Taking interior photos becomes a challenge when there is too much light to go around but not enough ways to spread it around evenly. On one hand, the room is bright while the windows look like a funnel for rays of light. On the other, the windows show the exquisite view from the inside, but the room has just become too dark now. This back and forth on interior versus the view may lead to a compromising choice to just showcase the inside of the house. This should never be the case with the presence of today’s editing technology. Real estate window masking has provided photographers and editors alike a way to make both happen.
The window masking technique in real estate image editing has come to light to give justice to both snazzy interiors and eye-catching outdoors. All it requires are same shots of photos with varying exposures and you are well on your way into an editing frenzy. In fact, you may be able to perform the window masking technique with just two to three photos that are exactly the samewith different exposures. So why settle for just one? Go ahead and read on to know how you can have the best of it all.
The technique of window pull is available to use for ambient external light that is glaring inside the interior of the property. The window pull technique is a set of different methods to level the light and allow for an even distribution of illumination. This happens because the camera does not posses the range of exposures the human eye can adjust to. In fact, our eyes can automatically adjust to the level of light to make something equally visible as long as it is within the threshold of our optics.
Window masking is different from window pull due to its simplistic nature of doing. The window masking technique will undoubtedly require much less work during the photoshoot and editing. One of the initial requirements of window masking is to have steady photos. Real estate window masking will successfully work with images taken from a tripod. This eliminates the shakiness and ensures that the window’s position will be 100% accurate in the succeeding photos. Another secret to window masking is to shoot in two different levels of exposure. Recall that this technique requires just at least two photos where one is the brightly lit interior with the overly glaring window, and the other one is the dim room with the visible view from the window. HDRs can help bring a wider range of photos to choose from. Using an HDR can give more options compared to having just the polar opposites to work with. In this regard, the selection of how much exposure you need from each photo just got better.
Now that you have the photos you need, jumping into the software to make the magic happen is as simple as one two three. Window masking may be the easiest way that can substitute the window pull technique for its logically easy step-by-step methodology. Follow these steps for a successful window masking technique that you will surely use over and over due to its effect.
1. Open the two photos taken (the bright room with the glaring window, and vice versa) in the software editing of your choice. Most commonly, Photoshop It should Open to new window) will be a good selection. Layer them so they stack on top of each other.
2. Put the photo with the bright room and glaring window as the top layer and the other one at the bottom. This will make things easier as the windows are the ones to be edited and will entail the least amount of work.
3. Add a layer mask. This is an important step to maintain a localized area that you want to edit for opacity. This particular option allows you to select which parts of a photo you want to modify.
4. Use the brush tool or any other tool that can erase the overly bright windows from the top. This should expose the visibly lit window from the bottom layer making the room and view both appear clear. Do not worry if you affect areas outside of the window, it can always be blended to look like the original.
5. Retouch and repair the areas around the erased area. It is almost certain that the erasure will not be done perfectly unless there is a very accurate measurement on what area needs to be removed. Retouching and repairing means to make the exposed layer underneath blend well with the photo on the upper layer. This might entail recoloring some surrounding areas of the window to match the overall photo. It may also mean having to retouch the colors on furniture and walls if ever it was inevitable to hit them. Real estate window masking needs to ensure that potential buyers will not perceive the photo as fake or unprofessional, therefore a level of realistic representation has to be present.
Voila! That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now the overall editing can begin. Once you have rendered the photo to be a single image, editing it for color, perspective, and the likes can be performed.
Indeed, the limitless possibilities in today’s real estate editing technology allows us to perform tasks beyond what we initially believed it could. Instead of compromising, we can now learn to adapt to the thought that everything can be done as long as we are creative enough to make it happen. Real estate window masking is a simple yet effective way to present an interior with a complementing view from the window. Gone are the days when the interior outweighs the view from the window in hopes to sell the home just by mere charm of the room. Remember that the real estate market continues to grow competitively and lagging behind is not an option. Every selling point must reflect the value of the property and the window pull technique is a perfect start to maximize what the home has to offer.
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