Yesterday we brought you a timesaving tutorial for streamlining Lightroom so the workspace displays all the tools you use in the order you want, with everything else hidden from view. We have another great trick today, this time it’s a simple hack for using the Histogram to achieve perfect White Balance.

Instructor James Pearce is a wedding photographer turned educator. He notes that many photographers are unaware how to use the Histogram to evaluate White Balance and make whatever adjustments are necessary if it’s not technically correct for the image at hand.

The goal of this lesson is to help prevent you from scratching your head in frustration, while saving time processing photos when colors don’t look quite right. Or as Pearce puts it, “By using the method in this video, even photos taken in horrific light will be fixed in a matter of seconds.

This technique works great with images captured indoors under poor illumination, as well as for outdoor photos like Pearce’s environmental portrait of a bride. There are no presets involved, and He illustrates the quick process using several images shot at a wedding. The first example was captured during an indoor reception, and there’s an unwanted orange cast throughout the frame because of the warm overhead chandeliers.

Orange tones are certainly not what you want on a wedding dress, white ceiling, or pristine tablecloth. Much the same holds true for other types of images where getting white right is super important—like with snow-covered landscape scenes or wildlife photos of white birds.

The magic takes place in Lightroom’s Histogram panel and the trick is so simple that we won’t bother summarizing it here, other than to note the importance of keeping your eye you on the numerical values under the graph as you use various sliders to adjust the tones. He describes the interrelationship between these numbers and the ratios he recommends.

Pearce then pulls up an outdoor shot of the bride and her bridesmaids captured outside with natural light. This shot requires a different approach, and in this case the required temperature change is very slight. You’ll watch Pearce enhance a few other photos from the shoot while illustrating the quick adjustments for each.

It’s important to note that “technically correct” White Balance is one thing, but personally it’s a subjective matter, and Pearce explains how to quickly tweak the adjustments so a photo conveys the specific look you want.

There’s much more to learn on Pearce’s popular YouTube channel so be sure to pay a visit. And don’t forget to watch the tutorial mentioned above for using an oft-ignored Lightroom feature for streamlining your workspace.

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Transforming Listings: A Virtual Staging Case Study – From Empty Spaces to Dream Homes

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  December 1, 2023
  
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  1:24 pm
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  Photography
  

In the world of real estate, first impressions are everything. A beautifully staged home can capture the hearts of potential buyers, but what happens when you’re faced with an empty space that lacks that inviting charm? This is where virtual staging steps in, reimagining vacant rooms and turning them into dream homes on screens. Join us as we delve into a virtual staging case study with our top-performing realtor and valued client, Kathy Murray, with Ebby Halliday Realtors. Discover how virtual staging has transformed the way her team presents properties, igniting interest, saving costs, and expediting sales.

A Specific Situation: Converting Challenges into Opportunities

Kathy Murray, our long-term client realtor, shares her insights into using virtual staging to transform her listings. “I do this on most empty properties – the key rooms,” she explains. “It gives the buyer a chance to see the layout of an otherwise empty room.” The challenge of empty spaces is common, with around 85% of people struggling to visualize how to fill them. Virtual staging provides a solution by helping potential buyers envision the possibilities.

Engagement and Interest: A Remarkable Shift

Kathy notes a significant shift in buyer engagement after implementing virtual staging. “Unless it is an investor purchase, people are led by their emotions when purchasing their home,” she says. “Virtual staging allows potential clients to see the space in a positive light from the very beginning. Most people’s first showing is a 5 or 6-inch screen called their phone!” Virtual staging brings these emotional connections to life, inviting buyers to explore and imagine their future in the property, from anywhere in the world.

Cost-Effective Marketing: Budget Benefits

Compared to traditional staging, virtual staging is a cost-effective alternative. Kathy emphasizes: In general, “Homes sell relatively quickly—so installing and uninstalling furniture can be a waste of time and money. Only in specific cases, or high profile, expensive homes, we may go for real staging.” This cost-saving strategy optimizes marketing budgets while delivering impactful results.

Transparency and Positive Feedback: Building Trust

Addressing concerns about potentially misleading buyers, Kathy ensures transparency in her listings. She shares, “I have not received negative feedback. For sellers, they are amazed when they see the photos. Besides, you do a great job, and your skills count!” Virtual staging done professionally, like at Sharp Frame Media, maintains trust with buyers while presenting properties in the best possible light, keeping proportions and adjusting to reality as much as possible.

Advice for Real Estate Professionals: Embrace Virtual Staging

For real estate professionals considering virtual staging, Kathy offers valuable advice: “Absolutely, go for the virtual staging, but use you (Sharp Frame Media)! I say it to agents all the time.” Leveraging professional virtual staging services, like the ones Sharp Frame Media provides, can make a significant difference in marketing effectiveness.

Looking Ahead: Enhancing the Experience

Kathy also has a vision for the future of virtual staging. “I would like to see you guys also get more furniture with different styles and a variety of art pieces.” Virtual staging continually evolves, and at Sharp Frame Media we’re committed to staying at the forefront, constantly expanding our catalog, and providing diverse options to enhance the experience further.

Virtual staging has become a transformative tool in the world of real estate, as illustrated by Kathy Murray’s success story. It breathes life into empty spaces, sparks buyer imagination, saves costs, and accelerates sales. With our Virtual Staging services, the journey from an empty room to a dream home is just a click away, and we’re excited to continue helping successful realtors like Kathy make it happen.

