For additional tips on getting into real estate photography, here is a step-by-step guide to getting into real estate photography! Also, here is a guide to real estate photography pricing.

1. Don’t Show Up Without The Right Lens For The Job.

One mistake that a real estate photographer can make when shooting their first few jobs is, simply having the wrong lens. For example, if you’re going to be shooting in very tight quarters you’ll probably want a wide-angle zoom lens. Oppositely, if you’re doing a lot of outdoor work, a normal or telephoto lens can be very useful, especially the more space around the property you have, or if there are any beautiful backdrops such as mountains, beaches, etc.

This does NOT mean that you must go buy expensive, exotic lenses right away before you shoot any real estate work. The key is simply to know what you’re getting yourself into with each job. There are plenty of jobs that you can accomplish quite well with just a 24-70mm or 24-105mm lens, if the interiors are spacious and the desired images are simple compositions.

However, if you’re photographing a lot of tight quarters, or small rooms, then having something like a 16-35mm or 14-24mm ultra-wide lens could really save the day. If you don’t have one of these lenses yet, try renting one!

Again, don’t mistake this for needing the most truly exotic, expensive lens. In almost all real estate photos, your goal is to get everything in focus, so you’ll be stopping your lens down in most cases. Even a modest, affordable lens like the Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 (for Sony mirrorless) or 17-35mm f/2.8-4 (for DSLRs) can work wonders. Or, if you need to go even wider on a budget, Rokinon’s 14mm f/2.8 lens is extremely affordable, and now offers a distortion correction profile.

(To read more about lens distortion and how to fix it, stay tuned for a future article coming soon!)

The most important thing you can do is, ask your client some questions about the size of the property, the rooms, and ask them what types of photos they’re expecting. This simple, easy communication can go a long way towards helping you deliver above and beyond the clients’ expectations!

If you’re stuck with whatever lens you have on hand, for one job here or there, the good news is that if you have a really good eye for strong compositions, and/or if you can do a quick panoramic stitch, then the client may not know that you didn’t bring the “optimal” lens for a job.

Unfortunately, from here on out, the rest of our tips will definitely be things that a client will notice, so if you weren’t already, it’s time to start taking serious notes!

2. Don’t Promise A Turnaround Time You Can’t Deliver On.

One of the biggest cardinal sins that your clients will definitely notice, is if you simply don’t deliver on time. Never promise that you can have images to them in just a day or two, and then take a week or two instead. You’ll probably never hear from that client again!

In real estate photography, each job’s required turnaround time can vary, but it is not uncommon for the client to expect, indeed require, the images as immediately as possible. If they’re having you photograph a property, they probably want to list it as soon as possible.

Some other types of professional photographers may be shocked by the idea of having to deliver a completed set of images in just 24 hours, or even just a couple of days, but sometimes it’s part of the job! Simply schedule yourself enough time after each job, either the same day or the following morning, to get your images processed.

Thankfully, post-production for real estate doesn’t have to be too complicated. If your images are simple single exposures, basic color correction that is batch applied to every image of a room with similar lighting may be sufficient, with only minor image-to-image tweaks.

If you have any reason to create composite images, oftentimes things like panoramas and HDRs can be done effortlessly within Lightroom, or for greater control with a highly streamlined process, dedicated HDR software such as Photomatix by HDRsoft can seamlessly integrate into your workflow, even for batches of bracketed images.

No matter what you do, the best thing you can do is deliver ahead of schedule. When it comes to making clients remember you as a professional that they’d love to work with again, nothing creates an awesome impression like surprising them by delivering good-looking images early.

3. Don’t Forget To Ask The Client To Prepare The Space For You!

This is a big one, and if you’re a softspoken artist who likes to be self-sufficient and never ask for anything, it can be difficult to break that ice and request that the client prepare the space to be photographed.

The truth is, thankfully, this is a very common practice, so you’re not asking too much if you require, even in your contract, that the property be “ready to photograph” when you arrive. Aside from a few minutes of putting things away if someone is actively living in a property, you should be able to arrive and start shooting as soon as you’ve had a walk-through and set up your gear.

Standing around waiting for someone to clean up a messy room, let alone having to do it yourself, is simply NOT in your job description. Or, if you want to offer such a service, you’d better charge extra for it!)

4. Be Careful Offering Deceptive Retouching or Photoshop.

This depends on where you’re doing business, of course, but in some areas/states, there are laws against real estate property being significantly misrepresented in photos.

It may be the real estate agent or company that gets in trouble, but you could still find yourself dragged into a huge time-wasting fiasco as the photographer. Also, if that client is in deep trouble, you could lose business.

How you respond to such requests is totally up to you as a professional, but, first and foremost you should educate yourself about the laws of your area. And, although it might be none of your business, if you sense that a client is simply not scrupulous, you might want to broach the subject with them.

5. Don’t Over-Process Your Images.

Even if your Photoshop retouching work is minimal, another cardinal sin of real estate photography is processing your images so over-the-top that the tones and colors themselves are not just unnatural, but unattractive.

Remember, photography is art, but it is also used as an accurate representation of reality. And any time you are picturing something that is for sale, whether a property or any other object, realistic representation should be balanced with “artistic liberty” a little bit differently than other forms of artistic photography.

Simply put, your goal is to render tones and colors relatively naturally. Leaning in the direction of “bright” and “warm” instead of dark, shadowy, and “cold” can help to make a room look more attractive, of course. Just try to keep your overall color-correction realistic and natural-looking.

If you do need to capture a bracketed sequence of a scene, be careful to not go too over-the-top with wild HDR processing. Lightroom’s built-in HDR merging feature gives the benefit of having a DNG file that you can “play with” without leaving your raw converter, however, for the maximum amount of smooth tonal control possible, we’ll usually use Photomatix with one of our more natural, neutral looking presets that allows us to process a scene brightly, and smooth-toned with just the right amount of contrast and clarity from dark shadows to bright highlights. That’s one of the major drawbacks of most raw conversion software, especially with extremely dynamic scenes: it can be difficult to manage contrast differently between highlights and shadows, whereas Photomatix is specifically designed for complete tonal control throughout the entire range of light.

6. Don’t Forget To Raise Your Prices!

Sure, everybody has to start somewhere. Your first job or two might have to be for a friend, for free, or for someone who just got their realtors’ license yesterday.

But, here’s the thing. Every photographer who enters this debate of, “how much should you charge for your first gig?” …often overlooks the most important step of the process: Getting your first few gigs under your belt is not the issue. However, AFTER you’ve shot your first few gigs, THEN your business pricing strategy becomes extremely important!

Many photographers get stuck in the rut of continuing to work for free, or charging way too little because they’re afraid of parting ways with those first few people who gave them a chance.

The absolute best thing you can do for your aspirations as a real estate photographer is, to charge a fair price as soon as you’re qualified. Yes, you’ll have to tell a few clients that you’re going to be charging more, but if your images are remotely good enough, the serious, respectful clients will see your value.

Then, the minute you have more work than you can handle in a week or a month, you know what that means? It means you have “too many” clients saying “yes” to your existing prices. It sounds like that couldn’t be a bad thing, but it is. Why? Because you could raise your prices a little bit, have a few clients say “no” but still have most of them say yes, and make equal or even more money by doing, well, less work!

Or, of course, if you’re already raising your prices and still having more clients trying to book you than you can handle, it might be time to consider bringing on a teammate who can help you accomplish some of the simpler jobs all by themselves, and help you on some of the bigger ones.

[Related Reading: Real Estate Photography Lighting Guide]

Conclusion

Thanks again to the folks at HDRsoft for sponsoring this content! We’re really enjoying being able to bring you these great, real-world tips and guides on real estate photography. Stay tuned for more coming soon.

1) Charge by the property, room, or sq/ft – NOT hourly.

Real estate photography is a very different business from something like wedding or event photography, where “hours of coverage” are a common thing.
When it comes to real estate clients, they will want to feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. If your pricing is by the hour, yet your pace of work seems at all slow to them (even if you’re just taking the necessary time to get truly polished results!), some clients will feel like you’re milking them for more money.

Instead, first make sure that you always work with consistent efficiency, even if you have to take an extra few minutes to get a shot right. Then, once you know how many hours certain jobs will take, convert your desired hourly rate into a more straightforward price, and charge by the property and/or by the image.  You’ll make roughly the same amount of money, and your clients will perceive the pricing to be much more straightforward and fair.

2) Do the math on what you’re actually paying yourself.

Alright, this tip is one that some creative people won’t want to hear, but it’s absolutely critical. So please don’t skip this just because the word “math” made the artist in you panic! Read on…

Tally up all the hours you spend not just shooting and post-producing, but also corresponding with a client, drafting up their contract, driving, even prepping your gear, cleaning your lenses, charging your batteries. It’s ALL part of your overhead time and costs!

