Real estate photos with bright windows?

Question

I am a real estate agent and have a canon 400 D with a wide angle lens EFS 10-18mm and a tripod. I know nothing about photography and the homes I photograph have all beautiful window views being a coastal town.Please help me with taking the photos as well as editing in photoshop CS 5 extended. I have no plugin programs and no external light source as well as no money to spend on expensive gear (need to sell a few houses first) I need to have camera settings for normal lighting as well. I have been through lots of tutorials but cannot get anything right.

Answer 1

The standard solution to capture the view out of a window (aka "window pull") involves a combination of on-site flash and blending in Photoshop.

For less than $200, you can get a cheap flash, radio remotes, and a lightstand. On site, you'll want to get a good shot of the room, and then without moving the camera, take another shot just for the view out the window. For this window shot, you'll need to do two key things:

1. Slow your shutter speed until the outside view is sufficiently dark to show the outside detail you want. Usually 1/160 - 1/250 is a good ballpark.
2. Use your flash to completely overexpose the window frame, grilles, and everything that abuts the window from the camera's field of field.

In post, open both frames as layers in Photoshop and blend as follows:

1. Place the window shot on top and change the blend mode to darken.
2. Add a black mask, then paint it with white over the windows to reveal the window view. Since you are in darken mode and everything abutting the window is overexposed, Photoshop will reveal the darker pixels in the window and leave everything else alone. No fancy selections needed.
3. Finally, adjust the opacity slider to get a natural look.

I have worked with many agents and professional photographers to master this technique and build other architectural photography skills. I'd be delighted to work with you.

Answer 2

Since you have a Canon camera I would suggest changing the settings as follows. Turn on - in custom functions - Highlight Tone Priority - if available. This option is designed for just this situation. It will prevent the camera from seeing Bright / Highlights so strongly that it wipes out the image. Instead it will allow the bright image areas to be visible. As to Photoshop. Select the bright area with the Quick Selection Tool set to about 16 to 32. Be sure and have a feather of about 2 pixels for smoothness around the edges. Then use the Equalization Tool on the selected area. You can cut back on the effect by using the Edit > Fade Tool. This will get rid of the effect. If not it should at least give you a much better starting point.