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Real Estate Photography: The Complete Guide

18 Oct

The post Real Estate Photography: The Complete Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Borland.

real estate photography a guide

Do you want to capture beautiful, eye-catching real estate photos?

You’ve come to the right place.

Real estate photography might seem difficult and even high pressure, but with a little know-how, you can start creating outstanding images right away.

I’ve spent plenty of time learning the ins and outs of real estate and house photography, and today, I’d like to pass that knowledge on to you. So if you’re ready to learn how to photograph houses like a pro, then let’s dive in, starting with:

Real estate photography: key camera equipment

To get started with real estate photography, you’ll need a few basic items:

  • A camera
  • A wide-angle lens
  • A tripod

Your camera should allow you to add a cable release, a flash, different lenses, and wireless triggers. For cropped sensor cameras, a lens around 10-22mm or 12-24mm is perfect, and for full frame sensor cameras, a lens around 16-35mm will do the job.

Tilt-shift lenses help avoid converging vertical lines such as wall edges and door frames. There are a handful of tilt-shift lenses available, but while these lenses are wonderful to use, they are fixed focal length. So if you need more flexibility, a 16-35mm zoom lens is a great alternative (or companion) to a tilt-shift lens.

real estate interior

This image shows diverging vertical lines, seen best by the edge of the fireplace, from using a 16-35mm lens tilted down to add foreground and minimize ceiling.

Now, real estate shooting techniques can get pretty complex, from exposure blending, HDR, wireless flash, to light painting with multiple exposures. No matter your shooting style, the camera should not be moved (to guarantee image alignment of multiple exposures). The camera’s self-timer, a cable release, or wireless triggers help ensure no camera movement. Certain apps will also triggers the camera and provide a preview of the photo on your smartphone or tablet.

The best lighting for exterior real estate photos

exterior real estate photography

The first image a potential buyer (usually) sees when reviewing properties online is an exterior photo, so you must capture a beautiful outdoor shot. A big part of this is lighting, so you’ll need to carefully choose your time of day and lighting quality.

But what type of lighting is best for real estate photography?

Most exterior house photography benefits from lighting early and late in the day, when the light is soft and golden. The sun direction is also important, so you’ll want to use an app such as PhotoPills to determine the sun’s progression prior to the photo shoot. In general, aim to photograph with light hitting the front of the home, like this:

exterior real estate photography

In winter, some south-facing homes never have the sun hitting the front of the house. In such situations, I highly recommend keeping the sun at your back, even if it means shooting the home from an angle.

sidelit house

If you don’t like the result you get with morning or afternoon light, you might consider shooting on an overcast day. Cloudy skies can eliminate problems with the sun’s position, but discuss it with your client first, because white skies can lessen the impact of an otherwise great exterior image.

Also, if you’re struggling to find a good time to shoot the house during the day, you have one more option:

The dusk/dark technique, which gets you photos like this:

The dusk/dark technique

Simply head to the house around sunset and choose the best angle to showcase the home, ignoring the ambient light. Turn on all the lights or even add lights to the rooms; then wait until after sunset, when the sky’s exposure balances the room lights’ exposure. That’s when you can create a beautiful, pro-level image!

Getting started with interior photography: composition

After you’ve shot some stunning exterior shots, you’ll need to get on with the interior real estate photos. This can be tedious, but it’s essential you approach the task with care.

Homes come in all shapes, sizes, styles, and conditions. You want the house to look as good as possible, so I recommend you send your clients a task list for prepping the home prior to the photo session.

Once you’ve arrived, photograph the main rooms: the living room, kitchen, dining area, master bedroom, and master bath, all of which are “must shoot” rooms. There could also be a library, office, large walk-in closet, and more. The client can often tell you what they deem important; don’t be afraid to ask.

The master bathroom

The master bathroom!

Once you’ve entered a room and are preparing to take a photo, seek out the best perspective. I like to use indoor elements – furniture, windows, and room layout – to create visual flow. I generally try to avoid including a large element in the foreground that prevents the eye from flowing through the room.

interior real estate photography

This is the first test shot I took of this room. The foreground chair blocked the flow!

modified composition of the interior shot above

By rotating the chair and lowering the camera height slightly, the eye flows through the room more easily. (This image also has its vertical lines corrected.)

Key composition tip: get the verticals rights

In interior house photography, there is broad agreement among clients and photographers: Verticals must be correct! Most interiors feature plenty of verticals, including edges and corners of walls, door frames, and windows, and these edges need to truly be vertical. And wide-angle lenses that are not level (e.g., they’re tilted slightly upward toward the ceiling or downward toward the floor) will make vertical edges converge or diverge and no longer appear straight.

If you use a tilt-shift lens, the problem is solved right off the bat, but not everyone likes TS lenses. So what do you do? How do you prevent converging and diverging verticals from ruining your photos?

One common approach is to level the camera – that is, ensure it’s not tilting up or down – because a perfectly level camera will record straight verticals. While this is a simple solution, it doesn’t always make for the best compositions; a level camera at chest height can cut off foreground subjects like furniture at the bottom and leave too much ceiling at the top. Lowering the camera height will improve this problem, but how low can you go and still have an effective photo?

interior real estate

This image by one of my online course students; Simone Brogini, illustrates this point. His camera is chest high and is leveled to avoid diverging verticals. But the foreground furniture is cutoff and there is too much ceiling that lacks interest.

bedroom

Simone also shot this bedroom image the same way. It looks pretty good, but I advised him again that the camera height might be just a little too high, as the bed and furniture get only about 1/3 of the frame and the wall and windows use 2/3 of the frame.

