My Real Estate Photography Lightroom Workflow
Introduction
Ok, lets be honest, there’s a lot to discuss here. So much goes into capture these shots… from composition, to camera settings, to equipment, to image sizing… it can be alot. BUT! I’m here to talk about my photo editing process.
I’m Garrett, a photographer based in Raleigh, NC who enjoys fine art photography, real estate photography, and traveling! Join me on this blog to learn about my photo editing process.
Camera Setting Notes
The first things I’ll say about my photo editing process is that is starts with the camera settings… two to be exact.
ALWAYS shoot in RAW
ALWAYS shoot in HDR (I prefer two stops)
Without these two very important settings, you can’t follow this workflow. It’d be like making a cake but you’re missing eggs and flour.
Lightroom Work
Because I shot in HDR I have three images (all shot at different exposures) in my Lightroom catalog. One Image is at the correct exposure, one is over exposed, and one is under exposed.
HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and it allows us to get a larger dynamic range than what is natively available on your camera.
Lets Merge These Photos Together
You’ll do this by selecting all three photos (using the ‘shift‘ key) and right-clicking so you can see an options menu appear. Go to the “Photo Merge” tab and click “HDR…”
How HDR Looks
Adobe Lightroom will do all of the work and will pop up a screen similar to This. I generally keep my Deghost Amount set to “High” and I ALWAYS create a stack to help clean up my workspace. Keeping Auto Align and Auto Settings checked is also important as it adjusts for any shift you may have had in your images. Note: always use a tripod ;)
If you’re satisfied with the image, then click Merge!
There Very Next Things You Should Do
Go to Lens Corrections and select Remove Chromatic Aberration and Enable Profile Corrections. These are two checkmarks than can be easy to miss starting out, but make significant differences between amateur photos and professional photos. Chromatic Aberration (for those interested) occurs when the color wavelengths in light are separated and rejoined as they pass through a lens… giving you some red and green haloing around edges. Enabling Profile Corrections also tells Lightroom how to adjust for the camera and lens profile you are using, including removing vignetting.
After you’ve checked these two boxes, go to Transform and select Auto. This will straighten your image in multiple directions, which is important when you use a wide angle lens.
Always click these three before you do anything else!!!! It saves incredible time when photo editing!!!!
Now Work Your Way Up
Work your way up to the Detail tab and adjust your sharpness and noise reduction to these setting (Roughly). This is photography… it’s an ART! These numbers aren’t exact, I just go with a vibe of what I think looks right and tells the better story. As a general rule of thumb, I keep my sharpening around 90 and my Masking around 50. Everything else is Vibes.
Minor Adjustment Before Color Grading
I wasn’t totally happy with the way Lightroom delivered the HDR shots (and I never really am to be honest, and you probably won’t be either) so I made some adjustments. I play around with the highlights, shadows, whites and blacks until I get a photo that gives me more detail. This is where I try to capture the true tone of the room when I was there… I don’t want the image overly warm or cold. The lights are often too warm, so I’ll go to the Color tab and turn down the saturation of the yellows and oranges a bit and turn up their luminance to get a nice glow.
Optional: Color Grading
If I’m REALLY not happy with the temperature of the image then I will go into Color Grading and adjust the image from there.
Final Touch Ups
The very last thing I do in my workflow is touching up spots and specks in my image. I unfortunately had a dirty lens, so it required a TON of touch up, but the end product really shines compared to the original photo. I mostly use the touch-up tool and gradients during my last phase in Lightroom.
Final Product
Use the slider to see the transformation!
In summary, my steps are:
Shoot in Raw and set up HDR shooting (2 stops!!)
HDR Merge in Lightroom
Remove Chromatic Abberation
Correct Lens Profile
Auto Transform the image
Sharpen / Reduce Noise
Adjust color, temp, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks
Color Grade if Needed
Touch up using the touch-up tool and gradients.
I hope this helps, and be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date on new videos, blogs, and tutorials!
Cheers!
-Garrett
