Tips for Real Estate Photography

LIGHTING BASICS

Great architects understand the importance of light and design houses around this. If you are fortunate enough to have a well designed lighting system, you might be able to get away with only using existing light.

The first step is to turn on all the lights in the house. This will add more depth and color variance to your photos. Be sure that the lights do not show up as reflections in pictures, windows, mirrors, or other reflective surfaces.

Often you’ll need to use external lighting such as flashes or strobes to balance the natural and artificial light. A simple tactic is to replace the incandescent bulbs with more powerful tungsten bulbs. These have a higher output and are more consistent in color temperature with outdoor lighting.

When using a portable flash, it is best not to point the light directly at your scene. Instead, aim it at a wall or ceiling. This will diffuse and spread the light throughout the entire room. Use caution with colored walls as the color may transfer to the light.

Bright and large windows often cause various problems in an interior shoot. They distract the viewer and can cause exposure problems. Planning your shoot when the sun isn’t at its strongest or entering directly into the window is an easy solution to this. Full Article 

COMPOSITION

 After you’ve completed all the pre-production phases of interior photography, now comes the actual photo taking! The following are a few tips for taking better residential interior photos.

• Be Spacious  To make rooms appear more spacious, be sure to avoid shooting straight at walls. This will make the photo look flat and can also warp the perspective. Instead, shoot into the corners of rooms. This will create more depth and make the room appear larger. Photographing from a lower angle and with a wider angled lens is also a great way to increase the perceived size of the room.  
• Choose Attention Grabbing Areas  There is no way to photograph a room in one picture (besides photo stitching). When you photograph a room select the interesting parts. Choose objects of importance or parts of the room with more interesting architecture.
• Keep the Lines Straight  Be sure that the vertical and horizontal lines in your photos are straight. Crooked lines are signs of poor technical skills and will detract from the image.  
• Know Your Goal  Are you photographing the house to feature the architectural design or the ambiance? Understand your goals for the photo shoot and compose accordingly.

“Cantabria” captured by Sherwood CChttps://www.flickr.com/photos/sherwood-real-estate/