So what is the perfect camera height? There are many opinions. Some suggest chest height while others suggest door knob height or even lower. I prefer chest height or close, and I also correct vertical lines using other methods, like a tilt-shift lens or the Lens Correction Tool in Photoshop (or Lightroom).

bedroom with perspective correction

This image shows the use of the Lens Correction Tool. The bed and furniture cover 2/3 of the frame and provide a fuller view of the room, plus the verticals are straight!

Real estate photography settings: how to get the perfect exposure

Exposing for interior elements can be challenging, because you’re balancing bright window light with darker interiors.

You can deal with this contrast many ways; one is to shoot when outdoor light levels are lower, such as during or after sunset, or on a cloudy day. Turning on every light inside increases the interior brightness, and if the outdoor brightness is lower, a RAW file can often capture the scene in one frame. Alternatively, you can shoot a series of bracketed images, then blend them together in post-processing.

sitting room

On a bright, sunny day, the room has a dark ceiling, a dark floor, window flare, and hot spots with too much contrast for one capture.

living room

On a overcast day, the interior exposure is quite good, as is the window exposure.

Even in low-contrast lighting situations, I’d recommend you take a few extra shots to ensure you have all the necessary exposures for a great image. First, determine your base exposure, the image that has most of the data centered in the histogram. Then bracket in +/- one stop increments of varied exposures. You may not need these extra images, but if the dynamic range of the scene turns out to be too much, they can really save the day (i.e., you can blend them into a great final image!).

bedroom

Real estate photography: interior lighting

While some real estate photographers stick to ambient lighting, just like a finely lit portrait, interiors can benefit greatly from carefully styled external lighting. Bracketing and blending can manage scene contrast, but it cannot create highlights and shadows in areas that have no directional light – for instance, if you have a dark cabinet against a dark wall, adding supplemental light can bring out the much-needed detail.

Most interiors have two light sources: window light and interior lights. You can add continuous lights or use strobes/flashes. Personally, I recommend flashes or strobes, which provide flexibility when lighting interiors.

Before I dive into the basics of interior lighting, I’d like to emphasize its purpose: to bring out detail, balance the overall lighting effect, prevent distracting dark spots, and emphasize the key parts of the scene. Always think in terms of what the ambient lighting conceals and what your studio lighting will reveal.

Now, photographers shooting for architects or magazines often have plenty of time to photograph a property with finely crafted lighting techniques, but a real estate photographer’s time is usually limited, making flash the perfect tool. You can master the balancing act of using direct on-camera flash to fill in a scene, or you can bounce on-camera flash for great results.

Feel free to take a test shot without flash, then review the image on your LCD and determine the areas that require fill light. That’s what I did for the scene below:

kitchen real estate photography

Here, the only light is coming from a window on the left and the ceiling fixtures, leaving dark areas in front.

kitchen real estate photography better lighting

Adding bounce flash, handheld just to the right of the camera, filled in those darker areas effectively.

Also popular are multi-flash wireless set ups allowing the flash to be placed around a room for styled lighting. Oh, and you might try the light-painting approach, where areas are selectively lit across several exposures, then all exposures are blended in post-processing.

light painting living room

This image uses the light painting approach for a balanced, detailed result.

By the way, you’ll need to be aware of lighting color temperatures and color balance, which can become a problem when indoor lighting (studio or otherwise) is combined with ambient outdoor lighting.

When you have mixed light, such as daylight-colored window alongside tungsten-colored ceiling lights, plus you then throw in a fluorescent kitchen light, you’ll end up with a palette of different light colors in your image. Walls closest to windows will be blue while the walls closest to the tungsten ceiling lights will be amber and the ceiling in the kitchen will have a green tint.

Here’s an image with mixed lighting:

dining room

There is a blue color cast around the window and on the floor on the left.

So what do you do about mixed lighting? Two things:

  1. Do as much as you can to minimize mixed lighting by color-matching your studio lights to the lights in the scene.
  2. Use selective color adjustments in Lightroom, Photoshop, or another post-processing problem to neutralize the unwanted color casts after the fact.

Here’s a corrected version of the previous image:

color corrected dining room

The final image shows color correction, as well as corrected verticals and the removal of window flare.

Providing the client with the final images

Once you have photographed the house and done the necessary post-processing, you will need to deliver the image files. Clients usually request low resolution files for the web and high resolution files for print publication.

Be sure to save your files in the proper file format and size for the intended use. Most online listing services specify their accepted formats and acceptable sizes. I use low-resolution JPEGs and high-resolution TIFF files, then I make a final delivery of the images via Dropbox or a comparable online service.

Real estate photography: final words

Now that you’ve finished this article, you’re ready to rock some real estate photos! Here are a few items to remember before heading out to your first house:

  • You are not photographing for yourself; you are photographing for clients who will expect professional quality work.
  • Don’t get all the best gear; only buy what is required to do the job well.
  • Master the creative side of photography, such as angles, perspectives, and composition.
  • Master the technical side of photography, such as exposure, HDR, supplemental lighting, color matching, and exposure blending.
  • Be careful when processing real estate images; don’t misrepresent the property.

