Who does Real Estate photography?

I'm interested in learning more about Real Estate photography. Obviously a wide angle lens is required as well as a tripod - I have the Nikon 14mm f/2.8 and the Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5G lenses and a tripod but am considering the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 instead of my other wide angle zoom.

Any thoughts on the Nikon 16-35mm f/4 over the Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 other than an additional 2mm? I purchased the 18-35mm based on it being a little sharper, but it lacks the weather sealing that the 16-35mm offers.

Are there any suggested tutorials to hone the necessary skills? I have a couple of Creative Live videos, but they really aren't highly rated. Any suggested web sites or YouTube channels?

Thanks for any insight or suggestions!

When I lost a job in 2018 I considered a job listing as a real estate photographer. They wanted photographers to have at least a lens of 14mm FX equivalent. And an iPad was a requirement for uploading with their system. I did not have the gear to meet that, and decided the return on investment would not support me anyhow. It is my impression that it was sort of a high-volume workload and you must just get in and shoot the photos and upload quickly in order to keep up.

So I would say the idea would be widest angle is best, have bright images indoors. Consider studio lights instead of wider apertures. But I never dipped into the field.

BF Hammer said:

When I lost a job in 2018 I considered a job listing as a real estate photographer. They wanted photographers to have at least a lens of 14mm FX equivalent. And an iPad was a requirement for uploading with their system. I did not have the gear to meet that, and decided the return on investment would not support me anyhow. It is my impression that it was sort of a high-volume workload and you must just get in and shoot the photos and upload quickly in order to keep up.

So I would say the idea would be widest angle is best, have bright images indoors. Consider studio lights instead of wider apertures. But I never dipped into the field.

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Some of what I've read is HDR is still being done over using studio lights, but honestly I don't know for sure. Thanks for your input. :encouragement:

I was looking at Indeed a few months ago and one ad that I remember wanted a full frame camera with at least 18MP. I forget the lens that they wanted but it seems like at least 10mm to 16mm. Fast lenses probably won't matter as you want the depth of field. The ad wasn't on there just now and it was for Alaska but I forget the company. Some ads I have seen want/prefer drone photography. I think you would do it for yourself and not get a job doing it, but it's just info. I was getting bombarded on facebook by ads and would try to find anyone who looked "good" on youtube and check them out. I didn't save anyone and don't remember any names. With fb, you click on one ad and you will get a ton more of the same, so take that for what it's worth. Check out real estate agents in your area, and check out their pics. Ones that don't have good ones, ask if you can do a session for free, for the first one only to see if they like your work. Take pics inside a garage and pretend it is a home, for the notoriously poor lighting, and also to figure that you probably won't be able to use bounce flash. Use contracts, I am sure you know, you will have heard about that in that group on fb. Consider licensing/copyright issues and model/property releases as well.

Rob

Not a Nikon lens, but the Irix 11mm FF lens gets really good reviews is you are looking for something really wide.
There are two versions, Blackstone and Firefly with the latter being cheaper with the same optical performance but with more plastic used.

Peter7100 said:

Not a Nikon lens, but the Irix 11mm FF lens gets really good reviews is you are looking for something really wide.
There are two versions, Blackstone and Firefly with the latter being cheaper with the same optical performance but with more plastic used.

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Wowzer - 11mm on FX! :eek-new: I had no idea anyone made an FX lens that wide. I'll definitely keep it in mind. Not sure how easy it would be to ensure lines are parallel and straight. Being off the slightest can make it difficult to correct the distortion. Thanks though - it definitely looks impressive!

I found info on Nathan Cool who hosts a YouTube channel and offers free tutorials as well as has written some books. So I will start with some of his videos to see what he teaches.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7KM3ANRHy2zhQ_zl-C4XQ

Real Estate needs to show lines that are straight. If I was to do it I would go in with my D500 and my Sigma 8-16mm rectilinear lens. I'd bring an FX camera with a 16-35mm for backup. With the latter prepare yourself to correct in post appropriately.

Not for nothing but the level of incompetence in much of the HDR stuff I've seen in local ads is mind numbing. But since the place sells so be it.

BackdoorArts said:

Real Estate needs to show lines that are straight. If I was to do it I would go in with my D500 and my Sigma 8-16mm rectilinear lens. I'd bring an FX camera with a 16-35mm for backup. With the latter prepare yourself to correct in post appropriately.

