Lenses for Real Estate/Architecture photography

Dsiner

Senior Member
I have been researching doing some real estate photography. Several of these companies require (for my DX D7200) 10mm and one even requires a fisheye like the 10.5. I have a Tokina 11-16. 1) is a fisheye really used for real estate? 2) is there that big of difference between a 10mm and my 11-16?
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
That seems pretty wide to me. Granted, on the crop sensor, a 10mm will perform more like a 15mm relative to field of view, but will full frame I still see the 16-35mm f/4 being pretty commonly used. Nikon's wides tilt-shift lens is currently only 19mm.

I would think the perspective distortion from a fisheye lens would create a lot of time in post processing to straighten out all the lines...
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
No doubt in my mind, Sigma 8-16mm. It's an ultrawide, rectilinear lens, which means for real estate you don't get all those bent, warps lines that they're going to ask you to fix when you shoot it with a normal ultra-wide. Take a hard look at real estate photos and you'll never see curved walls. Why spend the extra time in post having to get all that stuff right when you can see exactly what you're getting in-camera.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
As for Fisheyes, yes, they are used and they are corrected in post. Lightroom/ACR will actually do a fairly decent job in removing the severe pincushion you get with one (at least it does with my Sigma 15mm and Rokinon 12mm), and then you need to run 2 verticals using the Transform tool to get them straight, but it will crop out big chunks of the corners so you need to know that ahead of time before shooting.
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I have been researching doing some real estate photography. Several of these companies require (for my DX D7200) 10mm and one even requires a fisheye like the 10.5. I have a Tokina 11-16. 1) is a fisheye really used for real estate? 2) is there that big of difference between a 10mm and my 11-16?

As for Fisheyes, yes, they are used and they are corrected in post. Lightroom/ACR will actually do a fairly decent job in removing the severe pincushion you get with one (at least it does with my Sigma 15mm and Rokinon 12mm), and then you need to run 2 verticals using the Transform tool to get them straight, but it will crop out big chunks of the corners so you need to know that ahead of time before shooting.

Jake, please correct me if I'm wrong, but before I got my fisheye, didn't you tell me the curved lines could be added to a photo taken with a rectilinear lens? :confused: I thought I'm remembering you adding distortion to one of your photos as an example. It would be far cheaper to add a fisheye effect in post rather than spending the money if cost was an issue or if a fisheye isn't a lens that is really desired.

If I had several photos taken with my fisheye, I'd try it out myself. ;) I hardly ever use it and moved all the files off my computer.
 

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Jake, please correct me if I'm wrong, but before I got my fisheye, didn't you tell me the curved lines could be added to a photo taken with a rectilinear lens? :confused: I thought I'm remembering you adding distortion to one of your photos as an example. It would be far cheaper to add a fisheye effect in post rather than spending the money if cost was an issue or if a fisheye isn't a lens that is really desired.

If I had several photos taken with my fisheye, I'd try it out myself. ;) I hardly ever use it and moved all the files off my computer.

Distortion can be added/removed to anything, and there are all sorts of plugins that will do a fisheye look, but it's one of those close but not quite things. I don't recall that I've ever added distortion to the 8-16mm.
 
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