 And above all, have fun!

exterior image real estate

The post Real Estate Photography: The Complete Guide appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Borland.


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How to Become a Real Estate Photographer + is it Worth it?

14 Apr

Real estate photography is often the underdog of the photography world, living under the shadow of the more glamorous photography niches like headshots, portraiture, or landscape. Real estate photography can be not only fun, but also profitable. In this article, we’ll discuss how you can become a real estate photographer and also if it is worth it for you. How Continue Reading
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Halide’s deep dive into why the iPhone 12 Pro Max is made for ‘Real Pro Photography’

20 Nov

Sebastiaan de With, Co-founder and Designer of the professional iOS camera app Halide, has shared a deep dive blog post into the photographic capabilities of Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max, showing a technical breakdown of all three cameras packed inside the flagship device.

In many of the articles we gathered in our iPhone 12 Pro Max review roundup, reviewers said they didn’t actually notice that big of a difference in image quality between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro Max. This came as somewhat a surprise considering how promising the technology in the iPhone 12 Pro Max looked, but without having further information to work with — or a review unit in our hands — it’s all we could go off of.

As it turns out though, the cursory first-looks and reviews didn’t paint the entire picture for what the iPhone 12 Pro Max is capable of. Thankfully, Sebastiaan took matters into his own hands and has provided an incredibly detailed look into why initial reviewers didn’t notice nearly as big a difference as expected and provides a number of examples to showcase what’s actually capable with the new iPhone 12 Pro Max when you use it in a more advanced capacity.

Sebastiaan starts by revisiting the specs that set the iPhone 12 Pro Max apart from all the other iPhone 12 models: a 47% larger sensor, a faster F1.6 lens, improved image stabilization, 87% high ISO sensitivity and a new 65mm (full-frame equivalent) telephoto lens. As impressive as those specs are for a smartphone camera, they don’t mean much without context and examples to back them up.

To that point, Sebastiaan shares the above graphic to show just how much larger the new sensor is compared to the one found in the other iPhone 12 models. While the larger sensor should help with noise, Sebastiaan notes the difference is far less noticable during the day, compared to when the sun starts to set. He uses the below comparison shot to show just how well the iPhone 12 Pro Max (bottom image) handles noise compared to its smaller iPhone 12 Pro (top image) companion. As you can see when viewing the full-size image, it’s clear the photo captured with the iPhone 12 Pro Max (bottom image) holds much better detail in the shadows and doesn’t show nearly as much noise.

Click to enlarge.

Sebastiaan posits that the reason most reviewers didn’t notice the difference in image quality as much is twofold. First, many photos taken by reviewers were done during the day, when high-ISO and larger photosites don’t make nearly as big a difference. Second — and arguably even more importantly — most reviewers were using the stock iOS camera app, which uses various intelligent image processing technology to create the final image, which can soften parts of the image with noise reduction and other artifacts. To see how good the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera was without all of the image processing, Sebastiaan used Halide to capture Raw (DNG) images, which ‘omits steps like multi-exposure combination and noise reduction.’

Click to enlarge.

If you’re wondering just how much of a difference it makes when using the stock iOS Camera app versus a camera app that can capture a Raw image, such as Halide, take a look at the above comparison shot Sebastiaan captured in San Francisco at sunset. Notice the lack of detail in the distant buildings, the muddiness of the windows on nearby apartments and the overall ‘watercolor’ effect that happens when too much noise reduction is applied. Sebastiaan shows multiple other examples that highlight just how much of a difference it can make to use third-party apps capable of capturing Raw images compared to those captured with the stock camera app.

Also tackled in the deep dive is the improvement in image stabilization, which is now sensor-based rather than lens-based, as well as the new 65mm telephoto camera, which offers a slightly longer reach (65mm, full-frame equivalent vs the 52mm full-frame equivalent of other iPhone 12 models)

All in all, Sebastiaan concludes his breakdown by saying the ‘results [are] mind-blowing’ as the developer of a camera app. He summarizes it all saying:

‘It achieves images previously only seen in dedicated cameras, with sensors four times its size. It allows photographers to get steady and well exposed shots in conditions that weren’t imaginable a year ago. It captures low-light shots beyond anything we’ve seen on an iPhone. By a lot.’

That’s high praise compared to previous reviews, but the data doesn’t lie. To read the in-depth dive (which you absolutely should), head on over to the Halide blog using the link below:

The iPhone 12 Pro Max: Real Pro Photography

You can keep up with the Lux team — Sebastiaan De With, Ben Sandovsky and Rebecca Sloane — on Twitter and download Halide Mark II in the iOS App Store.

Image credits: Photographs/images provided by Halide, used with permission.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Select Sony stores in Japan are giving away adorable mini camera kits with the purchase of a real kit

04 Nov

If you’re lucky enough to be in Japan at the moment, select Sony stores will give you a free — and downright adorable — mini camera kit if you purchase a Sony a7 or a9 series camera system.

The limited-time promotion is going on through November 30 at the Sony Stores in the Ginza, Sapporo, Osaka and Fukuoka Tenjin districts. The mini kit includes miniature versions of the Sony a7R II and either a 24–70mm F2.8 OSS or 100–400mm GM OSS lens.

