Photography Masterclass Magazine
REAL ESTATE INTERIORS
Houses are bought and sold every day and one of the things that helps a listing stand out is great images. Real estate photography is a genre that’s always going to be in demand, with more people buying and selling homes. But of course, taking appealing photographs of properties requires knowledge and the right gear. In this article, I’ll show you how to get started.
EQUIPMENT
Interior photography does require certain gear. Firstly, you’ll need a camera that can shoot manually, along with a wide-angle lens to help you capture tight spaces. Ideally, you’ll be looking at something around the 16-35mm mark (10-22mm on APS-C cameras). This will give you a good zoom range to work with and means that you won’t have to carry more than one lens.
A zoom lens with a fixed aperture throughout its range will give you the best quality and range of settings but will cost more than a lens with variable aperture. Full time architectural photographers will usually invest in a tilt-shift lens, which allows you to eliminate distortion and get the correct perspective in camera. However, these are pricey lenses and you can make corrections in post production.
You are likely to be using long exposures with interior work, so you will need a good stable tripod and a remote trigger to fire the camera and avoid any camera shake. It’s advisable to set the tripod up to a set height (around five feet is ideal) and to take all your photos from the same height. Consistency is key here!
Interior photography can sometimes require you to photograph in spaces without much natural light. Whilst you can use artificial light in the property, you may find that your white balance struggles to compensate for it as interior lighting tends to be tungsten, casting a strong orange glow on your shot. Raising your ISO is another option, but you don’t want too much noise distracting from the shot. Ideally, you should use some sort of flash when shooting real estate work.
When you’re starting out, I’d recommend just using your existing speedlight, but investing in a light stand and flash trigger so that you can use the flash off-camera. Make sure you soften the light of the flashgun with a light modifier of some kind, such as a small softbox or umbrella. To avoid shadows, you can use a reflector opposite your flash to bounce light back into the room, or use the natural light coming through windows.
Obviously, if you start to specialise in real estate work you will want to look into studio lighting, which will allow you full control over lighting and give you the ability to shoot with highly directional light.
STANDARD SHOT LIST
Although every house will be different, there are some standard shots that any estate agent is likely to want. Knowing what these are is essential and makes you stand out as a photographer who knows what they’re doing. Here’s a short list for you to memorize!
Photos of the front of the house so that you can show off its ‘curb appeal’.
Photos of the garden or yard, making sure to photograph any special features.
Photos of each bedroom, the kitchen and the living room.
A photo of the bathroom and any other feature rooms such as a pantry, utility room or garage.
DECLUTTERING
When you’re photographing a home for real estate purposes, you need to make the rooms look as spacious and inviting as possible. And a cluttered room is not going to appeal to a prospective buyer!
Even the tidiest of people naturally have a little clutter lying around their home. It’s therefore worth getting home owners to keep surfaces clear and rooms clean. If home owners want a really professional look for their home, you could recommend that they hire a home stylist - there are companies that specialize in styling homes that are on the market. They will come and kit out the house with suitable furniture, paintings and ornaments to make the home look at its best in images and for viewings. Once viewings are complete, they’ll return and take everything away again.
SHOOTING
When you arrive at the house you’re shooting, it’s worth taking a few minutes to walk round the entire property. Firstly, this gives you the chance to mentally work out how you’re going to photograph each room and secondly, it lets you see what spaces will need furniture rearranging and ornaments removed.
Obviously, you will need to pick a bright day to photograph the outside of a property. Clouds are fine but you need the property to look inviting. Heavy grey skies won’t achieve that!
When it comes to interiors there are a lot of different opinions on how you should light rooms. Personally, I always prefer to try and shoot with as much natural light as possible for interiors. If rooms have large windows then open them up to let the light in. However, some properties will naturally have low lighting, so you’ll need to add in artificial light.
Probably the easiest way to do this is to use a flashgun. As I mentioned above, you’ll ideally want to use your flash offcamera with a diffuser, so that you can angle the light where you need it. I also recommend a sunfire reflector (bands of gold and silver), which you can use to bounce light and prevent hard shadows. If you don’t have the means to use your flash off-camera then make sure that you bounce it – either off the ceiling or a wall behind you, so that the light is as diffused as possible.
I would also recommend using your flash on manual and keeping the power as low
as possible. You want the flash to work as a fill-in, with as much natural light as possible.
If it’s a very dark room then you could also think about turning on a few lights to add a warmer glow. Do remember however that indoor lighting is likely to cast an orange glow on your image as its tungsten, so you’ll want to keep this to a minimum so it doesn’t overpower the other light (both natural and flash).
I also mentioned above that the ideal height to have your tripod for shooting is around 5 foot. This height will look natural and balanced. It’s also vital to keep your camera straight (another good reason to use a tripod). If your camera or tripod has a level, use it! You don’t want to add distortion to your image and cause nonvertical lines.
Shooting rooms inside requires a large depth of field, so that you can make sure everything in the shot is pin sharp. So, you’ll be looking at using an aperture of around f16 / f22. This will mean that you’ll be letting very little light in through your lens.
In addition, you want to keep your ISO at its lowest setting (ISO 100) to avoid any digital noise that will distract from your photograph.
All this means that you’ll generally need a longer exposure when you’re shooting indoors, which is another reason to use a tripod and ensure that there’s no camera shake.
POST PRODUCTION
You can obviously use a variety of editing programmes to make corrections to your images. I am personally a fan of Photoshop, but Lightroom will do much the same things.
In Camera Raw or Lightroom you can correct white balance and make some basic adjustments such as lowering any highlights, brightening up shadows, deepening blacks and raising clarity. The look is obviously up to you. You can also correct for any distortion in Camera Raw under the Geometry section.
Check out the video for a detailed overview of editing best practice.
IN CONCLUSION
Starting out in real estate photography doesn’t have to mean investing in a lot of expensive new equipment. You can start out with the kit that you have! The key is to make sure that you produce consistent images that all have a similar look and feel – and that, most importantly, make the house that’s on sale look attractive.