In the month of May, I was given an opportunity to photograph for a company Howell Construction which is located in Denver and even though I’m Sacramento architectural photographer I just could pass up this great opportunity. I think I want to mention this, I do have architectural degree with over 5 years of working in architectural firm but one thing that drove me nuts is sitting behind the desk all those days. So this rubs off even on my business today, I love to be out and about. So travel is part of me, it refreshes me, and even if I go out to the mountains to shoot it just makes me so happy.

Coming back to this journey to Denver, I was given two projects to be photographed in one day. (Facebook Post Here) Now I do want to mention that its a LOT of work of photographing such big projects in one day, yet as always I took it as a challenge (I think its the architect in me). Now living in Sacramento and being architectural photographer I have to realize that I will need to travel and one place I do like to travel is Denver. Yes I have lived in Denver in the past so atleast I know the city and it’s very easy for me to get around.

The two projects which I photographed where “Envision Healthcare” and “Wazee Electric”, both are opposite from each other in architectural photography. One is more office look the other is industrial warehouse. One project I could walk around by myself and photograph anything that seems good to me and the other project I had to be supervised that I would not photograph anything that is not permissible by Wazee company (since there are tons of equipment which is copyrighted to certain companies).  But here are the photos from that shoot and I do have to say I loved both of them.

I do want to say thank you to Howell Construction for hiring me to photograph these two great projects and I wish I could show more photos but some photos are not allowed to be released.

Photos Provided By: Sacramento Architectural Photographer

After writing a post about why I don’t use HDR software for real estate photography (which you can check out here) some of the current agents asked me about exterior photos. In response to their question I have decided to write a post with examples to show the difference between the process that I do and what HDR software does. But before we get into the sample photos I would like to mention: I don’t think using HDR software for exterior photos in real estate photography is bad. Yet with that said there is a difference in the end result which you can see in the images below (by the way you can click on any image to make them bigger for better preview). With each sample photo I will explain why Shutter Avenue Photography doesn’t use software to do the job for us.

In the image above you can see how HDR software made the image look flat, the colors are off or in other words it’s over saturated.  With the style of editing comparing to the software we get to control what needs to be corrected. For instance, we get to pick and choose where shadows needs to be lighter, not over all image like the software does. Also the images doesn’t have that oversaturated look to it.

In this example it’s clear that the software had a hard time distinguishing the light and dark areas so it made a decision to give the final image in natural ground. Comparing to the image provided by us, the final image has more vibrance, light, and more natural look over HDR image. Which makes the home more attractive to potential buyers when looking at the home via internet.

Example above shows how HDR software still has a hard time by getting rid of dark shadows, plus overall image is flat with oversaturated look. Also look at the sky, how the software can’t really control over exposed clouds. But with our style of editing we were able to remove most of the shadows and also the clouds have more detail. So in the final image produced by us, your eyes are lead to see the home not just overall image and surroundings.

In this sample it’s a good point that HDR software can make a good decisions and give a decent final product. Yet if you look at the image which we produced for real estate agent you can see that the image has more natural look to it comparing to HDR software.

Here is an example of when the whole home plus lots of shadows cover the front yard and this creates dark areas throughout most of the image. So the HDR software just takes multi-exposure images and produces the final image on the neutral ground, and everything just looks flat and saturated. With Shutter Avenue Photography style we get to control where shadows needs to be controlled by adding more light to certain areas so this would make the home stand out more comparing to HDR software.

Sometimes people say “it doesn’t matter if the it’s cloudy weather because the image is still flat looking no matter what so HDR software does a good job” and I agree with them but knowing what do edit in the photo our quality of work still has more details and also has more sharpness to the whole image. Plus this is a good example not only for overcast weather but if adding different sky it also enhances the final image, as you can see on the right.

Last words: HDR software for exterior photos is not bad but after all the example you can see how we can create better exterior photos so that way it will attract a viewer looking at these images online. Also there are people who love the look of HDR and if that’s you and your buyer then keep using the software, we are not telling you to stop but just comparing the two.

Do you agree or disagree? Well leave a comment on our facebook page and with any other questions you might have for us.

Photos Provided By: Denver Architectural Photographer

After getting lots of feedback from real estate agents and trying to explain why I take x amount of time for real estate photography per listing, I have decided to do this promotional video. This video shows how I take a simple home and photograph real estate from start to finish. You will be able to see how many frames I take per each composition and combine them in photoshop to make a final photo. Now one thing I do want to mention is that this home is much bigger than it’s shown in the video – meaning there are much more rooms and if I have shown all the rooms in this video it would have been way over 6 mins and that’s too boring even for me to watch.

Last thing I do want to mention is that this is a real home, with real people living in it, I just came in and photographed it. Why am I saying this? Well because I wanted to show the viewer how professional real estate photography can have a benefit for real estate agent but also the process that it takes to make an average home look good for the online listing.

I do want to mention a special thanks to Dee Durland from Select Realty LLC for letting me use one of the homes which I have photographed for her in the past for this video.

