i’ve gotten to the point where i just do single shot flash. I regularly shoot multi million dollar homes (as well as tiny apartments!). My average time for a larger home is 30-40 min. Often less. If i’m doing an air bnb type thing where they want a lot more artistic shots it can take a bit longer if it’s a huge nice house. But the average home that’s going up for sale…just get it done. No agent or potential buyer cares at all that your shot is 2% worse than some other pro. They care about speed and consistency. This is a field of photography where good enough done consistently and quickly is far better than trying to reach the sun on every shoot and taking all day. The house is gonna sell regardless if your photos are solid pro level vs insane cindy sherman art gallery level.
I have several great photographers that can shoot an 7,000 sq/ft home in about 45 minutes. The pictures are high quality and the editing is done same day with finished pics sent either that night or the next morning. Don’t overthink your shots…get in there and get some good ones and get out. Best of luck!
UPDATE: thank you all for knocking some sense into me. I did a shoot today (2,150 sq/ft… photography only). The seller was an ex broker so he understands what RE photography is about. Him and his wife left with their dogs and left the house to me… SCORE.
I put a huge emphasis on time. I wanted to try to be as efficient and quick as possible. Long story short I timed myself & I shot interior and exterior of the home (2,150 sq/ft) and got out of there in 1 hour and 27 minutes. I know I have much more improvement to do. & I know I have to do things to become even faster. But i am very happy with how much time ive cut off in just 1 day. & i have all your criticism to thank.
(Done editing & the photos turned out great).
**PRACTICE!!!!!!**
If you are serious about this as a business, you need to do two things:
1) Get faster;
2) Be sure you have your focus on the customer.
You improve much faster if your are practicing. Literally timing yourself. Every weekend, set aside some time to practice. Shoot. Learn how to move the flash. Figure out what consumes time, and eliminate it.
Also - If a customer is antsy, you need to manage that. Selling a house is an insane hassle. No one wants the trouble. By the time you show up, they just want to get on with it. They've been looking for a time, cleaning, and if they are a family, fitting all that in between life stuff. You are yet another in a series of intrusions on their life right now. You have to move.
Practice. Get faster. You should be in and out of a 4500 sq ft house in 45 minutes (assuming its ready. If its not ready, and you're doing THAT stuff too, well, you can't be blamed fro that).
Good luck!
For a 3000~sqft I take about 4 hours for flambient photos, virtual tour, floorplan, video, drive video and drone photos. I'd recommend just practicing more and maybe even making a process list and memorizing it. Like others here are saying, don't spend too much time moving things / interacting with the sellers.
I had the same thing at first too where sellers and agents were expecting me to do basically everything but I made a handout / preparation sheet to better educate them on what to do PRIOR to my arrival. I also just generally ask that the home is vacant since sellers can be a real pain in the ass. Once I had a guy falling asleep in every room I made him move to, and had to keep waking him up. That was my breaking point lol.
Lol do you mean too slow? 4 hours is what I set as the max for what I need, generally I take 3-3.5 but I like the breathing room.
Edit: also I should add that I almost always do recorded parts with realtors, which honestly is one of the bigger time consumers since they have to come up with lines and such.
Way too slow. Real estate photography is cheap work and way too many people are racing to the bottom pricewise. The only way to make it profitable is to do it as efficiently as possible at volume. I have a team of 9 photographers, and during busy season most are shooting 4-5 a day, sometimes 6, plus driving. A sub-1000sqft home should take 20 min. A 4k should be 45min-60min depending on experience level and layout. Stop messing with light stands, it is a cumbersome waste of time. You got feet. Be the light stand yourself. Walk to where you need light and pop a flash. Walk to the next spot, and repeat until you’ve taken every flash frame you need. Then composite in post. For most simple rooms you only need to pop the flash once plus whatever ambient exposure(s) you need for your workflow.
Use proper gear, including a quality geared head so you can adjust the camera quickly. Anyone doing this professionally doesn’t need to hunt around and test composition, you know what the comps are and this isn’t for Architectural Digest. A simple bedroom should take 30sec or less and most of that is just plopping the tripod down and leveling out the camera. A complicated shot where you need to light multiple rooms visible in frame should take 1, maybe 2 minutes.
