Standing out in the Real Estate photo market

The guys that I run into that are very successful with real estate photography are using Sony with a 10mm to 20mm lens and a 18mm to 50mm zoom. In camera panoramas and in camera HDRs make for speed with minimum tripod use. A tilt/shift lens or DXO are also used by some.

skieur

I was still writing the last post while you inserted this one. So, In-Camera panorama and HDR? Ive seen some guys' results from using the HDR method here, whereas 3 bracketted shots + or -2, then edit on PS. I totally like that idea but was stuck with the timeliness issue. But, you mean in-camera, right? Sony? What model?

Yes, I do mean in-camera panorama and HDR. In panorama you hold down the shutter and pan the scene at 12 frames per second. The camera then stitches the shots together to produce a panorama. For HDR it shoots bracketed shots at high speed and then blends them together in camera. The best is the Sony A77.

The advantage is speed and the lack of need for a tripod or additional software and time is money.

skieur
 
The guys that I run into that are very successful with real estate photography are using Sony with a 10mm to 20mm lens and a 18mm to 50mm zoom. In camera panoramas and in camera HDRs make for speed with minimum tripod use. A tilt/shift lens or DXO are also used by some.

skieur

I was still writing the last post while you inserted this one. So, In-Camera panorama and HDR? Ive seen some guys' results from using the HDR method here, whereas 3 bracketted shots + or -2, then edit on PS. I totally like that idea but was stuck with the timeliness issue. But, you mean in-camera, right? Sony? What model?

Yes, I do mean in-camera panorama and HDR. In panorama you hold down the shutter and pan the scene at 12 frames per second. The camera then stitches the shots together to produce a panorama. For HDR it shoots bracketed shots at high speed and then blends them together in camera. The best is the Sony A77.

The advantage is speed and the lack of need for a tripod or additional software and time is money.

skieur

I shoot all real estate interiors on a tripod for the simple reason of height consistency. Agents do get annoyed if you don't take all your shots at the same height. Tripod solves that easily and makes for sharper images.
 
I was still writing the last post while you inserted this one. So, In-Camera panorama and HDR? Ive seen some guys' results from using the HDR method here, whereas 3 bracketted shots + or -2, then edit on PS. I totally like that idea but was stuck with the timeliness issue. But, you mean in-camera, right? Sony? What model?

Yes, I do mean in-camera panorama and HDR. In panorama you hold down the shutter and pan the scene at 12 frames per second. The camera then stitches the shots together to produce a panorama. For HDR it shoots bracketed shots at high speed and then blends them together in camera. The best is the Sony A77.

The advantage is speed and the lack of need for a tripod or additional software and time is money.

skieur

. Tripod solves that easily and makes for sharper images.

When using DSLRs yes, but the A77 does NOT have a moving mirror, although it does use interchangeable lenses.. That makes a tripod unnecessary for sharpness in all but extremely low light situations.

skieur
 
I've done a lot of commercial real estate photography where the rates are FAR better for FAR less work. In my market I make $1200-1600 for approximately 2-4 hours onsite and 2-4 hours of post-processing work.

Residential real estate is NOT worth your effort. You'd be better off working at McDonalds. Seriously. Do the math. Let's say you make $120 (which is WAY more than most real estate agents are willing to pay, mind you.) Figure 30 mins total travel time, 1 hour shooting the exterior, 2 hours shooting the interior. (and this is being quick!) This isn't like commercial work where you can get representative shots- you have to get EVERY SINGLE ROOM. AND... these days, in order to compete, you also have to do HDRs for most of these rooms. That means more capture time and more processing time. Figure conservatively about 4 hours of post processing time. So what does that come to...? About 8 hours? A little less. But you're looking at about $15 an hour. $15/hr is not great.

I suppose if you could pull this off 8 hours a day 5 days a week, that you could certainly work doing worse things for that kind of money... but dealing with real estate agents can be... quirky... and to me, it's just not worth it. Working for someone who is going to make many thousands on this house sale, and thinks they could do just as well with their point and shoot, and why would they ever bother paying anyone over $75 to do it? Yeah, thanks no. :)
 

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