Overcast or Sunny: What Makes the Best Real Estate Photos?

When I check the forecast before a shoot and see clouds, I’m happy. Most people expect the opposite. Agents and homeowners usually want a bright blue-sky day, and I get why. But after shooting homes all over Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, Shelton, Centralia and Chehalis, I can tell you that an overcast or partly cloudy day is often the best light you can get.

Here’s why, and how we handle every other kind of weather the South Sound throws at us.

Clouds are a giant diffuser

Picture a portrait photographer in a studio. They almost never point a bare light at someone. They put a diffuser over it to soften the light and get rid of harsh, sharp shadows.

Clouds do the same thing for a house.

On an overcast day, the light is soft and even. The camera picks up colors more accurately, and the sensor isn’t overwhelmed by a scene that’s too bright. Siding looks like its real color. Landscaping looks green instead of washed out. And the dark, hard shadows from rooflines, trees and porches mostly disappear.

The problem with full sun

In real estate photography, we can’t always schedule around where the sun will be. Listings have deadlines, and the house faces whatever direction it faces.

Sometimes I pull up and the sun is sitting right behind the house, shining straight into the lens. That’s the worst case. You get glare, blown-out skies, and a front of the house that’s in deep shadow.

What about the gray sky?

This is the part most people don’t know. Even when it looks gloomy in person, we replace the sky during editing. So you get a bright, sunny-looking sky on top of the soft, even lighting that only a cloudy day gives you.

You get the best of both worlds.

A cloudy morning in Jubilee

I pulled up to a high-end listing in Jubilee in Hawks Prairie on a mid-morning that was partly cloudy. The agents and the homeowners were worried. They’d been hoping for sunshine and thought it was too cloudy for good photos.

Honestly, it was some of the best lighting I could have asked for. The whole house was evenly lit, with no harsh shadows, and I was able to pull out all the colors without the sun fighting me. When the photos came back, the agents and the homeowners were surprised and really happy with how the home looked.

Our tricks for sunny days

Sunny days still happen, and we have a few ways to handle them.

The thumb trick. When the sun is in the frame, I’ll block it with my hand or thumb. You can actually see my thumb in the shot. Then in editing we remove it and replace the sky, so the photo still looks sunny without the sun blasting into the lens.

Find the shade. If I can get the camera itself into shade, the glare drops a lot. We often do this with the drone, parking it in a shady spot near a tree and shooting from there.

Go up a little. If neither of those works, the best angle is usually a drone about 15 to 20 feet up with the camera tilted down a bit. That keeps the sun out of the image and the glare off the sensor.

A worst-case sun day in Olympia

This is one of those times I was thankful we live in Washington, where there’s almost always a tree nearby.

I had a shoot in Olympia that couldn’t be delayed or rescheduled, and the sun was in the absolute worst spot of the day. Shooting the front straight on would have meant glare right into the lens.

So I tucked the drone in just under a tree on the neighboring lot, kept it in the shade, and zoomed in on the house. Even with the sun in the worst possible position, the shade did its job, and the house came out looking really good.

When we do reschedule

Heavy rain is really the only weather that stops us. My rule of thumb is that if the forecast is over a 50% chance of rain, I start looking at rescheduling. Below that, we’re usually fine.

A light shower often passes while we’re shooting the interior, so we can step back outside and grab the front once it clears. Puddles in the driveway can be removed in Photoshop.

The drone is the one thing rain can hold back. Too much rain and we can’t fly. But for light rain, I have a method: I tape up the drone, launch it with the camera facing down, and get a few quick shots before water hits the lens.

The takeaway

Don’t worry too much about the weather. Cloudy or partly rainy days are no reason to reschedule, and in a lot of cases they make the photos better. A good professional real estate photographer has techniques for almost any condition. Heavy rain is the only real dealbreaker.

FAQ

Is it better to take real estate photos on a sunny or cloudy day?
An overcast or partly cloudy day usually gives better results. Clouds soften the light, remove harsh shadows and show colors more accurately. The gray sky is replaced in editing.

Should I reschedule my listing photos if it’s cloudy?
No. Cloudy days are often ideal. We only start looking at rescheduling when the forecast shows more than a 50% chance of rain.

Can you photograph a house in the rain?
In light rain, yes. We shoot interiors first and catch the exterior when it clears. Heavy rain is the main reason we reschedule, mostly because it limits drone flights.

Can puddles and gray skies be fixed in editing?
Yes. We replace gray skies with a clear, sunny sky and can remove puddles in Photoshop.

What happens when the sun is shining right into the camera?
We block the sun with a hand or thumb and remove it in editing, shoot from shade, or raise the drone 15 to 20 feet and angle the camera down to cut the glare.

Front Porch Media, Best of South Sound. Real estate photography for agents and homeowners in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, Hawks Prairie, Shelton, Centralia and Chehalis.

Matt Murray
www.FrontPorch-media.com
360.259.6315 Call / Text