Real Estate Photography

Real estate photography is a commercial genre of photography where properties, homes and businesses are photographed for sale or rent. Although this style of photography traverses the architectural photography genre, real estate photography is more concerned with producing images of a property for a one-time marketing purpose, whereas architectural photography encompasses a larger proportion of structural designs. It is usually photographed in a slightly different style and with a much higher photography budget. There are many photographers that shoot both real estate and architectural photography.

A real estate photography assignment usually requires all visual aspects of the property to be documented, with some photographers also including, interior design photos,  drone photos and property videos in their skillset.

Real estate photography assignments

Real estate photographers gain work from both real estate agents and through private property and business owners, however the vast bulk of assignments are usually gained from real estate agents.

A good agent will utilise a professional photographer to capture the property in its best light and composition and a good professional real estate photographer will ensure all aspects of the property are captured with purpose and will process the captured photographs to a professional standard.

Either the photography or post-processing or both can be outsourced. Smaller one-person real estate photography businesses will usually outsource only the post-processing of photographs. This allows more time to photograph a larger number of properties whilst requiring less time at the computer screen processing and finalising photographs for delivery.

When outsourcing the post-processing, finding a good editor that can produces consistent results is important, especially if the real estate photographer has developed a style that clients are used to seeing and if those clients are happy with the delivered results.

Outsourcing real estate photography to a second and subsequent photographers will require training. A consistent style of training will need to be implemented where there is an expectation from the client to receive consistent results.

All too often it can be seen where the larger real estate photography businesses that employ large numbers of either in-house or contract photographers do not achieve a consistent photography style and editing results across all photographers.

Post-processing hazards

Never “Photoshop-out” any fixed item of a property such as a crack in a wall, cleaning a dirty carpet or removing powerlines without written request from the agent.

Photoshopping out real-life fixed items could be construed as being misrepresentative of the property and may get the agent or photographer in trouble with buyers, the real estate board or MLS (Multi Listing Service).

Using Photoshop to make grass greener than it is falls into a legal grey area. Although, it could be argued by the agent and seller that the grass was the same edited green colour during springtime.

Sky replacements

Replacing the sky with a completely different sky seems acceptable these days. But be extremely careful not to place the sun in the sky in a position it would never be in! For example, how would potential buyers feel knowing they looked at a beautiful sunset behind a home in the online photographs only to see the home faces north in real life? A legal consequence? Who knows? Maybe no problem if the home is in northern Alaska!

Daytime and twilight real estate photography

The pricing of real estate photo shoots is usually divided into two structures: Daylight and Twilight.

Daylight real estate photography

Daylight real estate photography is completed during the daytime and is the period where the most homes can be photographed in any one day. Twilight real estate photography can only be completed up to twice per day per photographer – once at dawn and once at sunset.

Twilight real estate photography

Twilight real estate photography is usually completed in the period of early morning or late afternoon. There are a couple of different styles of twilight, and which one is photographed depends on the photographer and their client.

Civil twilight

Some photographers and clients prefer lighter and brighter property photographs. In these cases, the photography would be completed during what is called civil twilight. Civil twilight is the earlier of three twilight photography periods in the evening and is the later of the same three twilight periods at dawn. Depending on the size of the home and other circumstances that arise during the twilight shoot, some photographers will extend the photographs into the slightly later nautical twilight period.

Astronomical twilight

Preferences by the photographer and client may also include the much darker, and later astronomical twilight. This is the period just before and including total darkness). Images produced during this period will have much darker shadows and a moodier appearance. This period of real estate and architectural photography lends itself to appealing images with stark contrast between light and dark areas of the photos.

However, consideration needs to be given for reproduction of the photographs if they are going to be used in print magazines and newspapers. It is important for the photographer to ensure the dark areas of astronomical twilight photographs are not completely black, as this can look unsightly in physical print.

Views at twilight

If the property has views of a city, the ocean, or other scenic panoramas then the photographer should recommend a twilight photography session on the property. Photographing properties during the twilight period of the day is such a short window of time that everything must be ready to go before twilight begins.

HDR v ambient natural light v on camera single flash v multi-flash v flambient

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is where several bracketed photos are taken and post-processed into a final image. The camera is set to take all shots in succession from underexposed to overexposed which can be processed using Lightroom or other third-party software.

Ambient natural light is when only the available light is used to take a single photograph. Post-processing can be difficult in homes that have dark interiors and with bright light streaming through windows.

Single on-camera flash is a very common way to achieve fast turnover of homes and photographs with just-acceptable results. A single speedlight is usually affixed to the top of the camera with the flash pointing towards the ceiling above the camera. The light hits the ceiling and reflects downwards filling the foreground area with light. The quality of single camera flash shots can diminish in larger and darker rooms.

Multi flash is where several flashes are placed hidden throughout the room or rooms being photographed to achieve more even lighting across the entire scene. Multi flash shots can sometimes require little to no post-processing but take longer to set up on site than other methods.

Flambient is a term we believe was first coined by well-known Sacramento California real estate photographer Rich Baum. It involves shooting at least one flash frame (using a single or multiple flashes), and an ambient frame. The photographs are combined during post processing to produce a photograph with good colour balance and true shadow representation. Some of the best natural-looking photographs can be achieved using this method.

Know your craft before venturing too deep into real estate photography

Real estate photography is not as easy as you may think. There are a lot of considerations to work through, including;

• Contracts
• Business Insurance (Professional Indemnity, Public Liability, Cyber Liability, Product Liability, Management Liability etc)
• Managing multiple clients
• Scheduling
• Copyright infringements
• Drone Licencing and Flight Authorisation
• Photography techniques
• White balance
• Weather
• Post-processing ethics
• Multiple lighting situations
• Changing lighting conditions
• Daytime photo shoots
• Twilight photo shoots

Build a portfolio of your real estate photography

Create a real estate photography website and upload your best real estate photographs to build a portfolio, and create and upload to social accounts such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.