If you can do this for all your work hours, and then organize it by job, you’ll discover that maybe for example it takes you 8-10 hours of behind-the-scenes work to deliver a job that “only” took 1-2 hours to shoot. Then, you can factor this info into your overall pricing for that size of a job to ensure that you’re profitable.

In accounting, this is called the “cost method” of pricing.  Below is a sample screenshot of what this might look like.

Before we move on, another important bit of math to do is this: how many clients you can actually handle in a given day or week, and what that could add up to? This will be what actually tells you if the business model is truly profitable enough, or if you need to raise your real estate photography pricing. In other words, just because you turned a profit on one job, doesn’t mean you can go full-time and make a career out of it. The weekly/monthly numbers have to add up, too.

3) Always Seek Improvement in Efficiency

Since revenue per client is typically in the hundreds and not the thousands, a profitable real estate photography business, perhaps more so than any other genre of photography, requires an efficient workflow.

Quick turnaround time and attention to detail can be the difference between a client who keeps using you, and one who never calls again. If you promise images in a certain time frame but can’t deliver on schedule, you’re in a lot worse trouble than if the subtle tones or colors of your post-production are slightly off.

Moreover, if you’re taking too long with any aspect of the workflow, you can quickly find yourself making significantly less per hour than you’d like.

Keep efficiency in mind and seek ways to cut time without compromising quality.  For example, many real estate jobs can require you to perform the same bracketed HDR merge repeatedly, and the best way to do that is with an application such as Photomatix Pro.

4) Analyze The Competition

To determine what you should charge, first you should understand where you are in relation to the market and your competitors.  This can be done with a quick “SWOT” analysis, as outlined below:

• Strengths – Create a list of your strengths.  What do you do better than your competition?  Do you have resources or knowledge that your competitors don’t?
• Weaknesses – Next, make a list out all of your weaknesses.  Where can you improve?  What are your competitors doing better than you (currently)?
• Opportunities – List the opportunities in the current environment.  Are there population or demographic changes in your area?  Is there a shift in style preferences?
• Threats – List the external threats to your business in the current environment. Is there more competition?  Are the barriers to entry low, possibly allowing more competition in the future?

After you’ve analyzed your own business, choose a handful of competitors in your area and make a list of their strengths and weaknesses.  In addition, document their real estate photography pricing if it’s available.  Real Estate Photography businesses are often very transparent in their pricing.  In fact, many photographers have their prices and packages right on their websites.

If you feel that you are offering a service, product, and experience at or above your competition, consider matching or pricing above them.  If you feel like your weaknesses outweigh your strengths in comparison, consider pricing at below.

This is not an exact science, however, as each individual has different opportunity costs and income expectations. That being said, this analysis—along with the Cost Method outlined in Tip 2—give you an idea of the range in which you should fall.

5) Understand the Psychology of Pricing

This is another real estate photography pricing 101 tip that every small business owner should understand. You should expect that most of your clients will go for one of your middle packages if you offer three main “packages” or products.

Your bottom package should be the minimum amount you would charge and still be motivated to complete the job and profitable after doing so.  The top package should be the VIP experience with the potential to capture high-end clients with a high budget.

These packages should lead the client into booking the middle package, which should include everything your average client would want and need at a price point within your target market’s budgets.

While you shouldn’t expect every single client to jump at your highest-priced package, it isn’t a good sign if every single client is just barely affording your lowest package. (By the way, if every client is booking your most expensive package, that means you really should consider raising your prices!)

For many photographers, this can require a lot of fine-tuning in order to get it right, so don’t be afraid to adjust over time.

6) Know the Value of Properties in Your Target Market

It would be great if real estate photography pricing could be an exact percentage of the value of the property itself, but unfortunately, that’s not the case.  Still, it’s easy to understand that you can charge more for real estate photography in areas where the property itself is worth a lot more.

If you’ve been doing work in one area where all the properties are roughly in one price range, but you get contacted to shoot a property in a different area where most homes cost ten times as much, you should consider adjusting your prices for the new area.  Of course, you don’t want to seem opportunistic, so your old pricing needs to be unknown to your new clients and/or you need to be able to justify the higher pricing if questioned.

This might result in a few “no thank you’s” from some potential clients, but it can eventually open the door to a whole new price bracket and clientele.

7) Offer Additional Services

As any internet marketing guru will tell you, countless business models these days rely on selling additional services or products above the “in-the-door” price.  Real estate photography is no different. Of course, no customer likes that “upsell” feeling, so make sure you are adding value with everything you offer.  Also, keep it simple, quick, and low-pressure.

A few additional services that some real-estate photography clients might be interested in are:

• Ariel/Drone Photography – Whether this is an essential service or an add on these days is up for debate.
  
• Videography Services – Consider partnering with another business to offer this service if this is beyond your core skillset.
• Rush Turnaround Real Estate Photography Pricing – Even if most clients are OK with you delivering images in 48-72 hours, a few clients here and there may ask you to turnaround images in just 12-24 hours; you can either choose to swallow that cost (no shame in that, by the way) or offer such an immediate turn-around at an additional charge.
• On-Location Proofing/Delivery (Shooting Tethered, Etc.) – Quick turnaround is one thing; some high-end clients may even prefer that you proof the images on-site for them so that they can approve of each shot before you even leave the job. This may require you to shoot tethered to a laptop, and get the images into Lightroom or even do advanced processing immediately, all being services which are certainly worth an added fee.
• Different Shoots at Different Times of Day – Consider offering premium packages that offer photographs at different times of the day.  Some clients may want a sunset/twilight shoot, while others may be fine with a mid-day job.
  However, this idea deserves its own discussion, which we’ll begin below.

8) Remember – There’s Only One Sunset and Twilight Each Day

This may sound like a really odd thing to say among tips about pricing real estate photography, but hear me out. Simply put, exterior shots are gorgeous at twilight. And, unless you (and your client) are willing to wake up for sunrise, you’ll only be able to fit one property into a single day, usually.

So, some real estate photographers recommend charging a higher price if a client requests a twilight shot for their exterior, while other real estate photographers don’t. What works for you may be one or the other. If all your clients request that a property exterior is shot at sunset, you should just count it in your initial price. However, if more than half your clients don’t care if you photograph an exterior mid-day, then you have room to decide on what works best for your business.

The important thing to remember is that the “golden hour” and “blue hour” time of day does have value. Maybe you have to to do a lot of horrible rush-hour driving, just to shoot a property right around sunset, so you could consider having an added fee for travel and timing, even if it’s just a small fee.

9) Don’t Sell Yourself Short or Under-Charge Just to Gain Access to a Property

This is one common mistake you might make after you’ve photographed a handful of properties, and you get an inquiry about photographing a really nice portfolio-worthy property.  Don’t make the mistake of selling yourself short just to ensure that you get the job!  Or, at the very least, don’t do this more than a few times in your career.

If you find yourself doing a cheap job or even a “freebie” just because you want to photograph a really nice property, then you may need a reality check.  Simply put, if you’re a good enough photographer that a client is even considering letting you photograph a really high-end property, then you’re worth good money, and you should be charging it.  Have confidence in your work and your value.

Charging a fee shows the client that, regardless of your skill level, your time is still valuable, and you should be respected as a fellow professional. To clients, shooting for free can bring with it the stigma that you are just a hobbyist who is desperate to make a few bucks sooner or later (and the client is happy with letting it be “later”).

10) Be Careful with Volume Discounts

For those of you who are just barely starting out, and are considering doing your first job for free or a low fee, be sure that you’re only offering this “introductory real estate photography pricing” for one or two properties at most.  However, avoid committing to multiple properties at a discount. Simply put, if you’re new to the business, you might vastly underestimate how much time it takes you to complete each project.  This will only lead to major frustrations when you wind up making less than minimum wage, and also if the client doesn’t receive their photos in a timely manner.

If at all possible, only offer a volume discount to clients you’ve worked with already; you know their standards, or rather, how picky they are, as well as how much time goes into each job. Even then, a volume discount should be just a relatively small percentage. And remember, don’t even mention any sort of discounts, unless a client brings it up and persists in discussing it.

Bonus Tip! Set a business goal, and hold yourself to it

This final tip is the hardest for many entrepreneurial small business owners to tackle. That is, setting a specific goal and holding yourself to it.

Say, for example, you want your average job to be at $700 within 1 or 2 years, or you want to be grossing $80K per year, by the end of year 1 or 2. Well, how are you going to get there? It’s one thing to set a goal, but it’s an entirely different thing to come up with a plan, a course of action.

