I’ve been shooting HDR for 5 years using Photomatix. Last year, I started practicing flash ambient and I’m addicted to the superior image quality. To be fair, my clients still love my HDR photos, but I’m shifting to flash ambient. Every flash ambient shoot I do gets faster. Great video!
I consistently chose the hand-blended HDR, and my second choice was the auto-blended HDR. I was actually surprised because I thought I would've gone for the flambient!
I tried flambient for the first time today. Pretty good results. But for cheap shoots I think I’ll stick with handheld Gh5 shooting brackets. No one complains and it’s just easier.
My eyes seem attracted to the flam the most. Killer video. Thanks for producing this content. As someone new to real estate photography I appreciate it immensely.
I've tried all three methods now, and I have found that for my work, each method is good for different houses. An empty house typically doesn't look as good with flambient in my opinion. Light tends to bounce everywhere making it look patchy in some places. The hand blended HDR takes forever, but I love the results from it. One way I work around the time issue is by doing a hand blended HDR on the most important images like the kitchen, master bedroom, and living room. Then I do auto merged images for the rooms that aren't as eye catching. That way my images are delivered quicker. Now if I was doing a million dollar listing fully staged, I would probably do flambient on every room.
I started real estate photography for maybe a couple of months now. First I want to thank you because I wouldn’t be able to achieve so much in such short time if it wasn’t for your videos. I have priced my services very competitive to other real estate photographers in my area. Even hand blending HDR is taking so much time that it’s not worth the money. I downloaded your presets and hoping I can improve my speed. But having said that, the differences between the quality of hand blend HDR and flash photos is not justifying the extra effort and equipment for me. Maybe in future it does.
Thanks! You can always use whatever elements of these methods you like and make your own sort of hybrid method. It’s a matter of what works for you and your business.
Picked them all. Once working with flambient it clearly provides excellent results. Your hand blended are very good as well. As you say, if you don't have two photos to compare either would be a good deliver
flambient is like driving a stick shift. I just like the control and knowledge of what's going into the process. Doesn't mean the end result is too much different, but you can never had too much knowledge in photography
This was a great video with an excellent side-by-side comparison. What I especially liked is that you obviously made an effort to create a good final result from each of the three methods, such that you weren't biasing the "best" images based on what you're good at--you're clearly good at all three methods. I was able to pick out the flambient fairly easily from each set and was able to pick out the auto-HDR in two out of the three sets. And to your point, I think any one of the methods produced good quality images that the vast majority of clients would be pleased to receive. I also thought your analysis of pros and cons was spot on as well. Enjoyed this video as I typically enjoy most of your videos. Jon
Only after the first reveal that i was able to pick out the auto HDR shots. Now I'm off to watch your manual HDR video. Man, you're a life saver ! Keep them coming please ! I feel like now, with the pandemic, i would like to gravitate to doing the manual HDR just so that I can spend less time in people's homes...awesome comparison vid though. Thanks for posting !
I love flambient bc I shoot lower end homes. In which scenarios do you use each method ? I’ve noticed in well lit homes with a lot of natural light ( many windows ) HDR can do amazing but in a home that has few windows and doesn’t have many lights flambient will always will.
I got all three of them right because I am pretty familiar with the flambient and the auto-merged methods. It was not too hard to tell in the first two images, but that third image, the kitchen, was really hard to tell because it is naturally an evenly lit room where there aren't many shadows. Flambient was the only method that removed the shadows on the floor from the chairs in the second picture, but some people feel that the shadows SHOULD be there because it is natural. I agree with that but I do want to minimize those shadows. Personally, I have never heard of hand-blended HDR and I am all in for that method. It looks great and I need to learn how it is done!!
I do all HDR for my real estate photography, using LREnfuse to merge, and then I do any needed color corrections in post. Never tried hand-blending HDR, so I guess I will try that next!
I am relatively new to real estate photography, as well as such in depth photography in general, so I was a little surprised when I was able to pick out all of the images where flash was used. I couldn’t tell the difference between the two different types of blending, but I have only used Lightroom to merge the images that I have taken so far. Thanks for the video!
nice comparison. I managed to guess at each of the examples with pretty good accuracy. flambient clear winner across the lot, of course, for reasons you went on to describe.
MIke, thanks for a very helpful comparison of the three types of photography. It's pretty evident that the HDR brackets are not as vibrant. But another UA-camr pointed out that sometimes the view out the window is not something worth bringing attention to! I am getting ready to shoot virtual tours for an inn with a 360 camera that doesn't capture RAW or multiple brackets (Ricoh SC2). Some of the windows in the rooms look out onto a nice view. I'm planning to take an auto exposure shot and then dial back the exposure compensation and ISO to as low as possible to capture more saturation in the view through the window, basically creating two manual bracketed photos. I have experimented creating a merge HDR photo out of the two brackets with Aurora and it looks very acceptable for most of the views. For the views out the door or window to something that is more interesting, I experimented using an image layer with the darker photo on the top layer and brushing in the window or door for a more vibrant view. My daughter has a tablet that I plan to borrow instead of using a mouse to brush in the lines.
