One of the most consistent opportunities we have as photographers to make money with our cameras is in real estate and hotel photography, such as rentals on Airbnb and contrary to popular belief. Usually, it is not necessary to make a huge investment to provide quality images for this purpose.
I have never given the usual advice in the industry that one must specialize in order to succeed in photography, rather I prefer to put in the extra effort to achieve good results in whatever genre of photography I am interested in. dip your feet in. This has ultimately been a successful strategy for me, allowing me to create a wide selection of photo-related income streams instead of relying on just one corner of the market. Shooting real estate, hotels and architecture has provided an extremely stable and steady source of income along with my other services and for the past 5 years I have been actively doing it. Professionally, I have tried many different methods and equipment to produce professional quality work for my clients. After all my experience experimenting with different approaches, I’ve realized that it’s really possible to deliver high-gloss real estate images without spending a fortune on equipment.
While real estate photography requires semi-specific setup, there’s no need to start with the best and most expensive gear, and this article details my basic guide to what equipment to use. you should consider buying to start the real estate photography process. Yes, there are options for more advanced kits to get the job done, and I’ll make some recommendations for those who want to spend a bit earlier, but the “newbies” kit guide get started” is more likely to give you the tools you need to do it well with a little practice.
Camera
One of the areas that gives you the most budget-friendly value when equipping yourself for real estate shooting is starting with an APS-C mirrorless camera body. You can even get quite familiar with an older, used camera body, because process-specific workflow requirements mean many features you pay for in a camera body. advanced may not be used at all.
First of all, architectural work is mainly done on tripods, due to the fact that both the most common and effective workflows depend on capturing multiple exposures of each scene and the resulting results. Combine them together for the best results. Because of this fact, your camera body doesn’t require ultra-fast autofocus (or anything, which I’ll explain more in the lens section) or top-notch dynamic range. On top of that, the extra depth of field inherent in an APS-C sensor-based camera can be a boon to your workflow as it means more of your scene will be in focus than it would otherwise be. Full frame cameras have identical aperture settings.
In my experience, the two most value-oriented camera bodies you should consider when preparing to shoot real estate are the Fujifilm X-T2 and the Sony a6300, both of which can be found on the second-hand market with cost about 500 dollars. Being a full-time Fuji shooter myself, I prefer the X-T2, but this decision comes down to some personal preference and when buying one should try putting their hands on both cameras to see. Which one feels more comfortable? Both cameras offer a resolution of 24 megapixels, which I believe is the ultimate base for creating professional architecture-based images, giving you a bit of space to crop as needed (although good it’s best to frame it so no cropping is needed). Both have focus peaks for easy sharp focus if manual focus lenses are used, as well as several other features that will make your life easier, such as a two-second shutter timer integrated.
Lens
The main requirement when choosing a lens for real estate work is that it is very wide, in fact super wide. On an APS-C body, the longest usable focal length is 14mm (equivalent to 21mm full frame) and I personally believe that’s still too long. Both cameras that I recommended in the previous section have an even wider range of good options, and perhaps neither offers as much overall value as 7Artisans 12mm f/2.8, priced at only $150 brand new, offers a 102-degree angle of view, allowing you to shoot in tighter spaces than the narrower options. It’s a fully manual lens, which means you won’t have autofocus, but this isn’t a drawback. Shooting a lens as wide as 12mm at apertures I usually shoot real estate (f/5.6-f/8), one only has to rotate the focus ring until the infinity line aligns and everything in your scene from about three feet or more will be in full focus, and the peak focus feature on the aforementioned cameras can help you confirm accurate focus even more quickly and easily. Since the scene will be still and you’ll be shooting on a tripod, you can even line up infinity and place a piece of tape over the lens to hold it in place and forget about refocusing the entire scene. .
At a significantly higher price point, you can find wider lenses on the market, such as Laowa 9mm f/2.8, available for both cameras for about $500 new and less used. Those looking to increase the versatility of a zoom lens can often find it Fujifilm XF 10-24mm f/4 and Sony 10-18mm f/4 lenses on the used market for under $500.
Tripod
A stable tripod is an important factor in creating quality real estate images. Fortunately, there are a variety of tripods on the market for every budget. As a beginner, I used an older, heavy-duty tripod with thick steel legs and a video head. The extra weight and leg strength of that tripod provided me with a very stable photographic platform. There are a number of aluminum tripods out there these days that offer very good stability with less weight and bulk for a price that’s not too expensive compared to some of the older brands. One tripod I’ve found that offers good value for this workflow is Vanguard Veo 3T 235ABP, available now for $200. You can find even more affordable aluminum tripod options, but when shopping around for the best price, try to find one with a head capable of 360-degree panning, the ability to easily switch to portrait camera orientation and bubble level to allow you to keep your scene oriented properly to reduce improper keystrokes (tilt of vertical lines in your scene).
Other opinions
The most common way to get started with interior real estate photography is to use the basic HDR workflow, where you take a series of photos with different exposure values: underexposed, evenly exposed, and overexposed. . During editing, they are combined to provide a well-exposed scene of your room, but you should also be able to see at least part of it out of any windows, which would otherwise be glaringly limited. limit the dynamic range in the camera. For those wanting an even more polished window view, a technique commonly known as “flambient” uses flash to increase the exposure value in a room while setting the exposure to pulse. around the camera to the correct value to get the “drag window,” as they are sometimes referred to. This technique also allows you to control the white balance more precisely in the scene. It’s often overused, I believe, producing weird or unnatural images, but the workflow is consistently used by many of the best real estate photographers in the business.
You can start with a quick workflow with the addition of a simple $65 Godox TT600 reducer, but my preference for this workflow is more powerful yet compact, Godox AD200 for about $300, along with a wireless flash trigger such as Godox Xpro Activator $60. The additional power available from the AD200 will allow you to use the flambient technique in larger rooms that require more water for proper exposure.
Also, a very handy tool for shooting interiors is a wireless remote camera trigger, such as the Pixel TW-283, which can be had for around $40. By activating the camera remotely, you reduce the effect of micro-vibrations on the image when the shutter button is physically pressed, but you can also simply turn on the camera’s two-second timer to do this. similar.
Offering drone photography as part of your real estate services is a great value to many clients. use drone pictures to earn money. For those trying to get their Part 107, a very affordable first drone option is Parrot Anafi, can be purchased on Parrot’s Amazon store for under $400 in the basic version and offers good picture quality. For about $1,200 you can get more possibilities DJI Mavic Air 2Shas a bigger, better camera sensor and useful obstacle avoidance sensor to reduce the risk of falling.
While this device is not superior by any means, it is more than capable of producing high-quality real estate images for your clients if you put in the necessary effort to learn how to use it properly. . After you start building a customer base and making money, you can think about how you would like to upgrade your equipment to provide customers with more advanced work, but a hands-on practice can be achieved. with equipment only follow this guide for years with very little difficulty, thus maximizing your return on investment.
