Look at the 2 examples and I will explain why HDR is so much superior to conventional flash photography. I even use rear curtain to reduce the shadows and reflections. That is the best single interior flash photography gets in rooms that don't have a natural light source. Very important: No natural light source because if you take a shot through a window it is always a great idea to take an extra photo with flash for the window view.

Compare the shadows and the depth of the floor and you will notice the most significant differences. Also keep in mind that I used Rear Curtain Flash with Softbox. You can only imagine how the ceiling shadows would look like when using ordinary flash.

1. You can not use filters (I should repeat this 3 times)

2. Ghosting (Long exposure night photography will result in even longer Photoshop sessions)

Not being able to use filters, unless you want to go through a crazy setup with 6.6×6.6 filters and adapters (it can be done, so I was told) is an issue. You might think that you don't need filters and that could be the case, however I do need filters. I take photos of houses and for interiror shots I am often confronted with nasty reflections and because I don't want to spend hours photoshopping I rather have a polarizer filter on my lens. Ghosting is another issue you will have with this lens. Ken Rockwell reckons it is not an issue, well obviously he has never taken long exposure twilight shots (interior or exterior) with this lens. If have more than 2s exposure time you will find yourself in flare hell and there is no way to fix this unless you are pretty good with lighting and flashes, but then again what is the point of a twilight shooting when you recreate a daylight ambient?

Don't get me wrong, this is a great lens and I have one constantly mounted on one of my Nikons but there are wide angle situation where this lens will fail and you need something different like the new 16-35. If you are into real estate photography this is not the lens to use for shooting bathrooms or any other room with lots of reflections because you can not use a polarizer filter. If you are booked for a twilight shoot this is not the lens you want to bring unless you want to spend hours and hours editing in photoshop: Lens Flare Allert.

F11/ISO 400/20sec – Nikon 14-24

Yes, the reflections in the river are all photoshop, so is the misty sky and a few other things … have a guess?

Anyway, when I started with real estate photography I did a lot of practicing in my own home and one thing I never got quite right was the look of those ceilings. Not the way they do look but the way they are supposed to look. I've tried everything, different lighting, different ways to bounce flashes. Nothing seemed to work until I figured out that those real estate photographers must cheat in some way and here is how they do it:

In the first picture you see the room the way the camera sees it (Picture 1). The ceiling was actually a bit whiter than it appears in this photo but because the room has beige walls the hallogene down lights get reflected and the color of the light changes. I did not use a flash in this shot, used my 14-24 Nikon and set the F stop to f/11 with 1/4s shutter speed, ISO 400. The photo is a little under exposed but I find that just right for future editing. So what you want to to now (Picture 2) is use the polygonal lasso tool in Photoshop and create a new layer with just the ceiling. I go right into the corners where the walls meet the ceilings.

Select the new layer (Picture 3) and use a white balancing filter plugin to kill any colors. I use NIK filter plugin for Photoshop to do it. You will have to click around to get it right. Sometimes it works with the first click, sometimes it takes a few. After white balancing adjustments I usually give it a little bit more brightness and turn down the contrast a bit (Picture 4). Not a big difference but it makes the ceiling just that little bit brighter and lighter.