You might expect Real-Estate Photography to be the same as every other photography niche but there are some tricks that you need to learn for this job. You will learn about most of them as you go but knowing what you have to do right from the start will help you get clients and ask for a higher price for your work.
Here are a few tips to help you get a head start in this niche:
Talk to your Client
This one might seem obvious but many photographers decide to ignore their clients; they want to maintain the style that they picked early on. This is a bad idea all around. This is not a job where you can do the same thing for every client. Communicate with them to find out exactly what they want from you.
They might want something you don’t usually do but you will not know that unless you talk to them. You can explain your thought process behind the way you take pictures the way you do. Not only will this make your job easier, but it will also make the clients happier and more likely to hire you again.
Clean the House
Sometimes you will get hired to pictures of a house that people already live in; in these cases, you might have to clean the place up a bit before taking any pictures. Although you might think this is unfair, it is a part of the job. By cleaning up, we are not telling you to vacuum the floor or dust the furniture. We mean moving the garbage out of sight so that the room looks better.
You can go a step further and move anything that shows the presence of residents from the shot. Your job is to show the client what the location will look like when they arrive, not how it looks while others are there.
Turn on the Lights, Leave the Fans
Sometimes, natural light is not enough to light up a room the way you want it. In this case, you have to turn on the indoor lights but if you do that, you cannot just turn on one or two; you have to turn on all of them.
As the heading suggests, leave the fans off; the wind from the fan can sway any clothes in the room, which can make taking a good picture quite problematic. You have to bear with it until you are finished with that room even if it is hot.
Height is Key
When you are shooting pictures of a bedroom or a TV lounge, the height of an adult sitting should get the job done most of the time. For the kitchen and bathrooms, go for the same height as the cabinets. Finally, for shots of the exterior, go for the maximum height that your camera can reach.
Take outdoor pictures when the time is right
Although photographs of nature look great during cloudy weather, the same does not count for Real-Estate Photographs. The best time for exterior pictures of a house is twilight or as the sun is going down. The exterior does not look dark and you can emphasize how the lighting inside the house looks from the outside.
This ties into one of our previous tips; turn on all of the lights when you take the exterior photograph. It will make the house look a bit more alive.
Sometimes, it is not possible to take the pictures at the time you want. In this case, you need to make use of the light that you do get. Do not take a picture while the sun is either on top of the house or at its front. Go for a time when the sun is at an angle or the sides. You can also go for a shot where the sun is behind the house. With all of this said and done, never pick angles over lighting. A well-lit exterior shot with bad angles will look better than a poorly lit shot with good angles.
Vertical Shots
Every single shot of Real-Estate Photography that you see will have vertical lines in it. They do not exist, mind you; they are something your brain draws. In this case, what happens if the vertical lines are not vertical? The picture looks off. It does not look bad, but it does not look great either.
In this case, you either have to make up for the tilt by angling the camera or using a tilt-shift lens. When you do this, you will immediately notice your photographs looking better.
What to do before the shoot
If you are very dedicated to your work, vacuum the place. It is not necessary but it will help the photographs. We did say that it is not your job to do this and we meant it. You do not HAVE to do this but it is something that you can do to make the room look better.
Remove some of the excess furniture from the room; if it feels congested, it is a no-go. A spacious room looks better than a cluttered room. You do not need to include everything but what you do include needs to look good.
Finally, add some life to the room. By this, we mean you should add some things to the shot to show the clients what it would look like if they lived there. You can do this by doing things such as putting cutlery or candles on the table, adding some towels to the bathroom, and some indoor flowers in pots somewhere in the living room shot. This will make the clients more appreciative of your work.
Hopefully, these tips can help you do a better job in your future work. Although some of these tips seem like obvious facts, we know that many beginners overlook them. Some of them are missed even by professionals with experience.