Balboa Island Luxury Real Estate Photographer

Newport Beach Interior Design Photography

Photographed with #‎SonyAlpha, α7S, FE 24-70mm f/4 Z OSS, FE 16-35mm f/4 Z OSS and, Neewer TT850 flashes, Enduro Carbon CT314 tripod and Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head
Last week, started a project with Tracy Troop from the Troop Group photographing one of her Balboa Island interior design projects. This is one of several homes in the Newport Beach areas she’s done the interior design for. And, the first in a series to update her website. A complete remodeled Balboa Island two story home with simple lines, wood accents and Spanish influences.
How This Image Was Created
My gaol whenever I’m hired to create luxury real estate photography and interior design photography for a client is to keep things looking natural. Keeping things looking natural and real, being able to bring out the subtleties of texture and color in an interior design job means having to use lights, without looking like you’ve used them. In the case with the first images below….an umbrella was positioned outside the window {camera right} to simulate more light coming in the window. This was necessary to push light into the book case to the left of the fire place. Two other lights with 30″ bounce umbrellas were positioned camera right and left to push light into the scene. Due to the harsh window light coming through the windows camera left, two exposures where made. One with the blinds on that side drawn, another with them up. This was so that the striped chairs didn’t have harsh hot spots on them. The two images were seamlessly composited in post. Finally the fire was added to the fire place in post too. More time consuming? More painstaking post production? In both cases a resounding YES. But the results are worth it.

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Great care is taken when lighting the kitchen. Often the most complex shoot of any luxury real estate and interior design photography. Why? Its due to the surfaces: glass, windows, stainless steel, reflective wood and marble or granite counter tops. One umbrella is placed outside the window, one on the floor to illuminate the cabinets behind the island, and finally two more umbrellas, camera right and left. Finally during post production, each window pain is painstakingly composited in Adobe Photoshop. The reason the compositing is necessary is if I had raised the interior ambient to match the exterior ambient the kitchen would have been over lit at the expense of properly exposing the windows.

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Great care is taken when lighting the kitchen. Often the kitchen is the most difficult element of a luxury real estate photography shoot or interior design shoot. And it typically takes that longest of any room to shoot. Why? There are so many reflective surfaces: windows, marble or granite counter tops, the glass in the microwave and ovens, stainless steel and reflective wood surfaces. A 30″ bounce umbrella is placed outside the window to push light onto the counter top near the sink and the vertical cabinets. Two more 30″ bounce umbrellas are placed camera L and R to illuminate the foreground and finally a bare flash is placed on the ground and bouncing off a white card behind the island to illuminate the counter draws. During post production, each windowpane is painstakingly composited in Adobe Photoshop. I could have raised the interior ambient to match the outdoor ambient, but in doing so the kitchen would have been over lit.