Real estate is one of the most profitable photography generes to try if you're a beginner photographer. The initial investment is minimal because you can start with your basic equipment. There is no need for fancy lenses or other special gear except a tripod.

If you have people skills and develop a rapport with realtors, you can expect to have a steady source of income. Eager to learn more? Here are some tips for improving your real estate photos.

1. Spend Some Time at the Property

This step is crucial, and you cannot miss it. If you plan to spend 30 minutes photographing the property quickly, your final images will show that. You have to plan and spend time exploring the property, noting what you want to highlight. Is there a wood-fired oven hidden in the backyard? That's a feature worth taking pictures of.

Walk around the rooms and explore angles and perspectives to shoot from. This way, you have the option to reschedule if the light is not great at that time of the day.

2. Use a Wide-Angle Lens

two wide angle lenses next to each other

Your kit lens is not going to cut it if you're in a small bedroom or kitchen. Instead, you want a wide-angle lens to capture the entire room. Use a 10-20mm lens for crop sensor or APS-C cameras, and opt for a 14-24mm or 16-35mm for full-frame cameras.

These wide-angle lenses come in all price ranges. You can choose a third-party one that can be cheaper than the name-brand ones. By using these lenses, you can capture the whole room in one shot, thereby giving a realistic view rather than a cramped one.

3. Connect With Realtors

You may think your job as a real estate photographer is to help sell the property you photograph. But think beyond the particular property and aim to establish a relationship with the realtor. They are the ones who are going to provide you with more properties to photograph in the future, so if their business booms, yours will too.

If you're working with the owners of the properties, you can try to connect with realtors, so you have a steady set of properties to photograph.

4. Shoot From Corners

If you shoot straight on, it can be challenging to fit in the entire room in your photo. So, always position yourself in the corner of the room to get a full view. This is often the view you see as you enter a room. Sometimes, you have to break this rule, but generally, it is a good idea to shoot from corners.

For example, if the property has a corridor or galley layout kitchen, shooting straight through it will give a better view than from the corner. On the other hand, the corner view will look much better for kitchens with islands or L-shaped kitchens.

5. Highlight the Best Features

Kitchen-Window

Along with taking pictures of every room on the property, make sure to look for special features and take photos of them. For example, the latest appliances are definitely a selling point, so include some pictures. Also, if the kitchen or bathroom has granite, marble, or quartz counters, take some close-up shots of them.

In addition, capture any unique or high-end accessories on the property. These can significantly increase the selling price of the property. Also, it is nice to have photos complimenting the property's description.

6. Try the HDR Technique

The dynamic range of your camera is way less than your eye. So if you're shooting in natural light, you need the help of your editing software to bring out details in the shadows and highlights. The HDR method will help you achieve that. It is time-consuming but not difficult to master. Your camera and editing software will do much of the work for you.

You can use the HDR or exposure bracketing technique to take a few photos that are underexposed and overexposed, along with the correctly exposed images. You can then merge them with editing software like Photoshop.

7. Use Artificial Lighting

Man holding Canon DSLR with a wide angle lens and flashgun.

Natural light is beautiful, and it is enough for shooting most properties. But sometimes you may come across a house with a long room, where the farther corner doesn't get enough light. Adding an artificial light source is the only way to add more light to the room.

You don't need expensive strobes to do that. A compact speedlight will do.

Depending on the size of the room, you can add more speedlights too. Remember to carry two or three speedlights with you. Again, the flashes from camera manufacturers can be expensive. You can start with third-party ones from brands like Godox or Neewer. They are inexpensive and work quite well.

Depending on your model, you must also buy a flash trigger for your camera and a receiver for your flash. Do some research on different models and price ranges before you invest your money.

8. Learn Flambient Lighting

The HDR photos will work in most situations, but the images may look artificial in some cases. And it is impossible to get natural photos with accurate white balance in mixed-lighting conditions using both natural light and speedlights.

In such scenarios, you can use the flambient lighting technique. It is a combination of flash and ambient lighting. You take the same pictures in both flash and natural light and stitch the images in Photoshop to get natural-looking photos.

Although flambient lighting gives excellent results, it can be time-consuming, and you have a steep learning curve. If you want to learn more, here's our guide to flambient lighting in real estate photography.

Advance Your Real Estate Photography With the Right Tools and Techniques

The demand for real estate photography is high, especially if you live in a busy city. Real estate photography is also a genre you can quickly develop into a thriving business. Plus, the initial investment is low. You can get started today with a basic crop sensor DSLR and an inexpensive wide-angle lens.

Find realtors to work with and learn some artificial lighting; you are good to go. You will soon see your real estate photography business thriving.