So, set small steps for yourself to take, each month or each quarter, with regards to your real estate photography pricing, or your overhead costs and actual profits, or simply your sheer volume of clients. Work towards those smaller targets each week, each month, and see where you stand at the end of the week/month.

If you reach your goal early, you can either set a higher goal next, or you can accelerate your existing plan. However, if you don’t meet your goal, you guessed it – you need to reevaluate your strategy and potentially extend your timetable for the existing goal.

It can be really hard to hold yourself to these goals and adjust course accordingly, but any hard decision you make sooner, is much, much better than realizing you’re 6-12 months down the road and have almost nothing to show for it.

Again, this is just general business advice for all entrepreneurs, but it’s extremely relevant to the start of any photography business, and absolutely pertinent to this particular topic of setting your pricing as a real estate photographer.

Questions or comments?

We hope this article has helped you find the confidence to move forward with a real estate photography business! Please leave comments below if you have any specific questions about pricing for real estate photography.

In this article, we’ll list some of the best lenses for real estate, of course, but more importantly, we’ll make sure that you understand the factors that go into choosing a lens- what focal length, zoom range, and/or aperture range is right for which situation? Having this knowledge will be worth its weight in gold, (or just regular dollars!) because it will make the difference between average and truly high-quality work that your clients are willing to pay more for.

Thank you to Photomatix for sponsoring this tutorial series and making it possible. The tips given in this tutorial are based on professional experience by our full-time staff of photographers, and are our own opinions and advice!

The Right Focal Length For Real Estate Photography Subjects

For general work, from normal-sized property exteriors to decently spacious interior shots, you can probably photograph almost everything at around 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, or maybe 70mm or 85mm if there are distant or detail shots to be had. Thankfully, there are zoom lenses that can cover all of these focal lengths at once!

You’ll usually only need to go wider (16mm, 14mm, or 11mm!) for interior spaces that are very tight, where you’re forced to stand against a wall, and “fit in” as much of a room as possible.

Canon, Sony, Nikon, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina… What’s The Best Real Estate Lens?

The other question that a lot of photographers ask is, “what is the best Canon lens for real estate photography?” …or, “What is the best Nikon lens for real estate photography?” …and so on and so forth. Honestly? When it comes to the best lenses for real estate, thankfully, the brand name isn’t as important as what the lens is really offering you.

The fact is, you can find a great lens that fits almost any budget, on literally any brand of camera or lens mount. This is because real estate photographers don’t usually need extremely fast aperture lenses, or even extremely high-end autofocus sysems. The most important things are having the right focal length, having good overall image quality, and of course, long-term durability for working professionals.

If you can afford a budget of $600-1300, then almost every third-party lens will be attainable, and even some name-brand options, too. If you want an “exotic” name-brand lens, then some of the more modest ones may be as affordable as $1000-1300, but many of the best will be well over $2000.

A “Standard” Lens For Real Estate Photography

Before we start talking about the exciting, exotic wide-angle lenses that you might want to buy, let’s remember that no aspiring real estate photographer should go into business without covering the “normal” focal range first. So, make sure you cover the range of 24-70mm, or similar, before you do any other lens shopping.

Virtually all of the 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses from Canon, Nikon Sony, Sigma, Tamron, and Tokina are more than acceptable for real estate photography. In fact, the ones with an f/2.8 aperture and very beefy optics are probably a bit overkill!

So, if you already have a 24-70mm f/2.8, that’s great, however, if you don’t, then don’t hesitate to get a 24-70mm f/4, a 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5, a 24-105mm f/4, or 24-120mm f/4 type lens instead. You’ll be using smaller apertures much of the time, for depth of field, and lenses these days are very sharp when stopped down to those apertures, (say, f/8 to f/16) even if they aren’t giant, expensive, “flagship” lenses.

Zooms VS Primes For Real Estate Photos

One question you might have is, what about prime lenses? Of course, primes are great, and well-suited for things like portrait and candid photography where your shooting conditions allow for ample moving of both the camera and the subjects. However, with real estate, you are frequently constrained by where you can place your camera, while at the same time needing to capture an entire house or room within the angle of your lens.

So, can prime lenses work for real estate photography? Yes, absolutely. However, because zoom lenses are so sharp, affordable, and abundant these days, we simply don’t feel like we need to recommend any primes. Get yourself a mid-range zoom and a wide-angle zoom, and you’ll be good to go!

Wide Angle Lens For Real Estate Photography

Most experienced real estate photographers would argue that a wide-angle lens is the most important one for most types of work. However, the term “wide-angle” can be vague. In fact, it really means any focal length wider than about 35mm.

So, to answer the question, “what is the best wide-angle lens for real estate photography?” we must first consider the focal length or zoom range that you will actually use for the work you do. In other words, don’t make the mistake of just buying a lens because you heard it was very sharp; its focal range might not turn out to be best for your needs!

Are some of these lenses actually “better” than the others? Just barely. In fact, if you use a lens correction profile, which are automatically available in raw conversion/workflow software like Adobe Lightroom, and specialized software such as Photomatix, …then you can enjoy near-perfect corrections for things like distortion and vignetting.

[Related Topic: How To Correct Lens Distortion In Real Estate Photography]

If you do this, then the playing field is very level, and your best choice is really whatever lens suits your budget and your focal length needs. For example, there is actually a huge difference between 14mm and 17mm, and the wider range can definitely help out for some real estate jobs, so we are listing these lenses in that order:

The best wide-angle lenses (that reach 14mm, 15mm, 16mm, or 17mm)
for real estate photography

Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DN Art ($1300)
(for Sony E-mount, although you can use an adapter for Nikon Z-mount)

Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 HSM Art ($1200)
(For Nikon and Canon DSLRs)

Nikon Z 14-30mm f/4 S ($1300)
(For Nikon Z-mount only)

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 G ($1250-1600)
(For Nikon DSLRs)

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 VC ($900-1300)
(For DSLRs; the original and the G2 are both very good!)

Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L IS ($2300)
(For Canon full-frame mirrorless cameras)

Canon 16-35mm f/4 L IS ($1000)
(For Canon DSLRs)

Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 Di III RXD ($900)
(For Sony E-mount, though you can use an adapter for Nikon Z-mount)

Tamron 17-35mm f/2.8-4 Di OSD ($600)
(For Nikon & Canon DSLRs)

Best Lens For Interior Photography

Any wide-angle lens is great, but if you are going to be photographing a lot of interiors, especially small, cramped rooms such as bathrooms or small bedrooms or offices, then you can almost never have a wide enough lens! Of course a 14-24mm lens is still a great choice, but, there are also some 12-24mm lenses out there, and even some lenses that go to 11mm and 10mm. (None of these are fisheye lenses, either!)

Having such super-ultra-wide focal lengths at your disposal can be very helpful, however, they can also introduce significant perspective/scale distortion if you’re not careful, so be aware of any undesirable “stretching” effects at the edges of your images.

On the plus side, one advantage of having extremely wide focal lengths is that with a high-megapixel camera body, you can photograph a scene with the camera kept perfectly level, (so that all vertical lines remain vertical) …and then just crop in during post-production to achieve your actual desired composition.

The best wide-angle lenses (that reach 10mm, 11mm, or 12mm) for real estate photography

Sony 12-24mm f/4 G ($1773)
(For the Sony E-mount, though you can use an adapter for Nikon Z-mount mirrorless)

Sigma 12-24mm f/4 HSM Art ($1200)
(For Canon & Nikon DSLRs, though you can use an adapter for Sony E-mount)

Canon 11-24mm f/4 L ($2700)
(For Canon DSLRs, and you can use an adapter for Sony E-mount)

Laowa/Venus 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 FE ($850)
(For Sony E-mount, and you can use an adapter for Nikon Z-mount)

Best “Crop” APS-C & Micro Four Thirds Lenses For Real Estate

What about Fuji, or the Sony A6600-type cameras, and all of the amazing Nikon and Canon APS-C (crop sensor) DSLRs? They all make great cameras for real estate work!

Fortunately, there are a large number of amazing lenses for APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras, many of which are just as impressive as their full-frame focal range equivalents!

Nikon and Canon APS-C DSLRs (1.5-1.6x crop) have great lightweight 10-18/20mm lenses available, if you want very basic, lightweight, no-frills options that go ultra-wide and get the job done. For something slightly more high-quality and durable, there are numerous options by both name-brands and third-parties in the 10-24mm range, or more exotic APS-C lenses like the Tokina 11-20mm f/2.8 ($450).

Nikon DX mirrorless (1.5x crop) is relatively new, so you’ll have to use the FTZ adapter and some Nikon F-mount lenses, which are listed above.

