11 Interior Real Estate Photography Techniques and Tips

11 Interior Real Estate Photography Techniques and Tips

In today's competitive real estate photography market, photographers need strategies to make their photos stand out. While interiors can be challenging to shoot, there are ways to streamline your photo shoot process. Here are the best interior real estate photography tips to produce professional, high quality images that attract clients.

Interior Real Estate Photography Tips

Before the real estate photography shoot, conduct a walk-through to organize and rearrange the space, create a shot list of important features, and prepare the right equipment. During the shoot, focus on applying the right exposure settings, using light creatively, and finding the most attractive angles. Keep lines straight and set the right camera height.

One of the most rewarding yet challenging aspects of real estate photography is the ability to take great photos of commercial and residential interiors. To achieve a great shot, you have to consider many factors. These tips will help you take exceptional interior images:

Tips and basic steps of interior real estate photography

1. Take Some Time to Organize and Rearrange

Create a checklist of things to do before the shoot. Send this list to the realtor or homeowner before you arrive. When you arrive, check that everything looks good. 

Remove little imperfections and flaws that can become noticeable such as cars parked in driveways, magnets on the fridge, and clutter on countertops.

2. Prepare the Right Equipment

While your creativity matters in real estate photography, you need to complement it with the right gear to achieve quality output. Aside from a reliable camera body, these are the important equipment you need to invest in as a professional real estate photographer.

A photographer holding a camera

Wide-Angle Lens

This is one of the differences between professional real estate interior photos with impressive photo editing and an average-looking one. Use a 16-24mm lens to capture more of the room. When you are in a tight space, it will make any room look much bigger.

Tilt-Shift Lens

While tilt-shift lenses are generally more expensive than wide-angle lenses, they are designed to help correct perspective distortions. When shooting interior images, a tilt-shift lens can keep lines and angles straight, resulting in a more accurate depiction of the property's layout.

Tripod and Shutter Release

To get the clearest, sharpest shots, mount your camera on a tripod and set the camera's built-in timer. It would be ideal to use a tripod to avoid camera shake at low shutter speeds. Use a shutter release or remote trigger to click the camera's shutter button to minimize vibration.

Use-light-creatively

3. Know the Exposure Triangle

The first step to taking great photos is to get a well-balanced exposure using the right real estate photography settings. The camera's exposure-related settings are aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Learn how to use them in conjunction with each other to get the perfect image every single time.

Aperture

You will want to use a large enough aperture for full-room shots so that most of the room is in focus (like f/8 to f/16). Keep it small enough to maintain a low ISO and prevent noise. 

Shutter Speed

Use slow shutter speeds between 1/15 to 1/2 second to capture ample light, yet be cautious of camera movement. Set a tripod to prevent blur in interior real estate photos, even while using slow shutter speeds.

ISO

Keep ISO as low as possible, ideally between 100-400, to minimize noise in real estate photos. Avoid increasing the ISO, especially if you're starting to notice grainy spots.

Shooting Mode

When shooting interior photos, it's best to use manual shooting mode to have full control over the camera settings, especially the shutter speed and aperture. This should help you balance exposures and adjust depending on the room's lighting conditions.

4. Shoot in Multiple Exposures to Fix Lighting Flaws

Exposure bracketing in real estate photography can significantly enhance the quality of your interior photos by capturing a wider range of light and detail. We generally recommend this technique when shooting with challenging lighting situations. It allows our editors to stitch photos with varying exposures to find balanced lighting.

This often applies to rooms with bright windows and dark interiors. It's a great way to produce a final image that accurately represents the space without color cast or loss of detail.

  • Set up your camera on a tripod and compose the shot.
  • Take multiple images of the same composition at different exposures. Make sure to capture at least one underexposed, one correctly exposed, and one overexposed.
  • Blend these images in a post-processing software to create a single photo. Our editors can do this to create a well-balanced final image that captures details and draws the viewer's eye to the room's best features.

 

Use-a-tripod-and-the-camera-timer

5. Use Light Creatively

Try to determine what kind of light you have to work with and how best to use that light. You may decide to use the natural light from the windows or doors, or you can supplement that with artificial lighting from lamps or the flash.

Understand how the intensity, clarity, and color of light vary between various light sources throughout the day. Once you understand how you want to interplay light and shadow, you'll be more adept at producing more creative and stunning interior photography.

Natural or Ambient Light

Natural or ambient light can help improve your real estate photography techniques as it creates a warm, inviting atmosphere that attracts potential buyers. Here's how you can highlight certain features and showcase spaciousness using natural light:

  • Schedule shoots during optimal daylight hours to maximize natural lighting.
  • Open curtains and blinds to allow available ambient light to flood the space.
  • Use reflectors or white surfaces to bounce light into darker areas of the room.