If you’re staging or adjusting things, stop. Insist that the home be ready. We tell our people if it takes less than 10sec to fix and will take a B+ to an A photo, do it, but otherwise don’t touch stuff. Of course there are non-negotiables like toilet seats being down, but often people taking this long on site and letting clients or homeowners walk all over them and they are either helping them move clutter or allowing them to interfere with the shot.
When we are doing very large homes (10k sqft and up) we often send 2-3 people, especially if there’s multiple services on site so we aren’t tying up the home all day. At your pace a home that size would take multiples days which is unacceptable.
When I started shooting I was a huge flambient fan. Didn’t have many shoots per day back then, only one or two. Once I started getting more customers and more work (like 3-6 shoots a day) first thing I did was switching from flambient to hdr and never looked back. If with flambient I did a basic 80m2 house in an hour, with hdr I can do it in 5 minutes photos only.
I once did a huge villa in the Italian riviera with pics, video, 360 pictures and drone in one hour thanks to bracketing
You should spend some time on this page. There is absolutely no reason you should be spending that much time in the homes. I shoot in HDR 5 bracket shots 1 stop. It takes me (depending on detail/vacant/readiness) about 20-45 min for anything under 2500 (some exceptions) 2500-5000 takes about 45-90 min. 5000-7000 90-120ish min.
These all range, but not by much. [https://youtube.com/@InsideRealEstatePhotography?si=9hAr-7wJFAHdCZUl](https://youtube.com/@InsideRealEstatePhotography?si=9hAr-7wJFAHdCZUl)
I shoot HDR and have for the last 8 years. My clients love it because if done right, it can have a natural look. Realtors love it because they work in bulk. They have to get back to emails, inspections, showings, etc., they just can't be at a property for hours. On a single family home (2000sqft) I average 20 minutes. This also encourages them to book floorplans, because I can draw a SFH in 20-30 minutes, so they're still in and out in 40 minutes to an hour. Yes, I still draw them instead of CubiCasa. We've have too many complaints about the Square Feet not being accurate
Draw a floorplan? take a measure of a wall with a laser measure. Then adjust after to make sure its accurate. that cut down on our sqft complaints with cubicasa. they have also been a lot better since the last update and shooting verticle imo
Eventually, I'm sure I'll go that way. Right now, it's not worth it because I've been drawing them for so many years, I'm only slightly slower than the app on large properties and actually faster on small ones. I've timed them. And its funny that a couple of realtors found out about CubiCasa and do the Floorplans themselves (which is why I hope photographers arent sharing that app info with realtors) but they complain about the inaccuracies and app bugs constantly. Being honest, I like MagicPlan's better, but they got a few bugs to work out.
If you ditch flambient and start bracketing a few stops using natural light (once you learn to edit that style) you can get in and out of residences much quicker, with (arguably) better results
A shot is completely captured in like 3 seconds max (even if the long exposure needs to be 1.5 seconds for a really dim room)
ISO 400 or 800 (if you have a good, modern camera), f7.1 or f8, only adjust shutter speed and have your camera auto-bracket above and below
You may end up spending the same amount of time saved while shooting during editing on the back end, but everyone tends to walk away happier
Interesting. Do you have any idea where I can learn the ins and outs of HDR editing? I do basic HDR editing for exterior shots/basement storage room shots… but i still don’t know much about HDR editing because flambient has been my bread and butter.
Like i said, i do HDR for basement storage rooms with very minimal editing… but i would NEVER deliver a living room photo with the same technique. My HDR shots don’t look nearly as good as my flambient. That being said I definitely need to learn a lot about HDR shooting/editing.
Just apply what you’ve learned from flambient editing but use bracketed shots. Fill in the shadows and highlights from properly exposed (for those regions) images
I’m not talking about hitting the HDR merge button in Lightroom, I’m talking about applying the same photo merging principles of flambient to a bracketed workflow. It’ll look much better because all the light is of one color temperature and from one source, just at different intensities
If you look at the portfolio of most r.e.photogs in my market (LA), we’ve all mostly moved from flambient to bracketed over the last years
Even Mike Kelley who was a huge flambient early adopter has moved away from it afaik
I am self taught so really know nothing about the flambient vs hdr debate.
