Introduction for Real Estate Photography

Hi my name is Alex and I will be taking you through a photographer training tutorial where you learn the principles and techniques of real estate photography. Make sure you have your camera and tripod on hand so you can change settings accordingly and experiment with some of the techniques intermittently as we go through different processes and ideas.

Before we get started on the photography side of the job, we need to do a basic overview of best practices once you arrive at a property.


Firstly, it's important to remember that though there are formulas and rules of real estate photography that you'll be thinking about every shoot, every agent and broker has different preferences and goals, depending on their taste and the distinctive characteristics of the listing. Therefore after you've met the agent and gone through baseline introductions, ask them to give you a tour of the property so they can voice any specific shot ideas,angles are elements of the property they especially want to capture.

This will give you a good sense of their marketing goal and the layout of the house so you can mentally prepare for the forthcoming shoot. Don't hesitate to respectfully raise concerns if agent has a poor shot idea that you know won't work. In these situations you may want to take the shot and show them it's a bad idea rather than trying to describe why. Nonetheless, the ultimate goal is to give the agent what they want, so be compliant and experiment with bizarre ideas if necessary.

Sometimes you may even be surprised. After you've gotten a tour from the agent, start prepping the house for photos. This means turning on all light fixtures and lamps, pulling up blinds and hiding remote controls, Kleenex boxes, sponges and any other items inside that will show poorly in photos and make it difficult on your real estate image retouching company. For staged houses, you probably won't have to move anything out of the way but in properties where the homeowners are still living there, you may have to hide some personal items and declutter a bit. Remember you have a limited amount of time to finish the shoot, so if the house is overly cluttered or unprepared for shooting, ask the agent whether you should reschedule or if they're comfortable shooting the property in its present condition. There's only so much you can do and you're a photographer not a home cleaner/stager.

Do not spend more than 15 minutes prepping the property.


Do what you can within that limit, however moving heavy furniture, decluttering every room, sweeping etc are not your responsibilities. If you have time, avoid including the following items in your shots; bath mats, small carpets or mats on the kitchen floor, modems and bundles of cords, the homeowner's personal photos, toothbrushes, shampoo bottles and personal toiletries in general, trash cans, bedside alarm clocks, home phones, dog beds, litter boxes and anything else that will negatively affect the marketability of the listing. Usually these items can be gently move to the outside of the frame of the photo, then returned once you finish capturing the space. A note on blinds, in general all window blinds should be pulled up there are few exceptions to this rule, so leave the blinds up if;

A. The view outside is really unpleasant, for example there's a dumpster and industrial refinery, a chaotic construction site or anything else that would devalue the listing.

B. If the agent and insists for whatever reason, on leaving them down, you are after all working for them.

And lastly:

C. If the blinds are broken and won't stay level or pull up entirely. Sometimes excessively heavy blinds can be problematic and it's best not to risk pulling them off the wall. Leave the blinds down and twist them open so light can come through the windows. Other notes on prepping the house; make sure you remove security signs from the front yard before taking exterior shots, also hoses should be either coiled or removed from view.

Garage doors should be closed and garbage cans either moved into the garage or out of view. In kitchen's especially, make sure you double check for cabinet under lighting and turn the stove lights on. Dining room and breakfast table chairs should be tucked in even and orderly. Fans, fireplaces, TVs in any other kinetic features of the listing should be turned off. These objects will appear blurry and disorienting once the disparate exposures are fused by your real estate photo retoucher into an HDR composite.

