By Athol Kay of Prudential Connecticut Realty
http://reagentinct.com
I held off on getting a tripod for too long when I started off photographing homes. It seemed like an extra expense, an extra piece of equipment to lug about and without a lifetime of REALTOR® juice abuse my hands didn't shake either.
So why bother getting a tripod?
Clutter Control - You can set the tripod up and set the camera in position. Look at the view screen and see exactly what you'll be shooting. Which frees you up to wander over to the couch and move offending objects out of the shot. Sometimes all it takes is pushing something half a foot to hide it. Without the tripod setting the shot up you're always kinda guessing where you had the shot set up if you're walking back and forth moving stuff. Then you get back to the office to edit and discover the can of Flea Killer was still on the kitchen counter and not quite hidden enough.
No Blurring - I did notice I wasted far less time having to reshoot the shots I had botched through accidentally moving. Apparently I breathe heavy or something. Personally I just set the camera to the two second shooting delay option. I.E. you push shoot, then take your hands off the camera completely and two seconds later the camera shoots the picture. No touchy.
No Floating Orbs - You know how you sometimes get those floating light colored circles in your photos? It's the light from the camera flash reflecting off dust floating in the air. Homes with old dusty carpets are the biggest culprit. With a tripod set up you just take a second backup shot once you have everything set up perfect. Takes you about three seconds to do it and dozens of times I've used the backup photo because of orbs.
Protects The Camera - Picking the camera up and putting the camera down seems to be the time when accidents happen. Once on the tripod it's usually out of harm's way. Well... unless you trip over the tripod, which basically assures the camera will slam into something. I strongly advise you not to trip over the tripod.
Okay okay, I know, I know... get to the cool trick.
Okay here is one of my backup frontal shots. I just set the tripod up and popped a photo making sure I had something to work with once I'm home and editing.
This photo is unedited.
And here's the actual front shot we used. It has been brightened up a little and a slight sunny yellow tone added in editing.
But the big difference is simply the angle the photo was taken. It's up higher and really accents the front veranda.
For some reason shooting from a higher perspective just makes homes look friendlier. It also tends to naturally correct some of the problems of converging verticals. Notice how in the first photo the house appears to be leaning away from the camera.
I use the tripod overhead thing a lot. Frontals and decks are the main places.
So anyway... the trick. Just set the camera to delay shooting for a few seconds and hold the tripod over your head. I set the camera for a four second delay and then have the camera shoot three pictures. Then bring it down and check them out. Rinse repeat as needed. It does take a little trial and error to get a properly lined up shot using this method, but the results are worth it. Don't forget you can fix minor rotation and crop once you're in the editing phase.
If you're using the Canon SD800 you can set the custom timer by hitting the "Menu" button, then selecting "Self-Timer" in the menu. You get to select the custom timer for use from the timer menu and it's right under the two second timer. It's cake to do.