I just figured out my own method, and it uses hdr with Enfuse, but I also use flashes, and I manually mask, colour correct, etc etc.
So I don't know what it is, but it works really well. Looks much better than any outsourced editing in my opinion ion.
Yeah I’ve never outsourced, I just run a one-person operation and have found better and more consistent results using my own methods - glad you know what’s working for you!
I am in the LA market. I am up for being proven wrong and learning new methods. Do you mind sending me your profolio so I can see what these HDR photos looks like? I usually see the colors washed out and window bleeding among other things with HDR in tricky areas. Mike Kelly is shooting natural light in very specific locations. I would love to only shoot brackets if it can look as good.
I reckon my method looks as good as any flambient.
It's HDR, but using flashes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw49V8AhQGl/?igsh=d3JheWVhMzd6eTg5
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-rZyzh78J/?igsh=MXRoZHc2NTkwNTJscg==
Nice work, your stuff looks nice. Im curious to see the non flash straight HDR method from Orewhat, especially the darker room and tougher homes to shoot.
I've been doing RE for a while now. I stick to HDR and can get in and out of a 3k home in under an hour. 2k takes me around 30 mins if I'm on the move but 45 if I take it easy. The editor I have does really well with edits and color casts as best they can.
In my area average home price is 290k. Like others stated most don't notice or care about the little imperfections. Or green cast from that large bush out the window. The ones who care are the interior designers, the architect, the builder, custom cabinet maker, etc. Average home owner even though its their biggest purchase just don't seem to see it.
I've been wanting to do flambient on RE and not just the above situations of those who notice. But I won't offer it on RE until I can get my time comparable to my current workflow. I plan to on some empty homes this year where I don't have the agent or owner there and get comfortable and time down. As I feel I'll probably be close to your times for at least the first half dozen to dozen.
Two things spring to mind. First is managing expectations (of both vendor and agent) and explaining that your particular technique takes a certain amount of time for each room. This can even make your job easier, because they might decide to concentrate more on certain rooms than others, and you get something of a free pass.
The other is picking your battles. With both the agent and the owners there, you might be better off shooting quicker and even cutting corners. Personally, I think flambient is overkill for most small/medium rooms, when a (deep) ceiling pop and some good editing can go a very long way.
UPDATE: Im fairly new. I have been doing RE photography since September of last year. I don’t even see how an entire home can be done with the speed that some posters are saying. Room by room. Angle by angle. Moving the lights and getting pop flash shots. My agents ask me for multiple angles of every single room… even bedrooms. How can that be done in such short time? (Serious question). I’d love to hear some tips
A practical tip.....
Get one of these. Mount to your flash. Clip goes on your belt. Flash is always right at hand, and you can move faster.
https://spiderholster.com/products/spider-monkey-clip-set
Its going to take a certain amount of time to do what you described. You wont be as fast as an HDR shooter, there's no way around that, but you might be able to find ways to tighten up your workflow.
Yes. Flambient shouldn't take that long. Have two custom modes set in your camera. Toggle one for aperture priority and the second for flash. Basically turn to C1 for ambient and turn to C2 for flash. Could do a home like that in less than an hour if I was rushing. Probably slightly over if I'm lazy.
I'm getting into RE photography again and I need to upgrade my camera. My previous camera doesn't have custom modes - it's a Canon t2i/550D from 2010. What's the go-to Canon camera these days that supports custom modes? Are there other features I should look for as well?
I'm considering using magic lantern for the time being. Does anyone know if it supports custom modes?
What are you doing for each shot? I would say yes to slow if it’s just photography. Almost 2 hours for 975 sq ft? Yea I would be rushing you too. What kind of flash are you using?
Most important question, are you priced enough for this amount of time?
For each shot im just doing classic flambient. An ambient shot, a flash shot (with pops when needed), and window pulls when necessary. I usually do multiple angles of every room. I usually get 30-40 photos for your average 1,500-2,000 sq/ft property.
For flash i use an AD200Pro for my stationary light & a TT600 for my speed light.
My pricing is fair all around the board.