The promotion appears to be limited to these stores, so unless you happen to be in Japan amidst this global pandemic or know someone who is (that’s also willing to buy an a7 or a9 camera for you), you might just have to keep an eye out on auction sites when people inevitably end up trying to sell these miniature mirrorless cameras and lenses online.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Why Buy? Canon m50: A Real Review

05 May

Have you dreamed of a simple yet feature-rich portable camera? Something that’s a step up from compact cameras but still small enough to carry around in your day bag? A camera that will deliver the image quality of an entry-level DSLR without the bulk? Oh, and still be affordable? The Canon m50 mirrorless camera just might be your dream come Continue Reading

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Nikon D750: Answers to Your Real Questions

16 Apr

Whether you’ve just purchased the Nikon D750 or you’re still in the research phase, you likely already know this is a DSLR with an amazing price point. It’s still one of the top rated cameras, even after more than 5 years on the market. Lightweight and extremely reliable, with excellent dynamic range, the Nikon D750 is a full frame DSLR Continue Reading

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RAW Photo Editing in Lightroom: How to Make Your Photos Look Real to Life

05 Jan

The post RAW Photo Editing in Lightroom: How to Make Your Photos Look Real to Life appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

dps-raw-photo-editing-in-lightroom

RAW photo editing in Lightroom is necessary to make your photos look realistic. Saving your photos as RAW files, they will not look like what you see with your eyes. Photos your camera captures look different than how we see. This is especially so in high-contrast lighting.

We can see more detail in highlights and shadows. This will change as camera technology advances.

RAW files are always flat and dull-looking before post-processing. RAW photo editing is necessary to balance the light and color to get your photos looking lifelike.

RAW Photo Editing Edited Beetle

Edited image made to look more vibrant and lifelike from the original RAW file. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Don’t believe what you see

Chimping will rarely give you a true picture of the detail in your RAW images. What you see on your camera screen is a JPG photo that contains less information than the RAW file. This is different for each make and model of camera. You need to use your imagination and fill in where there appears to be no detail. You must also consult your histogram to keep your imagination in check.

You can extract more detail during RAW photo editing than is displayed on your camera’s monitor. Know your camera well and how the RAW files respond when you post-process them. Then you can have a better idea when you chimp your pictures.

What shows on your camera monitor after you take a photo may show loss of detail in the highlights or shadows. High contrast lighting exaggerates this. Learn to recognize the difference between what you are looking at and the way the pictures of it look. This will help you make better exposure choices.

Having presets active when you import photos to Lightroom will alter the images. Otherwise, images import as the camera recorded them. I prefer to have all my Lightroom settings at zero when I import. This means that when I start my RAW photo editing, I know precisely what I am dealing with.

RAW Photo Editing Zeroed Beetle

Original, unedited image showing all the Lightroom sliders zeroed. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

RAW photo editing from scratch

Lightroom has many presets. Some of them come with the software, others you can download and install. Many of them, when applied, will give your photos a somewhat surreal look. You can create:

  • Monotone images
  • Add a sepia look
  • Saturate or Desaturate
  • Colorize, Posterize and Solarize

Gimmicks abound. Sometimes applying a creative preset can enhance a photo. The ways you can transform your photos are endless.

RAW Photo Editing Cool Light Beetle

RAW image wit a ‘Cool Light’ preset applied. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

You can edit to make photos look however you want them to. It’s up to your creative ideas. But often you will want to edit your RAW photos to make them look realistic.

When you edit RAW photos for a natural-looking result, keep in mind how you saw what you photographed. How was the lighting? Was it high or low contrast? Did it have a warm or cold cast? Was it more neutral? What did the colors look like? If you consider the reality of a scene then you can recreate this during RAW photo editing.

Thinking about what you saw when you were taking your photos will help you edit them more realistically. It’s not always possible to remember clearly. This is when you need to think objectively and aim to find a balance in lighting, contrast, and color when you working on RAW photo editing.

Find a balance – what looks right?

Editing your photos so they look real to life means you must find the right balance. In Lightroom, the sliders I use most often to achieve this are (in no particular order):

  • White Balance Temp
  • Exposure
  • Highlights
  • Shadows
  • Blacks
RAW Photo Editing Edited Flower

Use the sliders on the Develop Module to make photos look life like. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

The other sliders in the Basic panel I will use less often. Their use depends on the lighting condition from when I took the photo. At times I will make alterations to individual colors using the Saturation and Luminance sliders. You can find these in the HSL/Color panel.

There are many ways to achieve similar results in Lightroom. The ones I mention here are the ones I find to give me the best results. If you prefer an alternative way of doing the same thing, please share it in the comments below.

Photos taken at different times of the day and night require editing to suit the lighting. Whether the light is high or low contrast will also make a difference. Photos taken on a sunny day require different editing to photos you take when it’s cloudy, or you’re indoors.

Don’t overdo any of the changes you make. Avoid pushing sliders to their extremes. This will help you keep a more realistic look to your photos. Once you start having to max out the sliders, you will find that image quality begins to deteriorate. Pixelation, banding, and other imperfections will begin to appear.