I gravitated towards the flambient photos. Which I find more realistic because of the colour control. I find your tutorials very informative. Please keep up the good work.
I'm such a sucker for quality. I'd rather have incredible depth and brightness that the flambient offers. My close friend from another city across the country eluded that I should switch over from Hand Blended HDR to Flambient. His images are all shot in Flambient and I immediately notice the difference in color and depth, which is amazing! Personally, I'd rather over-deliver for each of my clients than try to rush the shoot. Quality product attracts quality clients! Thanks for showing comparisons, buddy!
I use a combination of auto merge and hand blending. Also, shadows are important to keep a more natural looking image. That flambiant thing looks like CGI. I’ve had clients complain that their previous photographer made everything look like fake CGI.
As with everything, flash ambient blending, can be done overdone. Purely lumosity blending doesnt do much for color control, when there are a ton of color casts, even with lights turned off
Great video. After the first set it was easy to spot which technique was used, but I was surprised to find that I preferred the hand-blended HDR photos over flambient.
I picked 2 HDR and one flambient image. I prefer the HDR when its done right and it seems like a much easier process and not as time consuming on the job.
Thank you for this video. Great to see the comparison between all 3 methods as an aspiring RE photographer. My choices happened to be hand blended HDR, with flambient a close tie on one photo. Auto HDR definitely results in the worst quality in these examples, though I'd think presets could help. Flambient seems the most time consuming overall and most expensive with results that aren't noticeably better to make it worth the extra time and expense over hand blended HDR.
This is a very useful video. I shoot with the A7Riv. Which has 15 stops of dynamic range. I already asked a few photographers who do Flambient or HDR only. Which is best. No reply tho. I did invest in flashes. But most of the time I do HDR and blend it by hand. Its faster. I do use the flash to blow out a window. Or catch a very dark corner.
Consistently picked the Flambient examples; these seemed to give a better balance on all facets all round from shadows to saturation etc. I noticed the other examples, the background is not as balanced with the foreground; their background appeared slightly less contrasted and washed out.
totally agree. Flambient just gives that refined, accurate, and illustrious look that I feel like makes me want to live in whatever home I’m shooting. It’s like the difference between flash+exposure blends and natural light images for car photography. There is just something so refined and professional about adding this clean light to the subjects.
For interiors, and as long as you don't go overboard with HDR, HDR has an advantage of taking away the light shining up at the ceiling look. Flambient can be better for color balance, but it does have an unnatural look that isn't the same as what you'd experience being in the room.
As a real estate photographer for one specific group, while also doing social media and marketing, the speed of an auto blend HDR image simply can’t be beat. I want to try hand blending for my next shoot, assuming that it is not too many pictures. I don’t want to get bogged down in one shoot for a day and a half and not like the results.
Hand Blended seems definitely better to me. The Falmbient is a very close second and is probably the better method for most clients. I would think, that it would be good to know and practice the Hand Blended method for higher end clients. You are obviously very good at all three. I am just starting out at this and have re-photoed my small house three times now (proper flash technique is harder than it looks) and have been practicing various methods from different people. Love your detail and your eye for what you are looking for. Thanks for putting this valuable information out there for us am's.
I think this is a great video but I would have loved to see a more subtle flambient use. The flambient shots were my favourite but I felt it was too easy to choose them because the flash was fairly heavy handed. Great video mate 👌🏼
Super helpful video! As usual! Thanks! I picked automerge HDR on 2 and hand blended HDR on 1. My biggest turn off was the high contrast window content just looked fake. But that could happen on any technique.
2 of 3 I picked Hand Blended, with Automated HDR close second. I am no expert but I felt that what drew me to them were the Lights. The Flambient to me was too bright/overexposed with the lights making them to bright and fuzzy looking. It seemed like Automated HDR improved this but at the cost of dulling some of the reflective materials such as the polished stone, metals and ceramics. Hand blended to me was the best of both worlds and the only time I couldn't pick it was in the kitchen.
Really prefer the hand-HDR / Auto HDR for sure, personally. While flash is super helpful, there's the additional challenge of directing off-camera flash plus setting power level to not overpower the room or natural lighting. As someone who's done photography (weddings) over 10+ years, I could discern all 3, each of the 3 times very easily. Good video for sure!
The point of the flash frame is to over power the rooms lighting and natural light. Then you blend it with the ambient frame to taste (which is 100% available light).
In the first, I liked "C" best (hand-blended). I liked "A" in the second, and "C" in the third. I looked at the window frame detail that was not blown out in the first, including the glare of the lights; same in the others. I do freelance and contract work where the latter companies only want HDR because it's more manageable than flambient, where skill and light positioning can vary. But with HDR or "bracketing," you don't get flambient's color correction until you get into post. You also liquidate your camera body, at 3 or 5 shots per angle, instead of flambient's 2, but that's another topic! So when freelancing, I'm standing like the Statue of Liberty (using an AD200 instead of her torch) flashing and getting better results.