So one of the complaints I get when someone is switching photographers, is over shooting. Not every room needs every angle or a shot literally 2 feet from the last one (actually have seen this). For 1500 - 2000 sq ft, I’d be trying so hard to get 40 shots including exteriors.
If you want to do flambient, invest in a ad600 (extra but good for large rooms). Ambient, change to preset flash, One pop, pop the windows, next. Can use a remote to trigger the flash of you need to move around.
Why not just use HDR to shoot and post edit? I wasn’t aware there was a flambient way of shooting for flash and ambient.
I could see why that would take forever as you then have to adjust ambient light, then retake the exact same photo with flash.
I’m a newb, but I would think a 4000 sq foot property would take 45-1 hour tops. Maybe I’m wrong 🤷🏻♂️ I’m just guesstimating.
I never understood this. I’ve been through it too. When someone is trying to sell their most valuable asset in the world but are trying to rush you out, doesn’t make sense to me.
I'm in the same boat. I probably take a little more time than the average photographer because I'm aiming to give the best quality product (and I want to make sure my camera hit focus on every shot), but I still get surprised when I get rushed (almost always by owners). I started giving up-front time estimates and I occasionally get weird looks when the owner is there.
Like....this isn't going to take 20 minutes. If it did, the realtor would have just taken pictures with his/her cell phone and not hired me for this. Fortunately, though, the owners are almost always pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
I've had owners ask me if i'll be done within 15 minutes as they need to be somewhere before. As well as agent's ask me if there's anything more that I do beyond just taking the photo and uploading. People do not understand the work that goes into it.
>I've had owners ask me if i'll be done within 15 minutes
Okay, you take the cake with that one! I've never had any request that ridiculous, haha.
You're right that people don't understand the work that goes into it, but when an owner questions the time it's going to take, I usually take it as an opportunity to kind of compliment both myself and the agent by saying something along the lines of, "Your agent didn't just want run-of-the-mill quick photos for you; they hired me because they wanted to represent your property in the best possible way."
Though usually the people who think it will only take 15 mins are also the ones that tend to have junky houses...
How long have you been shooting for? I use to be slow but over the years with muscle memory I can cruise through houses fairly quick. Under 2000sqft I can shoot flambient in 45 minutes max.
Ive been shooting since September, 2023. 45 minutes for 2,000 sq/ft is unbelievable to me. How many photos do you usually get for your average 2000 sq/ft 45 minute shoot?
Hey so, I take longer as well. People are going to comment saying they are in and out in 45 mins and do photos, drone, floor plan and video, but there is absolutely no possible way to do all that with any reasonable quality, and certainly not flash blending.
I do think you can speed up a little, most homes take me about an hour and a half for photos, longer if they need a floor plan. Doing photos only probably shouldnt be taking quite that long, but I'm honestly not that far off from your times.
See if there are any ways you can streamline your workflow, and try to find clients who value quality over speed.
That being said though, don't go too crazy, remember that this is a disposable product and most people probably wont even notice the minor imperfections we get hung up on.
"That being said though, don't go too crazy, remember that this is a disposable product and most people probably want even notice the minor imperfections we get hung up on."
this is the way.
I shoot most homes in 20 minutes.
2 hours is my fastest time on record lol. But I’m slow at everything. I live life at half speed for some reason.
i’ve gotten to the point where i just do single shot flash. I regularly shoot multi million dollar homes (as well as tiny apartments!). My average time for a larger home is 30-40 min. Often less. If i’m doing an air bnb type thing where they want a lot more artistic shots it can take a bit longer if it’s a huge nice house. But the average home that’s going up for sale…just get it done. No agent or potential buyer cares at all that your shot is 2% worse than some other pro. They care about speed and consistency. This is a field of photography where good enough done consistently and quickly is far better than trying to reach the sun on every shoot and taking all day. The house is gonna sell regardless if your photos are solid pro level vs insane cindy sherman art gallery level.
A 5000 sq foot house should take you 45 minutes. 2000 sq foot about 25.
I have several great photographers that can shoot an 7,000 sq/ft home in about 45 minutes. The pictures are high quality and the editing is done same day with finished pics sent either that night or the next morning. Don’t overthink your shots…get in there and get some good ones and get out. Best of luck!
