I had the opportunity to photograph a beautifully remodeled home in West Hills. The shoot was booked last minute, but that was totally fine because I was free that afternoon. The home was going to be on the show Flipping Moms on HGTV. What I didn't know before I arrived was that they were still filming the episode at the house when I arrived. Oh...
You can see the HGTV camera crew outside.
More of HGTV camera crew milling about outside and me looking like a giant next to the tiny bed.
The final photograph of the bedroom.
The house was alive with activity - there was crew and equipment everywhere! Real estate shoots are usually quiet, calm experiences. This was a big difference from what I was used to, but it was actually a fun change of pace. Everyone from the crew was super friendly and the house was nicely staged.
Barb Machen and crew putting the finishing touches in the kitchen and living room.
More of Barb Machen and crew staging the house.
The final photograph of the living room and kitchen.
I don't normally do any light painting if I can avoid it. While utilizing this technique can lead to some breathtaking images, it's not always practical for most shoots. It requires extra time both at the shoot and much more during post processing. Because I could only shoot in the rooms the lights and crew weren't in, I had some some time in some of the rooms to do a little .
Ambient light only photograph of the living room.
Adding some fill light and doing some hand held flash painting.
The final photograph of the living room.
Most of the other rooms were done at a much quicker pace utilizing some bounced fill lights taken in a single shot. The sun was setting quickly and I needed to move fast enough so that it didn't get too dark outside. I love the look of twilight shoots, but if the sun sets fully the windows turn completely black and unappealing.
The ambient light only photoraph of the living and dining room.
Work in progress with a badly placed shoot through umbrella and staging flowers without a home.
First composition of the kitchen that I ended up changing.
Final photograph of the living and dining room.
Final photograph of the dining room.
Final photograph of the kitchen.
Another obstacle I ran into was that some of the light fixtures didn't actually work. I had multiple flashes to combat this, thankfully, and photographing this home without them might not have had the nicest results.
It's dark in here! I'm standing in the shower for this shot, by the way.
Much better! This is the final photograph of the bathroom.
Wow those little lights aren't doing much and the main light wasn't finished yet.
There we go! The final photograph of the bathroom.
The final photograph of the entrance to the home.
The final photograph of the backyard.
One of the final photographs of the exterior of the home.
I sometimes deliver a few different options to my clients. Since I had done some light painting indoors earlier, I decided to offer a light painted exterior. Usually when I'm selecting the best photographs to deliver it's usually very obvious which ones are best. This time, however, I really couldn't decide if I liked the naturally lit exterior or the one I light painted. Which one do you prefer?
Me doing some light painting.
More light painting.
This was the more natural straight out of camera photograph of the home.
This was the more enhanced light painted version of the exterior of the home.