I guessed every one correct with the exception of swapping the auto vs. manual HDR in the 2nd set. My preference is auto-HDR. I can pick out the flambients right away because the whites are 100% desaturated, which I think looks unnatural and "cold", IMHO. The warm yellows of incandescent light add a warm, "homey" feeling, IMO. To each their own, and I am enjoying and learning from the videos!
I agree hand blended HDR seems the best option of the 3 overall. It happened to be my choice when comparing his photos. I dislike the cold color cast and flash reflections of the flambient, though it does seem to result in slightly richer colors and contrast.
Thanks! This was super helpful and really answered things for me. Hand blended HDR 1 / Flambient 2. But...they were close in both cases. So I think I'll go with Flambient for high-end jobs, or jobs where the lighting is difficult anyway, and hand blended HDR for the rest, just because it is much faster to shoot.
Another question..the LR HDR merges were all using that plugin you mentioned? Enfuse? so the images look worse when merging in lightroom without that plugin ?
The end result is similar but that plug-in gets you closer to the end result right off the bat. My LR merges are always super dark after merging. It’s just a bit annoying and I find the plug-in does a better job overall
With auto HDR it was clear to see this picture. Compare flambient and manual HDR was harder. They are very similar but I was able to pick the right one. I prefer flambient but in some situations it is better to do manual hdr blending
I preferred HDR auto blended, which appeared similar to flambient, however when you see the split-screen between auto HDR and hand-blended HDR, hand-blended looked warmer.
Hi thanks for your channel. It's amazing!. i would like to ask you how much power should have, in your opinion a flash speedlight to use in real state photography?
HDR hand looks best to me of what you shot. Flambient always makes the ceiling look way too bright. I've done all three, and am now experimenting with KinoFlo, amazingly smooth light. Basically, Flambient needs a controllable broad light source. Colour temperature through the windows and the nasty cheap LED colour cast are problems that flambient can overcome. Flag off the ceiling though.
I was actually able to tell which method was used on every photo. I prefered flambient in most shots or the hand-blended HDR. Auto HDR just looks amateurish in most cases. Not that it can't look good, just that it doesn't usually come out looking as natural as the other 2 techniques. I think they are all passable and it really comes down to the price. Flambient may not be cost-effective on less expensive homes and auto HDR won't justify what you likely want to charge for larger budget shoots. The techniques are just like all of your other gear. Know when and why it needs to be used.
It would be interested to show these photos to non photography peeps and see what would be most preferred. I might be too novice into photography, but until you showed the drawn backs of the Auto-HDR photos, I picked them as most eye pleasant in the side to side comparison
I'm just getting started doing real estate photography and I'm trying to find my shooting method. I plan on outsourcing my editing and my editor suggested I start doing three brackets plus a flash shot. What are your thoughts on this method?
I immediately notice the HDR shots by the edge of the windows, the view outside is slightly desaturated, and there's a slight hazy feel to the images. The flash always gives a sharper look and better saturation. I usually shoot with the flash set to manual, pointing the opposite way to whatever I'm shooting but bounced back with a reflector just to avoid really ugly shadows and to diffuse. Because of the time available I usually mount the flash on the camera, but in smaller spaces I admit I'd do better with it off the camera and remote triggered. Also if I'm shooting through a doorway into another room the light difference is pretty obvious and I don't have time set up multiple flashes. For me I much prefer the crispness and sharp edges you get from the flash, and because I'd set my exposure to the view outside the window then the view outside looks great, but the images appear flatter.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography the question i asked above had been posted before i finished watching the whole video, so now i know. But for my case & client, the auto HDRs photos in your video are all ready to go. Recent days, i 've watched some of your videos and found your channel is super helpful and full of knowledge as a real course. Thanks a lot for sharing!
I think it’s important to note the difference in editing labor between hand-blended HDR and Flambient. Nathan Cool, as well as this channel, both have great flambient editing workflow walkthroughs that show just how much simpler the process can be when using this method. I think the biggest pain especially comes with masking windows for achieving beautiful looking views. With HDR, you’re looking at much more detailed photoshop work to mask out windows and doors, where as flambient allows for the window pull + darken mode strategy often shown by Nathan Cool. I think I’d totally trade more time on set for more time editing, but I’m sure there are REPs out there who would say the opposite. This comment is getting long, but I think there is another very important case for flambient on the business side, and that’s the fact that not a lot of REPs do it. You’re offering a more premium service that instantly puts you above the competition, especially in smaller cities. You become a big fish in a small pond. It sounds dumb, but sometimes, showing up to a shoot with a bunch of gear, lighting equipment, etc, can let your client know that you truly know what you’re doing. This adds to client retention and more word of mouth recommendations.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I think you make a lot of good points. A lot of people in this business outsource their editing so they don’t care as much about the extra editing time for HDR since they aren’t dealing with it themselves. A lot of agents aren’t very tech knowledgeable in my experience so I’m not so sure they will care too much about what you show up with as long as the results are good. They also value their time and want to get the job done and get out of there quickly a lot of the time. I just think it’s hard to really say flambient will give you an edge in any of those regards but yes, definitely in the editing department and in the color accuracy department. If flambient is helping you set yourself apart I say that’s great and go for it. I think it can possibly do that because as you said the majority of REPs are shooting brackets. The question I’m posing is do agents really understand or appreciate the difference? Some might but I’d say it’s a highly debatable question.
