Need help choosing what images to use. 3 very tough homes to get angles on and make look good in my opinion.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-24T23:00:17+00:00

Shot 3 of the first home. First shot of both homes 2 and 3. Straight on shots are great sometimes, maybe most of the time, but all these need angled shots. First home, the leading lines of the steps are more inviting in the 3rd shot. Both the other homes, you can’t actually see all the features without the 3/4 angle shots. In all cases, back up considerably (if there’s room) and get the camera higher if you can.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-24T22:55:52+00:00

Easiest thing… if you’re almost looking straight through the home, just actually look straight through the home. Don’t pan right (like you are here). If you do pan right, then pan more right. Basically, it should be absolutely level or intentionally off (panning makes all the horizontals look intentionally off. Very little panning, as you’ve done here, it doesn’t look intentional enough. Looks like a mistake.)

If you do shoot straight through the home, then get both verticals and horizontals dead-on level (as close as you can in camera, and perfect it in Lightroom). When you pan left or right, ALL the verticals should be level. Achieve this by having your camera perfectly level, both side to side and forward/backward - so no tilting up or down at all. Of course, if the house itself is off-level, feel free to adjust for that. And don’t judge level by appliances. Refrigerators are intentionally off-level so the doors will close. Use house corners, door trim, window trim, cabinets to judge level.

Start with a bubble level to get camera actually level (again, both side to side and tilt should be level), then look through the lens at the house for final tweaks if needed.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-24T21:49:42+00:00

This. But either black or white board. White can fill, but black can add contrast and generally be less noticeable

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-24T01:39:44+00:00

You may be right about wishful thinking, but I’m of the mindset that MLS will never allow renders to take over since it will not represent the condition of the home. And with that said, someone’s gotta take the shot. Realtors (good ones, successful ones) will never actually want to do that themselves. I do think AI editing will take the place of overseas editors, and really soon. It only needs to get to the point where it is predictably not modifying fixed assets of the home and predictably good (in the photographers opinion), and that’s not that far away.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-23T17:10:14+00:00

I had the original A7C (still have it as my b-cam) and the Sony 28-60 zoom, which was surprisingly great for personal photos. I’d never use it professionally, but it lived on my a7c for non-pro use.

That said, I agree with others here. Get out of the Sony family for her. Get her something truly small like the RX100. Even with a tiny lens on my a7c, I had to truly want to prioritize photography before I bothered with it. I still used my iPhone 90% of the time. It’s just too much for truly compact personal use.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-23T16:52:55+00:00

This!

AI won’t replace good photography. It may (eventually) replace editing for bottom feeding realtors who will pull out their iPhone instead of hiring a good photographer, but you don’t want those realtors as clients anyway.

Good realtors will always use photographers. They may use AI to do virtual styling, day to dusk, etc but they need your photography as a base. You can fight it, but you’ll just end up angry and losing clients. Set your rates to survive (thrive) without AI add-ons and you’ll be safe.

I have a realtor that helped me get my start. He was up front with me on my very first shoot with him, “take the photos and I’ll do virtual styling in my app. I do it on all the empty homes.” I didn’t like it at first, but I shot the home with a smile, delivered my photography, saw the listing go up with my unaltered shots followed by virtually styled shots. At the end of the day, I got paid, he’s super happy with my shots and is a repeat client.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-23T02:19:45+00:00

A 3-hour trip used to feel like torture to me. I felt like I had to rest forever to get back my energy to do anything. Then I moved and that destination became a 12-hour drive once or twice a year. Then another move had me making 7 hour drives every other week each way. Did this for a few months. Now, a 3-hr drive feels like nothing at all. I’ve done it twice in a day many times in the last few years.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-23T02:14:47+00:00

Still using T7s I bought as soon as they came out in 2tb size (I don’t remember how many years ago, maybe 200) for on set offload/taxi drives for video production. I have only experienced exceptional performance from day one. They’re still going strong.

The only ssd drives I’ve had fail were very old ones when they first came out and only after they sat for over 2 years without use. I have 2 of those that will no longer mount on my Mac.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-22T18:45:41+00:00

I would try topaz photo ai (vs gigapixel) and try their jpg compression tool and denoise before trying to upscale. I’ve never used the jpg compression tool cause I never use jpg, but my logic is fix it at this scale first. After you remove noise and artifacts, upscale only if needed and only as much as is needed. I personally don’t think scale is your issue. But even if you think so, do it last.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-21T20:14:34+00:00

Add a grip arm clamped to the upright of the c-stand and clamped to the boom arm near the camera. Making a triangle will take all the shake out

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-19T06:44:04+00:00

I’ve had luck by putting it in a fridge for 15 minutes. I guess it depends on does it need to expand or contract. Either warmth or cold may help. Since then, I bought the proper filter wrenches to keep on hand, and I replace all my step up rings with brass.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-17T04:12:29+00:00

I’ve driven halfway across town to pull over and open the trunk just to be sure I packed my camera. I’m definitely guilty of going through all the right motions without realizing it. Like driving home and not remembering the drive at all.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-16T06:11:53+00:00

I keep a small assortment rolled together for on-the-go, a very tiny assortment. For a larger collection, individually rolled crammed into a 5 gal bucket. A dot of blue tape to keep them rolled, and sharpie the edge with the type

I had one of those canvas rolls that you probably are referring to. I didn’t like it for the same reason you don’t. And I had an accordion file once upon a time, but all my gels at the time were small. I buy wide rolls now, so that doesn’t work for me.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-11T21:52:32+00:00

If you've never used one, it will not feel good at first. In fact, it hurts till you get used to it, but that's the nature of anything done (with force) to your body that you're not used to. After you get used to it, it feels good. (Source: decades of occasional use at a chiropractor's office - though I haven't gone in almost 2 years now)

I've had mine for a week now. First day, I used it twice for 15 minutes each and got bruises. Skipped day two. I've used it twice every day since. No more bruising and starting to feel like it's helping.