Canon’s APS-C mirrorless EF-M mount (1.6x crop) has one wide-angle zoom option, the extremely portable and affordable Canon EF-M 11-22mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM ($40) if you’re on a really tight budget. Otherwise, you’re better off using a Canon EF to EF-M adapter, and any of the EF-mount DSLR wide-angle lenses that are available.

On Sony’s E-Mount (1.5x crop), you have a similarly modest, portable (but, pricier) option, the 10-18mm f/4 OSS ($900), plus the possibility of adapting any DSLR lens you want.

On Fuji’s X-mount, (1.5x crop), the tried-and-true Fuji XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS is a solid performer at a decent price (~$1000). If you have the budget to go truly exotic, the Fuji 8-16mm f/2.8 is even wider, though it will set you back nearly $2000.

On the Olympus/Panasonic Micro Four Thirds Mount, (2x crop), there are a handful of wide-angle options that take you to the equivalent of 14-16mm on full-frame, which is pretty respectable for such a compact system. Olympus’ flagship wide-angle lens, the Olympus ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO, (~$1300) is one of the widest possible choices.

Panasonic makes one of the most exotic ultra-wide lenses around, the 10-25mm f/1.7, which will only set you back $1800. Personally, though, we’d recommend the Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 instead, since it goes a bit wider (equivalent to 16mm full-frame) and costs under $1000.

Tilt-Shift Lenses For Real Estate Photography

For those photographers who really love “getting it right in-camera”, and who have the budget, you can consider a tilt-shift lens. These are specialty lenses that are made for exactly this type of photography, where keeping vertical lines vertical is a very common goal.

With a tilt-shift lens, you can aim the camera at your scene with the camera body perfectly level, and then raise or lower the lens optics independently to compose your image in an upward or downward direction. The result is a perfectly framed shot, without any of the vertical lines in your scene “leaning” in or out.

Is this type of lens really required for most real estate photography? You can correct perspective distortion in Lightroom, and as we mentioned, sometimes you can just zoom your lens out wider than your composition, level the camera with the horizon, and then crop your final image upward or downward to get the intended final composition.

In short, no, a tilt-shift lens is not absolutely necessary. However, they can be a lot of fun to use if you’re into the technical aspects of perspective correction, and they really do save you lots of time in post-production. So, if you ever have the budget, do consider one. They are, of course, all prime lenses, and most of them are made for DSLRs, and are rather pricey:

Canon 17mm f/4 L TS-E (~$2150)

Nikon PC 19mm f/4 E (~$3400)

Canon 24mm f/3.5 L TS-E II (~$1900)

Nikon 24mm f/3.5 PC-E (~$2200)

Rokinon/Samyang 24mm f/3.5 Tilt-Shift (~$700-800)

Venus/Laowa 15mm f/4 Macro/Shift (~$500)
(This wide-angle lens offers a little bit of shifting only, (not tilt) when used with APS-C cameras.)

Venus/Laowa Magic Tilt-Shift Adapter ($300)
(This adapter, when combined with the Canon EF-mount Venus/Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D, creates a 17mm full-frame tilt-shift lens.)

FotodioX Pro TLT ROKR Tilt-Shift Adapter ($200+)
(For Canon/Nikon DSLR lenses, offers shifting capability through converting from full-frame to APS-C on the Sony E-mount or Fuji X-Mount. Many other mount conversions are possible, too!)

Conclusion

For additional equipment recommendations, check out our real estate photography gear article here. Another closely related article is this one about correcting lens distortion in real estate photography. Below is a complete list of articles on the subject of professional real estate photography:

Real Estate Photography Marketing Guide – How To Book More Jobs
How To Fix Lens Distortion In Real Estate Photos
A Step By Step Guide On How To Become A Real Estate Photographer
Ten Tips To Be Profitable In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Equipment Guide: Cameras, Lenses, Accessories & Software
HDR Versus Flash In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Lighting Guide
Six Common Real Estate Photography Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Thanks again to the folks at Photomatix for sponsoring this content! We’re really enjoying being able to bring you these great, real-world tips and guides on real estate photography. Stay tuned for more coming soon.

In other words, the faster (and the better) you can edit and deliver your real estate photos, the happier both you and your clients will be! So, we’ve compiled a list of Lightroom tips just for your profession. These tips will help you work quickly, and also deliver high-quality photos!

Thank you to Photomatix for sponsoring this tutorial series and making it possible. The tips given in this tutorial are based on professional experience by our full-time staff of photographers, and are our own opinions and advice!

1. A Calibrated Display Is A Must-Have

Before we import our photos into Lightroom and start processing, we need to set the foundation for viewing our images correctly. This requires a display that has been calibrated to deliver accurate colors and contrast.

You might think your images look okay, because most monitors do appear decently neutral in terms of color balance, and have great contrast and saturation right out of the box. However, you’d be surprised how much an un-calibrated monitor can deviate from accurate. An image may look correct on your screen, but in reality, the display is making its colors, contrast, or overall brightness appear significantly different from what they’ll look like in print or on other people’s displays.

Your calibration device doesn’t have to be the most expensive one on the market; any of the popular ones will work well. Just make sure the new display profile is still in place when you wake up or restart your computer; in some rare circumstances, the calibration profile can default back to the factory setting.

2. Keep The Culling Process Simple & Quick

Okay, it’s time to import all the photos, and separate the keepers from the rejects. Personally, we have some tricks that seem to work well for sorting real estate photos at maximum speed.

First, don’t over-complicate the culling process. But, do utilize whatever culling tools you need to help you work quickly! For example, start with all photos completely un-flagged, and when culling, just hit “P” to flag a photo as a keeper, or a Pick.

If you have any sets of photos that need to be merged to HDR, you could additionally flag them with a red label by hitting “6”. If you have any photos that need advanced retouching in Photoshop, maybe use a yellow label by hitting “7”.

Then, when you’re done flagging all your keepers, just use your filters to select all the un-flagged photos, and mark them as “rejects” all at once by hitting “X”.

3. Over-Edited Photos Can Look Unprofessional

Next, it’s (almost) time to actually color-correct your photos. First, let’s ask ourselves: what “looks good” for real estate photos in particular? This question is particularly important to anyone who is just starting out and delivering their very first few jobs.

At first, it can be very easy to overdo it with editing. So, always be careful when cranking up the Contrast, Saturation, or Dehaze/Clarity sliders too far! They can be helpful if an image is truly “flat” to begin with, however, most scenes with good contrast and color shouldn’t need too much extra attention besides a little bit of tonal management, and white balance fine-tuning.

Honestly, if you’ve dialed any of these Basic sliders to +20-30 or higher, then try sliding them back halfway. Then, look away from the image for just a few seconds, and look at the it again to see if it still looks good to your eyes. You might actually like the slightly less-edited version! (Or, you might dial certain sliders back up a little bit, of course.)

Everyone has different styles and preferences, and your clients may be expecting a certain look. If you’re already very familiar with Lightroom, and have a lot of experience making images still look good with ample contrast and vibrant colors, then that’s great! This word of caution is aimed more at anyone who is still unsure about whether or not they’ve gone “over the top”. When in doubt, dial it back just a little bit.

As a general rule, many real estate agents and market areas in general will, indeed, prefer images to be processed on the brighter and ever-so-slightly warmer side. Why? Because it makes a home seem very inviting, welcoming, to potential buyers!

4. Use Lightroom Presets To Quickly Start Every Scene

To save time in the color-correction process, real estate is one type of photography that can benefit from presets, in at least a small way. Most real estate photography jobs will involve shooting a bunch of photos from just a few rooms or outside angles. What this means is, a lot of your images will receive nearly identical edits, and eventually you might even begin to encounter similar conditions from job to job.

So, if you frequently find yourself performing a few very similar adjustments, try creating a preset that is the approximate average of those common adjustments. Whether it’s for a type of room, decor, or even a type of lightbulb, any time you find yourself always doing the same adjustments to more than just one or two sliders, try making a preset for those sliders, (Of course, un-check all other boxes for the other settings, so your preset doesn’t mess up anything you don’t want it to!)

You might find that from one job to the next, some presets you created work well, while others need fine-tuning, or some just aren’t useful at all. It’s a learning process!

Also, you can update your Adobe defaults to reflect your own personal preferences for the more technical, under-the-hood settings like sharpening, lens profile corrections, or custom color calibration for your camera, if there is a tint in the shadows or something.

PRO TIP: If you’ve started a preset and you want to fine-tune it, right-click it and select “Update With Current Settings”, then check or un-check whichever boxes of the settings you want that preset to change, and click “update”!

5. Use Auto-Sync To Edit Entire Scenes At Once

Some photographers don’t like to use presets, and that’s fine! However, one thing you’ll absolutely want to take advantage of is Lightroom’s OTHER tool to help you avoid doing the same edits more than once. That tool is, Auto Sync.

