Real estate is a competitive industry with listings updated every day. Keep up with the competition with quality real estate photography!
But what if you’re just a beginner trying to learn the ropes?
Don’t worry! In this article, we’ll be exploring real estate photography basics, the equipment you need, and actionable tips to get you started!
Real estate photography is the best way to showcase properties to prospects. Before taking the time to personally visit a property, prospects are likely to do their own research.
This gives you an advantage because statistics suggest that real estate listings with quality photos are 32% more likely to sell faster.
But what do you need to get started with real estate photography?
Photography equipment in any sub-niche can quickly go from a few hundred bucks to a couple of thousand. But as a beginner in real estate photography, you’d need the following:
As far as quality cameras go, DSLR is your best bet for real estate photography. With a DSLR, you can manually adjust settings for each shot depending on the lighting and environment.
You’d also want “full-frame” cameras so you don’t have cropping issues that can make your shots look smaller. Most mid or professional-level DSLR cameras are full frame.
There are several affordable ones out there such as:
After choosing your camera of choice, it’s time to invest in a versatile lens. For small or confined spaces, go for something smaller like a 27mm or 35mm lens.
Wide-angle lenses are also great for making a room feel spacious. But if you’re on a budget, you can try out tilt-shift lenses which get rid of most distortion issues.
If you want consistent quality on every shot, invest in a good tripod. They’re relatively cheap and help remove blurriness in every shot.
You could also invest in remote triggers to remove shaking from manually pressing the shutter button. This will help big-time especially when you want to take long exposure shots.
Lighting can change the mood and vibe of any room. You’d want to have the equipment that allows you to adjust the lighting to your desired outcome.
If you don’t have a lighting budget, you can always use natural light. Make use of natural light that comes in through windows and make adjustments to things like exposure during editing.
The exposure triangle consists of three important photography elements—ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. Mixing these elements wrong can drastically impact the final photo.
In a nutshell, they control how dark or light a photo is and how focused or out-of-focused certain objects are.
Now that we know the basics, here’s a list of actionable best practices for real estate photography you can use this 2023:
Shot lists serve as a guideline for the types of shots you want to be done for a property. It helps keep you organized and streamlined so you don’t waste time thinking about the setups.
Here is an example Shot List:
When creating your shot list, try and keep the time of the shoot in mind. As a rule of thumb, you’d want to shoot property when the sun is at its brightest.
This gives you plenty of natural light to work with. If you shoot at a later time, you might need to bring the proper lighting equipment as well.
During the shoot, it’s important to capture a property’s most eye-catching features. These will be the money shots. For this part, you can start thinking outside the box.
Try out different angles, lighting, and editing to highlight key features. This could be the patio, living room, and even the kitchen.
You want prospects to focus on things that you want them to. Having unwanted objects in the shot can take that focus away.
But if objects can’t be taken away or you forgot to set up the shot, you can cleanup pictures using AI-powered tools such as Pixelcut.
Professional real estate photographers take their time to set up the scene for a great shot. That means re-arranging furniture, adding elements like trendy carpets, and re-decorating.
Videos help home listings increase inquiries by up to 403% according to statistics. Plus, 73% of homeowners say they’re more likely to list with agents that use video than those who don’t.
Being good at real estate photography takes time but the rewards will be more than worth it. If you want to start your real estate photography journey, consider the following:
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