This video is great. I am 77 years old and a real estate photographer. Proof you can teach an old dog new tricks. I needed a way to increase processing time. Thanks.
If you need service of real estate . I am here. I own a team and can help you boost your business. I was just checking this video becuase my client suggest me. so I am pretty sure we'll do this quality or batter. I Own a team. so feel free to ask for trial. Thanks
Hi Mike - nice vid as always. When I started out five or six years ago, I did HDR interiors all the time, but I always thought they looked too cartoonish. For the past few years I've been using flamient exclusively for interiors. I toyed around with the HDR/Flamient combo method, but found it to be way too time consuming and the cost in time was not worth the marginally better result. My experience has been that agents couldn't care less as long as the shots look good and for me the quickest way to great results is a single ambient shot with one or two flash shots and a window pull only if the exterior is interesting.
I have been using this basic technique for interior photography, where I get paid much more than I do for my RE photography. I can't imagine spending this much time on every shot I take for a RE client considering the cost of my time and what RE agents are willing to pay for photography.
@@stupidspacebar Shoot for a real estate photography company when you get started and work on your branding during that time. You shouldn't be expected to edit your own photos, I would actually suggest NOT editing your own photos even when you start getting jobs on your own.
I’m a real estate agent in Chicago/Milwaukee and you inspired me to move my photography from portraits to RE photography. From what I’ve learned, I make 4 figures a month on the side! Thanks bro!
Great video! I'm only 1/3 through the video, but I will comment on one thing...Every time we check in to watch videos from various creators, we always notice their model home is almost perfect. Never have wee seen a real estate photographer shoot a video in a home that people with 10 kids and 5 dogs live in. 60% of the 400 homes we shoot a year are lived in and come with all the ups and downs. Show us a video where you can make that look amazing vs. the model home. 🙃 These types of homes are a walk in the park to shoot and edit almost any way. Great video!
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography What's your guaranteed # of photos delivered? Here in NorCal (Napa/Sonoma/. etc) we guarantee minimum of 30 photos and that can go as high as 65 to 70 depending on the property. The MLS in the local counties now allows for upwards of 90 photos (I think). We can shoot flambient and will, but typically shoot HDR regardless of the listing. We typically average in the $700k range, but have shot up to $7 million this year. From feedback received, our realtors value # of photos vs. perfect colors and high-end photos. So, HDR typically is 80% the path we take.
@@jfizzle yeah, sounds pretty similar to me. Shoot mostly hdr. I don’t guarantee a certain amount of photos. I price by square footage and just shoot and deliver at my own discretion. I’ve literally never once gotten a complaint about the amount of photos I delivered.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography We price by the square footage as well. We guarantee a certain amount of photos because we got sick of hearing Agents ask "...how many photos will we get?" Sometimes it's a bit less and sometimes a bit more. Back to the video...Did you try blending all 6 shots through Lightroom HDR or another product to see how they handle the flash shot? Will that even work? Is it possible to email you? Thanks!
@@jfizzle multiple people have brought up doing a merge first and then adding in the flash. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work and maybe that’s an experiment for another video! Sure, you can email me at mike@insiderealestatephotography.com
I just watched this video again. Really love this idea of using HDR and flash. I might try a HDR and flash today but will auto bleed the HDR in infuse first then use with window pull and flash. Still learning so be interesting if you did a video like this too. Maybe with a room with lots of dynamic range? Thanks so much Mike. Love your work!
Thanks for this video! Learned quite a bit this session! Gonna try the Flambient/Hybrid method on my next shoot! FYI - I used Aurora 2019 to blend my 5 brackets, it has a batch feature, so I drag and drop all my shots and Aurora does the rest!
The HDR has more natural shadows but lacks the crispness of flambient. I would have brushed in more ambient into the flash shots. The shadows under the cabinets and the big hot spot on the ceiling need correcting. Also, with orange shadows, I often use a new layer set to color mode and brush in the adjacent color to correct the area. Often times it takes some selecting with the lasso, bit works well. I do appreciate the video and I have subscribed.
Great video, great final compositions. I've had to turn into a professional real estate photographer in 2 months. Not easy. Out of the 50 videos that I've watched on photo editing methods, this has been the easiest to understand without feeling like I need to pause the video every 15 seconds. Great job!
Great video. I was surprised you didn't mask the sharpening at the end of the video. Option & Masking slider. I set my other parameters to : Radius 0, Detail 100, Masking to what works without sharpening non detail areas.. Thanks.
First, thank you for your effort and advise. I think you perceived the wood floor more vibrant due to the limited dynamic range in the flambient composed picture--as transition between light and dark tones is more drastic/faster. If one looks at the HDR pictures, it shows a more natural flow between dark and lighter areas of the picture than in the flambiant picture. This is really evident in darker shadows of the flambient picture, by showing a less dynamic range. It is a trick on our eyes. I realized this when did my own comparisons, but doing an HDR with a 9EVs and comparing it to a single shot. Your flambient composure only benefits in the areas where the flash was used to light up areas, but the un-flashed areas remained the same in all of your shots of the flambient composure.
I have done HDR and flambient separately, but I am definitely stronger at my HDR game. I think I’ll pack my flash for my next shoot and grab a flash shot on top of the brackets and give this a try! Thanks Mike!
Great tutorial ! I can definitely say the Hybrid version brings out a more natural look and color depth. I’ve been trying this method the last few sessions and I found it gives a better appealing look . Thank you for sharing, you’re a great inspiration. 🙏
I love what you’re doing here but my real estate shoots have on average 40 images. I can’t image multiplying that by 5! it would take forever to edit! I use a Topaz filter to increase detail. I’m going to watch this again….you can always learn! Thanks for this tutorial!
Nice video. I've been shooting my real estate interiors this way for a very long time and I use 2 speed lights, one on camera and one off. I found this to be much more easier, especially in post compared to how you would shoot a flambient and ambient from one of your other videos. Good tip about layer mask for lightening and darkening, especially for the window pull. I actually like to leave a hint of yellow and orange hue to add some warmth. I think your tutorial shot here was pretty good. The foreground cabinets to the right are too bright and white for me. I will take a shot with a lower exposure to make those less pronounced and blend it in so my eye is led to the back of the room.