RAW Photo Editing Zeroed Farmer

Zeroed Settings

RAW Photo Editing Edited Farmer

Sliders adjusted to make the photo more realistic-looking. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Contrast and exposure challenges

How well-exposed your photos are will affect the amount of effective RAW photo editing you can carry out. When you have to push sliders to their extremes, it’s usually a sign your photo was not well exposed. It can mean the contrast range in your composition is too broad for your sensor to capture detail in both the shadow areas and highlights.

RAW photo editing has its limits. You will not always be able to make a photo look like what you saw. This is most often true when contrast is high because camera sensors are still more limited than how we see.

Generally, aiming to bring down the highlights and draw up the detail in shadows will make a photo look more real to life. If an image was poorly exposed, in part or whole, it is more challenging to make it look how you remembered seeing it.

RAW Photo Editing Edited Orchid

Hard light with overexposed highlights. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

To avoid this, compose your photos so that the contrast range you capture is within the dynamic range of your camera. If there are very bright and dark areas in your composition, recompose. Aim to have the tone range narrower. This often means taking photos where there’s no bright lights or deep shadows in your frame.

If you can not do this, don’t be overly concerned about losing detail in the highlights, as this is not such a problem. In bright lighting conditions, our eyes will often not be able to see detail on light-colored or very reflective surfaces. We will still be able to see detail in the shadows.

Setting your exposure so you can capture shadow detail will make it easier to edit the RAW photos in Lightroom. This will help you get them looking realistic.

RAW Photo Editing Edited House

Edit each photo individually to get them looking most realistic. © Kevin Landwer-Johan

Think about Lightroom RAW photo editing when you take photos

When you take photos, consider the changes you can make to your RAW images later. The more photos you take and edit, the more naturally this will occur.

Thinking about what you can do in post-production might seem like cheating to some. I don’t see it that way. It’s a matter of working with the tools we have available to us. Modern digital technology gives us opportunities to make photos look more realistic.

When RAW photo editing well-exposed images, you can make them look real to life when this is your intention. Having well-exposed RAW files means you can balance light, contrast, and color.

Have a look back over some photos you have post-processed recently. Do they look how you remember seeing what you photographed? How could you alter them to make them look more real to life?

The post RAW Photo Editing in Lightroom: How to Make Your Photos Look Real to Life appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.


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Photographer David Burnett with his large-format, wooden camera was the real hero of today’s impeachment hearings

14 Nov

Photographer David Burnett (L), pictured in the press pack at today’s first public session of the ongoing impeachment hearings.

As diplomat William Taylor and State Department official George Kent took their seats in the House today to begin their public testimony, their entry was heralded by a noisy fluttering sound, as attendant photographers shot off hundreds of continuous frames on their Canon and Nikon DSLRs. But one man stood alone, among the fray: David Burnett, veteran, multi award-winning photographer, co-founder of ContactPressImages and large format film enthusiast.

The camera is an ‘Aero Liberator’ – Made by John Minnicks, the Liberator is a custom-made camera, which takes 4 x 5 plates. Judging by today’s footage of David using it, continuous shooting speed is limited to about one frame every five or six seconds.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Are Your Photos Safe in the Cloud? The Real Cost of Using these Services

04 Jun

The post Are Your Photos Safe in the Cloud? The Real Cost of Using these Services appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.

Are Your Photos Safe in the Cloud? The Real Cost of Using these Services - Digital Photography School

From professionals to amateurs and hobbyists, to kids just getting started with their first camera, one issue remains constant: how to store photos. If you shoot with your mobile phone, you’ve likely encountered a “Low on storage space” error message at least once. If you use a desktop computer or laptop, there’s a good chance you’ve had to deal with ever-shrinking hard drive space due to an increasing abundance of photos. One option that seems ideal is to use the cloud-based options that have become so prevalent in recent years.

However, if you value data privacy, you might want to think twice before uploading your images to popular online services.

Some are free, but the hidden costs could far outweigh the benefits.

It’s difficult to come up with a perfect answer to the question of whether or not your photos are safe in the cloud because there are so many variables to consider.

I’m going to examine some of the more popular options for photographers. I’ll dive into their Privacy Statements and Terms of Service documents to see what they really do with your pictures.

Hopefully, this will give you the information you need to make an informed decision about where to store your photos.

Cloud storage can be a great option for your images, but make sure you know what you’re agreeing to when you upload your photos.

1. Google Photos

Originally part of the Google+ social platform, Google decoupled this service to operate as a standalone offering in May 2015. Some of its greatest benefits, which also help make it one of the most popular options for photographers, involve storage limits – or lack thereof.

Anyone with a Google account can upload unlimited JPEG files up to 16-megapixels in size, and unlimited videos up to 1080p in resolution.

Google automatically analyzes your photos for people, objects, and locations that you can search for. There are also options such as shared albums and access from a variety of devices that make the service even more attractive. Indeed, Google Photos seems like a no-brainer, and there is a lot to like about it no matter what type of photographer you are. It’s also the default option on most Android phones, so you might be using it unawares.

Google’s algorithms can automatically recognize people, objects, and even pets.

Things start to get a little murky when you dig deeper, though. Google’s Terms of Service is lengthy, but one tidbit that’s worth pondering has to do with the rights you grant to Google when you upload images to Google Photos or store any other data in your Google account:

You give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones.

This means that Google can use any pictures you upload to Google Photos for, among other things, promoting their services and developing new ones.