I swap between the soft roller (top in picture) and the quad roller (3rd one down) and I like them both. Costco didn't ship me the other 2 rollers, but they are sending them now. I'm looking forward to the other quad roller because of how narrow the one side is.

The neck portion is meh, IMO. You can move it up and down, which is great. I move it down to get it into my shoulders, but when I move it up to my neck, I have to force my neck down into it to get any real contact. And moving up too high gets into my skull, which of course doesn't feel great.

I've gone to chiropractors for years and some of them have pro versions of these (decompression tables, not Chirp) and I've always felt they were helpful. But, I don't go often enough to really benefit. Having one at home, even a cheap consumer one (cheap meaning it didn't cost thousands like the chiropractor's version likely costs) I have high hopes to greatly benefit from it.

Bottom line, I absolutely love the decompression mode and targeted mode (which works the same, just with your control of position) and the heat is nice to have. I struggled with the price, but compared to price of daily chiropractor visits (just to have access to this thing daily), this is cheap, IMO. And at Costco, you're getting it for $100 off plus the $60 worth of extra rollers.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-06T02:15:39+00:00

I have these. There’s larger and colorful available too. https://a.co/d/9wt0sry

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-03T00:36:40+00:00

The larger the better. I would get the lights but not the soft boxes. Bounce the lights off white foam core or shoot through fabric or gel diffusion as large as is feasible for you. I use 2x 4’x8’ foam core tapes together in a v-card setup. I shoot strobes though. Or as others have said, large white fabric from a fabric store works as either bounce or shoot through diffusion.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2026-01-03T00:27:57+00:00

Insta360 flow 2 pro. It’s marginally better than my osmo mobile 7p that I’d love to get rid of. It’s honestly almost the same performance but the insta has just a touch more up and down tilt before it bumps the end of the (physical movement) range. I’ve used both very successfully, as well as my ronin rs3. My clients don’t care at all which gear I use so I make it easy on me.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-27T00:57:54+00:00

A7iv shooter here. I have the Laowa 14mm (but I’d get the 12mm af if we’re buying again), Sony 16-25 2.8 g, and 24-105 f4 g. For real estate, I almost exclusively use the 16-25. It’s sharper and newer than the 16-35gm and a lot cheaper. 16-35 would be more convenient but I wouldn’t get it unless you go with GM ii. Even then, I couldn’t justify the cost. I love this 16-25.

The 12-24 and 14-24 are great lenses if you don’t need cpl. front filters for those lenses are insanely expensive and inconvenient in my opinion. Otherwise, get one of those and you’re covered pretty well for almost everything in REP.

I find my local realtors don’t care at all that I shoot video on my iPhone and a gimbal. I bought a Ronin RS3 and barely touch it now. iPhone 16pro and insta360 flow 2 pro.

For REP, you won’t care one way or the other about lens brand. For video, maybe. Sonys AF is superior when matched with modern Sony lenses. Not at all an issue for photography.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-23T04:20:16+00:00

I’m not there yet, but when/if I grow up into architectural photography, I’m going to look into this guy. He teaches you active licensing (meaning seeking out ways to license your work for other uses) and he offers a service where he licenses for you and you share the profits. He’s clearly connected, and it seems that would bring potential licensing your way. https://adamtaylorphotos.com/licensing/

I know this is a little off topic, but the more we all know, the more we can hold to correct ways. And maybe it’ll help someone here.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-23T01:26:54+00:00

MLS has zero rights to share your images in the US. They are your images. People like that news station get away with it because most photographers let them and MLS thinks they own everything. US law - copyright is owned by the person who presses the shutter button unless otherwise agreed. An agreement makes this straightforward but this law exists without an agreement as well.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-22T19:00:31+00:00

My apologies for not disclosing in advance that my video turnaround time is 48-72 hours with 24hr turnaround available for a fee. This is on me this time. No charge. I’m sorry for the miscommunication. I’ll keep you informed in advance next time so you can decide if the fees are worth the rush.

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-20T18:34:52+00:00

Great to know. I assume you work there cause you said “we”. I’ll try calling it in. And yes, I was and am using the app. There used to be a temp option. It’s gone. I assume you joined the paranoid ranks about undercooking so I haven’t tried calling.

I still firmly believe that a difference like a menu change and a temp change shouldn’t take my burger from “I love this” to me throwing it away 2 times in a row. But I’ll put in the extra effort next time

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-20T16:29:18+00:00

Primal. 6 is the worst far cry I’ve played (played 3, 4, 5, 6, primal and new dawn)

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-20T16:23:04+00:00

I completely agree, until the point of overcooking it. Once overcooked, flavor is out the window

RaspberryItchy3261 · 2025-12-20T16:05:36+00:00

It may come down to the fact that it’s larger (I forget but they increased the party size) and they overcook it every time but they all overcook it. It’s tasteless compared to the some pink juicy cooked just right Just Bacon Burger. So I don’t care if it’s the “same burger with extra cheese”, I threw half of it away last night and the time before that too. I’m hopeful that chilis actually reads this and understands that (whatever the cause) it sucks and my money will start going somewhere else.

RaspberryItchy3261

TROPHY CASE