[bobbotron]

A friend of mine is getting me to take some photos of their house that they're attempting to sell. I think I have a pretty good handle on this kind of photography - I'm bringing a tripod, a few flashes w/ remote triggers, fresh batteries. I plan on mostly shooting at around 20mm. Just wondering if anyone had general tips to pass on. Thanks!

[Rimfiredude]

Shoot available light on a rainy or dull day "not bright outside" for inside shots when you can.

[VoiceOfReason]

You're going to want wider than 20mm if you have it. I'd take an UWA zoom if possible.

[narual]

With real estate, it's pretty much the wider the better. Shoot from waist level, or at least chest level if there's too much furniture nearby. If there's a view, expose for the window, and then use flashes and interior lights to light up the interior to match. HDR can help somewhat. A tripod and wireless remote are particularly handy - you can put the camera almost flush with the wall without having yourself in the photo.

If you plan to do a panorama, try it on a tripod, in live view, with composition adjustment enabled - you'll have less distortion to correct.
Sensor Shift In Action: Increasing Field of View - Tutorial Videos | PentaxForums.com

Of course, just using a decent camera and having some concept of how to do the job, you're already worlds ahead of most photos on real estate sites that aren't taken by professionals. Most realtors seem to just use the crappiest point & shoot their company bought 8 years ago and post them directly with no post-production work at all.

[wombat2go]

Most realtors seem to just use the crappiest point & shoot their company bought 8 years ago and post them directly with no post-production work at all.

Yes, I am selling a house and today the realtor sent me a sample of the photos. They are bad, really bad, not in focus and under exposed.
The tenants have too much stuff crammed in the lower rooms while they pack. I am going to have to wait till they move out and do it empty.

[MD Optofonik]

DxO ViewPoint might be of use.

[Wolfeye]

Assuming you shoot Pentax and a crop-sensor, 20mm is 30mm and that's not wide enough for most interiors. I shoot real estate professionally and use at minimum 17mm FF equivalent. You have the right idea with remote control flashes but be sure they are manual flashes and have variable power settings other than "Automatic" mode. I prefer the Sunpak 383 Super. Lastly, beware reflections and shadows, the former with any polished wood surface, the latter with ceiling fans.

[bobbotron]

I have an 8mm rokinon fisheye that I'm bringing along, and a lens that goes out to 18mm. The fisheye is a little much wrt to distortion so I imagine the 18mm will be getting a lot of use.

And here I'd held off on the LBA and not invested in another wide angle. I'd love to buy a 12mm for wide shots with a little less distortion. :P

[kadajawi]

If you have the time and the post processing skills needed, I'd say it's better to shoot HDR. Flashes can easily look artificial (wrong color, weird direction it's coming from, ...).

If you're taking panoramas, you will need a panoramic head so you can rotate the camera/lens around the nodal point (I know technically it isn't, but that's what everyone calls it anyway). At first I got by by marking down a location on the floor that had a circle around it with the lens diameter, and using a string and a weight to hang down from the nodal point of the lens. That way I could rotate the whole camera + tripod around the nodal point without paying for the panoramic head.

[narual]

the rokinon fisheye can do a brilliant job, actually. You just need to use Image Trends - Fisheye-Hemi Plug-In - Corrects Fisheye Lens Distortion and retains Image Content Details twice: The Best Method of Defishing a Fisheye Photo – Lonely Speck

at $30, it's not free, but it's fairly cheap relatively speaking, and it does a pretty amazing job and offers much less distortion than a rectilinear lens. You can get a free trial (it will watermark the shots) to decide if it's worth the cash.

grabbing these from an old post -- excuse the watermarking on the pic, I hadn't relicensed the product after switching photoshop versions when I did it as an example.

right out of the camera:


Best effort with Lightroom:


With Fisheye Hemi:


Sadly, I don't have a comparable shot with the 10-20, since I was taking the picture for a record of the pretty room we stayed in, not as a lens test, but the difference would be something like this, only a larger difference since this is showing an 8mm rectilinear rather than 10:

[stillshot2]

Your subjects will all be perfectly still. No reason not to stitch multiple images together if you have the software to do so.

[chiane]

A friend of mine is getting me to take some photos of their house that they're attempting to sell. I think I have a pretty good handle on this kind of photography - I'm bringing a tripod, a few flashes w/ remote triggers, fresh batteries. I plan on mostly shooting at around 20mm. Just wondering if anyone had general tips to pass on. Thanks!

I shoot a lot of this type of stuff as an architect. Here's a few things I think make for a better shot.

1.) Turn on every light in the house, every last one. You don't want to see a dark hall beyond, and lamps that are shot while off look dreary.
2.) When I am shooting something like a kitchen, no matter how clean the homeowner makes it, it's still got too much clutter. I usually just move almost everything except a nick nack or two to the floor just outside the shot in the same groupings it was in on the counter. I also take a messy pic first so I can refer to it to return belongings.
3.) Straightening verticals in post is a must.
4.) I often just exposure bracket when I don't have time to set up flashes for an entire house shoot and blend in pp.
5.) I usually time outdoor shots at blue hour or when the sun is on the facade I am shooting to create shadow lines and depth.
6.) For exteriors, make sure the grass is cut of there's a lawn.

[jon404]

Camera position halfway from floor to ceiling... exterior at twilight, where you can get the warm glow of interior lamps... be VERY careful with that wide-angle lens, or you'll get a tunnel effect... bring a second regular or short tele lens for closeups of details... maybe get a couple of cheap LED lights from the hardware store and tape them over with orange gels... like the post above said, expose for the windows (overexpose a little), then bring up the interior lighting and your flash... and RAW, RAW, RAW!

You might also want to pose people, not close up, but here and there. Julius Shulman did this very well in his photos of Los Angeles homes, back when. And maybe an interesting car in the driveway outside the garage.

Have fun with it!

[Adam]

Have you tried the Ricoh Theta? It simplifies things so much, especially when you want to get a sense of the house as a whole.

[bobbotron]

Thanks everyone! Went ok, I found myself a 16-45mm DA lens for the night. Everything was a bit rushed, but we got some good photos in the end, will try to PP and post a few soon.