Real Estate Photography Tips Pretty Please

If your goal is to license images for commercial use the I suggest you consider the following:

• Less is more - what feature of the space do you want the viewers to appreciate? How are you going to focus their attention? More often than not viewer focus is achieved by thoughtful composition and lighting with the narrowest possible angle-of-view. The 12mm angle-of-view will be narrow (for most residential interiors), so you will not have to worry about including too much in the frame. Empty homes are a challenge. The goal is to minimize the negative impact of empty space. This requires thoughtful composition. Showing multiple rooms can be useful to show how the spaces relate to each other. Camera height is important in order to balance the ceiling and floor areas. And the camera should be about 1 foot above countertops. Avoid three-wall compositions for a single room whenever possible.
• Occasionally there will be unavoidable distortion from anamorphic effects. This is not a lens quality issue; it is an unavoidable problem caused by transforming 3D objects into a 2D space. Objects at the frame edges appear as ovals instead of circles or rectangles instead of squares. One way to deal with this is compose so only 1/3 to 1/2 of a door, hallway or refrigerator is at the frame edge. Then those objects' widths will have a more normal appearance. The closer the lens is the the subject, the greater the distortion. Some photographers stitch two or more images together from lens with narrow angles-of-view in order to minimize anamorphic distortion.
• Always avoid converging verticals or keystoning. All lines that are vertical in real life should be vertical in the photograph. The camera must be level and square to the subject. No advertising/marketing editor or client worth having will take you seriously if your verticals are not parallel. A tripod with a gear head is a useful tool to keep the lens square to the space. However talented people (not me though!) can do this using the finder/LCD screen hand-holding the camera. Small errors are easily corrected in post-production. Using a ladder will produce keystoning unless you use a tilt-shift lens. Ladders can be important for exterior shots when the home is above the camera location. How high does your tripod extend?
• Most real-estate marketing channels are not designed to support panoramic aspect ratios. Neither are they able to make the most out of portrait-mode compositions. However portrait orientation can be useful for printed materials.
• Producing commercial images with exposure bracketing is as difficult as using off-camera lighting. The result from exposure bracketing should be the viewer does not realize the image is a sum of multiple exposures. Color temperature and image contrast are common problems when supplementary lighting is not used. One purpose of supplementary lighting is to control the dominate color temperature in the scene. When there are multiple light sources with similar intensities and different color temperatures, you have a problem.
• Many professional interior photographers do not use supplemental lighting. Instead they hand blend multiple layers in PS. This is a time consuming process. So, to end up with acceptable color rendition you either have to spend time on-site lighting the space or time in post-production using sophisticated layer blending in PS. Either way it takes a lot of time and experience to achieve optimal color and lighting. In any case the typical, easy to generate tone-mapped image distracts from your goal - inspire viewers and buyers' agents to visit the property.
• Since you don't plan to use off-camera lighting, and since your access to the home is flexible, you should plan to photograph early in the mooring and late in the evening when the outside light level is similar to the ambient indoor light levels. This will enable your camera's analog dynamic range to be within the dynamic range of the light. Slightly overexposing windows can work well if you record raw data instead of JEPGs. Neither the in-camera JPEG nor the histogram represent the raw data. This means bracketing shutter speeds in 1/3 stops for the optimum window exposure is useful. You can often recover the window highlights and lift shadows regions. If the home has hardwood floors, the glare from direct sunlight can be minimized by using a polarized lens filter.
• Most on-line viewing involves small image sizes, so your longer focal length lenses will be important for showing off the view of Pittsburg. Of course you need a clear day with no haze. A dusk shot could work well.
• Be certain toilet seats are down.
• Do not remove inherent flaws such as ceiling, wall, tile cracks, or carpet stains, or power lines or lawn flaws during post production. No only is this a violation of MLS rules, but it usually backfires because people who visit the listing can feel deceived. At the same time you don't have to use compositions that document or highlight flaws.

Look at magazines like Dwell, Better Homes & Gardens and Architectural Review for examples of naturally lit interior photographs.

My web site is www.arthillmarketing.com. However all of the interior photos were made using two to four off-camera flashes.

My pleasure 

Marla wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Lots of Information, well written - great clarity.

I happy you find it useful.

wchutt wrote:

If your goal is to license images for commercial use the I suggest you consider the following:

• Less is more - what feature of the space do you want the viewers to appreciate? How are you going to focus their attention? More often than not viewer focus is achieved by thoughtful composition and lighting with the narrowest possible angle-of-view. The 12mm angle-of-view will be narrow (for most residential interiors), so you will not have to worry about including too much in the frame. Empty homes are a challenge. The goal is to minimize the negative impact of empty space. This requires thoughtful composition. Showing multiple rooms can be useful to show how the spaces relate to each other. Camera height is important in order to balance the ceiling and floor areas. And the camera should be about 1 foot above countertops. Avoid three-wall compositions for a single room whenever possible.
• Occasionally there will be unavoidable distortion from anamorphic effects. This is not a lens quality issue; it is an unavoidable problem caused by transforming 3D objects into a 2D space. Objects at the frame edges appear as ovals instead of circles or rectangles instead of squares. One way to deal with this is compose so only 1/3 to 1/2 of a door, hallway or refrigerator is at the frame edge. Then those objects' widths will have a more normal appearance. The closer the lens is the the subject, the greater the distortion. Some photographers stitch two or more images together from lens with narrow angles-of-view in order to minimize anamorphic distortion.
• Always avoid converging verticals or keystoning. All lines that are vertical in real life should be vertical in the photograph. The camera must be level and square to the subject. No advertising/marketing editor or client worth having will take you seriously if your verticals are not parallel. A tripod with a gear head is a useful tool to keep the lens square to the space. However talented people (not me though!) can do this using the finder/LCD screen hand-holding the camera. Small errors are easily corrected in post-production. Using a ladder will produce keystoning unless you use a tilt-shift lens. Ladders can be important for exterior shots when the home is above the camera location. How high does your tripod extend?
• Most real-estate marketing channels are not designed to support panoramic aspect ratios. Neither are they able to make the most out of portrait-mode compositions. However portrait orientation can be useful for printed materials.
• Producing commercial images with exposure bracketing is as difficult as using off-camera lighting. The result from exposure bracketing should be the viewer does not realize the image is a sum of multiple exposures. Color temperature and image contrast are common problems when supplementary lighting is not used. One purpose of supplementary lighting is to control the dominate color temperature in the scene. When there are multiple light sources with similar intensities and different color temperatures, you have a problem.
• Many professional interior photographers do not use supplemental lighting. Instead they hand blend multiple layers in PS. This is a time consuming process. So, to end up with acceptable color rendition you either have to spend time on-site lighting the space or time in post-production using sophisticated layer blending in PS. Either way it takes a lot of time and experience to achieve optimal color and lighting. In any case the typical, easy to generate tone-mapped image distracts from your goal - inspire viewers and buyers' agents to visit the property.
• Since you don't plan to use off-camera lighting, and since your access to the home is flexible, you should plan to photograph early in the mooring and late in the evening when the outside light level is similar to the ambient indoor light levels. This will enable your camera's analog dynamic range to be within the dynamic range of the light. Slightly overexposing windows can work well if you record raw data instead of JEPGs. Neither the in-camera JPEG nor the histogram represent the raw data. This means bracketing shutter speeds in 1/3 stops for the optimum window exposure is useful. You can often recover the window highlights and lift shadows regions. If the home has hardwood floors, the glare from direct sunlight can be minimized by using a polarized lens filter.
• Most on-line viewing involves small image sizes, so your longer focal length lenses will be important for showing off the view of Pittsburg. Of course you need a clear day with no haze. A dusk shot could work well.
• Be certain toilet seats are down.
• Do not remove inherent flaws such as ceiling, wall, tile cracks, or carpet stains, or power lines or lawn flaws during post production. No only is this a violation of MLS rules, but it usually backfires because people who visit the listing can feel deceived. At the same time you don't have to use compositions that document or highlight flaws.

Look at magazines like Dwell, Better Homes & Gardens and Architectural Review for examples of naturally lit interior photographs.

My web site is www.arthillmarketing.com. However all of the interior photos were made using two to four off-camera flashes.

Yes thanks for this information.  Really thanks to everyone on this great forum.  I have yet to shoot the place.  I'll report back when I do.

idiotekniQues wrote:

i am a sought after pro in the Gold Coast RE market of the NY Metro Area. 12mm is not wide enough. i shoot mostly with the 9-18mm at 9mm. i shoot with a flash onboard and merge to HDR in post with Lightroom. i just got an em-1 but everything in the gallery below is with an em-5 and 9-18 with a metz and/or samsung flash bounced off the ceiling usually with the wide angle diffuser on.

http://www.simplyathos.com/Real-Estate/Real-Estate/

shoot level on a tripod with a cable release. bracket. rinse. repeat.

I too shoot a substantial amount of real estate. I concur that 22mm is just not wide enough for RE interiors.  I use the Oly 9-18 on a Gx7 with one to 4 manual flash units and occasionally HDR. Most of my work is shot from 9  to 10 MM.

1. Use a Wide-Angle Lens: Wide-angle lenses allow you to capture more of the room in a single shot, making spaces appear larger and more inviting. Use a lens with a focal length of at least 16mm to achieve this effect.
2. Pay Attention to Lighting: Lighting is crucial for real estate photography. Use natural light as much as possible by opening curtains and blinds. If the space is poorly lit, use external lighting to fill in the shadows.
3. Declutter the Space: A clean, clutter-free space will make your photos look more professional. Make sure that surfaces are clear, and remove any personal items or clutter that could be distracting.

Bassam Guy wrote:

nudenex wrote:

1. Use a Wide-Angle Lens: Wide-angle lenses allow you to capture more of the room in a single shot, making spaces appear larger and more inviting. Use a lens with a focal length of at least 16mm to achieve this effect.
2. Pay Attention to Lighting: Lighting is crucial for real estate photography. Use natural light as much as possible by opening curtains and blinds. If the space is poorly lit, use external lighting to fill in the shadows.
3. Declutter the Space: A clean, clutter-free space will make your photos look more professional. Make sure that surfaces are clear, and remove any personal items or clutter that could be distracting.

Good advice but the OP has probably already completed this assignment in the last 8.5 years

Hah. This brought back a lot of memories. I transitioned to be a part time RE photographer many years ago.  I have learned a lot.  I’ve shot hundreds of homes.  Still learning of course but all the advice given was valid and used, including the 3 points I just got 9 years later hah!  Still shooting m43 but added the 7-14 early on. 100% necessary. I might have reached a point that I can start giving the advice!