I''ve been shooting my own special hdr/flash blend for about 2 and a half years now. When I started I was broke and barely making 30k a year. Last year I did over 150k. I drive a 5 series bmw and own 50k worth of camera gear and computers. If you can dial it in just right, it really works.
I have had success using real Lightroom HDR as ambient. Flash for color accuracy. Normal window pulls if necessary. Also I prefer not to go too high key but with good blacks and white whites.
I feel like the HDR is the best, I would have desatured the window colors to make it a bit more realistic and boost the color and contrast of the floor. But overall it looks good to me.
I love your videos and appreciate you sharing your techniques with all of us. Thank you! Just a small critique/observation - well not even a critique but just wondering - both of your flash images (and I noticed this in some of your other videos as well) seem overexposed in some spots to the point you lose detail. For example if you look at the trim around the window you can see in the HDR image clearly the detail in the trim but in both flash images you can't. Is that just your style of having a nice bright white image so a little bit of overexposure is fine with you, or it could be TH-cam compression? I think the images you produce look wonderful from a consumer perspective but just curios from a technical perspective maybe I obsess too much over having some parts of my images overexposed a bit.
Thanks! Flash images are naturally going to have hot spots in this type of scenario when you’re bouncing off the ceiling. I’ll have to look back at the trim around the window. Maybe I let that go a bit too much but the beauty of it is that you have full control how much you blend it together and maybe I over blended that area.
Good video thanks for sharing your workflow. I am a real estate agent that shoots my own photos. My background is in photography and went to school for it and worked for many companies doing interior photos on 4x5 sheet film. Fast forward 30+ years and now shoot my own real estate photography and for select clients. For years I did flambient and I feel the results are usually much better. But over the years I have gone from shooting flambient to now doing straight HDR and outsourcing the edit. I guess for me when you think about having 40 shots and you spend an average editing time of 7 minutes per shot that is 280 minutes or 4 hrs and 40 minutes. So I have not found it cost-effective to do flambient for anything I charge for. And reserve flambient for higher-end homes. Just wondering your thoughts on that?
Yep, all 3 look good. The HDR has clean and/or 'sterile' look, which is fine. However, comma, I tend toward the Flambient & the Hybrid because they have a "family-home" warmth feel. The Hybrid appears to have a bit of flash showing/presence in the upper left ceiling, which of course would be an easy adjustment while doing the Hybrid processing ... but, as you say ... the client will not be comparing these side by side. SOOOOOOOOOOO, Mr. Mike, the defining question as to going with the Flambient or the Hybrid (in this example) is: Which one is the quickest to process ... the Flambient or the Hybrid? That would make my decision on which one to do and to deliver. Great stuff, Mike ... as always. Cheers, Chuck (N.E. Florida) : +)
22%’r! I have considered this method using an HDR app. Glad you took us through the steps. My wife ( the agent) thinks I take to many pics already. Going to do some test though, the results look awesome. 👍
This is a cool idea, I like it. As you mentioned toward the end, I'd like to see how this stacks up (pun intended) for a deep room with a dark corner and a bright window. I'd also like to see how the process compares when we're talking in terms of processing time.
I'm noticing a significant color difference between the HDR and the flambient and hybrid. The HDR tile has an aqua tinted while the flambient and hybrid are more gray
Yeah for sure! Supposed to be gray. That’s what I was sort of getting at in the video. You definitely get more accurate color rendition when using a flash. The natural light from outside is blueish by nature hence the aqua tint.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography That makes total sense. I used HDR this weekend on a house and ended up getting way over saturated before the edits. The lighting was not great though
Thanks as always Mike! I was wondering if you could explain or point me to a video that explains your settings for each HDR, Flambient and Video memory quick functions?
Your camera has incredible configurations. How can I know if my camera has this customs slots? I have one Rebel T7i but I think it doesn't have this option.
Great video Mike! I'm all about this hybrid technique. I'm really impressed with just how good a result you can get just with exposure blending with the bracketed shots (and I like that you did a good looking one for the sake of showing a strong comparison), but you can't beat the extra colour accuracy and even lighting that you get from incorporating flash. PS my AD200 round head arrives today ;)
@@AerialEyesProduction it works so well my dad came home! For real though, I am glad I bought it: what it did make me realize is that a lot about what I didn't like with the light I was getting, was more about my technique than the flash head. But it absolutely does give an upgrade on the quality of the flash pop and how it easy it is to deal with it later when editing, and I think it does give a better spread over the span of the image. Plus when using it as an traditional off camera flash for things like headshots and weddings, circle shaped light is really preferable (and noticeable) over a rectangle
@@SamEmilio2 Dang, that's gonna be some ooold milk he's bringing back from the shop hahaha. Yes I find the same thing. Even after over a decade I see the next best thing and expect it to transform my game, but it just adds 5% and the real improvement comes from grinding and just trying to get better day by day. I have half a dozen ad200's and have never got the round head, mainly because then it won't fit in my pocket. I might get one finally though and see how it goes. Cheers!
Hi Mike, Excellent video👍Could you please do a video about your Sony settings🙏, i.e what short cuts you have set up on your custom buttons, and flash settings in camera? Out of curiosity do you find your xpro trigger a bit tight fitting on the sony cameras hot shoe? I could barely take mine off because it was such a tight fit on the A71V.
Mike nice comparison and perfect timing for me to come across this video. Just yesterday I was working on this technique for a 360 image. I was using a DSLR with 8mm fisheye manual lens, 5 brackets for hdr shot, the single flash. My approach was to allow for either LR hdr processing (or PS) and then to add in the flash process. Two things - I was having a difficult time getting the flash to sync with the manual lens. But and in relation to your video, I just was allowing the HDR process workflow to be automated by LR. This really speeds up the workflow. And alternatively, the 5d mark iv (I was using an 80d crop sensor with the fisheye) would allow in camera hdr and the result would be 1 hdr image and 1 or more flash shots. What do you think of this workflow, for regular RE shots as well as for the 360 shots. By the way, I processed the hdr and pano in ptgui to get an even shorter workflow. Unfortunately it created lots of noise. Still trying to figure this one out. Thanks for the video.
