7/31/11
Another flash photo.
Here’s another before and after shot from a real estate job. The house itself is not really anything special, it has a pool and small grassy area to the rear, which I thought would make a nice cover photo for the Realtor, instead of the boring front of the house.
There are a few landscape lights visible, but they didn’t provide much illumination of the backyard. I used four flashes for this photo, one off to my right and behind the camera, that’s the main light for the red chairs, but some patio lights are near me too, which you can see by all the shadows visible at the chair legs. A second flash was placed at the right side of the pool, pointing back over towards the table and chairs in the center, and lighting the area above and below the patio, it also caused the column shadows, but that doesn’t bother me. The third flash was placed near the red chair at the far right, and pointed at the grass and plants. The fourth flash location is behind the middle patio column, and pointed in the general direction of the table and chairs in the center, which provides some overall fill light to that area.
The bottom shot was taken after I decided on the right composition, but before placing the lights. It took about 15 minutes to get the lighting placement right, and start shooting, then adjusting as necessary to get the final image you see on top. My final shot was taken at a slightly shorter (wider)
focal length and cropped, that’s why both are not exactly the same.
In post I got rid of the typical greenish pool color and changed it to a more appealing blue. I also did the usual highlights/shadows adjustments, and cloned out a flash stand by the red chair. Specs for the image are: Sony A580, Sigma 10-20mm F/4-5.6 lens at 14mm, F/4.5, ISO 200, with a one second exposure.