Ben Herrmann
Veteran Member
Hi folks:
As some of you know, periodically I am tasked with photographing new homes - mostly model homes for various builders. This past Friday I was asked to photograph a group of luxury townhomes - known as the Courtyard Homes of Wakefield Plantation, which is located North of Raleigh. These homes range from the 400's through 700's (USD - in thousands), and have square footages ranging from 3000 to 4500.
To be quite honest, I had never considered living in a townhome or condo for that matter, but after seeing and photographing these gorgeously constructed homes (images in the next post), I have done a complete turnaround opinionwise. These homes are built to last and their luxury features will just knock your socks off. I wouldn't hesitate at all to live in one of these - but of course, they are out of my price range for obvious reasons.
As usual, I only use the E330 w/11-22 zoom to capture architectural scenes. I use one FL-50 flash purely in bounce mode. All interior images were shot in manual mode (usually 1/125 and f6.3 to f8). The FL-50 (with Stofen Omnibounce cap) was used in TTL mode and flipped up for bounce capabilities. All images shot in RAW, converted with Silkypix Developer (which BTW, is superb for E330 ORF's), and resized for web using Irfanview (in batch resize mode). Frames were added using IDFramer software (in batch framing mode).
Outdoor scenes were shot at ISO 200, while indoor scenes were shot at ISO 400. White was purely in AWB. The outdoor lighting was not condusive to the type of scenario I had hoped for, but I made the best of it.
What I hadn't prepared for was that this particular shoot provided me with a major problem. When I arrived, I was taken aback that these particular luxury town-homes had an unusual amount of windows and as is the case with most builder model homes, no window dressings were employed to hide or diffuse the exceptionally bright sun coming through the windows. As a result, I had to do some serious exposure calculations - trying to keep as much detail of the outside areas, while balancing the indoor scenarios. In some instances, however, the sun was so intense (coming through the windows) that I could barely achieve that proper balance between indoor and outdoor lighting.
Again, I am so thoroughly impressed with the E330 and 11-22 combo. I used live view "A" the entire time as it allowed me to put the tripod in a corner (a place where I could not possibly look through the viewfinder) and obtain shots that would normally be unobtainable.
And again - short of going to the E-3, for those you still pondering about picking up an E-330, don't hesitate because at these give-away prices (at Cameta or a few other places), this camera's price/performance ratio is too high to ignore. I know that if you failed to pick up one of these cameras while you still can, you will be terribly disappointed for not doing so.
All images on the next post - but beware, there are quite a few of them.
My hats off to this builder (Comstock Homes) for doing a superb job showcasing these models (and no, I have nothing to do with this neighborhood or these homes).
As always - good shooting....
Ben
As some of you know, periodically I am tasked with photographing new homes - mostly model homes for various builders. This past Friday I was asked to photograph a group of luxury townhomes - known as the Courtyard Homes of Wakefield Plantation, which is located North of Raleigh. These homes range from the 400's through 700's (USD - in thousands), and have square footages ranging from 3000 to 4500.
To be quite honest, I had never considered living in a townhome or condo for that matter, but after seeing and photographing these gorgeously constructed homes (images in the next post), I have done a complete turnaround opinionwise. These homes are built to last and their luxury features will just knock your socks off. I wouldn't hesitate at all to live in one of these - but of course, they are out of my price range for obvious reasons.
As usual, I only use the E330 w/11-22 zoom to capture architectural scenes. I use one FL-50 flash purely in bounce mode. All interior images were shot in manual mode (usually 1/125 and f6.3 to f8). The FL-50 (with Stofen Omnibounce cap) was used in TTL mode and flipped up for bounce capabilities. All images shot in RAW, converted with Silkypix Developer (which BTW, is superb for E330 ORF's), and resized for web using Irfanview (in batch resize mode). Frames were added using IDFramer software (in batch framing mode).
Outdoor scenes were shot at ISO 200, while indoor scenes were shot at ISO 400. White was purely in AWB. The outdoor lighting was not condusive to the type of scenario I had hoped for, but I made the best of it.
What I hadn't prepared for was that this particular shoot provided me with a major problem. When I arrived, I was taken aback that these particular luxury town-homes had an unusual amount of windows and as is the case with most builder model homes, no window dressings were employed to hide or diffuse the exceptionally bright sun coming through the windows. As a result, I had to do some serious exposure calculations - trying to keep as much detail of the outside areas, while balancing the indoor scenarios. In some instances, however, the sun was so intense (coming through the windows) that I could barely achieve that proper balance between indoor and outdoor lighting.
Again, I am so thoroughly impressed with the E330 and 11-22 combo. I used live view "A" the entire time as it allowed me to put the tripod in a corner (a place where I could not possibly look through the viewfinder) and obtain shots that would normally be unobtainable.
And again - short of going to the E-3, for those you still pondering about picking up an E-330, don't hesitate because at these give-away prices (at Cameta or a few other places), this camera's price/performance ratio is too high to ignore. I know that if you failed to pick up one of these cameras while you still can, you will be terribly disappointed for not doing so.
All images on the next post - but beware, there are quite a few of them.
My hats off to this builder (Comstock Homes) for doing a superb job showcasing these models (and no, I have nothing to do with this neighborhood or these homes).
As always - good shooting....
Ben
