I’ve been using what I’ve called the 10 essentials of real estate photography for a long time in my Photography For Real Estate eBook and the Realtors Guide to Using Photography in Real Estate Marketing. This is my attempt to boil down principles into a concise statement. Last October I did some tinkering with the 10 essentials and got a lot of good reader feedback. I’ve incorporated that feedback and refined the words a little to come up with a statement that I’m happier with than the October 2012 version:
- Understand the purpose of each photo.
- The primary purpose of a real estate marketing photo is to present the features of the property. Try to minimize and remove all distractions.
- Use a DSLR to accomodate:
- A wide-angle lens (14-24mm effective focal length).
- One or more external flash units.
- The front shot is the most important shot because it can motivates potential buyers to look at the rest of the photos/marketing. Use a twilight and/or elevated shots when possible.
- Render interiors light and bright. Accomplish this with either:
- Bracketing
- Small flashes
- Combination of the two
- Straight Lines must appear straight.
- Verticals need to be vertical.
- Don’t let window brightness distract. Control window brightness with:
- Small flashes, Bracketing, or
- Window masking in Photoshop
- Control color casts with:
- Camera white balance settings or
- In post processing
- Present Real Estate Marketing Photos for Maximum visual impact:
- Large or fullscreen
- Automatic slide shows
These principles are the underlying essence of this blog and all the materials I publish here to help agents and real estate photographers. For more details with examples the left side-bar has a free download link to a creative commons (use it how ever you like) 10 page PDF on this subject. Today (Monday 2/11) I have the opportunity to talk about this list with the agents in Tom Tezak’s office in Wailea here on Maui. I think all agents need to understand these principles even if they are having a professional shoot their listings. Of course most, but not all, professional real estate shooters understand these principles.
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.