Lighting a House for Real Estate videos

musicsmith

musicsmith

Member
Hey all,
I have started doing some Videos for a local Realtor. They are really just panning around a room, nothing spectacular yet. The problem that I have is obviously windows and a mix of Indoor and Outdoor light. The Windows are totally blown out if I expose for the room, not to mention the blue tinge when I try and balance for Tungsten.

The problem is that I don't typically have enough time to properly light the room or area in the house. I have thought of putting ND on the windows and this will work but will also be time consuming. My thoughts are to bring some powerful daylight CFL's and blast the room as much as possible so I can stop down and get some outside through the windows in the shot as well.

I usually need to be finished with a house in under 2 hours so it has to be quick. Any suggestions would be appreciated. These aren't cinematic masterpieces so keep that in mind. A good balance between quick and good.

Thanks!
 
I've shot some commercials for condos, and what I do is open up all the windows to use as much natural light as possible, even using shinyboards to bounce light in from outside and fill the room with light. I also swap out every tungsten bulb for daylight CFLs and light with practicals. No need to do the whole house, just each room at a time. Then if need be, I blast one or two 1k open-face lights with full CTB onto the ceiling. End result looks bright and airy. Clients love it, and yes it was under 2 hours.
 
Ya - real estate lighting is about as boring as it gets! Like J said, bounce something into the ceiling, 1/2 or full gell on it. Can't afford a Mole-Rich Mighty mole, use work lights. Nice and even, nice and flat. Nice and boring, it's about the rooms.

Good Luck
 
I would use soft or bounced light (as it has already been said, bounced in the ceiling) and try to bring up the leves in the most important part of the room, I would also try to get as much color an brightness as possible because, usually, real state videos are colorful and really bright, no dim areas.

Try to think like the client, what would you like to see? (this is really difficult because nobody thinks the same)
 
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I think I will pick up some of the Cool Lights Soft Box Kits for 5600k. Those will work nice for lighting the rooms and Agent when they want their on screen appearances. Real Estate vids aren't super exciting but they will be great day work for when my kid is in school and I will still be home in time to Jam out on some Rock Band after 3 :) Money isn't half bad either considering I don't have to travel to the city.
 
Unless you've got a large budget and lots of time, you really can't properly light a home for a video. I do real estate videos all the time, and I just use the natural lighting. You have to do them quick, and keep the price down or there is no business. So there's a quality/ price sacrifice there. But I need to be in and out in an hour or less, and setting up lighting, etc. ain't gonna happen!
 
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