Hi everyone,
I recently had a great opportunity to shoot this stunning property as my first real estate photography shoot. For context, I am a freshman in college so this is something I am trying to do as a side gig rather than to make a living. This wasn't a paid shoot, however by doing it for free, I got access to this home which I think is a great addition to my portfolio. It would be great to get some feedback on what I could improve so I can grow my skills and pursue this professionally.
My First Real Estate Shoot
For real estate this is already above any expectations of real estate agents. Still, I think you should tone down the highlights quite a bit. Other than that, solid set, especially as the first gig! Congrats!
Thanks for the feedback!
Your work is mostly wonderful. I'd suggest that you try HDR techniques to make the interior less overblown in the first photo, as an example. Try using HDR on shots such as #3, #4 and #5 to clarify the outdoors portions of the shots. Be very careful to NOT overblow the HDR and turn the shots into cartoon-like trash. Back out the "suggested" settings to keep the images credible. Also, try using a circular polarizer to eliminate or reduce reflections. The second photo is one place that the CPL would come in handy.
These are all HDR images but I intentionally let some highlights overexpose to avoid the unnatural HDR look. CPL is something I still have to try.
Great shots, actually. Some highlights are blowing up a little bit as mentioned previously, but it looks fine. I did some photos for https://1newhomes.com and your photos are more than acceptable for the real estate agency.
While your post processing is mostly good I would say the real victory here is your composition.
The base comps are great with just tweaks needed here and there for the details.
On the dining room I would have moved the table and chairs to be centered under the lights. The picture is off center but you could possibly move it digitally. Moving the picture is not ethical for a final but fine for portfolio.
On the next photo the glasses, bottles and plant are all piled up in front of one another. They block the faucet which can be shown by itself with maybe the plant brought forward to fill the space at the lower right.
In the view looking back to the kitchen across the couch: Lose the fern and move the hourglass to the basket. The fern obscures the couch and adds busyness and distraction. I presume you could not back up further in that shot as the couch is quite large as a consequence. Possibly a slightly higher camera position would have helped.
The second view of the front elevation is cropped too loosely and loses impact as a result. The viewer is left wondering what is the object of the photo.
Please bear in mind that these are nitpicks on otherwise good composition. Many clients would be delighted. The fussy ones would be less so.
Overall excellent work. RE photography is a subset of architectural photography and this, as others noted, is far more sophisticated work than RE. Practice and refining your technique will get you proper architectural gigs or high end RE work. Just remember that the RE market is about speed and price (for most) and that on most RE jobs you will not have the luxury of a cute house, a good day and time.