Hi, great video you have there. Will you be able to share, how will you adjust the white balance if the room has tungsten lights and using flash frame? I am thinking the white balance will be tricky to adjust and using the 3 base bracketed shots to compose in post. Will you use auto white balance?
Yeah I use auto white balance. The bracket shots become the ambient shot so that gets set to luminosity mode when blending with the flash shot so you aren’t using any color information from the brackets. The color will be coming from the flash frame.
Great video Mike. Thank you. So you do this for each individual shot you take of interiors of the houses, definitely time consuming. What do your photo packages and prices look like for realtors? The time it takes to travel to shoot, edit on post should be portrayed in prices but not sure what pricing would look like in 2021. Any tips would be great!
Thanks for this video! I’ve been waiting for this! Couple questions 1: why manual blend HDR rather than just run Enfuse and then edit the enfuse HDR with the flash shots? 2: with darken mode and window pulls will that work with a window frame that’s not white?
Hey! I just always manual blend for a greater level of control but a few people have now asked about auto merging. I think I’m gonna do a quick follow up video demonstrating that since there seems to be a lot of interest and I think it’s worth doing. Yes, Darken mode will work with a window frame that’s not white
Great video, thanks! This gives a great perspective to combine both methods. Wonder if you can make the RAW files of this tutorial available so that we can practice.
I like the sharpness and pop evident in the hybrid approach, however, given the amount of post processing involved with hybrid, I will have to give my vote to flamibient. As as you stated, there really is not much difference between hybrid and flambient.
Great video! Do you remember the approximate color temp of the light bulbs in that kitchen? It looks pretty close to daylight from the screen recording you did on your camera. I find on most of my shoots, that the light coming in from the windows has a drastically cooler temperature than the lighting in the house and I have to spend a lot of time fixing that. I also have to spend a lot of time fixing the colors of different lightbulbs in the house. Do you run into the same problem on an everyday shoot or is there some kind of hack for that? Thanks for taking the time to make these videos.
Loved the content as usual and I may try the HDR/Flambient technique on my next shoot but the #1 thing I picked up from this one was assigning two of my custom buttons on my camera to easily switch between single frame shooting and bracketing. Custom button #3 is for my RES Video now. Don't know why I never thought of doing that before but thank you! Different subject....would you comment on the use of shooting with a gray card? I suppose the flash shot should negate the need for one but there have been times that I wish I had used it.
I’ve never bothered using one simply because for the ambient shots you are going to have mixed lighting no matter what so even if you have correct white balance for the interior lighting you will have exterior sunlight coming in that’s another temperature. In other words, even if you used a gray card you would still be dealing with color casts in editing. Also, you may have mixed lighting going on inside the home as well.
Depends on how you’re editing the hdr. If you’re auto merging them then no but if you’re hand blending them then flambient is actually faster to edit. Takes longer to shoot though then HDR.
All I have shot in the past has been HDR with an APS-C but I just got myself a FF and also purchased trigger, remote & AD200 (All thanks to you brother)... I will be trying the hybrid in my house and then when I am ready, I will take the leap of faith and charge someone for it, lol... Question, did you leave the shadow underneath the cabinets from the flash on purpose?
Aperture priority is what you want. You want to maintain the same aperture, shutter doesn’t matter on a tripod. If you used shutter priority and each bracket had different apertures then you would depth of field/focus issues.
You videos are amazing. What strobe are you using. Does it come with the grip handle and strap. Hate using stands for lights, it slows you down a lot. Thanks
I like the idea of combining the best of both disciplines - always wondered if it could provide the best shots. So thanks for confirming it . Personally I think flambient looks better than HDR because of colour, sharpness and most importantly consistency in the shots between rooms shot on the sunny side and shaded side of a listing. And I reckon your technique is a little better again, so I’ll test it out - not sure it’s worth the extra storage and time on site and editing thou. But I do reckon it’s worth mastering for the listings that we want on our own websites.
Why don't you use the HDR blend in Lightroom BEFORE you go into Photoshop? Doing the hand blending in PS seems way excessive. If the ambient shots end up blending in Luminosity mode anyway you're just looking for detail in shadows and getting rid of "flashiness". You're "off in the weeds" in this one I think.
Thank you Mike for all this information! I can’t get my camera to change to single shot after Bracketing. How did you do it ? I used to have my speed light that did that automatically when I turned the flash on.
I program the settings for both bracketing and single frame flash into the custom slots on my cameras dial so I can easily recall them. I made a video on camera settings that may be helpful that you can view here: th-cam.com/video/poa1-KvDOfo/w-d-xo.html
The condensation / window issue could've been greatly toned down with a brush in Lightroom - strong dehaze, strong decontrast, and then compensating the resulting brightness with shadows and highlights, even the exposure setting as a whole. I've had to do something similar with huge greasy window panels on a hotel, and also did a rookie mistake of putting a polarizing filter on my lens while the panels had polarization of their own - huge dark grid-like patterns across the blue sky exterior. Managed to make it look good with the above method though it was a hard lesson.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography Sharing is caring and you sure share a lot of expertise! Alternatively: open the windows, take a shot of the exterior, photoshop it in!
Great work Mike! Funny I was just going to message you on this and here is the video. What is makes you decide the method you select for the property you are shooting? I am HDR, enfuse and aurora.. but on occasion will get some pesky ghosting around nuclear windows that requires alot of work to clean up. Will the flambient/hybrid eliminate that or chalk it up to, yep that just happens.
Yeah, it will clean that sort of thing up for sure. Mostly it depends on whether I’m editing it myself or not. I can’t edit everything I shoot because it’s just too much volume so I have an editor to help with that. I don’t send out any flash edits and only do those myself because I find it’s not done right and they don’t know what you were thinking when you shot it.
