Real Estate Photography~& Photoshop Techniques~
Graphics & Photo Services including Flyer Design: provided by Chaz Hawley
Contact: chaz@ichaz.com

Problem:
Photos of small rooms, or any very wide, close to 180 degree angle photo can be difficult to make without very special lenses. And normal wide angle lenses tend to distort and curve the straight lines near the picture's edges. The goal in such a picture is to have straight lines in all the corners and edges of the room..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A solution:
Compositing multiple pictures of a room or external shot with foreground content. (Photoshop has an automated feature that will create composites of multiple shots but can't do much perspective correction.) First they need to be assembled, color balanced, exposure balanced then most importantly, the foreground and edges need to be stretched or distorted, sometimes radically, which is a particular challenge with a strongly patterned flooring like the oak floor in this example 10 X 10 ft. room:

Creating a smooth result, a sample of the floor was selected and expanded, and then was distorted to create the vertical left side smoothly transitioning to the horizontal right side. Pictures naturally tend to have "vignetting" or slightly darker edges, birghter centers. This creates a challenge for large blank wall surfaces. The "Healing Brush" in Photoshop is very handy for smoothing out these shading anomalies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The livingroom, being larger, required fewer shots. It was composited in a similar manner, then a fire and some pictures were added, "staged" in Photoshop.