Twilight Photography

When you see real estate listings for upscale homes, you may notice something unique: Many of them are taken either at dusk or at night. However, if a lay person attempts to get a good-looking shot at these times, they usually have poor results. How do professionals do twilight photography and get such stunning shots?

One of the keys is the camera system that is used. The other two are timing and skill. It takes a good camera system to be able to capture an image in low light, and filters may also need to be used in order to control the glare from landscape lighting and other artificial sources. Timing is also important for twilight photography. Natural light only produces the right effects for a few minutes each evening, and everything has to be set up by then or the opportunity will be missed.

The skill of the photographer is also key. Professional real estate photographers have taken hundreds or even thousands of twilight shots before, so they have worked out all of the glitches before you call them. Most lay people who try to take pictures at this time have little experience with it, so they miss things like how to set up the camera relative to the waning sun or how to prevent artificial light from looking wrong.

Night photography is another tricky subset of real estate imagery. While there is no natural light to worry about, the matter of artificial lighting is more prominent. It is important to show landscape or porch lights on and running, which means that effort must be taken to stop them from producing glare or altering the photo's colors. Fortunately, professionals are also experts at dealing with the challenge of night photography, too.