My methods

So you've bought a fancy camera—or hired a photographer who owns one— but your interior photos don't look as good as you'd hoped. It's not about the camera! These examples show why off-camera flash is the answer. It takes a little longer but I think the result is worth it.

Slide the vertical bar back and forth in the images below to see the difference between all ambient light and off-camera flash + skilled post processing.

When shooting with ambient light only, window views are often overexposed while adjacent rooms can look like dark caves. Adding off-camera flash balances the extremes and can help viewers get a feel for the flow of a home. In addition to allowing lighting of adjacent spaces, taking the flash off the camera helps avoid harsh shadows as well as overly bright foregrounds.

Elevated exteriors

I'm certified to fly a drone commercially (yes, the Federal Aviation Administration has required this since 2016), but I don't deploy my drone on every shoot. I'm sensitive to the privacy concerns of neighbors in sub/urban settings, and I will not fly in areas restricted by the FAA. I understand that sometimes it's necessary to get higher than the average human-eye level, which is why I always bring a camera mounted to a 20-foot pole to my real estate shoots. See the difference?

GroundLevelBack yard photo taken at eye level   Elevated shotBack yard photo taken from about 15 feet up using a camera mounted to a pole. By the way, these photos were taken on a drab Ohio day. While I can't control the weather, I do swap out skies in Photoshop. I try to keep it looking natural; note the lack of shadows you would see on a bright, sunny day. A bright, cloudless sky would look a little weird (in my opinion). The original image is below.

NoSkyReplacementWith a little work in Photoshop, I can bring life into an otherwise gray sky.