Real Estate Photography Tips and Tricks

The sample above was shot with existing lighting and NO photoshop. No flash was used. 

Canon 5d - 17mm lens 1/2 sec exposure at F/20. Manual mode of course.

If you want to get the most out of your digital camera when taking real estate interior photos, here are some pointers that will help.

1.      Use a wide angle lens. Using an extreme wide angle lens will greatly improve your chances of getting a great shot. Wide angle lenses make the interior shots look more spacious  interesting. If you don't have a wide angle lens or are using a simple point and shoot camera, try using the panorama mode.

2.      Use a  tripod. Using a tripod will steady the camera and reduce the number of blurry photos. Also you can get more creative by using the tripod to take panorama pictures, if your camera allows it. With a tripod you can take multiple exposures of the same shot and blend them in a photo editing program. This is very helpful when shooting during the day and it's very bright outside the windows and much darker inside the house. This method is called HDR (high dynamic range) photography.

3.      Look for interesting angles with lots of color in the shot. Adding flowers in the foreground is one way to accomplish this.

4.      Use the flash wisely. Using a flash from your camera may enhance or reduce the professional look of your image depending on the existing lighting conditions. Try taking one with and without and choose which ones looks best to you.

5.      Pick the proper time of day. The time of day is critical to getting the best shot when shooting interior photos. Wait too long, and outside the windows will be black. Shoot too early, and the windows will be too right and blown out. After the sun sets or right at sun set is the optimal time because the lighting outside and the lighting inside will be the same level of brightness.

6.      How the pros do it: Professional photographers are always challenged by interior photographs. The good ones will stage the areas to be photographed by adding colorful pillows, flowers, throws, rugs and the like. We almost never shoot without a tripod. Some photographers will change every light bulb in the room and add their own color balanced light bulbs. They avoid fluorescent lights as much as possible as they have a tendency of turning photos green. Additionally, we always bring our own lights and light modifiers to lighten and area or highlight a specific location. Pros also sometimes rely heavily on post- processing techniques in Photoshop or LightRoom.

     

7.      For those of you who need to take your own real estate interior photos, we hope this article helped. These are just a few suggestions to immediately help improve your photography skills. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to schedule a personal consultation. Our rates are very reasonable and I promise you will leave feeling like a pro!