If you’re editing a handful of images from the same angle, or in the same room with the same light, contrast, and overall exposures, then you should get in the habit of selecting all of the photos from that scene and turning on Auto Sync before you start editing.

With Auto Sync on, you can edit the primary selected photo, and Lightroom will match each adjustment for all the other selected photos.

Then, all you have to do is just deselect the additional photos, and briefly go through them one at a time. Hopefully, you will only need to make faint, quick adjustments to the brightness or contrast!

PRO TIP: In case you didn’t notice, you can just hover your mouse over any adjustment slider in the Develop Module, and use the “Up” and “Down” keys to quickly adjust that slider. Shift-click Up/Down for even bigger “bumps” to the sliders!

6. A Crash Course In Lightroom Tone Management

How do you actually edit real estate photos to look good? Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of how we actually edit the tones in our images. Of course, there are many ways to accomplish basic post-production, but here is our preferred method… (Remember, our general goal for most real estate jobs is natural, brightly processed images, with neutral or slightly warm overall colors.)

Think of Lightroom’s basic  tonal adjustments in four categories:

1.) Exposure/Contrast
2.) The four other tone sliders (Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks)
3.) The three “Presence” (micro-contrast) sliders
4.) Tone Curves (Point and Parametric)

When editing an image, especially tricky ones with some serious dynamic range, start by dialing your exposure up or down to set the overall starting point for your other adjustments. The goal is to get the image to a place where the rest of your adjustments can be as balanced as possible. This is also the time to make a rough white balance adjustment, if it’s way off.

You can actually leave Contrast alone for now, or, if you do adjust it, remember to come back to it later once you’ve finished managing your major shadow & highlight tones:

Second, the heavy lifting of “tonal management” is easily done with the Highlights and Shadows sliders of the Basic panel, followed by the Whites and Blacks sliders if you need to fine-tune any tones that are either clipped or almost clipped:

After these adjustments, your image’s overall tones from near-white to near-black should all be falling into place. No totally blown highlight areas, and no large areas of deep, dark shadow:

At this point, you can go back to double-check your white balance, and then focus on overall contrast, before we take the next step into more complex contrast adjustments to give your image that final “pop”.

To enhance what is sometimes called “micro-contrast”, the Texture and Clarity sliders affect very small and medium-small detail contrast, respectively. Be careful, though, because raising these sliders too high can add too much “grit” to your images, making clean surfaces look “dirty”, which is never a good thing for real estate:

On a larger scale of contrast, the Dehaze slider can be very dynamic. However, it affects certain tones and colors very differently, so although it may be tempting to go nuts with it on every image, it usually works best on images that actually have some amount of haze or low contrast in them.

Tone Curves In Lightroom

Last but not least, for the largest, most powerful contrast adjustments, you have two options: you can go back to the main Contrast slider again, for a very basic, crude adjustment, OR, you can use the Curves panel to adjust contrast in a more precise way, such as only affecting a certain tonal range. (For example, maybe you want to increase contrast in a certain range of shadow tones, and yet leave all other tones alone.)

Point Curve adjustments are usually rather dramatic, while Parametric Curve adjustments are more user-friendly and smooth, but can affect color in weird ways. So, again, use these adjustments lightly, and don’t feel compelled to use every single one of them!

Here’s the thing you should remember as a real estate photographer who needs to get jobs edited and delivered as quickly as possible: Yes, there are 2-4 different ways to accomplish almost the exact same goal, but that doesn’t mean you have to use every single tool on every single photo. Many times, all you need to do is, manage your overall exposure, perform some highlight/shadow recovery, (or create an HDR image for maximum highlight/shadow recovery) …and then finish it off by applying a little bit of contrast without severely clipping anything.

7. Use Plug-ins For Even More Streamlined Lightroom Automation

In real estate photography, automating repetitive processes can be a huge time-saver. In fact, on many types of smaller jobs it can make or break your profit margins as a working pro!

For example, oftentimes the best habit is to just bracket exposures for almost an entire job! But then, processing these images should not, indeed cannot, be a “one-at-a-time” type of process, it needs to be automated.

Lightroom now has built-in HDR merging, thankfully, and with one of the most recent updates to (Classic) CC, you can even merge images to HDR (DNG files) in batches. Simply create Stacks of all your bracketed sequences, select all the stacks, right-click one of them, and select “Photo Merge -> HDR”. (Or, hit CTRL/CMD+H)

Lightroom won’t give you any options for how to blend the tones of each image, or ghosting/alignment options, but at least it will merge bracketed exposures together into a single DNG file in one simple step.

If you’d like to have greater control over the HDR merging process, then external HDR merging software such as Photomatix will offer that, even in tandem with batch processing functionality without interrupting your Lightroom workflow.

(NOTE: Thankfully, the days of having to install an external Lightroom plugin separately are mostly over! External editors usually automatically install their necessary Lightroom plugins for you.)

The Photomatix HDR Batch Plugin for Lightroom is a particularly useful plugin for real estate photography. With the HDR Batch Plugin, you can create HDR images in batches, while selecting more in-depth blending methods (fusion, tone balancer, detail enhancer, etc.) or select from specialized real estate presets, make personal adjustments, …and then Photomatix will batch create TIF files that show up in Lightroom.

One additional benefit of using an advanced HDR batch processing application is, with Photomatix you don’t need to create Stacks for every single bracketed sequence. If they’re all in sets of the same number of raw original images, you can instruct Photomatix to simply treat sets of 3 (or 5, or however many) images as bracketed sets. Again, saving a few minutes of time can really add up!

Lastly, you can save new presets based on your own preferences, for future jobs that have similar lighting conditions.

8. Before Exporting, Take A Break And Then Come Back

So, you raced through all your images at record speed, and you’re ready to export them and send them off to your client, right? Wait a minute! No, seriously, just wait a minute…

If you’ve been staring at your computer screen for an hour or more, your eyeballs need a bit of what we call a palette cleanser. Get up, take a quick break, go walk your dogs, make a sandwich, do anything besides staring at your screen, for 5-10 minutes. (So, watching TV or checking your phone doesn’t count!)

Then, come back to your computer, and re-check your images in Lightroom’s Grid Mode. It might seem weird, but this is the best way to catch slight mistakes to your images’ overall lightness or white balance! If you’re still getting the hang of color-correction, you’ll often be shocked at how obvious a slight magenta or green tint is, that you totally didn’t see before.

If you look at a whole collection of images as thumbnails, (usually 6-8 images wide, not too small!) it becomes evident when either a single image, or the whole set collectively is off, whether things are slightly too bright/dark, or too warm/cool.

Personally, I take it one step further, and I either undo any color labels I might have used, (because I feel like a green or red label might bias my eyes a little bit when trying to detect any faint Tint or Temp errors) …or, just hit “L” a couple of times until you get the all-black “dim the lights” mode in Lightroom.

9. Use Quick-Develop To Adjust Warmth And Brightness In The Library Module

Okay, so, your photos are all edited. Maybe even exported and delivered! But, have you ever had a client say, “these photos look great, but I wish they were all a little brighter/warmer”?

Or, maybe you actually used our last tip, and you caught your own mistake before exporting. Good job! Either way, it can be frustrating to need to revisit every single photo…

Well, there’s some really good news- you don’t have to go back into the Develop Module and individually correct every single image one at a time! You can use the Library Module instead, and do it all at once. Just select all the photos, turn on Auto-Sync, (visible in the Loupe Mode of the Library Module, but not in Grid Mode) and use the Quick Develop adjustments to “bump” your main image’s exposure, white balance, or contrast… Here’s the cool part: Instead of forcing all your selected images to exactly match the settings of that one image, Quick Develop works differently- it changes each image by the same amount, without totally synchronizing the final position of the slider!

In case you’re wondering, in Quick Develop, the single arrow makes smaller adjustments, (1/3 EV for exposure) and the double arrow makes larger adjustments. (1 whole EV for exposure)

10. Create Export Presets For High-Res and Low-Res Output

After every keeper image is fully color-corrected and ready to be exported and delivered, there is one last way you can save a bit of time: create export presets for your most common export needs.

For example, we like to deliver images in both high-res and low-res JPG formats, for clients’ convenience. Web-resolution images, by default, are exported at 2048 pixels long for web use, and at around 20 megapixels (5500 pixels long) for print or other high-res use.

Your needs may vary! Some clients might think that 10-megapixel images are “high-res”, and other clients might need your whole 40-60 megapixel files! Of course, it is therefore very important to communicate with your clients about what their final use of the images will be.