Google goes on to say that their software analyzes your data, including photos and email, to provide you “tailored advertising” in addition to checking files for viruses and scanning emails for spam.

Don’t be surprised if you upload pictures like this to Google Photos and then start seeing ads for pet stores online.

This gives me pause as a photographer. On the one hand, it’s nice knowing that all my images are automatically scanned and analyzed by Google’s artificial intelligence algorithms. It makes it easier to organize, sort, and search for pictures. But all that information is also being used to tweak the ads I see in my daily online browsing. By providing photographers with free photo storage, Google is also providing itself with billions of data points to help send advertisements to everyone who is using their storage.

Should you be worried?

Google is serious about privacy, and it works hard to limit the ways in which your data is shared with other companies. Its Privacy Policy is pretty clear on how they protect your data from bad actors, but rest assured Google is definitely getting plenty of data from your photos that they use internally. And don’t be surprised if you take photos of your new sneakers, upload them to Google Photos, and then start seeing ads for Nike and Reebok when you surf the web. If that’s fine with you, then go ahead and use Google Photos and enjoy the benefits that come with it.

The sharing options in Google Photos make it easy to share pictures with family and friends.

2. Apple Photos

While not exactly known for social sharing, Apple Photos is used by so many people simply because it’s the default option on most Apple devices, including iPhones. Many people store at least some of their photo library using Apple’s cloud-based offering, even if it’s just to sync with their other devices and not store permanently. In terms of data-mining and analysis, Apple takes a much more locked-down approach than Google, which they explain in their Privacy Policy as well as their Approach to Privacy.

Apple Photos is great for storing snapshots from your iPhone and can be used for DSLR images too.

Apple doesn’t make money from advertising, and all the analysis of your photos is performed on your phone and not in the Cloud, so Apple doesn’t really know what’s in your photos at all.

Whether you’re taking a photo, asking Siri a question, or getting directions, you can do it knowing that Apple doesn’t gather your personal information to sell to advertisers or other organizations.

The Memories and Sharing Suggestions features in the Photos app use on-device intelligence to scan your photos and organize them by faces and places. This photo data is shared between your devices with iCloud Photos enabled.

The downside of Apple Photos is that, unlike Google and other vendors, the free storage option is so minimal it’s almost nonexistent. Everyone with an iCloud account, which you need to use most Apple devices, gets 5GB of storage space for everything, including photos, documents, and other data. That’s not much, and it fills up quickly! Additional storage options are cheap, such as 99 cents/month for 50GB, but that’s a far cry from Google’s unlimited free option.

Apple Photos is convenient and secure, but you’ll run out of room real fast on the free tier.

Should you be worried?

Like Google, Apple is serious about the privacy of your data, but they go a step further in that Apple doesn’t even know what’s in your photo library. They don’t scan or analyze your images in the Cloud, especially not for training their Artificial Intelligence algorithms or selling advertising. However, the tradeoff is that you will run out of room really fast unless you don’t mind spending money on storage space.

3. Amazon Prime Photos

If you pay for Amazon Prime, you automatically have access to unlimited storage of full-resolution photos, plus 5GB of video storage. This can be a huge benefit to photographers of all stripes who want a secure place to store their pictures without worrying about intrusive advertising and data analytics. Amazon also has apps available for desktop and mobile that let you automatically upload your pictures.

If you pay for Amazon Prime, you have unlimited secure storage for photos.

When you upload photos to your Amazon account, they are automatically analyzed for faces, locations, and objects. This can be disabled, but Amazon clearly states that this data is only used for organizing your photos and not given to third parties.

Amazon doesn’t share your photos or any of the data derived from our image recognition features. Labels and data are only used to help you better organize and find photos in your collection.

There are other benefits to using Amazon Prime Photos as well, such as easy-to-use methods of ordering prints and creating albums that can be shared with others. However, as a photographer, you need to know that the Terms of Use specifically forbid you from using Amazon Prime Photos in a commercial capacity:

You may not use the Services to store, transfer, or distribute content of or on behalf of third parties, to operate your own file storage application or service, to operate a photography business or other commercial service, or to resell any part of the Services.

Amazon Prime Photos offers unlimited storage space, but their Terms of Use contains some notable restrictions.

Should you be worried?

Amazon doesn’t make any money off your photos or the metadata contained in your photos, and the security of Amazon’s data centers is as good as anything. If you already pay for Amazon Prime, this option is certainly worth exploring. However, you might want to investigate some of the automatic analysis options to make sure it’s not scanning your images in a way you don’t want.

4. Facebook and Instagram

Facebook owns Instagram and applies the same data policies to both platforms, so what applies to one also applies to the other. It’s so common to take photos and upload them to Facebook and Instagram that, for many people, these have become their de facto storage option for images. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as Facebook lets you easily share your pictures and also analyzes them for people and places that can be useful when sorting through your images.

Facebook and Instagram are great for sharing photos. However, any data that can possibly be gleaned from them will likely be used for advertising purposes.

Since these platforms are free, and used by so many people around the world, it can be hugely beneficial for photographers or casual shooters to store their photos in Mark Zuckerberg’s cloud. Things start to get a little hazy when you start to dig through Facebook’s Data Policy.

We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our Products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content, and message or communicate with others. This can include…the location of a photo or the date a file was created. Our systems automatically process content and communications you and others provide to analyze context and what’s in them.

