Real estate photography is one of the most popular photography genres. There’s a lot of request of photography in real estate. Particularly now that more people are buying and selling houses. Every agent is struggling for the buyers’ attention with the best real estate photos. Real estate photography is not as famous as landscape or portrait photography. Real estate photography includes photographing the exteriors and interiors of houses.
In property photography, your subjects are static. Also, they’re under your control to changing extents. So, you don’t need fancy equipment to shoot real estate photos.
Shooting professional photography for real estate can look a little tricky at first.
But with these simple real estate photography tips, you’ll take beautiful, consistent photos.
These guidelines to put you on the right path.
Table of Contents
equipments for your real estate photography:
Camera
You’ll need to have a camera that be able to shoot manually. Any crop or full-frame sensor DSLR or mirrorless camera would be ideal for this job. Also, your camera should allow you to add a cable release, various lenses, a flash, and a wireless triggers.
Lenses
A wide-angle lens would help you photograph tight and small spaces. Because Its unique optics make rooms look more vast. The best options available, NIKKOR 16-35mm for Nikon and EF 17-40mm f/4L for Canon.
Of course, getting a tilt-shift lens will help a lot in improving your photography. This option is so ideal for real estate photography because it removes the deformation that a wide-angle lens causes. It is more expensive than the regular counterparts. But you can always buy a second hand one.
The best ones in the market are: Rokinon TSL24mm, Canon TS-E 17mm f/4L, and Nikon PC-EFX Nikkor 24mm f/3.5 ED.
Tripod
If You want to shoot photos, tripod is so important and useful. It fixes your camera and assures you won’t end up with motion blur.
Tripod helps you as well to keep the perspective in your shots. If you fix it at the height of five feet, then all your photos will be the same height.
Don’t forget that steadiness is the most important thing. Particularly in case of real estate photography.
Remote Trigger
If you’re photographing with low shutter speeds, then it would be better not to touch the camera at all. Be careful, pressing the shutter to take a photo can cause unnecessary camera shake.
Thus, using a remote trigger for touch-free operation is the best suggestion.
Flash
In real estate photography, flashes are the most essential tools. They are crucial, especially when photographing in places with low lighting.
Monolights and flashguns are the main two types of flashes. You can start with flashguns because they’re cheap. But as you shoot in more spacious properties, monolights would be the best option because they have a brighter light output.
Also, use a flash unit attached to your camera, this helps you to move easily from space to another.
It is also recommended to use flash on manual mode. This provides you with full control of its strength.
Light Modifiers
When it comes to real estate photography, bare flash generally makes unattractive results. Almost always, the only thing you have to do is spot them toward the ceiling to soften the light they produce.
If the roof is very high or if you’re not getting enough bounce light, then use light modifiers. Normally, shooting umbrellas are enough to do the job. They’re small, easy to carry, and movable.
Shutter speed
Most of the time, the shutter speed of the lens is adjusted after the photographer has already applied the necessary settings for the aperture and ISO, according to the exposure. When working with aperture and ISO, we can decide on a special range in which it will be convenient for us to shoot and get good images, while there are no universal settings for the shutter speed. It all depends completely on your camera and its capabilities.
If you use the Manual mode, It is recommended to adjust the shutter speed between 1/60 and 1/2 second intervals.
Tips on How to shoot real estate photography
1- plan for real estate photography
The first thing you have to do is to determine the places of the important photos you want to take. Write down a list of photos you want to capture. Plan to take exterior photos from both sides, back and front. Capture everything such as swimming pools, patios, garden furniture and so on. Remember to take many pictures of the exterior’s property. As for interiors, take more than one photo of the rooms.
2- prepare your shooting tools
Get ready to shoot by following these steps:
- Always empty your SD card after each shooting, to make sure that your camera is always ready for the next job.
- Check your cameras’ batteries to see if they are charged. Don’t forget to take extra batteries and SD cards for the shooting.
- To avoid wasting time on the day of shooting, check the address and the location of the property the day before.
3- Pay attention to the real estates component
When photographing a home, try to find the best angles and shoot from the corners. Don’t take photos directly in front. Don’t take photos of air conditions, trash cans and cars or even people.
As for the interiors, they are more challenging than exteriors. You need a tripod to fix the camera on it, and adjust it as you need. Vertical lines must be correct. There are edges and corners of walls, door frames, and windows that have vertical sides; thus, these edges need to be vertical properly. Everything has to be level, lines have to be parallel and the frame have to be lined up.
4- Lighting
As you know, window light and interior light are two sources of interiors light. If you turn the lights on, this gives the space the feel of warmness, whereas, turning off the lights gives a cold feeling in real estate photos. Interior lighting is not as direct as exterior. To get a suitable exposure, turn on the lights in early mornings and late evenings. It’s better to hold the flash with your hand to direct the light in the wanted area of a room. When shooting indoors, assure that you open all the windows and doors to enlarge the amount of sunlight that enters the room.
5- Choose which property parts to highlight for real estate photography
Before taking airy property photos, choosing a focal point is necessary. This is the highlight of the real estate that you have to focus on while photographing. You can attract viewers’ by a nice backyard swimming pool or a beautiful terrace. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the parts are not necessary elements of the property.
The main thing here is to include the whole house in the frame, but emphasize its most interesting aspect. You can easily determine what element to focus on, trying with known photography composition techniques.
For example, you can use leading lines or increase lighting in a special area. Take in account which ways work in your case, and don’t hesitate to try something new.