Real estate photography help

[lfoush]

A friend asked me to take some pictures of a home he recently built so that he could use them for his portfolio or whatever. He knows I've never done this type of photography before so he knows it won't be like professional; he just wants some nice photos. The only lenses I have are a 50mm f1/8, a 50-200mm zoom, and an 18-55mm kit lens. I'm assuming I should use the kit lens although I know it'll probably cause a lot of distortion. Are there any focal lengths I should avoid or ones I should try to stay on? I'm going to be using a tripod and I have an external flash I can use to add more light.

Any advice would be helpful.

 

[SnappingShark]

I would say go wide to make the rooms look more spacious, and just flood the room with light - people like rooms that are bright - keep curtains open - ensure that the outside can be seen - i.e don't fill the window with too much light.

Hmm besides that - for nicer effects, make sure carpet is "brushed" one way, everything tidy, and just learn from it

 

[TWright33]

Turn on all lights.

Open up all curtains.

Expose for windows.

Pop some flash.

Use your kit lens, stopped up to f16 or so. 18mm should be okay. If you have to take two shots and stitch together that will work too.

This is simply my opinion.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Suggest the friend find a photographer that has done real estate - seriously! I'm an experienced photographer and I wouldn't want to take on something I don't have experience in doing (in my case, such as a wedding!). I might run the other way, or more likely offer suggestions on where a friend could find a photographer with the necessary expertise.

 

[ronlane]

I would use the 18-55mm. Use a tripod to shoot from. Another thing you can do is bracket your exposures 2 stops and combined the photos in post.

 

[tirediron]

Ehhh... I would avoid use of wide angles, rather shoot portrait-aspect panoramas. Unless you have a PC-E/Tilt-shift type lens, or the Nikon 14-24 f2.8, you will wind up with bowed floors, leaning walls, etc. As mentioned, expose for the window light so that you don't get blown windows, and then raise the inside exposure to 1/2 - 2/3 stop ABOVE so that you acheive a bright, airy feel. Also ensure you can match your flash to ambient when you have room lights on. Make sure that you place your own lights to match the ambient light sources and avoid cross lighting and unnatural shadows.

 

[Vince.1551]

Correct distortions in PS. However you need to give space for the eventual crop and 18mm on a cropped sensor couldn't do much.

 

[astroNikon]

I few things I've learned from reading about it and dabbling in it.

When you take a photo, try to make sure it is not superbright outside. Otherwise your inside will look good but the windows will be blown out. Cloud cover or early/late in the day to prevent harsh shadows.

Remove/move any large furniture near the camera.

brush the carpet all in one direction (it looks better)

Be careful of various lighting in the room - sunlight, flourescent & incandescent bulbs on at the same time.

remove/move any small items to remove any clutter in the room.

You'll probably need a tripod to do this.

If you don't have additional lighting then the above should help. Also, you'll probably be using 18mm all the time and a good aperture (say, greater than f/8) to get everything in detail - check your photos it's all dependent upon the room size). If you don't do any "fixing" afterward you could end up with issues as outlined in the above 2 posts.

Your external flash may help dependent upon the room, and more so if you can do off camera flash.
If all else fails, ask someone that has done this before, or just look at all the photos online of real estate.

I've seen some pretty bad stuff and then some really amazing stuff too. Seems to be based on the value of the house.


here are some examples:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=real estate photography

 

[astroNikon]

..... rather shoot portrait-aspect panoramas. ....

how do you do that ??
multiple shots stitched together ?

 

[Designer]

If you can stitch photos, do as tirediron suggested; shoot in portrait orientation, overlapping just a bit, and stitch them in post. Yes, with the 18mm focal length you're going to get some distortion, but avoid any closeups of door jambs, etc.

Is the house staged? If it is not furnished at all, the photos are going to look a little sparse. Don't forget to bounce your flash to get maximum coverage.

Good luck!

 

[tirediron]

..... rather shoot portrait-aspect panoramas. ....

how do you do that ??
multiple shots stitched together ?

Exactly... just like a landscape pano, except you're shooting vertically. 2-3 shots is usually sufficient for all but the largest rooms.

 

[Msteelio91]

Wow...lots of disagreement in this thread. I say:

-100% go for it. If they're understanding, you have nothing to worry about. Especially if you're doing it pro-bono.
-I like tirediron's suggestion of using vertical stitching.
-I also think going slight wide and correcting dist in LR or PS would be fine.
-TWright33 is right about all the light, you want to make the rooms seem bigger and brighter. The warmer and more welcoming, the better.

 

[Civchic]

Not much to comment on the shots, as I'm terrible at it (and you'd think I'd try harder, since I'm a landlord regularly listing my apartments for rent, LOL), but a big tip not mentioned here...CLOSE THE TOILET LIDS. So many real estate listings have open toilets in the bathroom shots and for some reason it just bugs the poop out of me.

 

[Designer]

...CLOSE THE TOILET LIDS.

Yup, that's like having dishes in the sink or thereabouts.

 

[SoulfulRecover]

shoot wide, correct in post if need be. make sure you edit out or remove cords, cables, outlets. . . dont worry about blowing out the windows. Nothing wrong with it unless there is something outside the window that needs to be seen or you can take multiple exposures and composite in post. Use f/16, f/20, f/22 (whatever your lens is capable of) Dont be afraid to move things in the room around or add stuff to it. Turn books around so you see the pages and not the spines, bring in plants if you can, make sure things are dusted and clean, if you are shooting the outside wait till about 20-30 minutes after the sunsets or 20-30 minutes before the sun rises to get the blue hour photos. Have the lights on outside and in the house for this. Itll be about a 30 second exposure at f/22 100ISO so use a tripod and cable release or set the timer. Use mirror luck up mode if you can. Theres a lot to real estate photography. Well, GOOD real estate photography.

Just do what you can and Im sure they will be more than happy with what you get