Hand blended HDR always.... I am planning to buy sony a7iii and g master lens 16mm-35mm for real estate photography, would that be great pick? I am upgrading from Canon t6 rebel 😎 lol. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 🙏
Great video. I immediately gravitated towards the auto HDRs. I love my HDRs. I don't have Lightroom, but I have EasyHDR, which gives quite good results. Besides LR, WHAT HDR software would you recommend?
I'm marketing flambient as a premium product right now so charging more for that. That may change though, experimenting with some different pricing at the moment.
I preferred the hand blended HDR and lightroom Auto HDR. How would an in camera auto HDR fare compared to hand blended or lightroom Auto HDR ? Could I get away with in camera hdr as I dislike using lightroom ?
I’m not sure as my cameras don’t do an in camera HDR. I’d imagine though that you won’t get the same amount of dynamic range as you would if you shot the brackets and also you’d be giving up more control being that you can use some of the brackets for window masking and certain things like that.
Interesting… I consistently chose the auto-merged image. I can’t say what it was that drew me to each one as I can’t toggle between the images to see everything.
Well that depends on time spent on the manual HDR processing. It took me easily up to 30 minutes to process a high contrast HDR image (I spent SO much time retrieving correct colors) while it takes like 5-10 minutes max to finish a flambient one. For me, falmbient more than doubled my earnings by enhancing the postprocessing speed. Also all my clents are talking about gamechanging quality difference. I tried flambient when I was starting to do real estate photography (I actually never used a dslr/mirrorlees camera before), but I failed misserably and went for HDR. After two years of learning a lot in lighgtroom and photoshop, I tried it again and it suddenly made sense.
abc I guess flambient is my personal choice. colors looked better, exterior window colors, no blue cast on the wood floors... even though that's not what the house looks like with the naked eye, it just looks better. I see color casts in my everyday life, walking around, in movies... light color casts is the true representation BUT that is not what moves houses. Flashy fakery is what agents seem to want. Plus it's more visually pleasing.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #30 ДВА В ОДНОМ [Один человек]• Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nrXy15orKhY/mqdefault.jpg)
I’ve been shooting HDR for 5 years using Photomatix. Last year, I started practicing flash ambient and I’m addicted to the superior image quality. To be fair, my clients still love my HDR photos, but I’m shifting to flash ambient. Every flash ambient shoot I do gets faster. Great video!
I consistently chose the hand-blended HDR, and my second choice was the auto-blended HDR. I was actually surprised because I thought I would've gone for the flambient!
Same here. Much better quality in my opinion
I tried flambient for the first time today. Pretty good results. But for cheap shoots I think I’ll stick with handheld Gh5 shooting brackets. No one complains and it’s just easier.
Its ok if you only charge $150 per shoot.
handheld? O_o
My eyes seem attracted to the flam the most. Killer video. Thanks for producing this content. As someone new to real estate photography I appreciate it immensely.
I've tried all three methods now, and I have found that for my work, each method is good for different houses. An empty house typically doesn't look as good with flambient in my opinion. Light tends to bounce everywhere making it look patchy in some places. The hand blended HDR takes forever, but I love the results from it. One way I work around the time issue is by doing a hand blended HDR on the most important images like the kitchen, master bedroom, and living room. Then I do auto merged images for the rooms that aren't as eye catching. That way my images are delivered quicker. Now if I was doing a million dollar listing fully staged, I would probably do flambient on every room.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I started real estate photography for maybe a couple of months now. First I want to thank you because I wouldn’t be able to achieve so much in such short time if it wasn’t for your videos. I have priced my services very competitive to other real estate photographers in my area. Even hand blending HDR is taking so much time that it’s not worth the money. I downloaded your presets and hoping I can improve my speed. But having said that, the differences between the quality of hand blend HDR and flash photos is not justifying the extra effort and equipment for me. Maybe in future it does.
Thanks! You can always use whatever elements of these methods you like and make your own sort of hybrid method. It’s a matter of what works for you and your business.
Picked them all. Once working with flambient it clearly provides excellent results. Your hand blended are very good as well. As you say, if you don't have two photos to compare either would be a good deliver
flambient is like driving a stick shift. I just like the control and knowledge of what's going into the process. Doesn't mean the end result is too much different, but you can never had too much knowledge in photography
I'm a beginner Real estate editor, and this is so much knowledge in one video, i wonder what i'll get in the channel, Thanks a ton!
This video really put into perspective how different flambient is from HDR. Thanks! I learned how important it can be to learn flambient
Nailed every flambient shot. Personally, the best ones. Thanks for sharing, great work!