If the images are only going to be used in online property listings, you might want to adjust your low-res export resolution to however many pixels they need, whether it is just 1000 pixels on the long end, or 2000 pixels, etc. This way, your client won’t have to worry about uploading 40+ megapixel images just for an online listing! Of course, you can also export a folder of high-res images for the client too, if they want them for their own archival purposes.

Lastly, if you have repeat clients with different needs, for their own websites or the listing sites they use, then you might create an export preset for just that one client if they want 800-pixel or 1200-pixel wide images specifically.

Conclusion

Do you have any other questions about Lightroom and the post-production of real estate photography? Leave a comment below! Hopefully these tips will help get you up and running with an efficient, high-quality Lightroom workflow for your real estate photography.

For additional equipment recommendations, Be sure to check out our complete guides below:

10 Lightroom Tips For Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Marketing Guide – How To Book More Jobs
How To Fix Lens Distortion In Real Estate Photos
A Step By Step Guide On How To Become A Real Estate Photographer
Ten Tips To Be Profitable In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Equipment Guide: Cameras, Lenses, Accessories & Software
HDR Versus Flash In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Lighting Guide
Six Common Real Estate Photography Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Thanks again to Photomatix for sponsoring this content. We’ve been using their software for over ten years and appreciate the efficiency and versatility, whenever we need to create HDR images.

As an artist, however, you might not feel as confident about your marketing and business skills. How do you get more clients? How do you make more money? That’s the question that can feel impossible to answer, for many creative-minded people.

In a previous article, we discussed how to get more photography clients, and in this one, we’ll focus on real estate photography.  We’ll offer seven tips that can help your real estate photography business grow, including useful strategies for getting started, and ways you can expand your business and/or increase your income.

Thank you to HDRsoft for sponsoring this tutorial series and making it possible. The tips given in this tutorial are based on professional experience by our full-time photographer staff, and are our own opinions and advice.

[Related Reading: Ten tips for being profitable as a real estate photographer]

1.) It’s OK To Offer A Free Trial Shoot (But You Must Do It Right!)

There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about doing “free” work. Here’s the RIGHT way: Instead of just throwing your name and business card out there to do free work with no strings attached to build your portfolio, take the time to set up your business, create a price sheet, and make sure that anyone who finds you (and whoever you contact) knows that you’re serious.

Then, when you contact a potential client to offer a “free trial”, you can send them your price sheet as well, and make it clear that $XYZ is what you would charge if they like the work you do on your trial job. That way, there are no surprises, and it makes the struggle of getting your first paying jobs a whole lot easier!

(Also, you can avoid under-cutting existing professional photographers by looking for potential clients who don’t seem to already have a pro photographer that they work with; you can easily find listings online that were clearly photographed with a cell phone…)

2.) Target New and High-Value Clients

You don’t need to just cold-call every real estate agent in the phone book at random; you’re better off spending your time slightly more wisely.

Look for potential high-value clients! Look for real estate agents based in specific geographic areas where you know the property values are higher. Look for online listings that are clearly high-end properties.

Of course, some of these potential clients who are already well-established may already have a photographer they work with, and we would NEVER suggest that you try to directly undercut existing photographers’ business. (It will only harm your own potential in the industry down the road!) However, you can eventually find clients who are relatively new to their area, price range, or the business in general. Reach out to them, and be willing to offer them any help they might need in getting started in business, (can you also do headshots?) …and they’ll remember you when their work comes in!

3.) Look For Clients Who Maybe Didn’t Hire A Pro

It’s pretty easy to browse any online real estate website and find quite a few listings that clearly have been photographed hastily on a phone and not by a skilled pro. You could try contacting ALL of these people to see if they’re willing to pay for your services if you’re just starting out, but if you’re looking to grow an existing business, you’ll want to try and be a little pickier about which properties you look at to see who the real estate agent/company is.

You can also use map-based real estate websites to search areas where you know the average home value is pretty high.

4.) Offer New Package Add-Ons For Free Or At A Discount, Once

So, you’ve established a good business and are charging decent money, but you’re looking for ways to make more money besides just raising your prices again. Maybe you want to start offering a new product/service add-on?

It’s OK to offer it for free to an existing client or two, however, remember to let them know the price you’re going to charge in the long run; send them an updated price sheet.

This way, the client goes into the trial knowing exactly what they’ll have to pay next time if they really like that product/service. If the client sees the value, they’ll add your new service to their usual bookings.

Examples of additional services include drone photography or “aerial angle” photography, (camera on a really tall pole!) twilight or nightscape exterior photo shoots.

5.) Social Media – Do It, But Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin!

The realm of social media is massive now, including everything from highly picture-oriented platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, to highly professional, job-finding platforms like Linkedin, …or of course, the all-encompassing Facebook.

Could any of these platforms potentially help you get clients? Sure, but not if you waste your time barely setting up accounts and then neglecting them most of the time. The key to driving traffic and business through social media is, indeed, consistency.

The best thing you can do is, to pick one or two platforms and focus on them. Otherwise, you’ll spread yourself too thin across all the different platforms, and your voice, or “reach”, will become so small that it’s not worth your time.

Pinterest? Linkedin? Instagram? Facebook? What works best for your area and clientele may vary.  And, after posting consistently for a while, if one platform turns out to work a lot better than another, then focus more on that one, and forget the others!

6.) SEO – It Takes Time, But It’s Worth It!

In the days of so many powerful social media platforms, there is still value in the “old-fashioned” method, that is, using your own website and/or blog to build SEO for regular search engine traffic. If you build your website so that it shows up when anybody in your area searches for real estate photos/photographers, you’ll always have a steady source of various types of inquiries.

There are innumerable courses out there that get in-depth with how to master SEO, so we’ll leave that up to you, but suffice it to say, your goal should be to think about exactly what it is that a client might be looking for. In other words, don’t just SEO for the keyword of “(your location) +real estate photographer” …and zero other things!

Real Estate Photographer Blog & Content Ideas

• Educate Real Estate Agents On What Good Photography Looks Like

Most real estate agents aren’t about to buy a professional camera, a tripod, and/or a strobe lighting kit. There are, however, still plenty of things you can recommend that they can implement if they’re taking cell phone pictures of a low-value property that they can’t afford to hire a pro photographer for.

Which lights in the room should be left on or off? How should you set the blinds in the windows for the best interior light? How can you utilize exposure compensation on a cell phone?

Basic tips like these can really help anyone improve the overall look of their photos, without really threatening your own business as a professional who can deliver images that are on a much higher level.

• Educate potential customers on the benefits of hiring a professional

Simply put, show two sets of photos side-by-side, one set of casual snapshots (made by you, never shame anyone else’s photos!) and one set of well-shot, perfectly-processed pro images, and the difference will be obvious.

Always remind clients that this can not only help them sell a property much sooner, but in some cases even help them reach a higher asking price!

• Offer general tips for things like staging a home, or how to maximize a room’s attractive features.

Again, even if some of the real estate agents who read your blog wind up taking their own pictures, that’s OK. They’ll keep coming back to your blog for inspiration and tips, and if they ever have a really big job, and they appreciate your quality of work, they might give you a call.

7.) If You’re Good At Public Speaking, Give A Presentation To Multiple Agents At Once!

This tactic might not be right for you, of course, if you hate being in front of a crowd, and that’s OK! But, if you happen to have the gift of public speaking, or if you’re willing to learn, then giving a small presentation can be a great use of your time. (By the way; even if you don’t do public speaking, it really helps to have your own “elevator sales pitch” down solid! You should have a “reasons why you should hire ME, instead of doing it yourself or hiring someone else…” speech very well-memorized.)

The presentation can be as simple as offering the same type of tips that you’re posting on your blog, while taking questions at the same time. In other words, it doesn’t have to be a “sales pitch” presentation that contains nothing but reasons why everyone should hire you. Everyone should leave the presentation feeling like they gained something.

If there aren’t any real-estate related get-togethers that you can ask to go and speak to, try hosting your own lunch for a few local agents, or start a Facebook group for agents in your area and publish a video or two in that group introducing yourself and showcasing your work, etc.

Conclusion | Thank You HDRsoft!

Thanks again to HDRsoft for sponsoring this content. We’ve been using their software for over ten years and appreciate the efficiency and versatility, whenever we need to create HDR images.

Good luck with your business, folks!

Our complete series of guides for Real Estate Photography

How To Fix Lens Distortion In Real Estate Photos
A Step By Step Guide On How To Become A Real Estate Photographer
Ten Tips To Be Profitable In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Equipment Guide: Cameras, Lenses, Accessories & Software
HDR Versus Flash In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Lighting Guide
Six Common Real Estate Photography Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

What Is Lens Distortion In Real Estate Photography?

In real estate photography, however, most types of distortion are undesirable. So, in this article, we’re going to talk about two specific types of distortion, and how to correct them.