That’s just the beginning.

The full Data Policy describes dozens of ways in which Facebook scrapes through your photos and the rest of your data. The company makes money from advertising, and it’s clear that they will analyze and evaluate every possible data point in your photos as much as it can to benefit itself.

Facebook won’t share your personal information with advertisers, but upload photos like this and you’ll likely start seeing ads for baby products.

This information is primarily used for advertising and helps Facebook customize the ads and other content you see across its services. However, the degree to which Facebook lets third-parties have access to your information is uncertain. Many recent scandals, such as the Cambridge Analytica data breach, have shown that Facebook clearly has some issues regarding data privacy. However, in recent months, the company has taken a much more aggressive stance on privacy – at least publicly.

Should you be worried?

If privacy and security are your main concerns, I would recommend staying away from Facebook for a lot of photo storage. While things might change in the future, for now, it’s best to assume that your photos are not going to have the same level of privacy as other platforms. You also need to double-check your account settings to make sure that only the people you want to see your photos can view them.

5. Flickr

With its recent acquisition by SmugMug, Flickr has seen a resurgence among photographers. Despite having a limit of 1000 photos for the free tier, it can be a good option if you value quality over quantity. The site has a freemium business model, which means that you can use the basic version for free but pay for more features if you want them. The free tier is supported in part by those who pay for the Pro version, but like a lot of other sites, advertising supports it.

Flickr collects a great deal of information about you and your photos, and its Privacy Policy is certainly worth a look if you want to use the site. They log and store information that you provide them when you sign up for an account, but also a great deal of information in the background too.

We collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our Services, including the hardware model, operating system and version, screen resolution, color and depth, device identifiers and mobile network information.

When you upload a photo with geographical data (i.e. from a mobile device) or manually geotag your photo, we collect the location of that photo. With your consent, we collect information about your location if you take a photo within the Flickr mobile application to add to your photo’s metadata.

Like other platforms, Flickr will automatically analyze your photos using its own artificial intelligence.

Flickr also stores and analyzes EXIF data in your pictures such as camera model, focal length, shutter speed, and more. Like Google, they also use image-recognition technology to automatically analyze and tag your photos. This helps in searching through your images, but it can feel a little Orwellian too.

Advertisers get a lot of data from Flickr, and there’s not much you can do to control it. Flickr suggests that you use on-device options such as “Limit Ad Tracking” features on your mobile phone, but that has nothing to do with the wealth of information the company is getting from your photos. Whether you like it or not, your images on Flickr are being used to help Flickr maintain and grow its business.

One interesting element of Flickr that most other platforms don’t have is the ability to change the license on your photos. While this won’t affect privacy or data security settings, it is a good way to help make sure others use your images in a way that you want.

Should you be worried?

Flickr has a better track record compared to Facebook, but just know that your photos will certainly be analyzed for advertising purposes.

Flickr is more widely used for artistic and creative photos as opposed to family, child, and friend photos.

6. Dropbox

As one of the pioneers in mass storage solutions for consumers, Dropbox has become a good option for photographers who want to store and even share their images. Their free option only gives you 2GB of storage, but that’s enough for hundreds or even thousands of photos, depending on the resolution and size. They make money from selling a service, not from advertising, and as a result, your images are about as close to secure and private as you will ever find.

Dropbox offers a range of benefits for privacy-focused photographers.

Their Privacy Policy states that Dropbox collects some basic information such as file size, time/date stamps, and device information but not much more. They don’t really care what files you store on Dropbox so long as they’re not illegal. (And like other services, they have to comply with court orders to hand over files when necessary.)

We collect and use the personal data described above in order to provide you with the Services in a reliable and secure manner. We also collect and use personal data for our legitimate business needs. To the extent we process your personal data for other purposes, we ask for your consent in advance or require that our partners obtain such consent.

We may share information as discussed below, but we won’t sell it to advertisers or other third parties. Dropbox uses certain trusted third parties (for example, providers of customer support and IT services) to help us provide, improve, protect, and promote our Services. These third parties will access your information only to perform tasks on our behalf in compliance with this Privacy Policy, and we’ll remain responsible for their handling of your information per our instructions.

Should you be worried?

Nope. When it comes to data security, Dropbox is one of the best in the business. You can rest assured that nothing in, or about, your photos will be analyzed, tracked, or given to advertisers or other third-parties. You have to pay to move beyond the 2GB free tier, but it’s money well spent if you value data privacy and security.

Dropbox comes with a price if you want more than 2GB, but it can be well worth it depending on your needs.

Conclusion

There’s never going to be a one-size-fits-all option when it comes to cloud storage. Whatever option you choose, if you do want to store your images online, it’s a good idea to read through the relevant privacy and data policies to make sure your images aren’t being used in a way that you don’t want. There are plenty of options I didn’t even touch on here, and if you have a bit of time and technical acumen, you can even create your own cloud storage options using computer hardware at home.

All cloud-based services have benefits and drawbacks. Make sure you find one that fits what you need.

Make sure to do your due diligence when choosing a cloud service provider. If a free option catches your eye, you might want to dig a little deeper to find out just why it’s free and what they are doing with your photos. Also, if you value security and privacy, it might be worth it to spend some money on a solution that really does work for you.

