Real Estate Photography - Needed Gear?

[robb01]

Im really wanting to break into the real estate photography arena. I have some good friends who are real estate agents, and could make some good contacts easily. I see that alot of "good" real estate photographers are mainly using HDR techniques to create thier indoor shots.

What I'm mainly wondering is, would I need any special lighting to do interior shots? I'm not too familiar with off camera lighting, but am going to buy an sb600 or similiar to practice with this winter.

Also, Ive seen some aerial shots for the exteriors of the properties, is this mainly obtained w/ a tall, ~20" tripod?

Also, as I look at alot of the high end properties for sale in my area, its obvious that there are no real estate photographers doing this in my area, so hoping I can break through.

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[fokker]

You'll need a good ultra-wide angle lens for interior shots - something along the lines of the sigma 10-20mm.

I know a lot of aerial real-estate photos are done by using large masts with the camera tethered to the top and remotely controlled. I have seen some rigs with a little motor that can operate the zoom on the lens, and you control everything from a laptop showing a live-view feed from the camera.

I also know that a few people use remote control helicopters for this purpose, though this is an expensive, difficult and somewhat risky technique.

In terms of off-camera lighting, I don't think you need to go crazy. Judging form what I've seen, most indoor shots have all the lights in the house on and seem to just use that light, plus HDR techniques to expose everything properly. A tripod is going to be essential.

[robb01]

Do you think the 24ft tripod by Manfrotto would be acceptable? Not quite sure how that would work on a 2 story house though.

[fokker]

I've never used a pole myself so can't really comment on how tall of a pole you would need. Check out this flickr page for a bunch of pole photos, most of them describe the pole they used so you should be able to get an idea of how tall you need to go.

Flickr: The Pole Aerial Photography - PAP Pool


Also a tutorial for a DIY pole:
Do-It-Yourself: Pole Aerial Photography | Photography Tips, Digital Photography 101 at Cheapshooter

[GeorgieGirl]

Most aerial sites are google maps for site plans. Are you planning to provide Residential RE shots or Commerical RE shots? Two different ends of the RE spectrum.

[robb01]

Residential primarily

[Overread]

You might well benefit from a few speedlite flash units (plus wireless remotes and tripods to hold the speedlite flashes and not to mention diffusion attachments) to allow you some onsite lighting control - esp indoors. Whilst using multiple exposures and combining them to get a correctly exposed final shot will work you might also have times when you want light to come from a certain direction or the quick placement of a few lights offscene allows you to cut your editing time down.

Space and time will be some of your biggest factors and there will be times when the HDR approach is all you can do and other times you'll have free run to setup what you like.

Distortion from wide angle shots is also something you should invest time into researching. This is something that you'll want to research at the lens end and the editing stages to ensure that you choose the correct lens(es) that will give you the least distortion - understand where distortion will start for that lens on its focal range and also how to correct distortion in editing (and also how to shoot to compensate for distortion correction later).

I've read good things of the 10-20mm lenses; but I've also read very impressive reviews of the sigma 8-16mm and one which states that at its 10mm mark it has far less distortion than options such as the 10-20mm wide angle lenses.

[robb01]

Im looking at a couple different lenses, one of the "lower end" wide angles, the tokina is in the lead at the moment, but I think I'll rent the top 2 I'm interested in and make my final judgement that way.

[manaheim]

You may want to do a bit of research on what agents in your area are willing to pay. I do a lot of commercial real estate and at some point investigated residential and quickly discovered there was no real way to justify the time investment against the rates your average agent will be willing to accept. High end residential real estate is a real possibility, but like anything that makes more money the competition will be fierce and networking into a position where you can do this is going to be more than a little challenging, especially with no experience.

Consider a basic setup is going to run you at least $1500... and most agents won't part with more than $100 each.

Now you may say "oh, well, that's only 15 jobs!"

Sure, but consider the TIME... to do a shoot WELL it will take you about 2 hours if you're quick. Figure 30 mins round trip travel time at a minimum. Figure an hour of logisitcs... phone calls to get information, schedule arrival, billing, etc. Now toss in processing time. Figure at LEAST 2 hours to process the images, though when you add uploading them, any corrections, etc. you should probably figure 3. Throw in another 30 minutes for fudge factor, and you're at $20/hr and this doesn't account for gas, electricity, any other cost of business costs, etc.

AND I know a lot of agents who think $100 is insanely expensive.

Just something to consider.

[robb01]

I think my main focus would be high end residential, as like I said there is no competition in my area. No one seems to be using a real photography service. It's almost sad to see a million dollar house ( absolute top end of the RE market here) being shot w/ a P&S.

[shuttermountain]

Residential real estate photography is not a popular nor a good paying line of photography income.

Most real estate agents do their own shots and are unwilling to pay for pro shots that will take away from their commission on the sale of the property... regardless the selling price.

By time you consider your expenses and time vs what the agent is willing to pay (IOW, next to nothing), you will be better off looking at a different way of making a photography income

[sdubose99]

Robb01, go to Flickr and search groups for 'photographyforrealestate' Tons of good information in there, and very helpful people willing to provide critique and guidance, and some tough love as well. Please search the forum for answers to your questions before posting... and also please upload a few photos to your Photostream which illustrate your current capabilities in real estate photography...

There's a recent post asking about equipment.

Disagree with shuttermountain... whether it pays, and whether agents "get it" all depends on your particular market.
Agree on renting equipment before buying...
Try developing a post-processing workflow that works for you -- try to automate as much as possible. HDR/Tonemapping may not produce consistent results for you in an automated flow, if not try enfuseGUI or Photomatix Exposure Fusion.

[ghache]

a good wideangle lens. 2-3 flashes, tripod and practice your hdr techniques.

[GeorgieGirl]

Residential real estate photography is not a popular nor a good paying line of photography income.

Most real estate agents do their own shots and are unwilling to pay for pro shots that will take away from their commission on the sale of the property... regardless the selling price.

By time you consider your expenses and time vs what the agent is willing to pay (IOW, next to nothing), you will be better off looking at a different way of making a photography income

For commercial work, specifically for marketing brochures, a commerical marketing firm is used. Exterior architectural shots, interior shots of best features or key features are the norm. Often times a before and after story following capital improvements is created.

I don't know if a photgrapher is on call with these firms, you may want to find out more about that as well.

[sobolik]

You'll need a good ultra-wide angle lens for interior shots - something along the lines of the sigma 10-20mm.
.....

Ditto but this thought is incomplete.

The wide angle lens allows for extra material to be snipped off after the photos are corrected for camera distortion.

NEVER take the text book framing. ALWAYS shoot full wide to allow for this trimming. I use PS Elements 5.0 to do this correction (for emphasis -never always)

IT WILL BE A GAZILLION% INCREASE IN THE QUALITY / IMPACT / APPEARANCE OF THE PHOTOS
Lens distortion and perspective correction in architecture photography Photo retouching in Photoshop

Notice how the right wing of the building and the pavement has been trimmed after correction.