By David Gewirtz
Here at Connected Photographer, we like to bring you information straight from leading experts on various photographic topics. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Kelly Thomas, a Web developer and entrepreneur who's managed to make money from real estate photography. His specialty is setting up virtual tours. In this interview, he tells us how he does it.
David:So, Kelly, you've got all sorts of business projects going on. Please tell us about yourself and the various ventures you're involved with.
Kelly:David, I'm glad you find what we do interesting. I work full time as a computer specialist for a large university and I've picked up a few little Web projects like many "computer guys" in the industry but one is a real business that centers around photography.
"If you are photographing 360 degrees, all at the same time, in one shot, where do you hide the lights?"
I own a company that does virtual tours for realtors. It's called SIHomeTours.com (at http://www.sihometours.com) and I describe it as a consumer real estate search tool where buyers can preview property online. All the photos and virtual tours you see at the Web site are ours, we do not post photos that anyone else has taken on our site.
David:What exactly is a virtual tour?
Kelly:I think of a virtual tour as a collection of images which allow a real estate buyer to preview a property online, in the comfort of his home or office, instead of wasting time making small talk with a real estate agent who's dragging him around town in a van to look at property. Most people think of those spinning images you see online at real estate or travel Web sites as a virtual tour but I call those an interactive panoramic. Or a pano for short.
When we make a virtual tour of a property, we'll typically take from 20-55 photos of a property, both inside and out, and five or more 360 degree interactive panoramic views. It all depends on the size of the property.
David:Explain 360-degree photography for our readers. That's got to be pretty challenging, right?
Kelly:I think it is, even after six years of doing it. 360-degree photography made a big splash in the late 1990s when Apple Computer introduced QuickTime VR. IPIX is another company with a similar solution. The Virtual Tour Machine can use either but the idea is that a space is captured photographically and the resulting images are displayed on a computer screen, usually over the Internet, and you interact with the display window controlling the angle of the view and the level of zoom. This allows the viewer to get a very life-like feel for the space.
In creating a pano often a series of still photos are stitched into one image. But at SIHomeTours, we shoot vertically into a special mirrored lens.
David:Are there light management issues?
Kelly:That's the fun and the challenge of this type of photography. In a normal portrait, you have a rack of lights and flash behind the camera and you can instantly and easily light any scene. But if you are photographing 360 degrees, all at the same time, in one shot, where do you hide the lights?
It's not easy to do and be portable. So you have to be creative and take care to notice which existing lights are turned on in the room and adjust the window shades as necessary. There is some practice involved.
Often in a single room, you'll have to deal with incandescent light, fluorescent light and sunlight coming in through a window. I'll never forget shooting this one house and the homeowner had installed these reddish-orange lights in every fixture and there were only a couple of very small windows for natural light. It can drive a photographer mad.
David:Are there special lenses or equipment that this requires?
Kelly:In a perfect setup, you want what I call a super-wide angle lens. Something equivalent in 35mm format to between a 10mm and 18mm lens. This lens must not be a fisheye and have minimal distortion.
Be ready to spend $500.00 or more to get a good one. I use a BeHere lens for my 360 shots. They are not made anymore but you can get similar lens from 0-360.com (at http://www.0-360.com) and kaidan.com (at http://www.kaidan.com). This is the lens with a mirror stuck on top and when the rig is pointed straight up, it captures the entire room in one photograph. These lens create a real unique photograph. [As shown in Figure A.]
FIGURE A
Capture the entire room in a single, unique photograph. (click for larger image)
Each lens will come with it's own "unwrapping software" which creates a somewhat normal but rather wide JPEG image. Here's an unwrapped, unprocessed image. [As shown in Figure B.]
FIGURE B
Once the circular image is unwrapped, it looks like this. (click for larger image)
The viewing software on the Web site bends the image to remove the distortion you see the in unwrapped image.
Many photographers will stitch to create their panos. Good stitching usually requires precise alignment of 10-12 photos and a lot of work in Photoshop to match the exposure and get the edges of the images align. Lots of rubber stamping is often required for great results.
David:What about special software?
Kelly:Certainly Photoshop is required in every pro photographer's bag. PhotoWarp by EyeSee360 (at http://www.eyesee360.com) is pretty hard to beat if you choose to shoot with any mirror. It supports most every lens and the batch processing is very helpful.
Photomatrix Pro (at http://www.hdrsoft.com) is a big help when you need to keep large windows with incredible views to not "blow out". I understand Photoshop CS II has a similar HDR (High Dynamic Range) effects but I've not personally worked with it, yet.
And there are numerous stitching programs available if that's the path you prefer.
I've found the most important aspect is having a program that creates your Web site easily and quickly. Time management is critical in this business and you need spend time shooting to make this a volume business, not coding Web pages. I use a Virtual Tour Machine from SiteWerkz, written by Scott Slinkard who is based in Cape Girardeau, MO and owns HouseviewOnline.com (at http://www.HouseviewOnline.com).
The Virtual Tour Machine is a one-off semi-custom Web site tailored to your market and brand -- if you have an existing brand. It does everything from billing and flyers, to automatically creating listing pages for every agent and even updating property prices so you'll always show the current property price. It's a Web site that I own and control. It's $5,000 to have one setup and a small monthly fee there after.
David:Are there any special cameras you'd recommend?
Kelly:Yes, this changes seemingly daily as new cameras are introduced. I tell people that at the minimum you'd need some kind of a prosumer camera where you'll have full control over both shutter and aperture settings. I recommend at least 6 megapixel even though I personally still shoot with my Nikon 4500. But my subcontractor photographer started shooting this spring with the Fuji S9000; she seems to like it. I think I got my first digital camera in 2000 when we started, a 1.2 megapixel Sony Mavica from eBay
David:Is taking pictures in empty, unlit homes a problem?
Kelly:Funny you should ask, because sometimes property is vacant and rooms will have no overhead lights and all the table lamps are gone, because, well, the tables are gone. It's a vacant empty house. I've shot houses where the power was turned off.
David:Is there any special gear that would help?
Kelly:This is when you need to carry what I call a "Big Flash". Something that will reach out and light up a large room or give a really good bounce light off of a dark ceiling. There are a zillion choices in this area but I know Quantum makes a Q-Flash that others have said great things about. I use a laughably-old hot shoe mounted Vivitar 2500 flash. I think the guide number is about 80 feet at 100ASA and it does the job about 70% of the times I need it.
Of course you need a sturdy pan and tilt tripod. One that can easily travel and collapse quick.
Kelly gave us a ton of information in our interview. This week, we've covered shooting 360 degree photographs. Next week, we'll continue with Kelly's interview and discuss how to make money as a photographer, particularly with real estate photography.