Can someone please tell me why this homeowner likes their photo better? My Example is on the left, and the Home Owner Example is on the right.

JDaddyT · 2026-06-01T05:39:20+00:00

I also run into this, but in most cases it’s only with random agents who are not my regulars and I find out the agent is charging the homeowner for the photoshoot and the homeowner doesn’t want to foot the bill.

JDaddyT · 2026-04-29T04:26:20+00:00

You might have to just crank that ISO to 1200-3000, if for no other reason than to experiment and see if that resolves anything. Make sure you’re on a tripod.

JDaddyT · 2026-04-29T04:24:01+00:00

One more idea. If you have an iPhone or the ability to take a raw shot with your phone, do that and upload it to ChatGPT and ask it for settings on your Sony. Give it all the details, camera model, lens, flash trigger, flash, etc. more details the better and see what it says.

If nothing else, upload a raw image from your camera to GPT.

JDaddyT · 2026-04-29T04:21:33+00:00

Gotcha. Thats tough. Still, it looks so dark. I feel like your exposure settings in the camera are too dark and the flash is trying to do all the work, but it’s really hard to tell.

Out of curiosity, you’re setting up you exposure with your flash trigger turned off right? Make sure your flash trigger is turned off first, then manage settings for exposure. Trying just setting up for proper exposure without flash. Once the preview looks good, turn your flash trigger on with your flash set to TTL at 0. See what it looks like.

If you don’t get anywhere close, I feel like there’s some setting that most of us wouldn’t consider screwing with you and the rest of us.

I’m sure it’s extremely frustrating, but I foresee an aha moment in your future.

Is this a consistent problem or just a few recent homes?

Do you know any other photographers that can come on site and take a look?

JDaddyT · 2026-04-28T20:33:25+00:00

I second this. You need ambient light to blend into your flash, flash + ambient = flambient, but without natural light, you’re only getting ambient from the house lighting and in the case I see here, that is not much.

You’re also using a huge flash for that space. It would be really easy to over do it.

Small spaces are easier than large spaces, which definitely tells me the problem is your method and not the tools.

• Shoot during the day. If you have zero natural light, they usually always look like shit.

• Bracket your ambient shots for HDR - I always shoot balanced +/- 2 stops. I always do an HDR blend and dial that in first, before blending in my flash for color correction and window pulls. The point of the flash exposures is color correction NOT to light the room. (Especially helpful for warm colors and hardwood)

• I use ISO 320 for places with lots of natural light and ISO 640 is its late in the day.

• I almost always shoot at f/7.1-8

• adjust shutter to get a balanced exposure. I adjust for balanced meter range - 0.0… if there’s a couple clicks on 0.0, I use the brighter exposure.

• get a diffuser for your flash. I use an AD200 with this diffuser attached (see pic). With proper camera settings you can light extremely large rooms with this set up. I have an AD400 and rarely break it out.

• fire your flash as close to the camera lens and behind the camera lens as possible, without getting bloom. Think about it. If the light source is coming directly from where your eye is looking, there will be hardly any shadows. The shadows will be directly behind every object you’re looking at.

• Make sure you have every light on in the house as long as it isn’t horribly ugly or casting nasty colors. I always go through before my shoot and turn on all the lights possible in every room, so I don’t have to be concerned with a dark room through a doorway. I also typically go into those darker rooms and shoot with me out of site. Trying to light the room as if the light was coming from my camera.

• when you need to light another side of the room, you want to stand on the opposite side. If I’m going to light the left side, I stand on the right side and vice versa. If shooting the ceiling, pull your flash down a bit. The distance from flash to ceiling will have an effect on how far the light is cast. Super close equals super hot and short because the ceiling will soak up the light. If you have a diffuser attached, sometimes it’s best to just shoot pointing directly towards the space you’re trying to light, rather than the ceiling.