Not for nothing but the level of incompetence in much of the HDR stuff I've seen in local ads is mind numbing. But since the place sells so be it.

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::what:: Well crikey - I never even considered DX for real estate. :beguiled: Although it appears Sigma no longer makes that lens, there are preowned copies out there as well as the Nikon 10-24mm lens. Wow, you've definitely given me a great deal to consider, Jake. Thanks! :encouragement:

hark said:

::what:: Well crikey - I never even considered DX for real estate. :beguiled: Although it appears Sigma no longer makes that lens, there are preowned copies out there as well as the Nikon 10-24mm lens. Wow, you've definitely given me a great deal to consider, Jake. Thanks! :encouragement:

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I just love that you can take a shot like this at 8mm (12mm) and not have to fix pincushion distortion (this is straight out of camera).

I have done a good bit of it. The lenses I use most for interior shots are my 15mm f/3.5, 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye (rarely though some companies ask if you have one), 18mm f/3.5 and 35mm f/1.4 AIS Nikkors. Although it is certainly not required, a PC (Perspective Control) wideangle is very helpful. My 28mm f/3.5 PC Nikkor has been a lifesaver in a couple of situations. You want straight, non-converging lines in your photos. A camera with 24MP or more is ideal and you should have a sturdy tripod. For exterior shots I often use 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4. You will need several strobes and a way to trigger them all wirelessly. For the most part I use Godox 200 or 400 W/S studio strobes and a Godox wireless trigger but you could also use Speedlight's as long as you could trigger them wirelessly. Many Real Estate companies want HDR (I use Luminance HDR) and some 360º panorama software. I still have a bracket I got when I was working for CirclePix that is clickstopped in 16 places for use with a 28mm (FF) lens or 18mm (DX) lens. Most companies prefer (or even require) that you have FF cameras. There are also times when you may have to balance a mixture of strobe or daylight (~5000ºK) and incandescent (~3200-3400ºK) lighting so experience with compositing is helpful too. In those incidences I use my handy 35 year old Minolta color meter III to make sure I am setting the white balance perfectly in the camera.

Some examples of what I have done can be found on my website:

Real Estate | scottmurphyphoto (scottmurphyphotography.org)

BackdoorArts said:

I just love that you can take a shot like this at 8mm (12mm) and not have to fix pincushion distortion (this is straight out of camera).

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That's amazing, Jake. What I read about both lenses (the Sigma and the Nikon 10-24mm I mentioned earlier) is that both suffer from distortion. Yesterday I ordered a preowned copy of the Nikon and will see how it performs. If I'm not overly thrilled with it, I will see about returning it and look for the Sigma. I appreciate your input!

STM said:

I have done a good bit of it. The lenses I use most for interior shots are my 15mm f/3.5, 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye (rarely though some companies ask if you have one), 18mm f/3.5 and 35mm f/1.4 AIS Nikkors. Although it is certainly not required, a PC (Perspective Control) wideangle is very helpful. My 28mm f/3.5 PC Nikkor has been a lifesaver in a couple of situations. You want straight, non-converging lines in your photos. A camera with 24MP or more is ideal and you should have a sturdy tripod. For exterior shots I often use 35mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.4. You will need several strobes and a way to trigger them all wirelessly. For the most part I use Godox 200 or 400 W/S studio strobes and a Godox wireless trigger but you could also use Speedlight's as long as you could trigger them wirelessly. Many Real Estate companies want HDR (I use Luminance HDR) and some 360º panorama software. I still have a bracket I got when I was working for CirclePix that is clickstopped in 16 places for use with a 28mm (FF) lens or 18mm (DX) lens. Most companies prefer (or even require) that you have FF cameras. There are also times when you may have to balance a mixture of strobe or daylight (~5000ºK) and incandescent (~3200-3400ºK) lighting so experience with compositing is helpful too. In those incidences I use my handy 35 year old Minolta color meter III to make sure I am setting the white balance perfectly in the camera.

Some examples of what I have done can be found on my website:

Real Estate | scottmurphyphoto (scottmurphyphotography.org)

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Wow, very nice images, STM!

hark said:

That's amazing, Jake. What I read about both lenses (the Sigma and the Nikon 10-24mm I mentioned earlier) is that both suffer from distortion. Yesterday I ordered a preowned copy of the Nikon and will see how it performs. If I'm not overly thrilled with it, I will see about returning it and look for the Sigma. I appreciate your input!