Mike - re that left hand side of the window in the kitchen - would it have benefited from a flash shot from the other side in darken mode? Agreed that as you mentioned it was a tad unclean - but with a clean - if there was a view there - wouldn't it have been worth showing?
With the time spent doing things like this, how much do you charge for a typical real estate photo package? Is this an extra you have priced in or do you present this editing as an option?
In reality it’s not that slow really. I’m demonstrating it in the video so I’m taking it much slower than it would be really so people can absorb what im doing. That edit could be done in about 3 mins.
Question for you. My sony zve10 only shoots 5 bracketed images 0.7 ev apart. and only does 3 bracket images 2 stops apart. would the 5 bracket image still be sufficent or do i use 3 bracket image
I thought this might be something different such as combining bracketed laters in Enfuse or Photomatix etc, with a flash layer. Do you do that? Anyway really enjoy as usual.
Are you always so sure that you wont need those layers after that you merge them right after every step? I tend to keep them just in case, but then the files are huge with no so much sense
The HDR looks way better. It is much more natural. the flash picture has shadows from the flash all over the scene it looks like the light inside is stronger then the light outside, there are lots of shadow lines coming from above while it should mostly come sideways from outside. It has way too much light on the wall cupboards especially the one on the left. There is too much reflection on the windows from inside, and the reflection on the fridge from outside is completly gone. This is one of the most important part to connect outside with inside Again: the light inside is stronger then the light outside? at mid day? looks fake, flat, and seperated. the right window on the flash shot has lost shadow details and lines in the frame. It's just very washed out white while in the HDR it is more natural looking. It actually has details. the HDR has more depth, you can see the light from the door clearer, it looks more prominent, more ambient and like there is a connection to the garden, the shadows look more natural, The shadows on the right side cupboard on the wall and on the ground looks way better, more natural, less flat, and again from the light outside. You want the light outside to be stronger then the inside. People want an apartment with good natural light, good windows for that sun. Yeah the floor is a bit cold on the HDR, but you can fix that with color replacement tool in PS, or a gradient color temp mask in Lightroom, just click a color on the floor and paint over the cold shine, and you can get a polarizing filter on your lens for less shine. Also the flash picture has warmer color temp, and the HDR for some reason has a vignette that you can fix. so if you apply that same temp to the HDR it will look even better. also a little bit warmer outside. Maybe.
I think one perceives the wood floor more vibrant due to the limited dynamic range in the flambient composed picture--as transition between light and dark tones is more drastic/faster (high contrast). If one looks at the HDR pictures, it shows a more natural flow between dark and lighter areas of the picture than in the flambiant picture. This is really evident in darker shadows of the flambient picture, by showing a less dynamic range. It is a trick on our eyes. I realized this when did my own comparisons, but doing an HDR with a 9EVs and comparing it to a single shot. The flambient composure only benefits in the areas where the flash was used to light up areas, but the un-flashed areas remained the same in all of the shots of the flambient composure.
![[#2024MAMA] BIGBANG (빅뱅) - 뱅뱅뱅 (BANG BANG BANG) + FANTASTIC BABY | Mnet 241123 방송](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EQsYfiPR9uM/mqdefault.jpg)
This video is great. I am 77 years old and a real estate photographer. Proof you can teach an old dog new tricks. I needed a way to increase processing time. Thanks.
If you need service of real estate . I am here. I own a team and can help you boost your business. I was just checking this video becuase my client suggest me. so I am pretty sure we'll do this quality or batter. I Own a team. so feel free to ask for trial. Thanks
Sarcasm?
Hi Mike - nice vid as always. When I started out five or six years ago, I did HDR interiors all the time, but I always thought they looked too cartoonish. For the past few years I've been using flamient exclusively for interiors. I toyed around with the HDR/Flamient combo method, but found it to be way too time consuming and the cost in time was not worth the marginally better result. My experience has been that agents couldn't care less as long as the shots look good and for me the quickest way to great results is a single ambient shot with one or two flash shots and a window pull only if the exterior is interesting.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience!
I have been using this basic technique for interior photography, where I get paid much more than I do for my RE photography. I can't imagine spending this much time on every shot I take for a RE client considering the cost of my time and what RE agents are willing to pay for photography.
New RE photographer here, can I ask how you got into interior photography? Thanks !
@@stupidspacebar dont worry. we are here. If you need real estate editing service. just reply to this comment. I'll assist you
@@stupidspacebar Shoot for a real estate photography company when you get started and work on your branding during that time. You shouldn't be expected to edit your own photos, I would actually suggest NOT editing your own photos even when you start getting jobs on your own.
The hybrid method did bring out a lot more detail and crispness to the kitchen. Great combo of the technics.
I’m a real estate agent in Chicago/Milwaukee and you inspired me to move my photography from portraits to RE photography. From what I’ve learned, I make 4 figures a month on the side! Thanks bro!
Nice! That’s fantastic. So glad to hear it
Elliot how much do you charge for your RE photos?
@@auomi8762 it all depends on the square footage of the home. From 125-250. Anything above 3000 sqft I ask more questions and provide a quote
Your content inspired me to start my own real estate business. Underrated Content!! Keep it up brother!!
Cheers! Thank you!
Same here!
I’d love an update on how it’s going? I have my first big shoot coming up!
Hands down my favorite person on youtube. I rewatch your videos almost every day. Thank you for taking your time to share your knowledge with us!
Great video! I'm only 1/3 through the video, but I will comment on one thing...Every time we check in to watch videos from various creators, we always notice their model home is almost perfect. Never have wee seen a real estate photographer shoot a video in a home that people with 10 kids and 5 dogs live in. 60% of the 400 homes we shoot a year are lived in and come with all the ups and downs. Show us a video where you can make that look amazing vs. the model home. 🙃 These types of homes are a walk in the park to shoot and edit almost any way. Great video!
Haha yeah it’s because those types of homes are impossible to shoot a video in. Trust me, I do plenty of them!
