design-real-estate-photography-plan

Design Real Estate Photography Plan

Design a real estate photography session plan — covering shot list, staging checklist, equipment requirements, and post-processing approach — to produce property listing images that represent the space accurately, meet MLS standards, and minimize reshoots.

Why This Is Best Practice

Adopted by: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) data shows that 97% of buyers search online and listings with professional photography receive significantly more inquiries than those with smartphone photos. PhotosForRealEstate.com (PFRE) is the primary professional training resource for real estate photography in North America, with documented workflow standards used by thousands of professional real estate photographers. Impact: A home that sells in 32 days with amateur photography vs. 9 days with professional photography is a documented difference in the real estate industry. Professional real estate photography must convey space, light, and condition accurately — misrepresentation leads to wasted showing appointments. The technical challenges (exposure ranges from bright windows to dark corners within the same frame) require specific workflows that general photography skills don't cover.

Steps

1. Create the shot list before arriving

Standard real estate shot list by property type:

• Every listing:

  • Exterior: front, front at 45° (shows depth), backyard, garage exterior
  • Living room / main living area: 2–3 angles showing the full space
  • Kitchen: straight-on showing counters and appliances, angle showing depth
  • Every bedroom: at minimum one angle that shows the full room
  • Every bathroom: 1–2 angles (small bathrooms often require single angle with wide-angle lens)
  • Any unique feature (fireplace, built-ins, view, pool, deck)

• Larger properties:

  • Multiple living spaces get separate images
  • Dining room separate from kitchen
  • All outdoor spaces: deck, patio, garden

Total images: typical 3BR/2BA house = 20–35 final delivered images; luxury listings = 40–60+

2. Run the staging checklist before shooting

Real estate photography requires staging; arrive early or ask the agent/homeowner to prepare:

• Remove: personal items (family photos, medication, pet bowls), clutter on all surfaces, trash cans, toilet seats (close them), items on counters that don't belong
• Add: fresh towels in bathrooms, flowers or fruit bowl in kitchen, fluffed pillows on beds, full toilet paper rolls
• Open: all window treatments (maximum light); all interior doors (creates depth and flow in angles)
• Turn on: all lights (adds warmth and life even in ambient flash setups); ceiling fans off
• Turn off: TVs, computer monitors (screens look blank/dead in photos); appliances with distracting displays

3. Set up for ambient-flash blend (the professional standard)

The primary technical challenge in interior photography: the exposure difference between bright windows and dark room interiors is 6–10 stops — no single exposure captures both correctly.

Three approaches:

1. HDR (Multiple exposures, no flash): bracket 3–5 exposures; blend in post (Lightroom, Aurora HDR, Photomatix); fastest on-location workflow; produces natural window light; HDR artifacts possible in moving subjects
2. Ambient-flash blend (sky replacement method): expose for the interior correctly using flash; expose for the windows separately; blend in post; most controlled result; requires Photoshop masking skill
3. Flash-only (simple): use a large, diffused flash pointed at the ceiling or wall to even the interior exposure; appropriate for properties without dramatic window views

For most real estate work: the HDR approach is faster and produces excellent results. Settings:

• Camera on tripod
• ISO 400, f/7.1, 1/125 sec as the base exposure (bracketed ±2EV)
• Wide-angle lens (15–24mm full-frame equivalent) at the center of the room
• Enable Auto-Exposure Bracketing (AEB): typically 3 frames at -2, 0, +2 EV

4. Compose for the maximum sense of space

Composition in real estate photography follows different rules than art photography:

• Camera height: typically 4–5 feet (chest height); this is counterintuitive for photographers trained to shoot at eye level; 5-foot camera height shows both the floor and ceiling, creating maximum sense of space
• Level the camera: use a spirit level or gridlines; tilted images make rooms feel crooked
• Wide lens at the intersection of walls: place the camera in a corner or near the corner of the room; the widest angle shows the most space; correct for distortion in post (barrel distortion from ultra-wide lenses should be corrected but not over-corrected)
• Show multiple rooms from one angle when possible: a kitchen that shows the adjacent dining area in the background reads as more spacious
• Avoid shooting directly at windows: windows blowing out the frame is acceptable in bracketed HDR (you'll recover them in post) but avoid a composition that is primarily just blown-out window

5. Post-process for accuracy, not artistic effect

Real estate post-processing is primarily technical correction, not creative:

• Color correction: match the true color of the walls; a white kitchen should be white in the image
• Vertical correction: enable lens distortion correction and vertical keystone correction; interior verticals (door frames, window frames, walls) must be truly vertical in the final image
• Window exposure: blend the exterior view through windows to be visible but not overexposed — the viewer should be able to see the view
• Sky replacement (if overcast): many real estate photographers replace flat white skies with blue skies; this is standard and expected in the industry; ensure the light direction in the replacement sky matches the actual light in the image

Common Mistakes

• Not staging before shooting: spending 45 minutes editing out personal photos and clutter in post takes longer than spending 10 minutes staging before; always stage first.
• Camera at eye level: eye-level camera height in real estate photography dramatically reduces apparent room size; 4–5 foot camera height shows maximum floor space.
• Single exposure without flash or bracketing: a single exposure in a typical room will either blow out windows or underexpose the interior; bracketing for HDR or flash supplement is required for professional-quality results.

When NOT to Use

• Twilight/dusk photography: twilight exterior shots require a separate workflow (shoot at the 10–15 minute window after sunset when sky and interior lighting balance naturally); the interior daytime workflow described here does not apply to exterior twilight sessions.