Should you really use bracketing real estate photography?

Bracketing real estate photography is the very first step in creating HDR images. Although this strategy appears to be a highly productive and cost-effective photography technique, it is not well appreciated by photographers. This is because HDR images are frequently perceived as being oversaturated and unnatural. In this blog, we will discuss why you should utilize the bracketing photography shooting technique and when you should use it to create the most stunning HDR real estate photos.

Before jumping into discussing the downsides and benefits of the ambient exposure bracketing shooting approach, let’s see in what scenario you should use it.

1. When to use bracketing real estate photography?

• Bracketing real estate photography is most useful in situations where the contrast of the scene being photographed surpasses the camera's dynamic range. For example, you want to keep the color and detail of a house's exterior intact under the lights, but you also want to keep other areas, such as the walks and the patio, a bit darker.

• Even a small space can be flooded with natural light thanks to windows, doors, and other apertures. Suppose you want the lighting and tones across the composition to be consistent. In that case, HDR real estate photos can help you achieve this by reducing highlights, increasing shadows, balancing the brightness of lights, and maintaining shadow casts.

2. When not to use bracketing real estate photography?

• Low-contrast shooting: Low-contrast scenes won't work well for bracketing real estate photography since they lack varying light exposures.

• Silhouettes: Avoid utilizing bracketing photography when you need silhouettes since you'll actually end up with an HDR image that has subjects that are either incredibly dark or pure black and no detail in either case. If you need to create a silhouette, consider using a standard exposure as this will give you the most realistic and detailed results.

• When you want to remove all shadows: Your compositions can benefit from using shadows to add depth, dimensions, and shapes. By doing this, you can enhance real estate images with mystery or drama. Your HDR photographs must preserve shadows because you'll be employing a variety of light sources to capture your subject.

• Shooting scenes that include people or animals: When shooting real estate properties containing people or animals, it's not a good idea to use bracketing photography. Because bracketing real estate photography requires numerous still exposures, moving objects are not integrated well.

Now that we have covered the ideal times to use and not to use the ambient exposure bracketing shooting approach, let’s look into what are the pros and cons.

3. Cons of bracketing real estate photography - Why you shouldn't use this approach

Requiring more time than single exposure:

Compared to shooting single exposure, shooting multiple exposures is more time-consuming as it requires more setup and preparation. As long as you are carefully prepared, movement between exposures is unavoidable, especially with beginner real estate photographers.

If the brackets are not taken correctly and properly aligned prior to merging, it might take a lot of time to correct the misalignment. Also, if the photographer is not familiar with the techniques for photo retouching, it will take a lot of time, patience, or even redo, especially during the first few tries to create an HDR image.

Requiring particular tools:

Whether it is HDR interior photography or exterior, the most basic equipment needed to shoot multiple exposures effectively is a camera, a tripod, and a remote shutter release.

For bracketing photography, a DSLR or mirrorless camera with the ability to shoot in RAW format is ideal, as it will allow you to capture more detail in the shadows and highlights.

A tripod is also necessary when shooting bracketing photography to avoid movement between exposures. This will ensure that the images are perfectly aligned and that no details are blurred out. A remote shutter release is also recommended, as it will allow you to take multiple exposures without touching the camera or triggering any vibration.

Having the tendency to look fake:

Presets are like magic to real estate photo editing. It can turn a boring image into a lively one in just a click. But this is not true for HDR. Most of the HDR presets will let you fall into the rabbit hole of heavy editing, this, unfortunately, results in unrealistic details, colors, and vibrancy in your real estate images.

Some of the common mistakes that many photographers meet when self-editing their HDR photos with preloaded presets are underexposure, lack of contrast, oversaturation, halo effect, etc. Being creative is essential for producing aesthetically appealing and natural-looking real estate HDR images. Design your own templates. This allows you to develop your own style and personality.

If you're just starting to edit your own HDR photographs, check out this blog to learn about the typical mistakes photographers make and how to avoid them!

While we admit the downsides, there are way too many benefits that this approach offers so that it comes as one of the most common, widely adopted shooting techniques in real estate.

4. Pros of bracketing real estate photography

Saving highlights, balancing shadows, and enhancing details

It can be challenging to balance the highlights when shooting interior photos of spaces with exterior views. For example, photographing a bedroom with a window view may have multiple light sources. With HDR real estate image, you can preserve the contours from window light while retaining the room's vibrant colors. Shooting with multiple exposures helps preserve important elements and details such as fixtures and furniture. Thus, you can enhance textures for sharpness and greater clarity.

Overcoming tricky lighting conditions:

There are times when combining natural light and external lights can create complex lighting. Better than spending too long adjusting your lighting and camera position, HDR real estate photos can counteract high-contrast lighting in one image. HDR real estate image helps take advantage of natural light without having to use artificial lighting.

Taking advantage of the ambient light:

For business, HDR real estate image helps take advantage of natural light without having to use artificial lighting. It doesn’t require expensive lighting equipment thanks to the use of ambient lighting. Not only does this will save you some money from having to buy flash but it also saves you some time practicing how to use flash effectively as it is a really hard skill to learn.

Being easy to learn and train:

Conventional photography techniques do not call for any particularly advanced shooting skills and are rather simple to train for photographers. It is also possible to learn it online rather than through direct mentoring. Thus, this shooting technique will enable businesses to serve more clients and shoot more houses

Final words - Is bracketing real estate shooting the approach that you should use?

Yes, the answer is yes! Although this shooting method has some drawbacks, its advantages are enormous, making it ideal for growing real estate photography businesses. One of the most major advantages of this technique is its capability to save enterprises time, money, and resources. It is suitable for scaling due to its simplicity.

Businesses can quickly educate a large pool of photographers, and learning the techniques and getting started doesn't require a lot of resources or talent. Furthermore, because of its versatility in post-production, it is considerably easier to achieve distinct looks. Esoft can edit in a variety of styles, from natural to high-end. Working with us to have your HDR images processed to your specifications and to make it easier for your business to further develop.