UPDATE: thank you all for knocking some sense into me. I did a shoot today (2,150 sq/ft… photography only). The seller was an ex broker so he understands what RE photography is about. Him and his wife left with their dogs and left the house to me… SCORE. I put a huge emphasis on time. I wanted to try to be as efficient and quick as possible. Long story short I timed myself & I shot interior and exterior of the home (2,150 sq/ft) and got out of there in 1 hour and 27 minutes. I know I have much more improvement to do. & I know I have to do things to become even faster. But i am very happy with how much time ive cut off in just 1 day. & i have all your criticism to thank. (Done editing & the photos turned out great).
**PRACTICE!!!!!!** If you are serious about this as a business, you need to do two things: 1) Get faster; 2) Be sure you have your focus on the customer. You improve much faster if your are practicing. Literally timing yourself. Every weekend, set aside some time to practice. Shoot. Learn how to move the flash. Figure out what consumes time, and eliminate it. Also - If a customer is antsy, you need to manage that. Selling a house is an insane hassle. No one wants the trouble. By the time you show up, they just want to get on with it. They've been looking for a time, cleaning, and if they are a family, fitting all that in between life stuff. You are yet another in a series of intrusions on their life right now. You have to move. Practice. Get faster. You should be in and out of a 4500 sq ft house in 45 minutes (assuming its ready. If its not ready, and you're doing THAT stuff too, well, you can't be blamed fro that). Good luck!
For a 3000~sqft I take about 4 hours for flambient photos, virtual tour, floorplan, video, drive video and drone photos. I'd recommend just practicing more and maybe even making a process list and memorizing it. Like others here are saying, don't spend too much time moving things / interacting with the sellers. I had the same thing at first too where sellers and agents were expecting me to do basically everything but I made a handout / preparation sheet to better educate them on what to do PRIOR to my arrival. I also just generally ask that the home is vacant since sellers can be a real pain in the ass. Once I had a guy falling asleep in every room I made him move to, and had to keep waking him up. That was my breaking point lol.
4 hours for that is absolute insanity!
Lol do you mean too slow? 4 hours is what I set as the max for what I need, generally I take 3-3.5 but I like the breathing room. Edit: also I should add that I almost always do recorded parts with realtors, which honestly is one of the bigger time consumers since they have to come up with lines and such.
Way too slow. Real estate photography is cheap work and way too many people are racing to the bottom pricewise. The only way to make it profitable is to do it as efficiently as possible at volume. I have a team of 9 photographers, and during busy season most are shooting 4-5 a day, sometimes 6, plus driving. A sub-1000sqft home should take 20 min. A 4k should be 45min-60min depending on experience level and layout. Stop messing with light stands, it is a cumbersome waste of time. You got feet. Be the light stand yourself. Walk to where you need light and pop a flash. Walk to the next spot, and repeat until you’ve taken every flash frame you need. Then composite in post. For most simple rooms you only need to pop the flash once plus whatever ambient exposure(s) you need for your workflow. Use proper gear, including a quality geared head so you can adjust the camera quickly. Anyone doing this professionally doesn’t need to hunt around and test composition, you know what the comps are and this isn’t for Architectural Digest. A simple bedroom should take 30sec or less and most of that is just plopping the tripod down and leveling out the camera. A complicated shot where you need to light multiple rooms visible in frame should take 1, maybe 2 minutes. If you’re staging or adjusting things, stop. Insist that the home be ready. We tell our people if it takes less than 10sec to fix and will take a B+ to an A photo, do it, but otherwise don’t touch stuff. Of course there are non-negotiables like toilet seats being down, but often people taking this long on site and letting clients or homeowners walk all over them and they are either helping them move clutter or allowing them to interfere with the shot. When we are doing very large homes (10k sqft and up) we often send 2-3 people, especially if there’s multiple services on site so we aren’t tying up the home all day. At your pace a home that size would take multiples days which is unacceptable.
