Twilight photos, also known as dusk or night shots aren’t usually utilized for every listing as it is usually used in marketing high-end or luxury properties. However, if you truly want to evoke a dramatic mood for any property, you can never go wrong with a wonderfully-taken twilight photo.
There are thousands of real estate photographers in the world, and maybe even in your own backyard. How can you make yourself stand out professionally so that you can get more jobs? Understanding how to take quality real estate photographs at twilight in low lighting will certainly set you apart.
Why Should You Shoot Real Estate at Dusk?
Photography, in general, is all about settings, timing, and lighting. Understanding how these components work with one another is key to your success in real estate photography.
Think of photographing real estate at dusk like choosing the time of day for an outdoor portrait. If you capture your image during the day, ambient light will produce both over and underexposed areas.
You can avoid these errors simply by photographing at dusk. Twilight balances shadows and light so that you can achieve a more equally-lit shot. You can also use additional lights to manipulate the lighting more if you have to. Working with a balanced “base” photo is better than losing detail in highlights and shadows.
How Do You Take Real Estate Photos at Dusk?
Of course, you can either choose to take photos at dusk using a tripod or a hand-held method. Using a tripod allows your long exposure shots to be sharp in a low light environment. In dusk, tripod shooting should be favored over hand-held since the hand-held method is better suited for a well-lit environment.
Hand-held use produced camera shake and blurred details in low light environments. So, if you can, it’s best to save hand-held techniques for bright daylight scenes.
How Do You Make Twilight Real Estate Photos Better?
There are many different ways to enhance twilight photos, but which techniques are the best? Real estate photography tends to rely on dramatic lighting and striking colors to entice potential buyers.
You’ll often see real estate photos with prominent and brightly-colored skies and well-lit, warm home interiors. Applying a more eye-catching sky to twilight photos in post-production will make a building more appealing.
Another method to make your real estate photographs more visually appealing is to selectively darken portions of the home when photographing. In this way, you can selectively highlight important features, which will appear brighter in contrast.
Beyond the technical aspects of improving architectural photography, there are simple decisions you can make on-set that will improve your photos and save time. For instance, ask the homeowners to turn all of the interior lights on.
The exterior lights can be turned on as well, but they might make the image too bright in some situations. A well-lit interior will add more drama to the image and give potential buyers a sample of the home’s general lighting.