Related Videos

Camera SettingsCamera SettingsNow that you've prepped the house, it's time to set up your camera equipment and make sure your camera settings are dialed in. In no particular order, set your file of numbering settings to continuous so that when you dump your photos onto your computer the files are organized sequentially, and the...Basics of HDR and FlashBasics of HDR and FlashHDR or high dynamic range photography is a popular photographic technique especially for architectural and landscape photographers. HDR photography allows real estate photo editors you to fuse different exposures photos of the same scene captured at various shutter speeds and then do a composite ...CompositionCompositionDeveloping a technical and intuitive grasp of composition and how do you use the laws of perspective to your advantage is one of the most crucial variables in being successful real estate photographer. Here's a quick breakdown of some of the basic principles you want to be aware of and understand. ...Front ExteriorsFront ExteriorsNow that we've done over some basic techniques principles and compositional rules of real estate photography, let’s talk about specific types of shots you'll take it nearly every shoot you do and others you'll come across often. The MLS requires the cover photo of every listing be an exterior shot,...BackyardsBackyardsBackyard vary quite a bit in layout and landscape design. If a property has a substantial backyard space, it's important to gather at least two or three different angles to exhibit the space from varying viewpoints. One common and effective angle is looking from the house deck or patio area out int...Entryways and StaircasesEntryways and StaircasesThe entryway is typically only worth capturing if a property has a decorative front door, french doors or a dramatic entryway space. One good way to approach this section of the house is to take a one-point perspective shot with the french door swung open,leading your eye into the entryway spaces. ...Living RoomsLiving RoomsLiving rooms can vary dramatically in scale and layout but here are a few general considerations. Living rooms primarily display best in two point perspective shots, although if the room is extremely orderly and symmetrical, a one-point perspective can be effective. It is ideal to shoot between two...KitchensKitchensKitchens are another important feature of the house. The trademark real estate kitchen shot is taken from outside of the kitchen and countertop island looking towards the cabinetry and windows. This is typically a two-point perspective shot but kitchens are where one point perspectives can be very ...Dining RoomsDining RoomsDining rooms are pretty straightforward. Typically they look best from a two point perspective backed up as far as possible and shooting towards the windows. Sometimes the dining room back towards the kitchen with show how they're spatially and functionally related. Be sure to prop the camera up hi...BathroomsBathroomsMost single family homes have a half bath on the first floor of the house and sometimes on the second floor or in the basement as well.At risk of stating the obvious, it is important to focus more on the sink and mirror than the toilet. Oftentimes the toilet will be opposite the sink and won't fit ...BedroomsBedroomsBedrooms vary less than many other rooms in how they are designed or organized, thus most bedrooms display best from a two-point perspective looking towards the bed and windows. If necessary back the camera up into the doorway and zoom in to frame the space excluding the third wall. There's also a ...Porches, Views, and PanoramasPorches, Views, and PanoramasPorch photos are almost exclusively two point perspective shots. Often times it's desirable to backup camera up through the sliding doors to capture more of the space. Like backyard shots, use discretion when choosing which corner to shoot from; taking into consideration Sun placement and what you'...TwilightsTwilightsThe last specific shot type we will cover are twilight shots. Agents oftentimes like to include a couple exterior photos taken during dust because the warm orange glow of the properties lights complement romantically the deep blue of the properties ambient lighting. Usually you will shoot the regul...Agent Review Process and ConclusionAgent Review Process and ConclusionOnce you finish capturing all the angles of a particular listing, your last obligation on site is to do a review of the photos with the agent. This process is crucial in avoiding unhappy clients. Not only does it give them a chance to edit out superfluous photos they don't like or need, it also al...How to master the basics of Adobe Bridge for Real EstateHow to master the basics of Adobe Bridge for Real Esta...In the next few tutorials, I will discuss programs outside a Photoshop that you will use to organize and edit your photos. The first program is Adobe Bridge , Bridge, like Finder on the Mac is a browser software, unlike Finder though, it's compatible with and communicates well with other Adobe pro...How to master the basics of Camera Raw for Real EstateHow to master the basics of Camera Raw for Real EstateFor all of your orders, you will go through a pre-production editing process that will help you stay organized as you work on your orders. First, you will create four folders within your main order folder, title these folders Color Corrected, Raw, Fuse, and Flash. Put all of the raw files in the Ra...How to master Flambient Flash Blending for Real EstateHow to master Flambient Flash Blending for Real EstateThe standard real estate photo editing process is almost the same as the HD natural real estate photo editor process except you don't composite any of the windows and you don't use the real estate flash photo even if the photographer took some. Let's go through it again just in case, you’ll start b...How to master removing color casts from real estate photosHow to master removing color casts from real estate ph...The HD Photography style editing process is a more complex version of the HD Naturals and Standard photo process. For HD photos we will follow the same steps except you also remove color casting on the walls and other services, composite the windows, and in some cases the ceiling, and then remove h...How to master advanced tools in Photoshop for real estate editingHow to master advanced tools in Photoshop for real est...The HD Luxury Photography process is exactly the same as the HD Photography process except a little more complex and time-consuming, and there are a couple small differences. It is worth repeating it from the start to finish so you can remember the workflow well. First, import your fuse and flash...How to master the basics of editing interiors for real estateHow to master the basics of editing interiors for real...For our first editor tutorial, we will talk about the basics of a good interior Real Estate Photograph. These are qualities that you will try to achieve in any interior photograph that you're editing. First, your photograph should be well exposed and bright. Nobody likes looking at dark and sad ph...How to master the basics of editing drone photos for real estateHow to master the basics of editing drone photos for r... Aerial photos are shot from a high viewpoint from a drone. And since the drone is always moving a little bit, the photographer can't take a series of bracketed exposures for HDR fusing like they do from a tripod. So there will only be one raw file for each photo. As a result, the aerial editing...How to master the basics of editing twilights for real estateHow to master the basics of editing twilights for real... Twilight shots , which are mainly exterior shots taken right after the sun has set, are really visually appealing because of the deep blues of the sky and the surrounding environment. Which complement well with the glow of the interior lights. The editing process for Twilights is similar to dayti...How to master the basics of editing exteriors for real estateHow to master the basics of editing exteriors for real...We've mainly been talking about interior real estate photos but now we're going to go over how to edit real estate exterior photos . Exterior real estate photos for a number of reasons are much simpler and quicker to edit than real estate interiors and you will edit practically every exterior phot...The basics of blending flash with fuse for real estate editorsThe basics of blending flash with fuse for real estate...So, now that you have all your fused HDR files in the fused folder and your flash files edited in the flash folder. It's time to edit and combine these files in Photoshop. The HD Naturals editing process is simpler than the rest of them. First import your flash Infuse files into Photoshop. Put you...How to master the basics of real estate exterior editingHow to master the basics of real estate exterior editi...Similar to interiors, exterior photographs will have a lot of stylistic qualities that you will need to achieve and think about while editing every real estate photograph . Firstly, like interiors your photographs should be well exposed both in the foreground and the background of sky. Information...