External Light

You can use external lighting to fix challenging lighting conditions. Here are some simple ways to use external lighting to achieve professional-looking images:

  • Use off-camera flashes to fill in shadows and balance bright windows.
  • Prepare continuous LED lights to add warmth and dimension to rooms.
  • Place accent lights to highlight specific architectural features or design elements.

Color Temperature

Real estate photographers also need to consider color temperature because of the varying light sources often present in interior spaces. Learning how to manage color temperatures lets you achieve consistency across multiple images.

  • On a sunny day, aim to use a single dominant light source, like natural light from windows, to maintain a uniform color temperature.
  • Set your camera's white balance to match the dominant light. For example, choose Daylight to match the available natural light.
  • Use color temperature gels on your external flash to match the warmer indoor lighting.

6. Create a Shot List of the Important Features

One of the best ways to improve your real estate photography is to learn how to develop a shot list of the property's most significant features. It's your responsibility as a photographer to determine and focus on the key elements that matter most to a potential buyer.

  • Prioritize features that influence buyers' decisions, such as the room size, storage space, or flooring material.
  • Highlight special amenities like air conditioning, pool, fireplace, or patio.
  • Use discretion when deciding on additional shots, focusing on areas that add value or highlight unique selling points of the property.

A dining area with table and chairs

7. Practice Your Photography Composition

Effective composition is among the most important aspects of visually appealing yet informative shots. A common technique in real estate photography is focusing on "three walls". This requires positioning the camera to capture three walls of a room, providing depth and context to the space.

Paired with careful attention to leading lines and the rule of thirds, you can create inviting interior photos that highlight the property's best aspects.

Angle

Walk around the outside of the room, while looking at it from different angles. Try to determine which angle shows the room in its most attractive light.

Stand in a corner to get the widest possible perspective or shoot through an open door. You can also do an overhead shot by positioning yourself on the counter, table, or stairs.

Focal Points

Aside from angles, real estate photography needs to establish clear focal points to guide a viewer's eye in the highlighted features of a space. Photography techniques like leading lines, strategic lighting, and careful compositions can draw a viewer’s attention to attractive or important details in a room.

8. Set the Right Camera Height

In real estate photography, the correct camera height helps maintain proper proportions. It can show important features like countertops, furniture, or columns, creating a natural perspective that a potential buyer can relate to.

A good rule of thumb is to set up your tripod between four and five feet for most interior shots. However, you may adjust the tripod's height depending on the room.

  • Kitchen and master bathroom: Position the camera just above counter height to showcase surfaces without revealing too much ceiling.
  • Bedroom: Set the camera height slightly higher than the bed to capture the room's layout effectively.
  • Living room: Adjust camera height as needed, usually just above waist high, to avoid obstructions and optimize leading lines in the composition.

9. Keep Horizontal and Vertical Lines Straight

Even the slightest tilt will make it look like the room is either tipping away from the viewfinder or falling.

  • Use the grid in your camera to align the room's vertical and horizontal architectural elements.
  • When there's no grid, align the room against the vertical and horizontal lines of the viewfinder.
  • Use real estate photography editing techniques and tools to correct slightly tilted shots. 
  • Outsource to professional photography editing services that specialize in high-quality image retouching and perspective correction.

10. Streamline Your Post-Production Process

It's rare to take the perfect shot every single time. Sometimes, there will be a need to do some retouching or editing. 

When you're struggling or don't have extra time to edit your shots, professional post-production services can improve your real estate photos by increasing contrast, brightening colors, cropping unwanted sections, and more.

11. Keep Practicing

There's no shortcut to getting better at anything. Practice taking shots around your own home. When you're tired of your own place, you can take a few photos of other people’s homes, provided you don't share the images.

However, you should not practice on a paid shoot unless you've already finished your paid work and have a little time to experiment. Remember, there are no shortcuts in life, including photography. You must put in the hard work if you want to be the best.

A modern looking kitchen

Related Questions

How Can a Real Estate Photographer Shoot Interior Photos?

To shoot stunning interior real estate images, use a wide-angle lens to capture spacious views, set up proper lighting by balancing natural and artificial sources, and make sure your camera is levelled to maintain straight lines in the composition. Pay attention to details like decluttering the space and choosing the best angles to highlight key features.

What Is the Best Time to Shoot Real Estate Interior Photography?

The best time to shoot real estate interior photos is typically during the "golden hours" just after sunrise or before sunset, when natural light is soft and warm. This lets the outside lighting's brightness match the interior lighting, preventing harsh lights that may cast unflattering shadows.

How Can I Make My Real Estate Pictures Look Better?

To improve your real estate pictures, focus on proper composition techniques such as using the rule of thirds, highlighting key features, and maintaining straight lines. Additionally, you can also consider using professional post-processing services to adjust exposure, color balance, and contrast.

Conclusion

These tips and strategies can help you improve the quality of your property photos and level up your skills as a real estate photographer. By mastering these real estate photography techniques, you'll be able to highlight the best features of each property and create visually stunning images that can help your clients close deals faster.

 

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