Rockin' the House

We have talked before about using small-flash lighting to improve your interior shots. The very first On Assignment was about using a single, off-camera flash to totally amp an interior shot. We also did an OA using three flashes to sculpt a large interior with light.

There was also a unit on interior photography in last summer's Lighting Boot Camp: Assignment | Results

But many of you are way past the Boot Camp stuff now. In fact, several Strobist readers are even doing high-end real estate photography as a primary or supplementary income source.

Take, for example, long-time reader Scott Hargis, whose shot is featured above. He was featured on the site Photography for Real Estate. In the article, he walks you through the small-flash lighting techniques he uses to get such nice stuff with just a few small flashes.

And nice stuff it is -- you can see more of Scott's recent stuff here.

All it takes is a look through your Sunday paper to see the steaming pile of utter crap that passes for typical real estate photography in most areas. I'd think there would be a market just about anywhere for a light-savvy, enterprising young off-camera flasher. (Maybe not if you are in Scott's neck of the woods in San Francisco. He's knocking the cover off of the ball.)

Not to say that there are not hurdles involved. There is a great discussion over on the Flickr threads about how best to educate clients that the good stuff is worth more than the steaming crap. All the usual suspects are showing up: Quality, perceived quality, money, psychology, "days on market," etc. Interesting read.

Last but not least, there is also a Real Estate Photography group on Flickr. Worth reading, whether you are doing this as a career or just wanting to improve your interior shots a bit. You can share advice with people about shooting interiors, whether for Real Estate purposes or not.

Are you using small flashes off-camera for real-estate photography? Post a link in the comments to show us your stuff.