In real estate photography, there are three ways to go about showcasing listings.
- Hire a professional photographer to capture the images
- Do it yourself
- Skip that whole thing and list it without pictures
In this series, we’ll be talking mostly about doing it yourself. However, in many cases, it would be advantageous to hire a photographer. If you are so busy with other parts of your business that you don’t have time to do it right, get a pro. If you don’t have the skills (and/or you aren’t willing to take the time to learn them), get a pro. If you don’t want to dedicate the time to get it right, get a pro. These aren’t meant to be mean… but to let you know that the pictures on a listing are one of, if not THE most important marketing tool you have.
There is no shame in hiring a pro… I have better than a decade in professional advertising photography behind me, and I have hired photographers to shoot some of my listings. I did, however, go back and shoot more supporting images. And that is a GREAT way to transition from hiring out the photography to handling it in-house. Bring in a pro to shoot the major scenes, then shoot the details yourself. It will save a little money, and not compromise the marketing of the listing.
There are a few things that you need to know in order to get started in handling your own photography for your real estate listings. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be covering them in more detail, individually…
- Cameras (you don’t NEED to have a big, expensive camera to shoot great pictures, but it doesn’t hurt)
- Lighting (this is where the action is)
- Aperture and Shutter speed combinations (the mechanics of taking pictures)
- Composition (framing it up to make it work)
- Tricky Details (those little things that catch us off-guard)
Photography isn’t hard, but it does require attention to detail. The techniques are all pretty basic, but stacking things on top of each other is where things can get a little tricky… for example, combining flash and ambient lighting, or balancing inside and outside light. And one of the greatest aspects of modern digital photography is the ability to see immediately the results… in time to correct the images BEFORE breaking down and going back to the office.
I will try to get specific as often as I can, and the tips will be related to shooting real estate. Of course, some of them might also jump over into your vacation shots and family pictures.
Stay tuned…
Related articles
- Unusual Sunset Shoot: Indoor Photography (dashamones.wordpress.com)
- Top real estate photographer of 2011 awarded (agbeat.com)
- Take More Photos – Keep Less (digital-photography-school.com)
- Lighting Guidelines For Photography (tfollowers.com)
- Photography 101- Aperture (stoneandrose.com)
- Photography: Just Like Flying (captainkathymccullough.wordpress.com)
- A Basic Look at the Basics of Exposure (nikonusa.com)
- Zoom Lens Maximum Aperture: Fixed and Variable Apertures (nikonusa.com)
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