[Zeke]

Rob, you're obviously better than the "other Realtor." I think a lot of it has to do with post shoot editing these days. You can get a tilt/ shift lens if you want to spend that kind of money.

I'd just get a couple of stobes and experiment. You can take a tungsten lamp or 2 along to backlight from behind a couch or plant and see what it's going to look like ahead of time. You can even use a tungsten with a reflector to compose your shot. Sort of like in your first 2 shots. Those lights threw off a lot of highlight.

Imagine if you could get that effect and not see the source. If you look at the pro's pics, he (she) may have placed a strobe below the island counter. You sure don't see any shadows under the upper cabinets and in the toe kick areas. Now look at the other pics of the same house.

The photographer used the histogram feature on the camera to bring out the warm tones. Or an editor.