Ready to take your empty listings to the next level? Visit www.SharpFrameMedia.com today to learn more about our virtual staging services!

Here are other related topics that might interest you:

Professional Headshots by Sharp Frame Media

The Psychology of Real Estate Photography: How Visuals Influence Buyer Perception

The Power of Virtual Staging for Realtors: Enhancing Property Appeal and Driving Sales

See more… 

Sharp Frame Media is a 5-star rated real estate media agency servicing Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and surrounding cities in Texas. Founded in 2017 on the values of craftsmanship, service, and partnership. As a veteran-owned company, our mission is driven by our commitment to unmatched service.

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The post Transforming Listings: A Virtual Staging Case Study – From Empty Spaces to Dream Homes appeared first on Real Estate Photography in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Do your often shoot images that are soft and blurry, but don’t know why? If so you have a serious problem that needs to be resolved—whether the issue is faulty equipment, improper camera settings, or poor technique. The good news is that today’s tutorial will set you straight and help you capture sharp photos every time.

Instructor Simon d’Entremont is a Canadian pro specializing in wildlife, landscape, and nature photography. In barely 11 minutes he’ll help diagnose your problem and provide several effective solutions so you can concentrate on getting other things right.

Simon breaks down the most common sources of soft photos into five distinct categories: The subject moved while the shutter was open, the camera moved, depth of field is too narrow, you simply missed focus, or your images are noisy and of poor quality. We’ll leave malfunctioning cameras and lenses for another day.

If your subject moved during the exposure “it will streak across the sensor pixels rather than staying in one place” and the camera will record that movement rather than freezing your subject in a moment of time. Simon explains how to identify this as the problem, as compared to other possibilities, in this way: “If your subject is blurry but the rest of the image in the same plane of focus is sharp, then subject movement is the problem.”

You have two primary solutions when this occurs. One is increasing the shutter speed and he offers this guideline: 1/100 for static targets, 1/500 for slow-moving subjects, 1/1,000 for sports or other fast targets, and 1/2,000 for shooting birds in flight.

The second solution is to improve your panning skills, and this is a very valuable technique for nailing focus on a moving subject while blurring the background. This makes a subject really stand out. But as you’ll see, this approach requires modifying exposure, selecting the appropriate image-stabilization mode on lenses with this option, and practicing your panning technique.

Likewise, camera movement can dramatically cause softness in similar ways. Simon discusses the ramifications of this issue and provides workable solutions as he did when discussing subject movement. As Simon explains, “the tell here is blurriness across the entire scene.”  In this case he provides three potential solutions.

The remainder of the video is devoted to the final two considerations, where you’ll how to identify if insufficient depth of field is holding you back, or whether your image quality is so poor and noisy that it’s impossible to get the job done—unless you carefully follow the fixes he provides.

There much more to see and learn by visiting Simon’s popular YouTube channel, so do that as soon as you can.

We also recommend watching the tutorial we posted from another pro who explains how to make the subject of a photo really stand out when shooting outside on a gloomy days.

It’s not often that you can learn five powerful pro tips for two genres of photography in barely four minutes, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in this tutorial from our friends at the B&H Photo Video instructional YouTube channel.

Instructor John Weatherby is a Florida-based photographer who discovered a love of the camera while working as waiter in college. He narrowed his interests to landscape, travel, and street photography, developed his skills, and gradually acquired better gear. Now, years later, he’s pursuing his passion as a pro while frequently sharing the secrets to his success

In this behind-the-scenes episode you’ll follow Weatherby wandering Brooklyn as he reveals “five tips for next-level cityscapes.” He’s quick to point out that everything you learn today is equally valuable for shooting landscapes in the field. In rapid-fire fashion Weatherby covers everything from camera settings, exposure tips, focusing and composition. He even throws in a powerful editing tip at the end.

Weatherby, like most accomplished landscape shooters, considers composition of utmost importance and that’s where he begins—noting that poorly composed images “can’t be fixed in post.” Rather than repeating all the so-called “rules” you’ve heard before, he illustrates the methods that make his images so captivating. He thoughtfully captions his images with gear information and key settings—and there’s a complete list of the equipment he prefers in the description beneath the video.

Next is a quick discussion of camera modes, during which Weatherby explains why he recommends shooting in Aperture Priority—despite claims by some purists that Manual mode is the only way to go. His approach is to keep ISO  as low as possible and select an aperture of f/8 or f/11 to ensure good depth of field. Then he leaves it up to the camera to determine the appropriate shutter speed.

Another thing Weatherby has in common with many landscape/cityscape pros is the frequent use of lens filters. He describes the value of employing ND filters to invoke a sense of motion, like with water scenes or when there are clouds moving across the sky. You’ll also see why Weatherby always has an L-Bracket in his bag.

The last tip is a demonstration of how to shoot and create a Time Blend, which he describes as “one of my favorite techniques.” This involves mounting the camera stop a tripod, shooting multiple images of the same scene over an extended period of time, and merging the images during post processing. This technique requires a bit of extra work, but the results can be sensational.

Weatherby’s instructional YouTube channel is a great source of information and inspiration, so be sure to pay a visit.

And don’t miss the tutorial we posted earlier with another successful pro who explains the important first steps to take after getting a new camera before you go out to shoot.