New to Photography. Question about settings.

[clark77494]

I just purchased a Canon EOS Rebel T5 to do Real Estate photography. For outside photos I want to set it to ISO 400, f/5.6 and let the camera determine the shutter speed. On the inside I want to set the camera to f/7.1 ISO 200 wih no flash, and also let the camera determine the shutter speed. I have a tripod so slow shutter speeds should not be a problem. I have a 18mm-55mm lens that came with the camera. I have two years video production training so I know how to setup a motion picture camera, just never took stills except with my Iphone.

[clark77494]

Robert, Thank you for letting me know about "Digital Photo Professional" When I loaded it into Windows 10 it was hidden on the recently added bar. It seems to work very well. The number one problem is taking photos of Bathrooms because of the mirrors. What I was going to try to resolve this was take a photo in the opposite direction and try to match the two photos so the tripod and camera are hidden. Lightroom 6 is $150. For $10 a month I can lease both Lightroom and Photoshop which is not a bad deal. Clark,

[Waddizzle]

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@clark77494 wrote:
Robert, Thank you for letting me know about "Digital Photo Professional" When I loaded it into Windows 10 it was hidden on the recently added bar. It seems to work very well. The number one problem is taking photos of Bathrooms because of the mirrors. What I was going to try to resolve this was take a photo in the opposite direction and try to match the two photos so the tripod and camera are hidden. Lightroom 6 is $150. For $10 a month I can lease both Lightroom and Photoshop which is not a bad deal. Clark,

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I suppose that depends upon your perspective, on whether or not renting the software is a good deal, or not.  I would much rather pay for the perpetual license for just Lightroom, instead of renting the programs indefenitiely.

As Bob noted, if you use Lightroom, most people do not need or use Photoshop.  Lightroom is comparable to Canon's DPP, except on steroids.  It is a very useful and powerful tool.  It far outperforms DPP. 

Photoshop is most useful for creating images.  I very rarely find need or reason to dive into Photoshop with my photos, not unless I'm trying to remove something, or create something in the image.

These are actually two separate images taken in continuous shooting mode.  It was very late on a winter afternoon, which tends to paint things red..  The second shot only has the woman removed from the image, without much more in the way of post processing.  It was more of an experiment than anything.  "Can I do this?"

[ebiggs1]

clark,

"I figured an $800 DSLR would be a major improvement..."

It is absurd to think what you have will not do a good job.  Run do not walk away from people that tell you differently.

As a realtor you know there is a difference between showing a $150,000 vs a $1,000,000 house.  The same is true in photographing them.  The high dollar house displays differently to a different market.

I have an aunt and uncle, both realtors and I did lots of photography work for them.  Most of these guys here if not all have never done photography for a living.  They are hobbyists.

Get yourself a good tripod.  Set the T5 to Av and use whatever f-stop works for you.  In your case I would shoot jpg not RAW.  If you do want to do some post editing, go ahead and shoot RAW but I doubt you will see much difference.

IMHO, you would do well to buy Lightroom.  It is just a better all around program than DPP.  But you can't beat 'free' and DPP4 does work.

[Waddizzle]

"I noticed that some people said I need a high-end rig to take professional quality photos. The way I see it is my realtor was using an IPhone to take snapshots of houses to put online. I figured an $800 DSLR would be a major improvement over an iPhone."

Your camera lacks a level display.  Another accessory that you may wish to invest in would be a leveling base adapter for your tripod.  I use a a Sunwafoto DYH-66i Leveling base.  It is far easier, quicker, and more precise to level a tripod head at its' base, compared to leveling a tripod head by adjusting the leg extensions.

[jrhoffman75]

If your tripod has a ball head all you would need is a $15 hot shoe level. 

[jrhoffman75]

There are differences between Lightroom 6 and Lightroom CC. They may or may not be important to you. 

1. From a feature standpoint LR6 was frozen in April 2015. If LR6 does all you want (i.e. you won't upgrade to LR7) then the subscription plan probably doesn't make sense for you. If you will update, and assuming a two year update cycle, the standalone version will cost you about $5 a month over those four years. 

2. The Lightroom CC subscription, in addition to rolling updates with new features, also gives you the ability to edit RAW images on your iPad and sync them to your desktop computer using Lightroom mobile. 

I follow a number of photography forums (fora?). The purchase/subscription discussions are many. I would be curious to know how many of the anti-CC folks lease cars or rent an apartment. 

[TTMartin]

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@jrhoffman75 wrote:

I would be curious to know how many of the anti-CC folks lease cars or rent an apartment. 

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Or fly on a commercial airline, or take a toll road, or go out to a movie, or take a cruise, etc.

[clark77494]

I took photos of the house today. It took me about an hour to sort and edit the photos. I used Corel Paint Shop Pro to edit 18 of them. You can see the photos at the link below. The last 4 photos of the Amenities were taken by as professional photographer. I’m not as good as the Professional, but I’m a lot better than the Realtor! http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_rent/house,condo,apartment_duplex,mobile,townhouse_type/70310541_zpi...

[ebiggs1]

You did good. I told you they would be.

[clark77494]

jrhoffman,
I am all for leasing as long as people are leasing from me! I have 12 rental houses that people lease from me. I don't lease my car or lease an Apartment. I am leasing Office 365 software since I use it every day at $8.00 per month and I lease an Email address at the same price. Software is consistently being upgraded and instead of purchasing it every year I think it's better to just Lease it. Software I don't use every day I rather just buy it outright. My CPA was shocked when I told her I still use QuickBooks 2001. Don't see a reason to upgrade. It works just fine for me!

Clark,