It’s important to know something about light when you photograph a home.

There’s more to it than simply having light. The color, mood, and texture of the light all go into making a great image and drawing the viewer in.

Light plays differently from the inside to the outside of your subject – in this case, a house – and sometimes you need to focus on the light in order to tell a better story.

Warm light is inviting while cool light can be relaxing. Combine the two, as I did in this image, and you can envision a warm hearth on a fall evening and roasting smores over a backyard fire pit. Travelers in winter seek out a roaring fire to escape the cold and the warm yellow light that splashes onto this house and pours out of the window calls to visitors to come inside and sit awhile.

It all starts with light. That’s how we tell this story.