The first type of distortion is when a lens “accidentally” makes a straight line curve or wobble when it should be straight. (So, not a fisheye lens, but a wide-angle lens…)

The other type of distortion is when two lines that ought to be parallel, (usually vertical) appear to “lean” in or out, depending on the angle of the composition. This isn’t an optical “flaw” in the lens, but it can be a form of distortion that is very unnerving.

Indeed, in most real estate photographs, these issues should be avoided, or corrected, as perfectly as possible. So, let’s dive in and find the most effective, efficient solutions!

This article is sponsored by HDRsoft, makers of Photomatix HDR software, which has been our preferred software for merging bracketed exposures into natural, realistic HDR images for both portraiture and real estate for the last 10 years!

What Are Barrel, Pincushion, and Mustache Distortion?

One of the most annoying types of distortion is when a lens just isn’t optically perfect, and causes straight lines to curve or wobble, “by accident” so to speak.

With barrel distortion, a straight line near the edge of the image  will bend or bow outward. With pincushion distortion, the straight lines will visibly bow inward instead.

Lastly, if a straight line does both, if it curves back and forth, that is known as mustache distortion. This is pretty common on some of the more affordable, compact ultra-wide lenses such as 14mm primes.

But, before you feel too overwhelmed, don’t worry, these types of lens distortions are by far the easiest to fix! Well, most of the time.

How Do You Correct Common Lens Distortion?

There are two main ways to correct this category of distortion in your real estate photos. First, you can see if your lens has a correction profile in the post-production software that you’re using, or, second, you can attempt to correct it manually.

The good news  is that you usually don’t need to do this, because almost every lense these days has a correction profile available in your raw conversion software such as Adobe Lightroom or Capture One, and also in specialized software such as Photomatix if you’re creating HDR images.

These correction profiles can be turned on and left on by default, so you might never notice a problem with “wobbly” lines in your photos! Just double-check and make sure the lens profile is turned on by default.

More and more modern lenses have profiles already embedded in them

Some of the newest (mirrorless) lenses permanently embed their correction profile in the images’ raw file data, and you can only turn it on or off in-camera! For any of the newest mirrorless cameras with new mirrorless lenses, check your in-camera settings to make sure distortion correction is turned on!

NOTE: After in-depth testing, we have determined that, depending on your camera and lens, if you accidentally turn off distortion correction in-camera you may still see the “Built-in Lens Profile applied” notice in Lightroom, but NOT receive the full correction! Thankfully, you should still be able to apply the full correction profile. Below, you can see an example of how vignetting was corrected almost perfectly in-camera, but the distortion was not, and had to be corrected in post-production:

Some all-manual lenses have profiles that you can custom select

If your lens has no electronic contacts, then, of course, it cannot automatically get its profile applied. Don’t panic! The profile may still be available in Lightroom if you manually select it.

Also, a few obscure lenses may have lens profiles available for download, but are not included in Lightroom, so you’ll have to search for them. Thankfully, this is extremely rare now.

Unfortunately, the final bad news is that if you have a very old lens with no correction profile available at all, then manual distortion correction tools in software like Lightroom are usually very basic and only offer a single adjustment slider for barrel or pincushion distortion correction. Therefore, if your wide-angle lens has more complicated distortion, you’re basically out of luck unless you care to spend a whole lot of time manually correcting every image in Photoshop.

Keystone (Perspective) Distortion

This type of distortion isn’t actually an optical lens flaw, it’s a natural characteristic of your viewing angle. If you’re up high and looking down, vertical lines will visually converge in a downward “V” shape. If you’re down low and looking upward, vertical lines will do the opposite, and lean in an “A” shape.

In real estate photography, you usually want vertical lines to stay vertical, that is, to NOT “lean” in or out. It’s just visually unsettling and unnatural looking. But, how do you get vertical lines to always remain perfectly up-and-down?

How Can You Avoid the Keystone Effect in Real Estate Photos?

If you need to aim your lens just slightly up or down, though, you’ll immediately see the walls and other vertical lines in your image begin to “warp” with that keystone effect. What do you do? You’ll have to aim your compositions slightly upward or downward for many of your photos, indeed.

Don’t worry, this particular type of perspective distortion is very easy to correct!

You could, of course, buy a specialized tilt-shift or perspective-correction lens, and use it to correct your images in the field, but that’s a pretty fancy optic, and you might not need such a lens. Before you decide, let’s see how easy it is to correct this type of distortion…

How Do You Correct The Keystone Distortion?

Thankfully, again, Lightroom does have both automated and manual options. Also, you’ll have final straightening options with specialty software such as Photomatix.

You can try the automatic tool for straightening in Lightroom, and “upright mode” seems to do an OK job sometimes.

However, my personal preference is to use Lightroom’s awesome tool for manually “tracing” lines that should be either vertical or horizontal, and having them automatically skew to become perfectly up-and-down, or horizontal.

This particular method is my favorite, because it allows you to effortlessly correct varying degrees of slant, and also to correct for a level horizon at the same time!

Just select the tool, and then click-and-drag two vertical lines on the left and right edge of the image, following existing lines in the scene that ought to be vertical. Lastly, if your horizon is a bit off, you can draw a third line horizontally and Lightroom will know what to do with that line, too.

If possible, frame your composition to have perfectly vertical lines in the first place!
Your in-camera level and grid can help achieve this, in addition to leveling the horizon.

Conclusion | Real Estate Photography & Lens Distortion

There you have it! Hopefully, with this knowledge, you’ll be able to tackle any type of distortion, natural or unnatural, with ease. To recap:

• Always make sure that your camera has its barrel/pincushion distortion turned on in-camera, in case the lens you’re using has a permanently embedded correction profile.
• In Lightroom, always make sure that your defaults for the Develop Module include leaving the Lens Profile Correction tool on, and is set to “Automatic”.
• Learn how to quickly “fix” vertical lines that aren’t vertical, using the automatic or manual correction tools.
• If your workflow is getting any more complicated and time-consuming than this, you might need to rethink what you’re doing, or find another lens that has a perfect correction profile provided for it.

If you’re really serious about getting things perfect on-location, or if you just enjoy cool gear toys, (isn’t that part of the fun of photography?) …maybe consider a tilt-shift lens, or a DSLR-to-mirrorless lens adapter such as the Venus Optics Laowa Magic Shift Converter, which turns a 12mm full-frame lens into a 17mm tilt-shift lens with +/- 10mm of shift capability. These specialty tools aren’t absolutely necessary, but they can be a lot of fun!

Either way, you should now feel equipped with the knowledge required to handle any unexpected obstacle that your lenses might throw at you on your next real estate or architectural photo shoot. Good luck!

Our complete series of guides for Real Estate Photography

A Step By Step Guide On How To Become A Real Estate Photographer
Ten Tips To Be Profitable In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Equipment Guide: Cameras, Lenses, Accessories & Software
HDR Versus Flash In Real Estate Photography
Real Estate Photography Lighting Guide
Six Common Real Estate Photography Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Thanks again to HDRsoft for sponsoring this content and allowing us to bring you these tutorials on how to shoot and edit real estate photos. Stay tuned for future articles about both the shooting, editing, and business side of real estate! 

For years, i’ve used the Apple Magic Numeric Keyboard, I grew up on old mechanical PC keyboards, and when I made the transition over to Apple, I never quite felt comfortable on the smaller keyboards that didn’t have that additional chunk of function and real estate. So when I say years….I do mean quite literally well over 20 years with larger, numeric keyboards of a plethora of flavors. Over those years I grew to find that the Apple Magic Numeric Keyboards (and their 3rd party brethorin) was the style and design that just worked for me.

[Related Reading: Amazon Basics Light Stand Review | Is A $12 Light Stand Good Enough For Pro Photographers?]

Well in December, my “old reliable” finally broke down and thus began the hunt for a new (Wired), Apple style numeric keyboard. Why wired? Well one thing I have always liked about the wired numeric keyboards, is they always had 2 USB ports that I could use to plug in my wireless transmitters for my devices like a Wacom Intuos Pro Tablet or a Logitech Wireless Trackball (see the featured photo above).  This saved my desk, and computer a lot of space and clutter for things like External Drives and a billion other things able to be connected to the all important “powered” USB connections. So yeah, the wired was a bit of a priority, but much to my chagrin, they were REALLY hard to find these days! Most official stores only carry the wireless versions now (which are great) but they lacked that dual USB connection that I need and love, and then you had to deal with buying and charging more batteries again.