This was a great video with an excellent side-by-side comparison. What I especially liked is that you obviously made an effort to create a good final result from each of the three methods, such that you weren't biasing the "best" images based on what you're good at--you're clearly good at all three methods. I was able to pick out the flambient fairly easily from each set and was able to pick out the auto-HDR in two out of the three sets. And to your point, I think any one of the methods produced good quality images that the vast majority of clients would be pleased to receive. I also thought your analysis of pros and cons was spot on as well. Enjoyed this video as I typically enjoy most of your videos. Jon
Thanks Jon! Really appreciate it!
Yes that hand-blended always looked better at the window pulls, so I always picked the hand-blended.
Only after the first reveal that i was able to pick out the auto HDR shots. Now I'm off to watch your manual HDR video. Man, you're a life saver ! Keep them coming please ! I feel like now, with the pandemic, i would like to gravitate to doing the manual HDR just so that I can spend less time in people's homes...awesome comparison vid though. Thanks for posting !
hair is spot on dude.
I preferred the hand blended hdr each time. That settled it for me. Haha
I just wanna say that you are making consistenly great content!
You are really helping me, so thank you
Thank you!
I love flambient bc I shoot lower end homes. In which scenarios do you use each method ? I’ve noticed in well
lit homes with a lot of natural light ( many windows ) HDR can do amazing but in a home that has few windows and doesn’t have many lights flambient will always will.
Yeah that makes sense to me for sure!
I got all three of them right because I am pretty familiar with the flambient and the auto-merged methods. It was not too hard to tell in the first two images, but that third image, the kitchen, was really hard to tell because it is naturally an evenly lit room where there aren't many shadows. Flambient was the only method that removed the shadows on the floor from the chairs in the second picture, but some people feel that the shadows SHOULD be there because it is natural. I agree with that but I do want to minimize those shadows. Personally, I have never heard of hand-blended HDR and I am all in for that method. It looks great and I need to learn how it is done!!
This channel is really underrated.
I do all HDR for my real estate photography, using LREnfuse to merge, and then I do any needed color corrections in post. Never tried hand-blending HDR, so I guess I will try that next!
same. :D
using flashes is difficult for me
I am relatively new to real estate photography, as well as such in depth photography in general, so I was a little surprised when I was able to pick out all of the images where flash was used. I couldn’t tell the difference between the two different types of blending, but I have only used Lightroom to merge the images that I have taken so far. Thanks for the video!
nice comparison. I managed to guess at each of the examples with pretty good accuracy. flambient clear winner across the lot, of course, for reasons you went on to describe.
thanks for the helpful content. Concise, informative and with a good rhythm. Thumbs up!
MIke, thanks for a very helpful comparison of the three types of photography. It's pretty evident that the HDR brackets are not as vibrant. But another UA-camr pointed out that sometimes the view out the window is not something worth bringing attention to!
I am getting ready to shoot virtual tours for an inn with a 360 camera that doesn't capture RAW or multiple brackets (Ricoh SC2). Some of the windows in the rooms look out onto a nice view. I'm planning to take an auto exposure shot and then dial back the exposure compensation and ISO to as low as possible to capture more saturation in the view through the window, basically creating two manual bracketed photos. I have experimented creating a merge HDR photo out of the two brackets with Aurora and it looks very acceptable for most of the views. For the views out the door or window to something that is more interesting, I experimented using an image layer with the darker photo on the top layer and brushing in the window or door for a more vibrant view. My daughter has a tablet that I plan to borrow instead of using a mouse to brush in the lines.
I gravitated towards the flambient photos. Which I find more realistic because of the colour control.
I find your tutorials very informative. Please keep up the good work.
I'm such a sucker for quality. I'd rather have incredible depth and brightness that the flambient offers. My close friend from another city across the country eluded that I should switch over from Hand Blended HDR to Flambient. His images are all shot in Flambient and I immediately notice the difference in color and depth, which is amazing! Personally, I'd rather over-deliver for each of my clients than try to rush the shoot. Quality product attracts quality clients! Thanks for showing comparisons, buddy!
All sounds good as long as you are getting properly compensated for the time you are investing 😊
I use a combination of auto merge and hand blending. Also, shadows are important to keep a more natural looking image.
That flambiant thing looks like CGI. I’ve had clients complain that their previous photographer made everything look like fake CGI.
As with everything, flash ambient blending, can be done overdone. Purely lumosity blending doesnt do much for color control, when there are a ton of color casts, even with lights turned off
Great video. After the first set it was easy to spot which technique was used, but I was surprised to find that I preferred the hand-blended HDR photos over flambient.
Great info, thanks for taking the time to compare. I’m just starting with real estate photography and your videos have helped a ton. Thanks!
I picked 2 HDR and one flambient image. I prefer the HDR when its done right and it seems like a much easier process and not as time consuming on the job.