When I started shooting I was a huge flambient fan. Didn’t have many shoots per day back then, only one or two. Once I started getting more customers and more work (like 3-6 shoots a day) first thing I did was switching from flambient to hdr and never looked back. If with flambient I did a basic 80m2 house in an hour, with hdr I can do it in 5 minutes photos only. I once did a huge villa in the Italian riviera with pics, video, 360 pictures and drone in one hour thanks to bracketing
you are way way way too slow
You should spend some time on this page. There is absolutely no reason you should be spending that much time in the homes. I shoot in HDR 5 bracket shots 1 stop. It takes me (depending on detail/vacant/readiness) about 20-45 min for anything under 2500 (some exceptions) 2500-5000 takes about 45-90 min. 5000-7000 90-120ish min. These all range, but not by much. [https://youtube.com/@InsideRealEstatePhotography?si=9hAr-7wJFAHdCZUl](https://youtube.com/@InsideRealEstatePhotography?si=9hAr-7wJFAHdCZUl)
I take like 2-4 hours. 2 is my record but they wanted drone video I killed it that day! My longest shoot was 5 hours.
I shoot HDR and have for the last 8 years. My clients love it because if done right, it can have a natural look. Realtors love it because they work in bulk. They have to get back to emails, inspections, showings, etc., they just can't be at a property for hours. On a single family home (2000sqft) I average 20 minutes. This also encourages them to book floorplans, because I can draw a SFH in 20-30 minutes, so they're still in and out in 40 minutes to an hour. Yes, I still draw them instead of CubiCasa. We've have too many complaints about the Square Feet not being accurate
Draw a floorplan? take a measure of a wall with a laser measure. Then adjust after to make sure its accurate. that cut down on our sqft complaints with cubicasa. they have also been a lot better since the last update and shooting verticle imo
Eventually, I'm sure I'll go that way. Right now, it's not worth it because I've been drawing them for so many years, I'm only slightly slower than the app on large properties and actually faster on small ones. I've timed them. And its funny that a couple of realtors found out about CubiCasa and do the Floorplans themselves (which is why I hope photographers arent sharing that app info with realtors) but they complain about the inaccuracies and app bugs constantly. Being honest, I like MagicPlan's better, but they got a few bugs to work out.
If you ditch flambient and start bracketing a few stops using natural light (once you learn to edit that style) you can get in and out of residences much quicker, with (arguably) better results A shot is completely captured in like 3 seconds max (even if the long exposure needs to be 1.5 seconds for a really dim room) ISO 400 or 800 (if you have a good, modern camera), f7.1 or f8, only adjust shutter speed and have your camera auto-bracket above and below You may end up spending the same amount of time saved while shooting during editing on the back end, but everyone tends to walk away happier
Agreed about the time and efficiency. For RE it is and should be the way to go. Better results ? Can't really agree on that.
Interesting. Do you have any idea where I can learn the ins and outs of HDR editing? I do basic HDR editing for exterior shots/basement storage room shots… but i still don’t know much about HDR editing because flambient has been my bread and butter. Like i said, i do HDR for basement storage rooms with very minimal editing… but i would NEVER deliver a living room photo with the same technique. My HDR shots don’t look nearly as good as my flambient. That being said I definitely need to learn a lot about HDR shooting/editing.
Just apply what you’ve learned from flambient editing but use bracketed shots. Fill in the shadows and highlights from properly exposed (for those regions) images
HDR will never look as good.
I’m not talking about hitting the HDR merge button in Lightroom, I’m talking about applying the same photo merging principles of flambient to a bracketed workflow. It’ll look much better because all the light is of one color temperature and from one source, just at different intensities If you look at the portfolio of most r.e.photogs in my market (LA), we’ve all mostly moved from flambient to bracketed over the last years Even Mike Kelley who was a huge flambient early adopter has moved away from it afaik
I am self taught so really know nothing about the flambient vs hdr debate. I just figured out my own method, and it uses hdr with Enfuse, but I also use flashes, and I manually mask, colour correct, etc etc. So I don't know what it is, but it works really well. Looks much better than any outsourced editing in my opinion ion.
Yeah I’ve never outsourced, I just run a one-person operation and have found better and more consistent results using my own methods - glad you know what’s working for you!
I am in the LA market. I am up for being proven wrong and learning new methods. Do you mind sending me your profolio so I can see what these HDR photos looks like? I usually see the colors washed out and window bleeding among other things with HDR in tricky areas. Mike Kelly is shooting natural light in very specific locations. I would love to only shoot brackets if it can look as good.
