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I shoot for a friend that has his own biz, as i am a retiree and don't want another full time job. That said, heres what i know about the business in general:
Pricing: it is a competitive market and rates vary. I know that John charges $239 for a complete (interior, front, back, and yard) shoot with a limit of about 25 photos ($10-20 for additional per pic rate). That includes post processing and uploading to the clients server. A slide show with this increases the pkg price. If a client wants single photos for the front, back and yard, he charges $30 for 3 exterior photos which includes post processing and server upload. His clients sell homes from 750k to 5mil. A 5mil house requires a lot more work and he increases his rates based on time spent to start and complete the shoot\upload\slideshow process. I have been offered other fulltime work and would be paid $150 just to go out and shoot, post process and provide either a disk or upload of the finished photos. That offer was in the chicago area as well as an offer in orlando fl (same rates). Lately, there has been a competitor who is offering up to 24 photos plus editing, plus slideshow, plus upload for $79! I've seen his work and it is sufficient, but no where near the quality we produce (John is a perfectionist). But, the agents are leaning to him for price. i suspect the guy will overstretch himself or raise his price once he has established himself as some of the agents are returning to us for photo work.
Clients: If you are out during the day, stop in at open houses and leave a biz card with your services. be sure to introduce yourself and services to the agent showing the house.
Drop a biz card or ad with the real estate offices in the areas you will work. if possible, talk to the agents directly. usually the agents are out, so ask if the admin assistant will put one in each of their in-boxes.
Run an ad on craigslist.com (free) as a real estate/architectural photographer. list your services and have them call or email for pricing (you can then do your sales pitch).
Use one of the free web hosts like flicker, picasa, etc and put up samples of your work. be sure the site is listed on your biz card/ad. once you get established, your own biz site is a good idea (establishes credibility)
Equipment: 8-14mpx camera, 10-20mm lens or 12-24mm lens, sturdy tripod, and flash (at a minimum). carry xtra memory, batteries etc. If you need a new lens, the Sigma 10-20mm is less expensive than the Pentax 12-24 and works well on the K10D, not so good on the K20D (in my experience). Shoot between 12-14mm with the Sigma to avoid room distortion, 10-11mm in those tiny powder rooms and correct for perspective in photoshop. A fisheye can also be used, but you will need to correct the distortion (I have a Rokinon 8mm manual fisheye as backup).
The Shoot: first, go around and turn on every light in the house, put toilet seats down, move any extraneous 'stuff', close closet doors. with paper and pen, list the rooms you are to shoot and check them off when room is done, then move on to next. Setup tripod and camera/flash and shoot several exposures from the same spot (I always shoot raw). then try another angle and repeat exposures. take one or 2 flash shots from each position also. I use the timer to minimize the chance of camera shake and make sure shake reduction is off when on tripod. You can set the K10/K20 to shoot 3 different exposures one after the other or do it manually. you will have to adjust white balance for natural, flourescent and incandescent light. Check your pics before moving the camera.
Software: Photoshop offers the best manipulation of photos, hands down. I shoot raw and then edit in pshop to correct or enhance the pic. I shoot mostly without flash and take a pic or 2 in the darker rooms with flash to do a merge of the photos when necessary. By doing various exposures on a tripod, pshop can be used to pull in windows that are blown out in an otherwise good exposure.
Services: Offer only what you have the skills to do or hire someone to fill the gaps. College students in the arts are usually looking for xtra money... talk to instructors as well. Agents often need updated portrait photos. Offer to shoot all the agents in an office at a good price to get into the door or offer it as an intro perk.
agents often ask to see samples. good to have a dozen or so 5x7's in a small folder/album just in case.
if you are a web builder/designer, the agents often want a site created. john makes $1200-3500 per site
Listing brochures - John does their brochure layouts with his pics. not sure what he charges for that. I suspect a 8 pic layout is $50-100
hiring a contractor (like me) I get $25 per exterior shoot encompassing front, back and yard plus a $10 gas fee for 3 shoots or less. if i do 4 or more shoots, i forgo the gas fee (behooves him to give me more work in a day). If i do a interior with exterior shoot, i get $10 per photo used in the slideshow plus gas for 3 or less, no gas for 4 or more. I end up making $25-45 per hour (not bad for part time work) depending on number of shoots and proximity to each other.
sample photos here were taken using a tripod, K10D or K20D, metz flash on camera when needed, Sigma 10-20mm or Pentax 12-24mm lens (no other lighting equipment
I'm now using the K7 Hdr 1 function with on camera Metz 48 AF1 to shoot real estate. The results are excellent and the HDR has reduced my post processing times by 2/3rds in conjunction with using CS5, Topaz Labs Adjust plugin.
I thought I'd pass on my technique. I tried off camera flash lighting by strategically placing units to illuminate various room areas. That works, but is time consuming and requires additional equipment and flash adjustments. Currently, I use the metz 48af-1 with either the K7 or K10D, usually camera mounted (and bounce the flash). I shoot a 0, +1, -1 ev ambient light exposure and then flash shots (metz in manual mode) at 1/4, 1/2 or 1/1 (depending on lighting) or in slave. I also adjust for the room lighting, ie, tungsten, flourescent, etc. I select 2 images for post processing, one ambient and one flash and pull them into CS5. I then overlay the ambient with the flash, align the images and crop for alignment differences, reduce the flash layer to 50-70%, apply a slight 's' curve in curves, smart sharpen the image and save. Small tweaks can be made for hue/ saturation etc. I found this process to be easier, faster and cheaper than using multiple flash units. A legit copy of CS4 was purchased for $200, about the same cost of 2 additional off camera flash guns. When using the K7, I often just use the HDR1 setting and overlay that image with the flash image. Saves even more time.
Last edited by ivoire; 09-15-2010 at 09:05 PM.
Reason: update for K7
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