Thank you for this video. Great to see the comparison between all 3 methods as an aspiring RE photographer. My choices happened to be hand blended HDR, with flambient a close tie on one photo. Auto HDR definitely results in the worst quality in these examples, though I'd think presets could help. Flambient seems the most time consuming overall and most expensive with results that aren't noticeably better to make it worth the extra time and expense over hand blended HDR.
I think auto merge HDR images would improve with the artificial light off. Great video, thanks!
Love your videos. Very helpful and informative! Please keep 'em coming.
This is a very useful video. I shoot with the A7Riv. Which has 15 stops of dynamic range. I already asked a few photographers who do Flambient or HDR only. Which is best. No reply tho. I did invest in flashes. But most of the time I do HDR and blend it by hand. Its faster. I do use the flash to blow out a window. Or catch a very dark corner.
Consistently picked the Flambient examples; these seemed to give a better balance on all facets all round from shadows to saturation etc. I noticed the other examples, the background is not as balanced with the foreground; their background appeared slightly less contrasted and washed out.
totally agree. Flambient just gives that refined, accurate, and illustrious look that I feel like makes me want to live in whatever home I’m shooting.
It’s like the difference between flash+exposure blends and natural light images for car photography. There is just something so refined and professional about adding this clean light to the subjects.
Omg literally was searching for a video on this yesterday
Same here!
For interiors, and as long as you don't go overboard with HDR, HDR has an advantage of taking away the light shining up at the ceiling look. Flambient can be better for color balance, but it does have an unnatural look that isn't the same as what you'd experience being in the room.
As a real estate photographer for one specific group, while also doing social media and marketing, the speed of an auto blend HDR image simply can’t be beat. I want to try hand blending for my next shoot, assuming that it is not too many pictures. I don’t want to get bogged down in one shoot for a day and a half and not like the results.
What software do you use for auto merge HDR?
Very well thought out video and quite accurate.
Hand Blended seems definitely better to me. The Falmbient is a very close second and is probably the better method for most clients. I would think, that it would be good to know and practice the Hand Blended method for higher end clients. You are obviously very good at all three. I am just starting out at this and have re-photoed my small house three times now (proper flash technique is harder than it looks) and have been practicing various methods from different people. Love your detail and your eye for what you are looking for. Thanks for putting this valuable information out there for us am's.
I went consistently with hand-blended HDR, then the flambient. I didn't really like the auto HDR. Super interesting comparison!
I think this is a great video but I would have loved to see a more subtle flambient use. The flambient shots were my favourite but I felt it was too easy to choose them because the flash was fairly heavy handed. Great video mate 👌🏼
Super helpful video! As usual! Thanks! I picked automerge HDR on 2 and hand blended HDR on 1. My biggest turn off was the high contrast window content just looked fake. But that could happen on any technique.
I was able correctly identify which is which and I like flambient the most.
Masking window done right, refreshing to watch even for a real estate photographer!
2 of 3 I picked Hand Blended, with Automated HDR close second. I am no expert but I felt that what drew me to them were the Lights. The Flambient to me was too bright/overexposed with the lights making them to bright and fuzzy looking. It seemed like Automated HDR improved this but at the cost of dulling some of the reflective materials such as the polished stone, metals and ceramics. Hand blended to me was the best of both worlds and the only time I couldn't pick it was in the kitchen.
Really prefer the hand-HDR / Auto HDR for sure, personally. While flash is super helpful, there's the additional challenge of directing off-camera flash plus setting power level to not overpower the room or natural lighting. As someone who's done photography (weddings) over 10+ years, I could discern all 3, each of the 3 times very easily. Good video for sure!
The point of the flash frame is to over power the rooms lighting and natural light. Then you blend it with the ambient frame to taste (which is 100% available light).
In the first, I liked "C" best (hand-blended). I liked "A" in the second, and "C" in the third. I looked at the window frame detail that was not blown out in the first, including the glare of the lights; same in the others. I do freelance and contract work where the latter companies only want HDR because it's more manageable than flambient, where skill and light positioning can vary. But with HDR or "bracketing," you don't get flambient's color correction until you get into post. You also liquidate your camera body, at 3 or 5 shots per angle, instead of flambient's 2, but that's another topic! So when freelancing, I'm standing like the Statue of Liberty (using an AD200 instead of her torch) flashing and getting better results.
I guessed every one correct with the exception of swapping the auto vs. manual HDR in the 2nd set. My preference is auto-HDR. I can pick out the flambients right away because the whites are 100% desaturated, which I think looks unnatural and "cold", IMHO. The warm yellows of incandescent light add a warm, "homey" feeling, IMO. To each their own, and I am enjoying and learning from the videos!
I agree hand blended HDR seems the best option of the 3 overall. It happened to be my choice when comparing his photos. I dislike the cold color cast and flash reflections of the flambient, though it does seem to result in slightly richer colors and contrast.
Thanks! This was super helpful and really answered things for me. Hand blended HDR 1 / Flambient 2. But...they were close in both cases. So I think I'll go with Flambient for high-end jobs, or jobs where the lighting is difficult anyway, and hand blended HDR for the rest, just because it is much faster to shoot.
