Top Tips For Real Estate Photography

Whether as a hobby or for professional purposes, successfully photographing an interior space for real estate photography is tricky. Some key points to consider when attempting real estate photography are varying lighting conditions, navigating cramped spaces, and accurately framing an entire room in a single shot, with a suitable real estate photography camera.

Here are some real estate photography tips which we have compiled to help you on your journey to becoming a master of the interior space.

One of our real estate photography tips for beginners is to develop an understanding of the key elements you want to showcase.

Determining what exactly it is you want to capture in your photo is the first important decision you need to make when setting up your real estate photography camera for a shoot. Whether you want to capture the painterly details of a ceiling or the impressive collection of artworks on the walls of a home, these elements will dictate the best perspective to shoot from, ultimately leading to you fulfilling your brief. As you begin to think more about composition in your photography, you’ll find that your images become more impactful and visually appealing.

Deciding on what type of lighting best suits your desired outcome is another decision you need to come to early on in your shoot. But deciding is one thing, implementing this decision is another thing entirely. 

Natural lighting can be gorgeous when utilised well. Still, you will usually find the need to introduce artificial lighting of some sort, often finding a mixture of the two being the most successful. Real estate photography with a flash can be a powerful tool for creating dramatic or well-lit interiors. Whether you’re aiming for a dark and moody or bright and high-key aesthetic, deciding what is the best fit for your interior is key to developing the mood of your shoot.

Often the interior of a home or commercial real estate is so jam-packed with exciting and beautiful features that you will struggle to fit it all into your images. You can either break it up, shooting separate photos of each feature and allowing each its space to shine, or you can capture the essence of the entire room through careful lens selection.

Wide-angle lenses will give you the ability to explore the latter technique, capturing much more space in a single picture and also making a room seem bigger than it is. It is not always possible to fit everything into one photograph, but having a wide-angle lens in your kit will allow you to explore your options and develop a more expansive portfolio of images.

Even the steadiest of hands will succumb to camera shake when shooting handheld, particularly when you factor in the slower shutter speeds that are sometimes necessary when shooting indoors. The simplest and most effective way to eliminate blur is by shooting with a tripod for real estate photography. 

Tripods come in different sizes and budgets, so even if you attempt your real estate photography with an iPhone or other smartphone, you can drastically improve your results. These simple-to-use accessories are also handy for carefully making adjustments to your compositions and ensuring all the angles are straight in your images.

Want to experience stability but have limited space? Gorillapod tripods are a great place to start, and as a bonus, their flexibility allows them to find steady footing in virtually any space.

Top tip: A remote control is the perfect pair for a tripod when aiming for blur-free real estate photographs. They keep your hands off your camera during capture!

No one enjoys cleaning up, but it is necessary to make sure your space is neat before you continue with your real estate photography and videography. 

It is easy to focus on the big issues you are facing and not take into account minor details, such as clumsily placed items or untidy surfaces, but these are the things that will capture your viewer’s eyes and they can spoil your pictures.

If you can, hire a professional cleaner & stylist to run through before your shoot but if the cleaning falls on you, a quick tidy can go a long way.

If you're confident enough, switching your camera to manual mode will give you the most control over your images. This allows you to fine-tune the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed to achieve the desired exposure and depth of field.

• Aperture: The best aperture for real estate photography is a moderate aperture or f-stop. This is typically recommended as you want most of your image to be in focus, so viewers can make out all the details and get a good idea of the space they are considering. A good starting point for an aperture for real estate photography is f5.6-f8.
• ISO: Keep ISO as low as possible to reduce noise and maintain image quality. Aim for ISO 100-400 knowing that this will change depending on the lighting conditions.

• Shutter speed: The correct shutter speed will vary depending on the amount of available light and the other settings of your camera; that’s how the exposure triangle works. As discussed above, use a tripod to avoid camera shake and allow for slower shutter speeds if necessary and if you are shooting by hand, don’t go below 1/60th of a second, as a general rule.