 243
Presets for mixed lighting 244
Global adjustment presets 244
Daylight dominant mixed light fix 244
Tungsten dominant mixed light fix 244
Local adjustment presets 245
Reclaim blue 245
Reclaim yellow/ orange 245
Summary 245
Chapter 13 : dealing with Zones or pictures within pictures 245
Introduction 246
Establish main white balance 247
Fixing the problem zone 247
The in-between 249
Using virtual copies 252
It’s not just for white balance! 253
Multiple zones 254
Aim for natural 256
Summary 256
Chapter 14 Streamlining the RE HDR workflow 256
Introduction 256
Suggested color labeling workflow 258
Star ratings and color labels 258
The system 259
The big disk clean up! 260
Summary 261
Conclusion 262
Farewell 262
Appendix 263
Glossary 263
About the Author 264
Disclaimer/ Legal Notices 265