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography What's your guaranteed # of photos delivered? Here in NorCal (Napa/Sonoma/. etc) we guarantee minimum of 30 photos and that can go as high as 65 to 70 depending on the property. The MLS in the local counties now allows for upwards of 90 photos (I think). We can shoot flambient and will, but typically shoot HDR regardless of the listing. We typically average in the $700k range, but have shot up to $7 million this year. From feedback received, our realtors value # of photos vs. perfect colors and high-end photos. So, HDR typically is 80% the path we take.
@@jfizzle yeah, sounds pretty similar to me. Shoot mostly hdr. I don’t guarantee a certain amount of photos. I price by square footage and just shoot and deliver at my own discretion. I’ve literally never once gotten a complaint about the amount of photos I delivered.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography We price by the square footage as well. We guarantee a certain amount of photos because we got sick of hearing Agents ask "...how many photos will we get?" Sometimes it's a bit less and sometimes a bit more.
Back to the video...Did you try blending all 6 shots through Lightroom HDR or another product to see how they handle the flash shot? Will that even work?
Is it possible to email you? Thanks!
@@jfizzle multiple people have brought up doing a merge first and then adding in the flash. I don’t see why that wouldn’t work and maybe that’s an experiment for another video! Sure, you can email me at mike@insiderealestatephotography.com
Fantastic. The more options - the more ways to get the perfect result in each individual situation. Thx for sharing this.
This is the way I shoot interiors. It's best to combine the brackets in Lightroom first then move the HDR over to Photoshop with the flash shots.
This is the best demonstration Ive seen thus far
I just watched this video again. Really love this idea of using HDR and flash. I might try a HDR and flash today but will auto bleed the HDR in infuse first then use with window pull and flash. Still learning so be interesting if you did a video like this too. Maybe with a room with lots of dynamic range? Thanks so much Mike. Love your work!
Mike your really are one of the best if not the best for us who are learning.
Thanks so much!
I like the flambient vs hybrid personally. Great tutorial. Thank you.
-Will
Thanks for this video! Learned quite a bit this session!
Gonna try the Flambient/Hybrid method on my next shoot!
FYI - I used Aurora 2019 to blend my 5 brackets, it has a batch feature, so I drag and drop all my shots and Aurora does the rest!
The HDR has more natural shadows but lacks the crispness of flambient. I would have brushed in more ambient into the flash shots. The shadows under the cabinets and the big hot spot on the ceiling need correcting. Also, with orange shadows, I often use a new layer set to color mode and brush in the adjacent color to correct the area. Often times it takes some selecting with the lasso, bit works well. I do appreciate the video and I have subscribed.
Awesome Video!! Excellent Technique!! Thank You For Sharing Mike!!
Great video, great final compositions.
I've had to turn into a professional real estate photographer in 2 months. Not easy.
Out of the 50 videos that I've watched on photo editing methods, this has been the easiest to understand without feeling like I need to pause the video every 15 seconds.
Great job!
Thanks!
don't worry you are the most comprehensive! I owe my living to you!
3 shot brackets are all you need to shoot a home. 5 shots is a lot of extra files to import, and every merge takes longer. Regardless, excellent work.
Awesome tips and tricks for shooting real estate pictures. Thanks for such lovely video.
Thank you! In my opinion, the hybrid image is much, much better. This process is very suitable for my real estate photography.
Great video. I was surprised you didn't mask the sharpening at the end of the video. Option & Masking slider. I set my other parameters to : Radius 0, Detail 100, Masking to what works without sharpening non detail areas.. Thanks.
The window pull was so useful. Thanks man
First, thank you for your effort and advise. I think you perceived the wood floor more vibrant due to the limited dynamic range in the flambient composed picture--as transition between light and dark tones is more drastic/faster. If one looks at the HDR pictures, it shows a more natural flow between dark and lighter areas of the picture than in the flambiant picture. This is really evident in darker shadows of the flambient picture, by showing a less dynamic range. It is a trick on our eyes. I realized this when did my own comparisons, but doing an HDR with a 9EVs and comparing it to a single shot. Your flambient composure only benefits in the areas where the flash was used to light up areas, but the un-flashed areas remained the same in all of your shots of the flambient composure.
I have done HDR and flambient separately, but I am definitely stronger at my HDR game. I think I’ll pack my flash for my next shoot and grab a flash shot on top of the brackets and give this a try! Thanks Mike!
Great tutorial !
I can definitely say the Hybrid version brings out a more natural look and color depth.
I’ve been trying this method the last few sessions and I found it gives a better appealing look .
Thank you for sharing, you’re a great inspiration. 🙏
I love what you’re doing here but my real estate shoots have on average 40 images. I can’t image multiplying that by 5! it would take forever to edit!
I use a Topaz filter to increase detail.
I’m going to watch this again….you can always learn! Thanks for this tutorial!
Nice video. I've been shooting my real estate interiors this way for a very long time and I use 2 speed lights, one on camera and one off. I found this to be much more easier, especially in post compared to how you would shoot a flambient and ambient from one of your other videos. Good tip about layer mask for lightening and darkening, especially for the window pull. I actually like to leave a hint of yellow and orange hue to add some warmth. I think your tutorial shot here was pretty good. The foreground cabinets to the right are too bright and white for me. I will take a shot with a lower exposure to make those less pronounced and blend it in so my eye is led to the back of the room.
I''ve been shooting my own special hdr/flash blend for about 2 and a half years now. When I started I was broke and barely making 30k a year. Last year I did over 150k. I drive a 5 series bmw and own 50k worth of camera gear and computers. If you can dial it in just right, it really works.
I have had success using real Lightroom HDR as ambient. Flash for color accuracy. Normal window pulls if necessary. Also I prefer not to go too high key but with good blacks and white whites.
Great technique and excellent tutorial! I’m going to do this on my next shoot. Thanks for sharing!
Really appreciate you making these videos!
I feel like the HDR is the best, I would have desatured the window colors to make it a bit more realistic and boost the color and contrast of the floor. But overall it looks good to me.
and the workflow is much faster with HDR dont you think?
