HDR Photography is great, but not for real estate
You may not have heard of HDR photography, but you've most likely seen it. It's quite popular among digital photography buffs and can be quite beautiful, but sometimes these images end up looking like some sort of surreal, sci-fi movie version of reality. HDR (high dynamic range) photography is basically a series of photos of the same thing, taken at different exposures merged together using photo editing software.
This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. Wikipedia.
The results can be stunning, as in this photo taken by Sheldon's brother at Lake O'hara, in Yoho Park, BC (you can find more of his photos on Flickr):
LakeOhara
When it comes to real estate though, I think HDR (for the most part) should be avoided. The photos tend to turn out, well, just plain weird looking. Here is a series of photos of homes around Edmonton, the first is an HDR shot (taken by a local real estate marketing company) and below each one is my shot of the same room.
The gorgeous hardwood floors are the main feature of this room, but they are completely washed out in this HDR shot:
BadHDR1
In my shot the floors look warm and inviting, and most importantly they look the same in the photo as they do in person:
LivingRoom1
What is this...some sort of spacesuit/tinfoil duvet? Why is it that each photo is crooked? It looks like one leg on the tripod is shorter than the others:
BadHDR2
This shot is crisp, clean and realistic:
Master1
In this shot they managed to make the old furniture look even crappier and the floors look like they've been stained yellow:
BadHDR3
Here is a true representation of the room with light floors. less focus on the furniture, and straight walls:
LivingRoom5
Bad real estate photography has been a pet peeve of mine for years, and I'm happy to report many agents in Edmonton have started to improve their photos. I'm seeing agents starting to hire professional photographers as well, which is great. In my opinion the photos of a home should look as much like the real thing as possible, that's what I try to achieve when shooting and editing photos of our listings.
Which photos do you like better?