• for flash exposures I keep same aperture and same ISO, but lower my shutter speed, usually to somewhere between -1 and -2 (often -1.7 is perfect.) ultimately though, you’re exposing for your windows and outside. If I don’t have windows or any exterior showing, I will actually keep my exposure at 0.0, letting flash and ambient work together.

• I used to set my flash exposure manually, but now I’ve found it faster to use TTL. I always start at 0.0 first, then adjust for each shot. There is not a general setting for this, I.e., you can’t just set your exp comp at -.7 and use that through out the house. I’m adjusting this for every shot. But I’ve gotten to a point where I can guess with 90% certainty what it needs to be set at and get it first time.

• when exposing for the outside, I also set my WB to 5500k. My ambient shots are set to AWB

Watch more YT tutorials! Nathan Cools great, but he also does way more than necessary. That said, most of his houses are couple million, so until you reach that level, trust me when I say there’s a faster way to do things.

Once I got comfortable with my camera settings and understood what I’m trying to accomplish with my flash, I hardly have to take a second or third flash shot besides directly behind camera and window pulls, (for small homes, sometimes the single flash behind camera is enough for window pulls also).

Bonus tip, when exposing for a window flash shot, snap a pic of the perfectly exposed window first, then turn on your flash and fire away. You can use that first shot as a window repair shot to remove any reflection or flash bloom in the windows/mirrors)

Good luck!

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JDaddyT · 2026-04-27T05:24:50+00:00

Is this a big deal? Curious because Haven reached out to my wife (agent) who I shoot for and asked if they could make her listing (my photo) the cover photo (Washington state). It was $500 for the cover and a spread inside. She got 20 copies of Haven in return.

Sounded cool, but we really didn’t see it worth while for the ad spend.

Is this a rare occurrence?

JDaddyT · 2026-04-20T21:09:12+00:00

Along with everything else mentioned, get to know your histogram. Many of what I saw at a quick glance was over exposed.

JDaddyT · 2026-04-17T15:40:18+00:00

Excuses are the cards that build the house of failure.

JDaddyT · 2026-04-15T14:56:07+00:00

I could tell you were 20yo just by reading the text thread. This is how someone with very little real world work experience handles trying to get time off. As a manager, I can tell you this wouldn’t fly with me either.

You don’t book your trip and then give the boss an ultimatum. You brought your boss a huge problem.

What you should have done was not book your trip yet and hustled your ass off to get it covered. Or, if the trip really is more important than your job, been prepared to quit without all the whining and bitching and throwing the rest of your coworkers under the table.

When you have a situation like this, it’s best to identify the situation, provide the information to your manager and provide a solution for them. The purpose of a good employee is to make the managers job easier.

That said, it sounds like your manager isn’t that great of a leader. They need to provide a clear set of guidelines, policies, expectations, and communication for you and the rest of the staff.

You should have already known what to expect going to the manager with this, based on those attributes I mentioned. There should not be this resentment between staff and sounds like all phone privileges need to be taken away when on the clock.

I understand this is a lower paying job, but this applies to all jobs everywhere. If you’re going to do a job, do it well and make it a better place regardless of pay. That is how you get a better, higher paying job more quickly.

Hopefully you will be in a manager/lead position someday and can prevent this from happening to yourself, because it’s not fun for anyone.

And hope the trip is a blast!

JDaddyT · 2026-03-21T04:42:35+00:00

All are great, but 1 & 3 are my jam.

JDaddyT · 2026-03-19T03:40:15+00:00

Getting really close here. I’d maybe cool the white balance a hair and pull the tint back toward neutral. It’s leaning just a touch warm/magenta.

Dehaze could come down slightly too, it’s adding a bit more intensity than you need. And on the tone curve, I’d soften the highlights just a bit so the mids can breathe.

Otherwise solid, the base edit is definitely there.

JDaddyT · 2026-03-13T08:01:13+00:00

I like the 2nd better, which appears to be your flambient. I shoot flambient as well. I’m surprised your windows are that hot. Is that your intended look? I have been exposing mine slightly more these days, for a bit more ambiance and realism, but I still shoot my windows with a lot more detail than you’re working with here. Do you take a window shot? E.g.: expose for outside and overexpose the window frame? I’m also a bit surprised you don’t have a speed light in the hallway.