@@gringito95 of course it is, I always do my work using the HDR technique because of this
I love your videos and appreciate you sharing your techniques with all of us. Thank you! Just a small critique/observation - well not even a critique but just wondering - both of your flash images (and I noticed this in some of your other videos as well) seem overexposed in some spots to the point you lose detail. For example if you look at the trim around the window you can see in the HDR image clearly the detail in the trim but in both flash images you can't. Is that just your style of having a nice bright white image so a little bit of overexposure is fine with you, or it could be TH-cam compression? I think the images you produce look wonderful from a consumer perspective but just curios from a technical perspective maybe I obsess too much over having some parts of my images overexposed a bit.
Thanks! Flash images are naturally going to have hot spots in this type of scenario when you’re bouncing off the ceiling. I’ll have to look back at the trim around the window. Maybe I let that go a bit too much but the beauty of it is that you have full control how much you blend it together and maybe I over blended that area.
Good video thanks for sharing your workflow. I am a real estate agent that shoots my own photos. My background is in photography and went to school for it and worked for many companies doing interior photos on 4x5 sheet film. Fast forward 30+ years and now shoot my own real estate photography and for select clients. For years I did flambient and I feel the results are usually much better.
But over the years I have gone from shooting flambient to now doing straight HDR and outsourcing the edit. I guess for me when you think about having 40 shots and you spend an average editing time of 7 minutes per shot that is 280 minutes or 4 hrs and 40 minutes. So I have not found it cost-effective to do flambient for anything I charge for. And reserve flambient for higher-end homes.
Just wondering your thoughts on that?
Completely agree with that! I feel the same exact way
Excellent tutorial. I would be selective on which properties to use it on. Margins are tight on time and dollars.
Yep, all 3 look good. The HDR has clean and/or 'sterile' look, which is fine. However, comma, I tend toward the Flambient & the Hybrid because they have a "family-home" warmth feel.
The Hybrid appears to have a bit of flash showing/presence in the upper left ceiling, which of course would be an easy adjustment while doing the Hybrid processing ... but, as you say ... the client will not be comparing these side by side.
SOOOOOOOOOOO, Mr. Mike, the defining question as to going with the Flambient or the Hybrid (in this example) is: Which one is the quickest to process ... the Flambient or the Hybrid? That would make my decision on which one to do and to deliver.
Great stuff, Mike ... as always. Cheers, Chuck (N.E. Florida) : +)
Hey Chuck! The straight flambient method is faster process since you’re working with less frames.
Flash looks richer.. they all are well done.
22%’r!
I have considered this method using an HDR app. Glad you took us through the steps. My wife ( the agent) thinks I take to many pics already. Going to do some test though, the results look awesome. 👍
Excellent. All in the hands!
Great clip. Just when I feel I know something, I watch one of Mike's clips, and I realize I've got a ways to go. All looks good, flash was richest.
Best real estate tutorials!
Thank you so much for these tutorials!
This is a cool idea, I like it. As you mentioned toward the end, I'd like to see how this stacks up (pun intended) for a deep room with a dark corner and a bright window. I'd also like to see how the process compares when we're talking in terms of processing time.
It definitely adds a bit of time to the processing end of things.
Thanks a lot for the wonderful video , clear explanation and an awesome result. 👍
I'm noticing a significant color difference between the HDR and the flambient and hybrid. The HDR tile has an aqua tinted while the flambient and hybrid are more gray
Yeah for sure! Supposed to be gray. That’s what I was sort of getting at in the video. You definitely get more accurate color rendition when using a flash. The natural light from outside is blueish by nature hence the aqua tint.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography That makes total sense. I used HDR this weekend on a house and ended up getting way over saturated before the edits. The lighting was not great though
Thanks as always Mike! I was wondering if you could explain or point me to a video that explains your settings for each HDR, Flambient and Video memory quick functions?
Hey! Thanks. Yes, there is a video on my channel about camera settings. Should be easy to find.
Great video Mike .. Your a good teacher..
Great video! Could we get those imgaes for practice?
Your camera has incredible configurations. How can I know if my camera has this customs slots? I have one Rebel T7i but I think it doesn't have this option.
Great video Mike! I'm all about this hybrid technique. I'm really impressed with just how good a result you can get just with exposure blending with the bracketed shots (and I like that you did a good looking one for the sake of showing a strong comparison), but you can't beat the extra colour accuracy and even lighting that you get from incorporating flash. PS my AD200 round head arrives today ;)
Nice!
Post a reply, let us know if you feel there's a difference with the round head!
@@AerialEyesProduction it works so well my dad came home! For real though, I am glad I bought it: what it did make me realize is that a lot about what I didn't like with the light I was getting, was more about my technique than the flash head. But it absolutely does give an upgrade on the quality of the flash pop and how it easy it is to deal with it later when editing, and I think it does give a better spread over the span of the image. Plus when using it as an traditional off camera flash for things like headshots and weddings, circle shaped light is really preferable (and noticeable) over a rectangle
@@SamEmilio2 Dang, that's gonna be some ooold milk he's bringing back from the shop hahaha. Yes I find the same thing. Even after over a decade I see the next best thing and expect it to transform my game, but it just adds 5% and the real improvement comes from grinding and just trying to get better day by day. I have half a dozen ad200's and have never got the round head, mainly because then it won't fit in my pocket. I might get one finally though and see how it goes. Cheers!
Thank you very much for this great video. Could we use the Hybrid method for the exterior of small houses?
No need for the flash for exterior photos
thank you for your videos, a lot of info for free, I cant believe it
Hi Mike, Excellent video👍Could you please do a video about your Sony settings🙏, i.e what short cuts you have set up on your custom buttons, and flash settings in camera? Out of curiosity do you find your xpro trigger a bit tight fitting on the sony cameras hot shoe? I could barely take mine off because it was such a tight fit on the A71V.
th-cam.com/video/poa1-KvDOfo/w-d-xo.html I don’t find the trigger too tight in my case
Amazing.
Thanks for sharing!!! Greetings from Argentina.
This is amazing content!! Liked, commenting, and just subscribed! Thanks for the hard work!!
I like HDR=Flambient, that's how I shoot interiors. Also, thanks for a couple of editing shortcuts.
Hi Mike, where did you get the shoulder strap & 1/4 screw/connector for the pistol grip?