Pretty much my own philosophy as well!
I picked all 3 for different scenarios. Hand done has potential to be the cleanest looking
Auto HDR had color cast, hand blended had clean contrast lines between colored walls etc, flambient had an overall clean natural look to it.
I picked the Hand-Blended 3 of 3. FYI my choice was based on cleaner lines, softer glare and warmer feel.
Another question..the LR HDR merges were all using that plugin you mentioned? Enfuse? so the images look worse when merging in lightroom without that plugin ?
The end result is similar but that plug-in gets you closer to the end result right off the bat. My LR merges are always super dark after merging. It’s just a bit annoying and I find the plug-in does a better job overall
Picked the hand blended every single time. After the 1st one I could tell right away which was the auto merge
I liked the flambient for it’s consistent colors. It shows on the ceilings.
I could detect all three and I consistentently preferred the hand blended HDR
With auto HDR it was clear to see this picture. Compare flambient and manual HDR was harder. They are very similar but I was able to pick the right one. I prefer flambient but in some situations it is better to do manual hdr blending
I preferred HDR auto blended, which appeared similar to flambient, however when you see the split-screen between auto HDR and hand-blended HDR, hand-blended looked warmer.
I liked the flambient due to the softer shadows, next was the hand - blended but they both seemed just a bit overexposed compared to the auto-merged.
I really liked the hand-blended HDR, I chose it consistently. 2nd was flambient.
The first two I picked flambient that I liked the best..and the last I picked the hand blended hdr
Great video. I've been facing the same question and this helped me a lot. Thank you :D
It’s easy to tell which is which but i think should’ve put them on screen side by side for a better comparison
Hi thanks for your channel. It's amazing!. i would like to ask you how much power should have, in your opinion a flash speedlight to use in real state photography?
Thanks! It depends on the room size obviously but if it’s a speed light you will be needing full power a lot of the time.
HDR hand looks best to me of what you shot. Flambient always makes the ceiling look way too bright. I've done all three, and am now experimenting with KinoFlo, amazingly smooth light. Basically, Flambient needs a controllable broad light source. Colour temperature through the windows and the nasty cheap LED colour cast are problems that flambient can overcome. Flag off the ceiling though.
Great video thanks. What typical f-stop do you use and iso?
F/8, iso 400 typically
I was actually able to tell which method was used on every photo. I prefered flambient in most shots or the hand-blended HDR. Auto HDR just looks amateurish in most cases. Not that it can't look good, just that it doesn't usually come out looking as natural as the other 2 techniques. I think they are all passable and it really comes down to the price. Flambient may not be cost-effective on less expensive homes and auto HDR won't justify what you likely want to charge for larger budget shoots. The techniques are just like all of your other gear. Know when and why it needs to be used.
I'm a flambient guy. Nice video
It would be interested to show these photos to non photography peeps and see what would be most preferred.
I might be too novice into photography, but until you showed the drawn backs of the Auto-HDR photos, I picked them as most eye pleasant in the side to side comparison
Picked flambient for each.
I'm just getting started doing real estate photography and I'm trying to find my shooting method. I plan on outsourcing my editing and my editor suggested I start doing three brackets plus a flash shot. What are your thoughts on this method?
I immediately notice the HDR shots by the edge of the windows, the view outside is slightly desaturated, and there's a slight hazy feel to the images. The flash always gives a sharper look and better saturation. I usually shoot with the flash set to manual, pointing the opposite way to whatever I'm shooting but bounced back with a reflector just to avoid really ugly shadows and to diffuse. Because of the time available I usually mount the flash on the camera, but in smaller spaces I admit I'd do better with it off the camera and remote triggered. Also if I'm shooting through a doorway into another room the light difference is pretty obvious and I don't have time set up multiple flashes. For me I much prefer the crispness and sharp edges you get from the flash, and because I'd set my exposure to the view outside the window then the view outside looks great, but the images appear flatter.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences!
Wow which software you use to auto HDR process? The result is stunning (partly because of your images source is great)
This was handblended in photoshop, it wasn’t an auto blend
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography the question i asked above had been posted before i finished watching the whole video, so now i know. But for my case & client, the auto HDRs photos in your video are all ready to go.
Recent days, i 've watched some of your videos and found your channel is super helpful and full of knowledge as a real course.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
I think it’s important to note the difference in editing labor between hand-blended HDR and Flambient.
Nathan Cool, as well as this channel, both have great flambient editing workflow walkthroughs that show just how much simpler the process can be when using this method. I think the biggest pain especially comes with masking windows for achieving beautiful looking views. With HDR, you’re looking at much more detailed photoshop work to mask out windows and doors, where as flambient allows for the window pull + darken mode strategy often shown by Nathan Cool.
I think I’d totally trade more time on set for more time editing, but I’m sure there are REPs out there who would say the opposite.
