I was able to shoot a 12 room house in about an hour or so with on-camera flash; however, I prefer using bounce flash with three to four off-camera flash units for better image quality and reduced post-processing time. The problem is it now takes me three or more hours to shoot the same size house using the multiple bounce-flash technique. Any suggestions for reducing the shooting time with the latter technique?
Now comes the time you get to decide if you're a 12 room/ hour guy or ... well, better and more expensive.... In my experience it's very hard to determine which is the better 'business model'...
I don't mind spending the extra time doing the multiple bounce-flash technique; however, my concern is the realtor and/or their client may not want me spending that much time especially if they have to wait around for me to finish. If that costs me future jobs then is it worth the extra quality?
You're right, there are plenty out there that would rather mediocre photos done in a shorter period of time. These 100% business minded people don't have any interest in the artistry and honestly can't tell much of a difference between ambient enfused and flashed images. It seems like you would be happiest working for clients that appreciate that kind of effort. Not all markets are welcome to this mindset however. It's usually affluent picky sellers demanding agents to step up their photo quality. So hopefully you live in a market with money.
Good points. Hopefully the market can sustain high-end clients that will pay more and the quick and dirty clients that he can knock out in an hour.
I take 4-6 hours to shoot a house and my clients are happy as they used to use guys who would take two days to do the same job.
I start at a much higher rate of course but then I don't feel like I am punching a clock after making several thousand widgets..
A business suggestion rather than a technical one: could you should some rooms with on-camera flash and some with off-camera flash? Evaluate each house and only shoot with off-camera flash for rooms that are both important and where it will make a relatively large difference?
Dave - thanks for that suggestion.I'll give that a try!
You might want to try a BFT with your bounce flash -
http://neilvn.com/tangents/about/black-foamie-thing/
I shoot off-camera flash in houses all the time and usually take no more than 1 to 1.5 hours to shoot a 3,500 square foot or smaller home. It takes a bit more time and often additional flashes to shoot larger homes with bigger rooms. Most homes I can shoot with a couple of SB-900 speed lights on stands triggered with pocket wizards. I mostly shoot full manual exposure and flash since once I get the lighting set it doesn't change much from room to room. Often on the outdoor photos I will shoot 3 or 5 shot HDR but I prefer to use flash indoors since it is much faster and I like how I can control color balance much better. If I get into a big house then I will grab a couple of Einstein flashes or sometimes even two Einsteins and two SB-900's, just depending on where I need light and how big the rooms are. Even on an 8,000 square foot house I usually take no more than 2.5 or 3 hours if I have help from the realtor or an assistant.
Not sure on your exact gear, but a flash trigger with power control from the camera or an assistant to help you reposition the flashes might save you time. I have personally found that reducing shadows in PS is the look my clients want and is time efficient for RE photos.
For some rooms where I don't need to worry about exposing for windows and dealing with both natural and artificial light in post, I use explosure bracketing only. However, for most rooms I take one flash photo and one ambient and merge them in Photoshop. The results look much more realistic that way. Fash only shots just don't look right and result in artificial looking shadows and reflections. For larger rooms I just shoot a long exposure and let that do the heavy lifting when combined with the flash shot. And of course you really can't expect s small speedlight to be useful anywhere but small rooms but rather than seeing up multiple flashes or doing several pops, just get a more powerful strobe.
Tip. For medium sized rooms I hold my light stand as high and as far in front of me as possible, and can cover a lot more of the room than if I point it at the ceiling closer to me.