Professional real estate photographers are always sought out by real estate agents who want to impress their clients and lure homebuyers into buying the property. The real estate market is very competitive, and every agent wants to stand out by showing off property to interested clients in the best way possible, demanding classy and impressive real estate photography from photographers.
You might think that real estate photography is challenging and takes years of practice to perfect the shots but, with our tips, you can shoot snaps like a pro in no time. You can follow our few simple suggestions and capture highly aesthetically appealing and eye-catching photos that will increase your demand in the real estate market.
The Value of Real Estate Photography:
You might think that real estate photography isn’t as popular as other niches like commercial, portrait, fashion, and landscape photography. But, with the increased buying and selling of houses, this genre remains lucrative. It requires polished skills to take captivating images of the house from the inside out to impress clients.
Pursuing this genre is both profitable and motivating. It escalates your value in front of those agents who desperately seek talented and professional real estate photographers. In short, you face less competition and more business in the field.
In fact, you can earn a hefty amount of money depending on the size and location of the house. Also, your experience in the field matters because if you are a beginner, you might want to charge your client more reasonably compared to your other competitors.
Essential Equipment for Real Estate Photography
You don’t have to worry about getting a lot of tools for real estate photography. We’ll walk you through the list of gear you might already possess and would need further to get in action.
Camera
Of course, the first and foremost thing is a camera. A manual camera with digital single-lens (full-frame) like DSLR or mirrorless camera would get the job done perfectly.
Lens
A Tilt-shift lens is perfect for real estate photography. But, it is pretty expensive compared to the wide-angle lens which photographers usually use to capture a vast area exposing every nook and cranny of the house.
You can go for Nikon, Canon, and Rokinon models as they offer the best lens in the market.
Tripod
A tripod is essential to maintain stability and consistency during shoots. To avoid any blurred shots, a tripod can help you set the camera at the desired angle and get consistent images which is a plus in real estate photography.
Remote Trigger
A remote trigger can help you take shots without pressing the camera shutter to avoid needless camera shakes and blurry photos in its result. Get a remote trigger and capture perfect images with ease.
Flash
Flash plays a significant role in real estate photography. Houses with low lighting would require a flash, so you can take clear pictures enhancing the beauty of the place.
The two types of flash include monolights and flashguns. Monolights are costly compared to flashguns, but they give great results when covering larger houses. As for the flashguns, they are a good choice when considering affordability. You can check out Godox and Profoto models for high-quality flashes.
Flash Trigger
When doing off-camera flash photography, flash trigger plays an essential part. You can set up the mechanism of the flash trigger by placing a transmitter on the hot shoe mount of your camera and attach receivers to the flash units. That'll help your flash to function as soon as you press the shutter.
Light Modifiers:
Light modifiers are beneficial when the flash isn’t enough to give you desirable results. You can go for shooting umbrellas because they are compact, easy to carry, and make up for the light you need to capture eye-catching photos.
Light Stands
Light stands support flash devices. For lightweight flash accessories, a standard light stand work flawlessly, but when it comes to heavy monolights, you’d need durable and firm C-stands.
Create a list of photos to make
Creating a standard list beforehand is one of the crucial tips that help you keep things organized in your head for your real estate photography projects. Of course, each house would be different from the other depending on its location, square feet, and architecture but the shots you'd need are more or less the same for every house.
Your list covers the number of shots you’ll take of every room from various angles.
- You could take two photos in wide-angle of the kitchen, all bedrooms, living room, and dining room
- A snap of bathrooms if they are worth photographing
- Three shots of the backyard from different angles, if it’s beautifully decorated and looks appealing.
- Two shots of the house front to give an overview.
- Singles shots of the storeroom, attic, laundry room, pantry, and garage.
Prepare your equipment a night before the shoot
Preparing your stuff is inexplicably necessary. We cannot emphasize this point enough for you. Surely, you do not want to embarrass yourself during the shoot so keep the below-mentioned things in mind.
- Remember to format your memory card. Take an extra memory card with you but first ensure that it works.
- Charge all your batteries.
- Keep a backup camera.
- Pack your bag and put everything necessary for the shoot properly.
- If you have backups for other gear which are easy to carry, then bring them with you to the shoot.
Ask the agent to request homeowners to declutter their home
You can ask the agent to request that homeowners properly clean their house and declutter it, removing stuff from the tables, shelves, and floor. Unnecessary things could ruin the appeal of the photo. In real estate photography, you cannot expect to shine without creating an aesthetic appeal through pictures. It’s better to be blunt even during shooting; you can openly ask the homeowners to clear things up that you feel are not needed in the photo or clean the desk, shelves, or other items again for a neat look.
Tour the House
Take a tour of the house to get a feel of how you want to shoot every room and what angles would be advantageous to get flawless photos. It’ll also let you know what objects you want to remove or add to the scenery. You can also decide from which room you can start photographing first.
Set the lights
Setting the lights is very significant. In a house with close to ceiling windows, you might want to let the natural sunlight in and use it to your advantage. Such photographs will give a warm and joyous vibe.
In houses with dim lighting, you can put your flash devices and light modifiers to use and create a natural and healthy ambiance in the room.
Avoid taking blurred pictures
To wrap up work on time, you need to take perfect photos in one go. To make this possible, you have to hold the camera straight while taking various angles. In case your grip becomes shaky at a certain angle point, be sure to use a tripod stand and fix the camera with the desired aim on it to avoid shakiness and blurred photos. Also, please don’t place the camera further than the height of 5 feet as it’ll distort the view.
Learn to use Photoshop:
You should know how to use Photoshop if you want to flourish in real estate photography. Editing is a weapon in the hands of a photographer. You can use the editing skill to play with the colors, lighting, and other features to enhance the photo.
Develop your shooting style
You can develop your shoot style by experimenting and trying new angles. Once you’re able to polish your skills further, it’ll make your photography stand out from the rest.
Do not be afraid of failure
In the beginning, you might be afraid of taking bad pictures but, the fear of failure shouldn’t stop you in your tracks. To improve, you need to take risks and use your imagination. You can only become successful in real estate photography if you become better at capturing shots by implementing your style and creativity.
Final thoughts
To pursue real estate photography professionally, you need to maintain your style throughout the process of shooting and editing.