Thanks.
I start by evaluating ambient, and then add strobes to even out the illumination. If you have good ambient, go with it! It sure is easier. But my clientele wants to be able to see into every corner, and wants to know exactly what shade of paint is on the walls.
The human eye is very very clever about adjusting to different light, on the fly as the eye roves around the room. The camera can’t do that, so my job is to even out everything until the image (if I do a good job) looks like what you would experience if you were there. This is especially challenging when it comes to windows.
It’s important to remember for whom I’m shooting most of these images: Real Estate Agents. The entire point of the shoot is to make people want to come see the house in person. So the idea is to create a bright, crisp, spacious look that shows the main selling points of the house (view, fireplace, hardwood floors, remodeled kitchen, whatever), and gives some idea of the layout.
I pop at least a little flash into almost every shot I make. Partly this is to make color correcting easier. Ambient-only shots tend to go very yellow, and amber, and it can be extremely difficult to get accurate colors. Adding even a little flash, which is blue (about 5500K) seems to go a long way towards evening out the gradations and getting me back to a true color.
Mixing light sources of different colors can get tricky sometimes: here I had an almost completely ambient exposure, and just added a touch of flash from the left, along with some bounced off the palm of my hand to warm it up a little:
