“20 in 365 days are the days when it is not sunny in Marbella. I’m a real estate photographer and I’m in charge for job in very adverse conditions. I photographed this Marbella villa focusing on indoors, architecture and design elements, and furniture.”
The weather has no sympathy for professional assignments, client requests and outdoor photography. When my client rung me to photograph this beautiful Villa in Puerto Banús, Marbella, the guidelines were clear: “Juanjo, I need some pictures, quick, right now, I have a special issue but it’s going to rain tomorrow”.
It’s just sometimes, the so-called average in Marbella equals to twenty days a year, so photographers have to deal with adverse weather conditions that affect the lighting. Some time ago, I read that a painter creates the light he wants himself, but a photographer has to adjust the one existing for making it as beautiful as possible according to the needs of the assignment.
It was a nuclear white elephant sky inside a property with stunning views of the shell of Marbella. Furthermore, the white is white in photography. Once I got to work, knowing that I had more than an hour to take the pictures, I let my client known what ’s needed to get it done.
– “You won’t achieve those outdoors photos that you are looking for on a day like this. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade as it is a very nice house and we can just focus on the indoors. Let’s take pictures of the architectural details of the house and then I’ll go back for the outdoors when it’s sunny again. “
– I think it’s a very good decision, send me the pictures by tomorrow so I can upload them to my site to schedule a second day’s photograph for the outdoors.
Interior design and photography:
Under these conditions, the photo session was thought for catching the details of the property value. Showcasing its furniture, its fine materials, the features of a Marbella luxury property, photographing and retouching to line-up its value, textures and all the decoration elements to coexist in one space. A photography style which is closer to interior design than real estate photography where what is to be valued are usually the square foot-plant, the land where it is sit or the views among other selling-oriented aspects
The good thing about photographing a property of these characteristics is that we had double time. Two visits, two times to enjoy a photo session and familiarise ourselves with the angles, best perspectives, camera heights and angles shots that enhance the unique beauty of this villa in Puerto Banús.
Back to the studio
Selecting the best shots on the editing process and get the work done using two must-have Adobe Suite products for real estate photography: Lightroom and Photoshop.
With the latest Lightroom update is even easier to develop the raws and correct the key architecture and optics aspects thanks to its database that identifies the camera lens – Canon 17-40mm in my case-. In the Lightroom workflow we came up with:
- Processing raw files.
- Correcting the chromatic aberration and the lens own vignetting .
- Correcting trapezium or concave / convex lines and deformations.
- Adjusting lights and shadows
- Photo ready for other tweaks and focus in Photoshop.
Final conclusions and results:
The above two photographs are displaying the photographs that came out from the first part session. The photographic undertaking and the colour are direct influence of the outdoor light. Now I am at the colour treatment stage with Photoshop: saturation, curves and colour channels, and image adjustments.
I will shortly go back to this Villa in Puerto Banús and show you the real estate photos taken last Autumn during a sunny day and outdoors-aimed, showing the beautiful views and the possibilities of this luxury property on the Costa del Sol. Double the fun two times for all of us who love and enjoy photography, and live it out day by day.