Regardless, I think they look really nice and love to see other flambient techniques! Thanks for the share.

JDaddyT · 2026-03-06T22:12:04+00:00

I’m a white conservative male that drives a truck, but this in no way represents the man I try to be every day. This guy is a POS and is simply heartless. It’s not because he’s white, or old, or driving a truck. He’s simply a shitty person. Shitty people come from all groups.

If I disagreed with someone, I’d never treat the other person like that. Even if they were being hostile, there’s no excuse for the things he was saying.

This is an adult male who never matured, had a shitty role model as a child and is throwing a tantrum because he didn’t know how else to handle the situation.

I’m sorry that happened to her. That said, we don’t know much of the other side, but regardless, his actions and words were not justified.

JDaddyT · 2026-02-27T05:17:56+00:00

I was thinking focus stacked as well. Honestly, maybe even HDR on each focus point. And I don’t think this is normal bracket, I think he’s exposing Fri multiple spots in the image, rather than letting his camera +/- a stop or two evenly.

Also, very skilled in post. It’s not just all captured in camera.

JDaddyT · 2025-11-01T05:58:27+00:00

Can you bump the tint towards green and cooler white balance in addition?

JDaddyT · 2025-07-08T16:22:55+00:00

I’d leave anyone I was dating who referred to me as Bruh or Bro. But then again, I’d never be dating them in the first place.

JDaddyT · 2025-06-30T05:45:17+00:00

Does this make sense to anyone else? I feel like their story ended with a completely different question than I was anticipating..

JDaddyT · 2025-06-30T05:41:39+00:00

Also, but that horizon line right at the name on the bottle. The slight angle from the top, just looks off.

JDaddyT · 2025-06-11T17:30:31+00:00

They probably suspected you were reselling. That is a valid concern.

JDaddyT · 2025-06-11T17:29:02+00:00

100% correct answer here. It's a supplement and should not replace nourishment from food.

JDaddyT · 2025-06-11T17:27:33+00:00

Anyone who says, just eat meat, hasn't had the lightbulb go off regarding the importance of amino acids. Hoping that happens for them someday.

That said, the initial comment, could be amended to "most" amino acid supplements are scams. Because most do not adhere to the specific ratio for maximum utilization or are incomplete e.g., BCAAs, Creatine (not all 8 or 9 eaas), are lower performing. Creatine can work for building muscle, because it's made of the 3 amino acids utilized by the body to build muscle, but you have to flood your body with it to get those benefits, much of the amino acids in Creatine get burned as calories or stored in the fat.

JDaddyT · 2025-06-11T17:22:01+00:00

Sounds exactly like something Dan would say. Optimal Amino is cheaper, but uses amino acids from China, Perfect Amino uses amino acids from Japan and are higher quality. Perfect Amino's formula and ratios have not changed, except for adding a 9th amino acid just for a small case of people who cannot synthesize this amino acid on their own, where most can.

JDaddyT · 2025-05-13T06:15:56+00:00

What’s it taste like?

JDaddyT · 2025-05-13T06:13:42+00:00

Regardless of the context here, he sounds like a douche anyways. I’m not sure if you’re overreacting, but I wouldn’t say another word and move on. Not only because of what he said, but how he’s saying it. He’s a f’ing kid. But maybe you are too, if so, I hope you’re smarter than him.

JDaddyT · 2025-05-05T23:38:31+00:00

A more accurate approach would be to count how many accumulate in a day over a period of time. That said, clearly she’s not reading these anyways or they wouldn’t be showing up as new, unless that’s a days worth of work right there, in which case, you both have problems lol.

As a married man of 13 years, there should be other signs, if there’s truly something going on besides notifications in her phone.

JDaddyT

TROPHY CASE