My mom is an insurance agent. As such she is often tasked with taking photos of people’s prized possessions, from homes to cars to expensive jewelry. Whatever her client wants insured has to be documented in a series of shots and added to the file.
Unfortunately, my mom is a terrible photographer. She willingly admits that she lacks talent in the field of photography, but that means little to her boss. In fact, my mom recently completed a photo tutorial to help her capture frame worthy (or at least file worthy) shots of houses.
Here are a few of the tips she received:
When shooting the exterior of a home, consider the time of day. For starters you don’t want to take photos of a house during rush hour, especially if the home is located on a busy street. Also, check the weather report before heading out to shoot a property. Never photograph a home at high noon as the shadows will wreck havoc on your shots. Rather, aim to shoot the home on an overcast day as clouds diffuse the light and minimize distracting shadows, which may obscure the house’s finer details. If you are forced to shoot the home when the sun is directly behind the house you will have to increase the exposure on your camera one or two stops to compensate for the backlighting. In addition, when shooting a house it’s a good idea to use a tripod. You should also shoot off a tripod when documenting distinctive property features such as ponds, barns and pools.
When shooting the interior of a home, use as much natural light as possible. Mixing natural and artificial light may distort the color of the shots, so you may want to set your camera to a high aperture to keep items in focus. You may also need to use a slower shutter speed. If you are using a traditional film camera, then select a high film speed. However, if the interior is still dim, you will have to employ your camera’s flash. Depending on the size of the room and its contents you might consider bouncing the flash off of an adjacent wall or the ceiling in order to avoid casting harsh shadows in the room.
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