This comment is getting long, but I think there is another very important case for flambient on the business side, and that’s the fact that not a lot of REPs do it. You’re offering a more premium service that instantly puts you above the competition, especially in smaller cities. You become a big fish in a small pond. It sounds dumb, but sometimes, showing up to a shoot with a bunch of gear, lighting equipment, etc, can let your client know that you truly know what you’re doing. This adds to client retention and more word of mouth recommendations.
Thanks for taking the time to comment! I think you make a lot of good points. A lot of people in this business outsource their editing so they don’t care as much about the extra editing time for HDR since they aren’t dealing with it themselves.
A lot of agents aren’t very tech knowledgeable in my experience so I’m not so sure they will care too much about what you show up with as long as the results are good. They also value their time and want to get the job done and get out of there quickly a lot of the time. I just think it’s hard to really say flambient will give you an edge in any of those regards but yes, definitely in the editing department and in the color accuracy department.
If flambient is helping you set yourself apart I say that’s great and go for it. I think it can possibly do that because as you said the majority of REPs are shooting brackets. The question I’m posing is do agents really understand or appreciate the difference? Some might but I’d say it’s a highly debatable question.
Auto merged images always showed a less white ceiling. I notice that in my own. Great video.
Shockingly I guessed which was which and I’m still a newby. I like the hand blended HDR best with Fl ambient second
I liked the Flambient in each shot. The other 2 showed a lot of glare off the shiny wood floor and cabinets. Also any glass that was in the room.
I picked hand blended HDR in each set
Hello.
Sometimes auto blend and sometimes hand is best, looks more natural. Maybe auto blend gets little more points.
Thank you :)
Hand blended HDR always....
I am planning to buy sony a7iii and g master lens 16mm-35mm for real estate photography, would that be great pick? I am upgrading from Canon t6 rebel 😎 lol. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated 🙏
Yeah for sure! You can check out gear I recommend here if you’re interested: kit.co/insiderealestatephoto
Great video. I immediately gravitated towards the auto HDRs. I love my HDRs. I don't have Lightroom, but I have EasyHDR, which gives quite good results. Besides LR, WHAT HDR software would you recommend?
I’ve always used Lightroom really. Not very familiar with any others.
Try Photomatix Pro 6. It's the gold standard.
Do you charge the same for hand blended and flambient ? thanks for the video Mike.
I'm marketing flambient as a premium product right now so charging more for that. That may change though, experimenting with some different pricing at the moment.
i picked different style for each set. So i think it depends on the photo. some look nicer in HDR some are not
I preferred the hand blended HDR and lightroom Auto HDR. How would an in camera auto HDR fare compared to hand blended or lightroom Auto HDR ? Could I get away with in camera hdr as I dislike using lightroom ?
I’m not sure as my cameras don’t do an in camera HDR. I’d imagine though that you won’t get the same amount of dynamic range as you would if you shot the brackets and also you’d be giving up more control being that you can use some of the brackets for window masking and certain things like that.
@@InsideRealEstatePhotography Ok, thanks. My Sony cameras(A600 and rx100) do in camera HDR but not used it much.
This is an important topic. I don’t think you took flambient photos that really popped the outdoor greenery. Please explore this more - thanks
Sure the flambiant is good but the top half is a bit over less contrasted for me, so for this test I prefer AutoHDR since is more equal top to bottom
My eye preferred HDR in every case, 2 auto merge 1 hand merge. I found the flambient to look a little washed out or hazy.
Interesting… I consistently chose the auto-merged image. I can’t say what it was that drew me to each one as I can’t toggle between the images to see everything.
My eyes/taste gravitated towards hand-blended HDR, Flambient, and then my least favorite was the Auto-Merged HDR.
Hand blended HDR images won across the board for me. Much easier and less time consuming than Flambient
Well that depends on time spent on the manual HDR processing. It took me easily up to 30 minutes to process a high contrast HDR image (I spent SO much time retrieving correct colors) while it takes like 5-10 minutes max to finish a flambient one. For me, falmbient more than doubled my earnings by enhancing the postprocessing speed. Also all my clents are talking about gamechanging quality difference. I tried flambient when I was starting to do real estate photography (I actually never used a dslr/mirrorlees camera before), but I failed misserably and went for HDR. After two years of learning a lot in lighgtroom and photoshop, I tried it again and it suddenly made sense.
Agree
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I guess flambient is my personal choice. colors looked better, exterior window colors, no blue cast on the wood floors... even though that's not what the house looks like with the naked eye, it just looks better. I see color casts in my everyday life, walking around, in movies... light color casts is the true representation BUT that is not what moves houses. Flashy fakery is what agents seem to want. Plus it's more visually pleasing.
Could always tell the flambient image had a ton more flat light. I gravitated towards the auto HDR method
All look good.
Hand blend Hdr look more natur for eyes. Flambient really unnature for me. Thanks
On all three, i preferred the hand blended HDR...I thought I'd prefer flambient....
Where did you get that sling for your AD200pro Strobe?
Hey! Here's the link: amzn.to/332UNPs
I picked one of each..
I consistently chose handblend HDR
Seems like that is the winner based on the comments.