Mike nice comparison and perfect timing for me to come across this video. Just yesterday I was working on this technique for a 360 image. I was using a DSLR with 8mm fisheye manual lens, 5 brackets for hdr shot, the single flash. My approach was to allow for either LR hdr processing (or PS) and then to add in the flash process. Two things - I was having a difficult time getting the flash to sync with the manual lens. But and in relation to your video, I just was allowing the HDR process workflow to be automated by LR. This really speeds up the workflow. And alternatively, the 5d mark iv (I was using an 80d crop sensor with the fisheye) would allow in camera hdr and the result would be 1 hdr image and 1 or more flash shots. What do you think of this workflow, for regular RE shots as well as for the 360 shots.
By the way, I processed the hdr and pano in ptgui to get an even shorter workflow. Unfortunately it created lots of noise. Still trying to figure this one out. Thanks for the video.
The in-camera hdrs take a while for the camera to process and also you’re not going the same dynamic range as shooting brackets.
HDR/Flambient is for me!
Hi, great video you have there. Will you be able to share, how will you adjust the white balance if the room has tungsten lights and using flash frame? I am thinking the white balance will be tricky to adjust and using the 3 base bracketed shots to compose in post. Will you use auto white balance?
Yeah I use auto white balance. The bracket shots become the ambient shot so that gets set to luminosity mode when blending with the flash shot so you aren’t using any color information from the brackets. The color will be coming from the flash frame.
Super helpful! Thank you so much!
Great video Mike. Thank you. So you do this for each individual shot you take of interiors of the houses, definitely time consuming. What do your photo packages and prices look like for realtors? The time it takes to travel to shoot, edit on post should be portrayed in prices but not sure what pricing would look like in 2021. Any tips would be great!
Sold me on subscribing. Solid content
Hybrid #1, fo sure
Very nice! - From São Paulo/Brasil.
Thanks for this video! I’ve been waiting for this! Couple questions
1: why manual blend HDR rather than just run Enfuse and then edit the enfuse HDR with the flash shots?
2: with darken mode and window pulls will that work with a window frame that’s not white?
Hey! I just always manual blend for a greater level of control but a few people have now asked about auto merging. I think I’m gonna do a quick follow up video demonstrating that since there seems to be a lot of interest and I think it’s worth doing. Yes, Darken mode will work with a window frame that’s not white
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography Okay great! I will keep an eye out for it.
hi focused, i thought the same thing
You say use darken more at 12:06 but I don't see that parameter in the layer or the brush. Also why option click for the mask?
Thank you for this cool video.
I would love your settings so I could setup my camera similarly. I’m struggling with that
Yeah, thinking of making a video on that!
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography any update on this? ;)
Great video, thanks! This gives a great perspective to combine both methods. Wonder if you can make the RAW files of this tutorial available so that we can practice.
That is a very good suggestion! I should be doing that and will definitely keep that in mind for future stuff!
Love your work thank you for your energy
Hey Mike... Just joined as a Member.. Absolutely love the content... I shoot Sony and I'm just wondering what metering mode do you recommend??
thanks, much appreciated! I use Multi
I liked the hybrid
great vid
I like the sharpness and pop evident in the hybrid approach, however, given the amount of post processing involved with hybrid, I will have to give my vote to flamibient. As as you stated, there really is not much difference between hybrid and flambient.
Fantastic videos!
Great video! Do you remember the approximate color temp of the light bulbs in that kitchen? It looks pretty close to daylight from the screen recording you did on your camera. I find on most of my shoots, that the light coming in from the windows has a drastically cooler temperature than the lighting in the house and I have to spend a lot of time fixing that. I also have to spend a lot of time fixing the colors of different lightbulbs in the house. Do you run into the same problem on an everyday shoot or is there some kind of hack for that? Thanks for taking the time to make these videos.
Yeah definitely always battling that kind of stuff especially with HDR shooting. Using a flash can definitely help eliminate a lot of those problems.
Loved the content as usual and I may try the HDR/Flambient technique on my next shoot but the #1 thing I picked up from this one was assigning two of my custom buttons on my camera to easily switch between single frame shooting and bracketing. Custom button #3 is for my RES Video now. Don't know why I never thought of doing that before but thank you!
Different subject....would you comment on the use of shooting with a gray card? I suppose the flash shot should negate the need for one but there have been times that I wish I had used it.
I’ve never bothered using one simply because for the ambient shots you are going to have mixed lighting no matter what so even if you have correct white balance for the interior lighting you will have exterior sunlight coming in that’s another temperature. In other words, even if you used a gray card you would still be dealing with color casts in editing. Also, you may have mixed lighting going on inside the home as well.
Great comparison! Would you say Flambient takes a bit more time to edit versus HDR?
Depends on how you’re editing the hdr. If you’re auto merging them then no but if you’re hand blending them then flambient is actually faster to edit. Takes longer to shoot though then HDR.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography I like the flambient concept, but I had the impression it could be a longer process, ouch! Thank again, Mike!
All I have shot in the past has been HDR with an APS-C but I just got myself a FF and also purchased trigger, remote & AD200 (All thanks to you brother)... I will be trying the hybrid in my house and then when I am ready, I will take the leap of faith and charge someone for it, lol... Question, did you leave the shadow underneath the cabinets from the flash on purpose?
Awesome! Good luck with it! I’ll have to look back but may have not been something I left in on purpose
Mike awesome video … I was wondering is you put the camera in shutter priority when you shoot the brackets to maintain the same shutter speed ..?
Aperture priority is what you want. You want to maintain the same aperture, shutter doesn’t matter on a tripod. If you used shutter priority and each bracket had different apertures then you would depth of field/focus issues.
You videos are amazing.
What strobe are you using. Does it come with the grip handle and strap.
Hate using stands for lights, it slows you down a lot.
