MelissaDelGaudio.net

Real Estate photo or a property in Annapolis, MD

Over at Photography for Real estate, Larry Lohman reminds me of how beautiful a twilight shot can be. I think this is an effective way to take a home portrait when marketing a home; I always try to get a twilight shot when I take a listing.

Just as you might wait until the light is right — the so-called “golden hour” — to take a portrait of a person, twilight is a great time to take a flattering photo of a home. Done properly, a twilight photo can help bring together the two components of the house in one shot: the exterior beauty of the home, and the interior warmth and comfort of home. (It can also show that the home has adequate exterior lighting for safety.)

Twilight photos are best taken right around, if a bit after, sunset, when the sky is a deep blue, but not yet black. You definetly want to be prepared for this to occur as the sky changes from sky blue to black quickly (very quickly if you have to set up your camera while this happens!)

So how do you set up for a twilight shot?

1. Find out when sunset is.
2. Get a tripod — you’ll need it.
3. Turn on ALL the lights in the house.
4. If you use an SLR, set the camera to “A” or (aperture priority) and set the f/stop for something that will keep everything in focus
5. If you use a point-and-shoot, you might have a “sunset” mode, “night landscape” or “night portrait” mode that should work.
6. Try a variety of exposure compensations — this is a setting somewhere on your camera (which might be a dial, or a setting in a menu) that allows for a “+” (plus) or “-” (minus) setting. This refers to how over or underexposed you want your picture to be. I tend to like the pictures that have a -1 or -2 setting in the exposure compensation.
7. Use the timer for the camera — this way you won’t make the picture blurry when you press the button… Taking pictures in near-dark means you are very susceptible to blurring (just look at the flag in the picture above — this picture took several seconds to expose). Using the timer means you can get your hands off the camera before the shutter opens.
8. Adjust them after you taken them out of the camera. I use Picasa, and my husband has a tutorial for adjusting a picture after you take it.

   Compared to the daylight photo:
   

A twilight photo is a great way to add warmth to your photo — and works great in online marketing of real estate.

Melissa DelGaudio is a REALTOR®, e-Pro, ABR and an expert in Real Estate Sales in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County and the Chesapeake Bay Region of Maryland.

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