canon Lee

I agree with your statements. My area has million dollar to 50K homes, private as well as condos. I have always held myself to doing the best I can no matter what I am shooting or how much I charge.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

Really!? You will do a full lighting setup for all interiors, a drone fly over and full post processing no matter how much is paid? Really? That is generous of you given that a 250K house is going to generate tops around $7,500 commission for the listing office, but more likely half that if sold by an outside agent. How much of the expected $3,750 expected commission do you think they will pay for a shoot? $200-$300, if you are lucky. And a $1M property which might generate $15,000 to $25,000 after split, would get the same $300 treatment from you? Really?

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

A rather timely thread.
I’ve been a full-time pro for over 40 years.
Just got a call from a friend who asked if I would be interested in doing real estate photography.
That’s an area I have not yet explored.
I took early retirement in May ( was laid off) then had prostate surgery and am looking for another income stream. Anyone who does this know what going rates are for these or where to find that info? I know it’s going to depend on what’s covered. Thanks.

Edit: (smacks forehead) a few of my wife’s close friends are realtors.
I’m going to ask them.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

I do a good deal of interior work- a little high end real estate and old "heritage" properties but mostly architectural interiors for home builders, condo sellers, commercial space rental firms and interior decorators. The 2 focal lengths I find most useful are 24mm and 35mm on a full frame body . I Sometimes need to work in tight or restricted spaces but I don't want extremely forced perspectives or exaggerated foregrounds. We need to represent the spaces as authentically as possible and limit linear distortion. I have occasionally had to resort to an 18mm focal length or a tiny bathroom or kitchenette area. I have a few P/C tilt and shift lenses but I find by simply keeping the camera parallel to the vertical lines and walls and finding a good eye-level point of view, solve most of theses issues. I usually have very little to correct in post-processing- just a tweak here and there. Mostly, I stick to prime lenses in the aforementioned focal lengths. For exteriors, I usually can get away with a normal ato medium wide focal length. I seldom need longer lenses- just for certain detail shots where access is difficult.

Most of my work is for brochures, magazine ads and online sites. I most cases a decent zoom lens would work out as the enlargement would not exceed a one or two page spread in a magazine. For trade show displays, photomurals in offices,transilluminated displays and site signs (kida billboards) I find the prime lenses have the edge and need less enhancement in post processing.

I hope this helps.

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canon Lee

That is exactly what I did and I have gotten 2 agents shoots so far in 3 weeks.

canon Lee

iPhone

HI. I have been in my own photography business for over a decade doing studio shoots and remotes, & like you I just recently got into doing real estate shoots. I charge $100 per shoot and it take me no more than an hour to do the shoot, another hour PP . More and more agents are using us pros rather than using their iphones. They now see how fast they get showings. The houses here range from million dollar to 100k . Its a beach community and there are tons of real estate agents here.
I discovered quickly that I had to get the right equipment. I use full frame and wide lenses. the rooms are tiny. I got new business cards and a letter of recommendation and started to knock on doors.
You might look into a technique where you use ambient light bracketed in Aperture Priority. No need to bring lights or flashes. The only tricky part of the shoot is the blow out from the windows. Look into HDR. The new Canon 6D has HDR, this will save you lots of time. practice at home . The other part you will need to know is how to send the images so the agent can upload them into the multiple listings programs. I use LR, as it has HDR and I resize the photos at a 4:3 aspect ratio. This the standard that the agents use with Paragon MLS program. I hope you get well. Don't over do it. Lee

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Thanks for your post.
I’m almost recovered from the surgery. Back on the bicycle and plan a trip in April. I have everything I need as far as gear goes, just lack some experience shooting interiors for realtors. My brother sold real estate in another state but the photos he used were way overdone HDR.
Thanks again!
Much apprecupiated.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

A few tips- A lighting method that I find quick and easy, especially on jobs with limited time frames or low budgets that preclude hours of work and bringing in elaborate lighting gear. If the room is lighted with mainly incandescent lamps or warmed LED bulbs, I bring in a 250 to 500 watt quartz (3200K) light and bounce ir off the ceiling or far wall behind the camera. It just fill in the shadows and makes for a very natural effect featuring the lighting design in the room. If the room is primarily lighted with iccomming natural ligh, I do the same with a mono-light or a simple blue 250 to 500 watt old fashioned bare photoflood lamp. With one or two of theses lights on stands, I can light vast areas using existing light with a perfectly natural results. Recently I light a huge display are in a museum using the nature ligh and one quartz lamp. When using the strobes or blue bulbs, it is easy to balance the indoor and outdoor lighting in windows.