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Turn on lens correction in Lightroom and anything that exists goes away. Like I said, this is completely unedited besides applying lens profile and chromatic aberration correction on input.

BackdoorArts said:

Turn on lens correction in Lightroom and anything that exists goes away. Like I said, this is completely unedited besides applying lens profile and chromatic aberration correction on input.

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Thanks again, Jake. By the way, your example is stellar for demonstrating the abilities of the Sigma lens. I'm really blown away by its performance.

hark said:

That's amazing, Jake. What I read about both lenses (the Sigma and the Nikon 10-24mm I mentioned earlier) is that both suffer from distortion. Yesterday I ordered a preowned copy of the Nikon and will see how it performs. If I'm not overly thrilled with it, I will see about returning it and look for the Sigma. I appreciate your input!



Wow, very nice images, STM!

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Thanks! For the 360º stuff, I just sent the images to CirclePix and they combined them with their own proprietary software but there are several programs out that there, (unfortunately none are free and some are pretty pricey, like $200) that can generate an image that you can move around your 360º "view" with a drag of the mouse. I don't do enough of it nowadays to justify the cost.

Here are a couple of images taken with a preowned Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. I only had a short amount of time to be out shooting today so unfortunately I couldn't find any really nice architectural subjects for experimenting. Even when choosing the lens profile in Camera RAW, there was very little adjustment or correction needed.

The lens seems to offer low contrast images which might be beneficial for real estate and architectural photography. Some contrast was added in post.

Now I have a question for anyone who knows...supposedly there is a setting in the menu for Auto Distortion Correction which affects certain Nikon lenses in camera. Although I've searched online and in the menu of my D500, I cannot find how to enable this. According to this link, the Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 is one of the lenses corrected in the database for distortion control. Other than adding distortion correction in camera AFTER an image is taken (by going thru the Retouch menu), does anyone know how to turn it on ahead of time? Is that even an option?

Here is a general Nikon article explaining Distortion Control:

https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/eu/BV_article?articleNo=000006158&configured=1&lang=en_GB

hark said:

Here are a couple of images taken with a preowned Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 lens. I only had a short amount of time to be out shooting today so unfortunately I couldn't find any really nice architectural subjects for experimenting. Even when choosing the lens profile in Camera RAW, there was very little adjustment or correction needed.

The lens seems to offer low contrast images which might be beneficial for real estate and architectural photography. Some contrast was added in post.

Now I have a question for anyone who knows...supposedly there is a setting in the menu for Auto Distortion Correction which affects certain Nikon lenses in camera. Although I've searched online and in the menu of my D500, I cannot find how to enable this. According to this link, the Nikon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 is one of the lenses corrected in the database for distortion control. Other than adding distortion correction in camera AFTER an image is taken (by going thru the Retouch menu), does anyone know how to turn it on ahead of time? Is that even an option?

Here is a general Nikon article explaining Distortion Control:

https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/eu/BV_article?articleNo=000006158&configured=1&lang=en_GB

View attachment 352530

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I am not familiar with any corrections in the camera, but that does not mean anything, I probably use less than 10% of what any of my cameras offer. As for contrast, quite the opposite is true, you want to have lots of contrast in your architectural images and real estate images. You want the imagest to have pop! for prospective clients, that is what realtors want!

STM said:

I am not familiar with any corrections in the camera, but that does not mean anything, I probably use less than 10% of what any of my cameras offer. As for contrast, quite the opposite is true, you want to have lots of contrast in your architectural images and real estate images. You want the imagest to have pop! for prospective clients, that is what realtors want!

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So I need to look into that. The images I've seen haven't been overly contrasty - at least not what I'd consider to have a lot of contrast. Maybe just average.

I did a few jobs here in Australia... wasn't to my liking.... Agents wanted you at sunset every night, didn't want to pay much and then also wanted HEAPS of photoshopping - especially to skies and making sure vertical walls are vertical.

https://www.kevinmcginn.com.au/RealEstate

hark said:

Now I have a question for anyone who knows...supposedly there is a setting in the menu for Auto Distortion Correction which affects certain Nikon lenses in camera. Although I've searched online and in the menu of my D500, I cannot find how to enable this.

Click to expand...

Shooting Menu -> Auto Distortion Control (might be the third menu set as you scroll through)

It only impacts JPEGs, as is the case with most of the stuff in there.