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Harrison Barden's picture

Any tips? First real estate gig...

Hey everyone,

So I recently was asked by a family who I have been friends with for a while now, to photograph their house and rooms in it for the real estate site. I of course said yes as I am always for new experiences and learning in photography. But I don't really know much about real estate/architectural photography. I have watch many of the Mike Kelley BTS and free lessons but cannot afford the $300 lesson so I won't be doing much photoshop work other than maybe a 2-3 exposure HDR in LR. I shoot on a 7D Mk ii and am renting out a Rokinon 14mm 2.8 (already tested it and distortion is not bad on crop plus I can fix if needed in post). If anyone could give me maybe a few pointers on how to start out in this field I would greatly appreciate it. My main struggle, is lighting. Do I do all HDR? Speedlites? Natural Light? Thanks for any help guys!

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9 Comments

Hello Harrison,
There is a fairly large difference between realestate and architectural photography. What agents want to show can be very different than what the designer wants to showcase. That being said, I would talk to the listing agent(s) and ask them what they want to show. Also look at everything you can that is listed in your area. Most MLS have tones of images, some good many not-so-much, you can browse. This will give you feel for what the agent(s) want to see. Try and focus on the images that are from homes in the same price point as the one you're covering.
As to light... a couple of speed lights and some time compositing the shots should server you well. The more natural the look the better the perceived feel tends to be. The HDR look has a polarizing effect on viewers. Some like some don't.
In my experience realestate image consumers want to show space and features. Making rooms look as large and spacious as possible. Showing appliances and fixtures is high on the list of preference. With most architects the focus is on design and placement not on fridges and stoves.
Good luck and show us what you did when it's over.

Hey Harrison,

If you have a Facebook account, you can search for "real estate photography" groups there. There are a handful of vibrant groups.

Also, check out photographyforrealestate.net

There is a ton of info on that site and links to educational resources. The site's administrator has two books available that would be helpful to you. One deals with the business side of real estate photography and the other is sort of a primer on the subject.

I shoot a fair amount of RE photography still and have been for 16 or so years with over 14,000 homes photographed.

My advice to anyone starting out photographing built spaces is to first work on your composition and utilize natural light. You can shoot early in the day and later in the day (dawn and dusk) to keep the light levels inside and outside similar. This will give more pleasing results than shooting at noon.

Keeping your camera level to avoid key-stoning is a basic pre-requisite that IMO carries more importance than lighting. Your camera has a built in level. Use that and make sure that all of your shots are level.

Some agents prefer very wide shots and some prefer more normal shots. I generally shoot between 24mm and 35mm for most of my interiors, even for RE work.

When you are ready to explore lighting, I'd recommend Scott Hargis' book (also available at the aforementioned site) called "lighting for real estate photography". He has a video series as well.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tips guys I appreciate it! I'll check out those websites and I will post the photos I end up getting from the shoot!

Well it went okay until all of my flashes died. I initially was going to go in and use natural light only but i tried flashes and was getting a nice soft light but the more I look at them the less I like them. And my flashes died when I was half way done (the house was much bigger than expected, bad planning on my part there) so i used some regular batteries and only one flash for the rest of the house. I can post some but I'm not very happy with the outcome.

Sorry to hear things didn't go smoothly...that's to be expected on most first runs. Just keep at it, if the passion is there!

Perhaps shoot both a flashed and bracketed ambient shots on the next one. That way you can fall back on the ambient, if the lighting doesn't work out on the big screen ;-)

If you feel like the compositions aren't strong, immerse yourself with architectural news feeds (like archdaily) and start building a collection of your favorite shots. Once your collection is large enough, some patterns and correlations should emerge. This type of awareness, combined with experience, will really help guide your intuition on set.

It's also tempting to tackle the important rooms first, but just like professional musicians, it's critical to warm up. Hitting the easiest rooms first will rev the brain into full architectural mode, so you'll be at your peak with the important ones.

Hope everyone's tips help you on the next one!

Thanks for the tips and everything! I definitely should have done ambient and strobe shots just to see which is best in the end. I also spent too much time on more unimportant rooms than I should have so I will definitelt focus more on the important rooms if there is another time I do this. Thanks!

Hey Harrison, what ISO & aperture were you using? It sounds like you were either too stopped down or on too low of an ISO and your flashes were working overtime to keep up. For most real estate work you can get away with a pretty high ISO and low-ish aperture depending on what lens you're using. Then your flashes can have a bit more overhead, quicker recycle times, and still get good results.

I was shooting at f/5.6-f/8 most of the time at ISO 100. So I guess my flashes were working overtime than haha because I just went to f/8 by instinct as I'd need that dof. Thanks for that tip that'll come in handy if I ever do real estate again!

Like anything you're new to, shoot shoot shoot. Shoot your apartment/house, shoot a friend's place, then another. It's one thing to think about light and framing, but I've always learned best by doing over and over. You'll encounter all the technical challenges (bright outside vs. dark inside, cramped spaces, etc).

Regarding lighting, shoot one room many different ways. Set up the shot on a tripod, then light it with one flash, multiple, and only with ambient (hdr/compositing). This will quickly teach you where flash is useful and what its limitations are.

Most importantly, by doing you'll see if you enjoy it. Houses don't take bathroom breaks or need their makeup retouched. But their best looks are tied to sunrise/sunset, an eye for staging with props/furniture, etc.

Best of luck!