In heritage properties with traditional table lamps- I replace the regular ligh bulbs with #1 Photoflood lamps (3200K) and fill in with my bounced quartz units. I take my readings and turn off the lamps until the camera is set and turn them bc on again for the exposure. I don't' want to overheat the lamp sockets. I keep a half dozen of each of theses photoflood bulbs in my car. Some photo retailers still have them and their are always a few up for grabs on Ebay etc.

In my town, the newspapers, magazines and online realtor ads are also loaded with terrible real estate shots. Seems some the brokers and agents are doing DIY jobs or giving the work out to folks who simply don't know what they are doing. There are, however, a few photographer in my city doing decent work. Personally, I never got into this on a mass-production level- running from one house to another. I network with the agents and companies that are spending significent dollars on their final advertising, home show displays, brochures, and site signage. It does no pay for them to skip on the photography and spend all kids of money on the advertising.

It's like many other aspects of commercial work, there are folks who just don't see the difference and don't want to invest the extra bucks. I get lots of "rebound" jobs where the printer tells the client that the images he or she supplied just won't make the grade with their multi thousand dollar printing job and the deadline turned into an emergency.

I am realistic- Nobody is gonna buy a house or even lease a residential or commercial property sight-unseen going by a photograph. I do remind my potential clients that the FIRST component of a SALE is attracting attention and creating desire for the product or service. I also remind them gently that truth in advertising is important and we need to make images that accurately represent the premise that we are shooting, however, dull, lackluster, distorted and uninteresting images can easily turn potential customers off. Not every potential home buyer or renter is familiar with architecture or the theory of photographic optical distortion, however if the place looks unkempt and like the walls a doorways are out of square and falling over- that is not gonna make a good first impression. Nor will the happily impressed if the place look spacious in the images and turns out to be small whe they actually come in for a viewing.

My best real estate clients are in the high end of the business or are renting executive apartments, short term, for incoming folks from out of province or overseas locations. The stuff has to look good in the advertisements.

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GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Looks like I found a reason to replace the dead bulb in my Lowel Omni-Light.
Thanks!

canon Lee

Hi. The agents here wont pay more than $100~150. I try to be competitive and charge $100.00. My technique does not require drones, & lighting equipment. My shoots generally take about an hour. I shoot using ambient light, which requires just the camera and tripod. I set the camera to aperture, F8, bracket 1 step, & shoot 3 shots. I am contemplating buying a Full Frame Canon 6D that has the HDR built in, which saves tons of time PP. I find that the lower priced homes demands more creativity, where the million dollar homes actually sell themselves. I actually spend less time at larger homes. Its these tiny homes that are cramped and are not furnished with expensive furniture.

canon Lee

I agree that some photographers over do the HDR. I use it for the window blow outs. Extending the dynamic range allows for a good outside view, with no blow out. However I have closed down shades because the view outside wasn't attractive. Like you I have been shooting for years, but had to learn a different technique for interiors.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Barrel distortion and volume anamorphosis are a fact of life with wide lenses. And so are lens profiles. The best software for fixing these kinds of issues is Viewpoint from DXO. It usually has good profiles for most lens/camera combinations, and they have a tool that addresses volume anamorphosis better than Photoshop's Volume Deformation tool.

If you go full frame, and the majority of work will be RE, there is no question that your go to lenses will be a 24mm and 17mm tilt/shift. Nothing else will give you the flexibility and image quality that they offer.

A multi-row pano head is another useful addition to your camera bag.

If you are referring to keystoning - that is not distortion, per se. It is a function of not keeping the sensor parallel to the surface being photographed. And though you can "correct" the image in Lightroom or Photoshop or DXO Viewpoint, - it will be at the expense of pixels. This is one of those situations were I will advise that the GIRITC (get it right in the camera) is the best approach. A pano head with a tilt/shift lens will help you get wider angles of view with longer focal lengths, thus minimizing both keystoning and volume anamorphosis.

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

I do quite a bit of Real Estate work and I usually use a 14-24 ƒ2.8 occasionally, 16-35 ƒ4 mostly and a 50mm ƒ1.8 for isolated shots on a full frame Nikon. Keep in mind, Virtual tours are becoming very popular with bigger homes. Most of the realtors I do work for are now asking for Virtual Tours so if you plan to do them you may need a few more items if you don't already have. Like a good tripod and a pano head to start. Stitching software is helpful :) Good luck.

ggenova64

"Or keeping my 7D and buying a better lens ." By all means, keep your 7D and upgrade the lenses until you start producing a return on your investment!

Resqu2 Loc: SW Va

The last agent we were going to use was hiring a professional photographer and was going to do drone shots of the entire property, said it really helped buyers to see everything and not waste everyone’s time if they didn’t like the land and house layout. I know this isn’t what was asked in the op but just throwing him some ideals to consider in his venture.