Thanks
Thanks! I use the godox ad200 pro. Check out the description of my other video, it has all the info in it: th-cam.com/video/8YMD0JyV3bg/w-d-xo.html
I like the idea of combining the best of both disciplines - always wondered if it could provide the best shots. So thanks for confirming it . Personally I think flambient looks better than HDR because of colour, sharpness and most importantly consistency in the shots between rooms shot on the sunny side and shaded side of a listing. And I reckon your technique is a little better again, so I’ll test it out - not sure it’s worth the extra storage and time on site and editing thou. But I do reckon it’s worth mastering for the listings that we want on our own websites.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Why don't you use the HDR blend in Lightroom BEFORE you go into Photoshop? Doing the hand blending in PS seems way excessive. If the ambient shots end up blending in Luminosity mode anyway you're just looking for detail in shadows and getting rid of "flashiness". You're "off in the weeds" in this one I think.
@@condojoe I was wondering the same.
Just Found Your Channel THANK MAN
Thank you Mike for all this information! I can’t get my camera to change to single shot after Bracketing. How did you do it ? I used to have my speed light that did that automatically when I turned the flash on.
I program the settings for both bracketing and single frame flash into the custom slots on my cameras dial so I can easily recall them. I made a video on camera settings that may be helpful that you can view here: th-cam.com/video/poa1-KvDOfo/w-d-xo.html
The condensation / window issue could've been greatly toned down with a brush in Lightroom - strong dehaze, strong decontrast, and then compensating the resulting brightness with shadows and highlights, even the exposure setting as a whole. I've had to do something similar with huge greasy window panels on a hotel, and also did a rookie mistake of putting a polarizing filter on my lens while the panels had polarization of their own - huge dark grid-like patterns across the blue sky exterior. Managed to make it look good with the above method though it was a hard lesson.
Thanks for sharing that!
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography Sharing is caring and you sure share a lot of expertise!
Alternatively: open the windows, take a shot of the exterior, photoshop it in!
What would be the results of flambiant using ttl with the ad200 ?Thanks for you hard work.
I've honestly never even attempted using TTL but I imagine you would get scattered results and not enough power most of the time.
Great Video
Great work Mike! Funny I was just going to message you on this and here is the video. What is makes you decide the method you select for the property you are shooting? I am HDR, enfuse and aurora.. but on occasion will get some pesky ghosting around nuclear windows that requires alot of work to clean up. Will the flambient/hybrid eliminate that or chalk it up to, yep that just happens.
Yeah, it will clean that sort of thing up for sure. Mostly it depends on whether I’m editing it myself or not. I can’t edit everything I shoot because it’s just too much volume so I have an editor to help with that. I don’t send out any flash edits and only do those myself because I find it’s not done right and they don’t know what you were thinking when you shot it.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography Ahhh.. I see. So if you would you say if it's a hot window house, your not just doing HDR.. but this method
Mike - re that left hand side of the window in the kitchen - would it have benefited from a flash shot from the other side in darken mode? Agreed that as you mentioned it was a tad unclean - but with a clean - if there was a view there - wouldn't it have been worth showing?
It did get flashed, the whole thing did. You just can’t see through it because it was that bad
With the time spent doing things like this, how much do you charge for a typical real estate photo package? Is this an extra you have priced in or do you present this editing as an option?
In reality it’s not that slow really. I’m demonstrating it in the video so I’m taking it much slower than it would be really so people can absorb what im doing. That edit could be done in about 3 mins.
That window looks like it has a fogged sash, the seal has broken & it's foggy between the glass. Thank you for the video.
This is great! thank you
Question for you. My sony zve10 only shoots 5 bracketed images 0.7 ev apart. and only does 3 bracket images 2 stops apart. would the 5 bracket image still be sufficent or do i use 3 bracket image
Great Content just subscribed.
been doing this for many years too. you almost have to in certain shots when it’s just too difficult to get one good ambient shot.
I thought this might be something different such as combining bracketed laters in Enfuse or Photomatix etc, with a flash layer. Do you do that? Anyway really enjoy as usual.
Yeah! Check out this video: th-cam.com/video/JQu73VJSNZ4/w-d-xo.html
Are you always so sure that you wont need those layers after that you merge them right after every step? I tend to keep them just in case, but then the files are huge with no so much sense
I know it’s not the best if you want to tweak something later but I find I’m rarely ever doing that so that’s the way I work.
The HDR looks way better. It is much more natural. the flash picture has shadows from the flash all over the scene it looks like the light inside is stronger then the light outside, there are lots of shadow lines coming from above while it should mostly come sideways from outside. It has way too much light on the wall cupboards especially the one on the left. There is too much reflection on the windows from inside, and the reflection on the fridge from outside is completly gone. This is one of the most important part to connect outside with inside Again: the light inside is stronger then the light outside? at mid day? looks fake, flat, and seperated.
the right window on the flash shot has lost shadow details and lines in the frame. It's just very washed out white while in the HDR it is more natural looking. It actually has details.
the HDR has more depth, you can see the light from the door clearer, it looks more prominent, more ambient and like there is a connection to the garden, the shadows look more natural, The shadows on the right side cupboard on the wall and on the ground looks way better, more natural, less flat, and again from the light outside. You want the light outside to be stronger then the inside. People want an apartment with good natural light, good windows for that sun.
Yeah the floor is a bit cold on the HDR, but you can fix that with color replacement tool in PS, or a gradient color temp mask in Lightroom, just click a color on the floor and paint over the cold shine, and you can get a polarizing filter on your lens for less shine.
Also the flash picture has warmer color temp, and the HDR for some reason has a vignette that you can fix. so if you apply that same temp to the HDR it will look even better. also a little bit warmer outside. Maybe.
I think one perceives the wood floor more vibrant due to the limited dynamic range in the flambient composed picture--as transition between light and dark tones is more drastic/faster (high contrast). If one looks at the HDR pictures, it shows a more natural flow between dark and lighter areas of the picture than in the flambiant picture. This is really evident in darker shadows of the flambient picture, by showing a less dynamic range. It is a trick on our eyes. I realized this when did my own comparisons, but doing an HDR with a 9EVs and comparing it to a single shot. The flambient composure only benefits in the areas where the flash was used to light up areas, but the un-flashed areas remained the same in all of the shots of the flambient composure.
Love it