 

The post Are Your Photos Safe in the Cloud? The Real Cost of Using these Services appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.


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The Real Reason You Need to Print Your Photos

19 Apr

The post The Real Reason You Need to Print Your Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.

Each creative pursuit has its own fulfillment. It is that moment when we can stop and see that our finished creation. A play is written and performed – a score is composed and played by musicians – poems written and then read out loud. The fulfillment of our creative pursuit as photographers is a printed photograph.

When you print a photograph, it becomes physical. A print is the embodiment of the digital file. As a print, it becomes part of our daily physical existence. As a constant part of our life the print comes to play a role in our life, perhaps effecting us in ways we didn’t expect.

Making small prints

A few prints that I stumbled across from my childhood. Each time I come across these memories, I’m reminded of my place in my family as a son, a grandson, and now a father myself.

Coming to life

When something lives in the digital world, it is easily scrolled past, or swiped away and forgotten forever. Digital photos live a ghostly existence.

We experience digital photos like a dream. Just as a dream vanishes when we wake up, a digital photo vanishes as we scroll past it or close the file. But as a print, your photograph becomes part of the real world and a part of your life.

One day I saw one of my digital images – a headshot – on a huge billboard. I was so surprised I had to circle the block just to see it again! I had seen that same image on the internet many times, but to see it in the real world brought on emotions that had never arisen when viewing the photo online.

Yes, “an image is an image” whether it is digital or printed. But a printed image has a different existence – a bodily existence – and becomes part of your world as something physical rather than ghostly or dreamlike.

Printing photo books

Before setting out for the East Coast, I knew that I wanted to make a photo book after the trip. Part of the fun was anticipating the project, then living the adventure as we traveled. But the creative experience was not complete until I had finished the book. A lot of the fun was selecting the paper, the lay-flat style and the dimensions.

Daily life

Consider the difference in the way we normally experience digital and print photographs.

A print is displayed somewhere and might remain for a very long time. However, a digital photo is at your mercy – only viewed on your whim and dismissed almost immediately. If you do not wish to see them, they are gone. A digital photo is not ever-present as a print is. Digital photos count on you to come looking for them.

A digital photo is given a physical existence when printed. When it is displayed at home or in our studio, it becomes part of our daily life.

Display your prints

Most people are quite tactile – collecting books, rocks, and small keepsakes. Our family often brings home a jar of dirt from the new lands we visit.

Inspired and called

When printed, our photographs are ever-present reminders of what is important in life.

Unlike the fleeting excitement that digital photos bring as we scroll past them, the inspiration of a printed photograph is always there to view.

When you’re bored of the flow of digital photos, you shut them off. However, you don’t turn off a print; it is there whether or not you wish to see it at that moment. This is important because when we choose our prints carefully, they can be sources of encouragement when we need it most.

An ever-changing sea of digital images is part of your daily landscape. Images pound you like waves, only to disappear once they’ve made contact. They exhaust you as they hit all day long. You live in a chaotic world where you are most likely to forget what is important in life.

You should print photos that inspire you and call you to a good life. The portraits you hang can remind you of who is important in life. Even the landscape you print can calm and inspire you in tough moments.

Print and frame your digital photos

In my son’s room, there is a picture of him and my grandmother together. It has been there for years. It’s also on my computer. I can tell you the exact folder it’s in, but I haven’t seen the digital file since I made the print. I made the print for my grandmother and received it back when she died. It once reminded her of the joy of her great grandchildren and now it reminds me of the joy of my grandparents.

A stronger experience

While I can hardly recall any of the images I just scrolled through online, I can still remember some of the images in the photography magazines I read as a kid.

When I knew a new issue of Photo Life was due out, I’d check the mailbox every day until it came. I knew the feel of it when I reached into the mailbox. The cover photo would strike me first, then the smell of the brand new magazine. I suppose I did all but taste those photographs!

Imagine the life of those photos. The photographers would conceive their ideas and work away until they had their collection of images. The photographs were developed, culled, and selected by an editor. Once printed, the magazine was shipped around the world. Finally, it would get carried by post for photography lovers to grab from the mailbox or snatch from a newsstand. We’d carry them with us, reread them, and add them to our collection of back issues.

Print versus digital photos

You can close a photo book and put it away, much like swiping away a photo. But a book is placed on the shelf, while a digital photo is swiped away and obliterated into 1’s and 0’s.

The digital world is a gift

Digital photos are important – just as imagination, thoughts and dreams are. But dreams disappear, thoughts are forgotten, and imagination begs to come to life in the real world.

There are many gifts that the digital world has given us. Perhaps most of all the digital world gives us a place to play and experiment before we decide which photos to make real. We have transcended many of the limits of film (although many of those limits may have been healthy for our creativity).

Even though our creative activity is not complete until we have made a print, we don’t need to print all of our digital photos – only the ones that deserve to rise up and become worthy of embodiment.

Create something that becomes real

While there is joy in taking photos and viewing them digitally, our satisfaction is not properly realized until we have printed our photos. A photo that isn’t printed is like a script that is never performed, or a musical composition that is never played. There is still value in the digital photo, just as there is value in a script or musical composition. But the value is mainly the hope that one day the digital photo will be printed and share a bodily life with us – to inspire us, cheer us, and remind us.

The post The Real Reason You Need to Print Your Photos appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Mat Coker.


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