Also this is my first slideshow/video which I have done at this scale so enjoy the video.

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Since I photograph lots of real estate one questions that pops up from time to time is “What about HDR?”. Now, the question does vary in different forms when it’s asked. For example, a new agent will ask me “Do you do HDR Photography?” or an agent with whom I have work before will ask “Why don’t you do HDR, isn’t much quicker?”. Those are both good question and in this post I will show you why HDR photography just doesn’t work for me and my studio.

Before I get into why with comparison examples I what to throw this out there since lots of people don’t really know what HDR is. The term HDR stands for High-Dynamic-Range, which in itself tells you that this image can have light/dark areas with more details comparing to a regular image. Now this is very brief history of HDR: it was first used in way back in late 1800’s with multiple photos combined in darkroom and ever since you can see this style of photography used by everyone who knew what they were doing. But HDR photography didn’t pick up popularity until digital photography boomed. After that, well every person who didn’t know who to set setting in camera or just for the fun of it used it and abuse it. Yet most people don’t know that HDR photography was used for landscape photography only. With that said I have no problem with HDR photography if it’s used correctly and when it needs to be use (such as in landscapes).

But now let me show you why I don’t believe in HDR and how a beautiful home can be ruined if just using HDR style. In the images below I have used multiple exposures which requires for HDR to combine for the final image. Also I will explain why HDR doesn’t work for real estate. Feel free to click on the images to see them in much bigger size.

The two images above is a good comparison between HDR and the style of photography which I use. You can clearly see how the software is trying to keep the details in the window but the rooms becomes dark. If we go the opposite way the room will be bright but the details in the window will be lost.  Also the corners of the rooms are very dark and around the window (sometimes we photographers call this the dirty corners). Comparing to the style which I use everything is much lighter and with more precise of how our eyes see the room.

Here’s an example of when much more light comes through the window which creates light glow around window trim. Also since the software is trying to create proper white balance in the room the details outside are now very blue. Comparing to the image on the left, even though there is still same amount of light coming through the window but the light glow is more contained with properly exposed white balance.

Example above of a dining room and kitchen is a good way to show what happens when there is lots of light in dining room and almost none in the kitchen. Yet even though our eyes can adjust to this but neither camera or software can’t understand that. The HDR software created dark shadows not only on the counters of the kitchen but also on the chairs, which now makes the chairs look very dirty with deep shadows. The white balance is off because the software is trying to adjust to the dark floor and because the kitchen was very dark to start off it did the best it can. After I have photographed it, everything is bright and has welcoming look for potential buyer when they will be looking at the images online.

The image on the right is where the HDR software is trying to balance the colors for the final image. Since there were lots of yellow/brown colors in the room especially thanks to tungsten lighting the final image is all yellow. Even though we know that outside is not as blue as an image on the right but because the software is just trying to average everything out, the end result is very intense blue light through the windows.  Also if we look closer at the corners of the windows we will see that there is this white line and this is because the software doesn’t really know how to handle the transition from light to dark.

I can go on and on of why just HDR photography doesn’t work for real estate, how it can’t transition from bright light to dark which creates dark shadow glow, how in reality when just photographing multi exposure photos create less detailed photos and not as sharp as what I can do (even though you can add sharpness in software), or how white balance and the transition is most of the time off with HDR software. But I will end it there since now you can see why Shutter Avenue Photography is much better than HDR.

Last but important note to mention is that I do from time to time use HDR but only when I am photographing landscapes for my personal use. Because for the outside HDR does work sometimes.

I hope this give you a better understanding of why I don’t really use multi exposure software to create the final images and the style of photography which I have created over time is much better representation of the home. With that said, when photographing for interior designers and/or architecture I use completely different style of photography from real estate.

Photos Provided By: Denver Architectural Photographer

Some time ago, to be more precise in 2014 I had an opportunity to photograph a wonderful family in Roxborough State Park (blog post here). So after some time the family had their baby boy who is very cute and always smiles, so I had an opportunity to photograph for them again with the new addition to the family.

I do want to say that I enjoy photographing this family and not just because they are very good friends of mine but also because they have wonderful kids who are very photogenic. But this time we decided on a park in DTC which is Silo Park and I love this location. Yes, it’s used by many photographers and it’s because of so many areas in the park that are great locations for photos. Yet this post is not about the park it’s about a family photos.

The funny thing is the first time we had scheduled the photo shoot is was bad, the weather turned from sunny to almost a thunderstorm in few minutes and we had to cancel the photoshoot. But the second time around was great weather which the photos do reflect on. I would love to talk about how I enjoyed photographing this family and how much fun did the everyone had at the photoshoot. But I want to show you the photos because I think they are great photos, so here are the photos.

One last thing that I would like to mention is that my daughter and their oldest son are very good friends and I couldn’t resist of photographing them together so here is one photo of them both.

Photos Provided by Shutter Avenue Photography

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Looking for Denver Family Photographer? Want to see more photos? Visit my homepage for more Denver Family Photography images. You can contact me via email info@shutteravenue.com or through my homepage to get more info.