Flash vs HDR Outsourcing for Real Estate Photography
I have attempted and delivered severtypes of edits in my photography career. Currently, I am using outsourcing. Let me explain why.
1. Flash
The purists and best quality producers in the game will point you in this direction. And for good reason.
I agree with them, but this quality comes at a cost, time. Time is the most important resource in the world. This method of real estate photography is by far the most time consuming.
This method takes more time on site because you have to compose at minimum one flash shot into each angle, and for large rooms, several flash frames.
The editing for this style is the most time consuming as it involves hand blending each of the exposures in photoshop. A skill that will take you many many hours to become proficient at.
If you want to be able to charge top dollar for your work, this is the method for you. Just be sure to calculate your time into your decision. I highly recommend Nathan Cool’s books and YouTube channel if you would like to learn more on this method.
2. HDR Outsourcing
I started using this method 4 years into RE photography. It works the best for my business. It saves myself and my clients time.
I can set my camera to aperture priority and bracket at +-2 EV intervals and then I only have to worry about composition.
I am not exaggerating when I say that I can get through a standard 2,000 SQFT home 3-5 times faster just bracketing as I go vs lugging a flash around.
The time saved substantially increases the larger the home is.
Can you tell how much I love saving time? Well it only gets better from here. With this method, you get home, upload your pictures to the cloud, and call it a night. With flash photography, the real work doesn’t even start until you get home and power up the computer.
The obvious con is cost. Most quality editors charge anywhere from $1-3 per image. The question you have to ask yourself, “How much is my time worth?”.