So, that left me on a hunt for refurbished versions, some deep searches through amazon, or to go 3rd party. Now ironically enough I found a refurbished keyboard nearby of an “official” Apple Numeric Magic Keyboard for a decent price, but then as luck would have it, I found the “Xcellon KBM-A2USG” on B&H for even cheaper at only $49.99. So naturally, being the “Always keep a spare” kind of guy that I am, I ordered the Xcellon model as well.

The Details of the Keyboard & The Review

At about 1/2 the price of the official “Magic Keyboard(s)” from apple, this keyboard, tested side by side with an original, has, in my honest opinion, a superior feel for typing, weight, and usability when compared to the “Apple Original.”

Yes it’s a little bit heavier, but it also feels a lot more solid. The keys have a more weighted feel when typing, while being “quieter” than the Apple version. This to me, as someone who types a LOT, and often in the studio surrounded by other creatives, this “quiet” mode is quite a bonus! Plus, who wants all that clatter while they’re editing/writing and jamming out to their favorite music?! Right?!

Additionally, the Xcellon keyboard comes equipped with optional “kick stands” to increase it’s angle for an increased control or additional option for your typing preference and comfort. If unused it has practically the same profile and angle as the official Mac Magic Keyboard, so being able to give yourself a slightly higher incline is kind of great!

[Related Reading: Phase One Announces New Capture One Pro Keyboard For Max Efficiency]

Key Features

• Wired USB Type-C Connection
• Low-Profile Scissor-Style Keys
• Mac-Friendly Function Keys
• Slim Aluminum Construction

The Xcellon Wired Mac Keyboard is designed to complement your Mac and provide you with quality-of-life shortcuts to multimedia and macOS controls. Featuring low-profile scissor-style keys, it’s quiet and comfortable to type on. Moreover, it has a built-in two-port USB 2.0 Type-A hub for conveniently connecting USB peripherals and devices like flash drives. (The built-in USB hub supports data transfer only. It will not deliver power to devices.)

Technical Specifications

• Compatibility – Full functionality: MacOS 10.5 or higher. Basic Functionality: iOS, iPadOS, Windows, and Android.
• Number of Keys – 110
• Switch Type – Scissor
• Connection Type – Wired
• System Connection – USB Type-C
• USB Ports – 2 x USB Type-A (USB 2.0)
• Cable Length – 5.6′ / 1.71 m
• Material of Construction – Aluminum
• Dimensions (L x W x H) – 17.3 x 4.9 x 0.3″ / 43.9 x 12.4 x 0.8 cm
• Weight – 1.8 lb / 0.82 kg

What I liked

• Fantastic Price ($49.99)
• Build quality is fantastic & incredibly sturdy
• Design choices are great
  • available in silver or space grey to better match the model of computer you have
• Quieter keys when compared to other keyboards and official “Magic Keyboards”
• Darker design stays “clean” looking longer/easier
• Comes with a 1 year warranty from the manufacturer
• It’s USB-C type so it’ll connect directly to the new Mac (and PC) devices natively without the need of a dongle or USB converter or hub
• Has all the functions and shortcuts you know and love from the original Apple Magic Keyboard
• Comes with additional Function keys to help setup shortcut commands

What I Didn’t Like

• It’s slightly heavier than the Apple counterpart (1.8lbs vs 1.4lbs for the “official” version)
• It didn’t come with a USB-C to USB-3 adapter. (while not necessary, it’d still be nice to have)
• Function buttons are positioned in a way that can cause some typos when you’ve spent years used to the layout of the original Magic Keyboard
• USB port is directly on the back of the device vs the hidden on either side underneath of the Apple Magic Keyboard.
  • This realistically means nothing, but esthetically I did prefer to have my wireless adapters plugged into the keyboard hidden and out of sight. Nitpicking here…but it’s what we have to do!

Conclusion

Well, considering i’m typing up this review using the Xcellon keyboard, I’d add this keyboard to the list of “Must Buys” for people who like to have backups and external devices for their laptops. It’s great looking, quiet, works fantastic, and most importantly, costs only $49.99! Now that I have both of these keyboards, I plan on using the Xcellon at home at my main workstation, and packing up the Apple Magic keyboard to take with me to the office and while on the road. Overkill? Maybe?! But again I love having a spare, and I actually really am a fan of this keyboard! If you look at my list of “cons” you’ll see that most of the cons were very minor and TRULY nitpicked to just find and fill out that list. Granted, i’ve only had this keyboard a short time, so a TRUE test will be to see how long it lasts, and i’ll definitely come back and update this review as the months and years go by if something drastic happens! But given the beating i’ve been putting this keyboard through since testing began I think I can honestly say this keyboard is definitely worth a shot and to add to your wishlists.

Get Yours From B&H Here For Only $49.99

Suitable for Both Large Format & Super35 Cameras

While most cinema camera manufacturers are coming out with large format cameras, the industry is gradually transiting from the common super35 format into bigger format. Taking advantage of this, Venus Optics has re-engineered the optics of their 12mm photo lens and convert it into a filmmaking friendly version for cinematographers to experience a 122 degrees ultra-wide and distortion- free field of view. The 47mm image circle allows cinematographers to use not only on full frame sensors (Size = 43.14mm), but also able to fill the Vista Vision sensors on RED Monstro and the sensor on Arri Alexa LF (Size @ open-gate = 44.7mm) fully. The lens is also ideal for Super35-sized camera owners with the ultra-wide 17mm equivalent field of view and its future-proof decision when cinematographers need to upgrade to large format cameras. It is also a good companion with the compact cinema cameras like Blackmagic Pocket6k, Z-Cam or Sony A7.

[Related Reading: Laowa Launches New Lenses for Canon RF & Nikon Z Mirrorless Cameras]

Close-to-zero distortion (Zero-D)

The optical distortion of ultra-wide angle lens is usually a nightmare for DoP. The distortion rate of good wide angle lenses in the market ranges from 2-4%. Venus Optics, however, are able to compress the distortion to a close-to-zero level. In fact, the ‘Zero-D’ claim had been validated by many existing Laowa lenses owners from all around the world. It is proven to be extremely useful for shooting with architecture, indoor, real estate and even vlogging.

Super Compact & Lightweight

This 12mm lens is extremely compact and lightweight despite of the extreme specifications. It measures 3.4” (87mm) long and weighs less than 1.5 lb (675g). It can be easily fitted onto any sorts of stabilizations system including handheld gimbals.

Outstanding Optical Performance

The lens is composed of 16 elements in 10 groups with 2pcs of large aspherical glasses. The patented optical design provides an edge-to-edge sharpness and supports up to 8k resolution. Chromatic aberration is also controlled to the minimal.

Focus super close

Venus Optics have also managed to incorporate an extremely close focusing distance. The lens can focus anywhere from 7” away from sensor (<4” from front element) all the way to infinity. No diopter will be needed in this case. Wide angle lenses usually create a ‘flat’ image with very deep DOF but with this close focusing ability and a fast t-stop, Laowa 12mm is able to create some unique wide & shallow DOF look with pleasing bokeh.

[Related Reading: Venus Optics Announce Pricing and Availability of Laowa 17mm f/1.8 MFT Lens – A Compact, Approachable and Fast Everyday Lens]

Robust and professional cinema housing

The lens is designed with standard 0.8 mod gears on both aperture and focusing rings for easy installation of follow-focus system. An extended 270° smooth focus throw is designed for accurate focus pulling. The entire enclosure of the lens is made up of aluminum alloy. A 114mm step-ring is included in the package to expand the front diameter to fit with industry sized matte box. Venus Optics have tested with a number of matte boxes in the market and it is still free of vignetting on VV sensor with the matte box installed.

Complete package and 3 different bayonets to choose

The lens comes with three different variants, PL, EF and E mount. The mount is not interchangeable. Shims with different thickness is also included for users to do flange calibration. The complimentary watertight and crushproof Pelican hard case protects the the lenses from damage during travel.

Technical Specifications

• Format Compatibility – Full Frame / Vista Vision
• Focal Length – 12mm
• Angle of view – 122°
• t-stop – t/2.9 – 22
• Lens Structure – 16 elements in 10 group
• Aperture Blades – 7
• Min. Focusing Distance (from subject to sensor) – 7.09” (18 cm)
• Max. Magnification – 1:5
• Outer Diameter – 102mm, Can step up to 114mm
• Dimensions – Φ87mm×102mm
• Weight – 1.5lb (675g)

DSC05524 1

Pricing & Availability

The new Laowa 12mm t/2.9 Zero-D Cine lens is currently available to order in Venus Optics webstore and their authorized resellers. Shipping starts right away. Pricing in US is $1,499 (ex-VAT). Pricing varies in different countries. For more information you can visit the Official Laowa Product Page Here. The lens is not currently available outside of the Venus Optics store directly but should be listed and available in our usual vendors below soon.

Adorama | B&H | Amazon | Laowa