Photography Guide

When I photograph a home, I try to maximize the light and shadows. The better the reference I start with, the better the final painting will be. Here are some photography tips:

Ideally, use a regular camera in addition to your phone
I usually use a point-and-shoot camera in addition to using my phone when I photograph a home. All camera lenses tend to distort the image a bit so I like to have a lot of photos to work with. 

High-Resolution
Use as high a resolution as you can. I set my camera to it’s highest resolution of 4000 x 3000 dpi. The higher the resolution, the more detail that can be picked up in the photograph.

File Formats
JPG and TIFF are most commonly used.

May to November
In most cases, the best time to photograph your home is from mid-May through mid-November. In the Northeast, the overall landscape tends to be a bit gray between December and early-April. Then again, shots after a fresh snow can also be beautiful.

Sun
Don’t even bother picking up the camera on an overcast day. Really, just don’t. The main elements that make an image interesting are light, shadow, and color. If the weather is overcast you have no light, no shadows, and muted color at best. Wait for the next sunny day.

Too Close
Photographing your home from too close up will create a very distorted image. Start at the end of the driveway and take some shots then move in ten feet and take a few more.

Drama
Determine the most dramatic view. I normally start at the end of the driveway and walk around until I determine the best view. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’ll photograph a home at a slight angle. You’ll see on my website that I have very few paintings that are straight on. In my opinion, when a home is shot straight on it may look great in a photo, but it tends to flatten out in a painting.

Multiple Photos
Always take multiple photos. After I find the optimal viewpoint, I take two or three shots. Then I’ll move left or right by about six feet and take three more, then another six feet and get three more shots. It’s always better to have more shots to choose from. I usually reference a few different photos when I paint. One photo may contain more detail than another.

Zoom In
Zoom in on some important details. Having detailed photos always helps. I always take close up shots of the front entrance way and front flower beds. In some cases, I might zoom in on an upstairs window if I see an interesting reflection from the surrounding trees or sky.

Different Times
Shoot your photos at different times during the day. The morning and late afternoon light tend to provide the most dramatic light and shadows. That said, depending on how your home is situated, the light and shadows may be best between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm. The surrounding foliage may also affect what time you photograph your home.

Different Days
Shoot your photos on different days. After you’ve taken some shots, wait two weeks and take some more. I’ve gone back and photographed some homes as many as four or five times over the course of two months. Trees and flowers bloom at different times. Even though it isn’t factually accurate, the final painting may show everything “in bloom.”

Northern Exposure
If the front of your home faces directly north, you most likely don’t get any direct sunlight, therefore any shadows will be indirect. If no significant shadows strike the front during early-morning or late-afternoon, try shooting mid-day. The mid-day light may provide the best color on the front of your home.

Sending Your Photos
High-resolution photos are too large for email. If you have cloud storage on a service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, Amazon, or Box, you can upload your photos and email me a link. There are also file transfer services such as Hightail and WeTransfer that you can use to send the files. Please contact me about the best way to send me your photographs.

Questions
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.