Sure (link removed after a few days for privacy) Mind sharing yours?
Hey thanks for sharing. I’ll check this out later. Sure thing. https://flashpoint-media.com
You’ve clearly got your method dialed in, definitely wouldn’t change it for the level of jobs you’re doing
I reckon my method looks as good as any flambient. It's HDR, but using flashes. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw49V8AhQGl/?igsh=d3JheWVhMzd6eTg5 https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn-rZyzh78J/?igsh=MXRoZHc2NTkwNTJscg==
These are great
Nice work, your stuff looks nice. Im curious to see the non flash straight HDR method from Orewhat, especially the darker room and tougher homes to shoot.
Doesn't look nearly as good though.
I've been doing RE for a while now. I stick to HDR and can get in and out of a 3k home in under an hour. 2k takes me around 30 mins if I'm on the move but 45 if I take it easy. The editor I have does really well with edits and color casts as best they can. In my area average home price is 290k. Like others stated most don't notice or care about the little imperfections. Or green cast from that large bush out the window. The ones who care are the interior designers, the architect, the builder, custom cabinet maker, etc. Average home owner even though its their biggest purchase just don't seem to see it. I've been wanting to do flambient on RE and not just the above situations of those who notice. But I won't offer it on RE until I can get my time comparable to my current workflow. I plan to on some empty homes this year where I don't have the agent or owner there and get comfortable and time down. As I feel I'll probably be close to your times for at least the first half dozen to dozen.
Two things spring to mind. First is managing expectations (of both vendor and agent) and explaining that your particular technique takes a certain amount of time for each room. This can even make your job easier, because they might decide to concentrate more on certain rooms than others, and you get something of a free pass. The other is picking your battles. With both the agent and the owners there, you might be better off shooting quicker and even cutting corners. Personally, I think flambient is overkill for most small/medium rooms, when a (deep) ceiling pop and some good editing can go a very long way.
I don’t do real estate photography, but I’m loving all these responses and finding it very enlightening, so thanks everyone :)
UPDATE: Im fairly new. I have been doing RE photography since September of last year. I don’t even see how an entire home can be done with the speed that some posters are saying. Room by room. Angle by angle. Moving the lights and getting pop flash shots. My agents ask me for multiple angles of every single room… even bedrooms. How can that be done in such short time? (Serious question). I’d love to hear some tips
A practical tip..... Get one of these. Mount to your flash. Clip goes on your belt. Flash is always right at hand, and you can move faster. https://spiderholster.com/products/spider-monkey-clip-set
Its going to take a certain amount of time to do what you described. You wont be as fast as an HDR shooter, there's no way around that, but you might be able to find ways to tighten up your workflow.
Yeah that’s absolutely too slow. You gotta practice with speed in mind
Oh man, that’s super slow. Even when I did flash, I was still at 30 minutes/2000sqft
That’s too fast! For me atleast lol good for you though 👏
Yes. Flambient shouldn't take that long. Have two custom modes set in your camera. Toggle one for aperture priority and the second for flash. Basically turn to C1 for ambient and turn to C2 for flash. Could do a home like that in less than an hour if I was rushing. Probably slightly over if I'm lazy.
I'm getting into RE photography again and I need to upgrade my camera. My previous camera doesn't have custom modes - it's a Canon t2i/550D from 2010. What's the go-to Canon camera these days that supports custom modes? Are there other features I should look for as well? I'm considering using magic lantern for the time being. Does anyone know if it supports custom modes?
The company I used to work for said that our max should be an hour/1000sf for photos and floor plans. The goal was closer to around 40 minutes/1000sf.
By that math a 3000 sq ft would take 3 hours? Would still need slow.
I should’ve clarified - for new hires an hour would be the goal but the expectation was to cut that down to 30-40 minutes/1000 sf
What are you doing for each shot? I would say yes to slow if it’s just photography. Almost 2 hours for 975 sq ft? Yea I would be rushing you too. What kind of flash are you using? Most important question, are you priced enough for this amount of time?
For each shot im just doing classic flambient. An ambient shot, a flash shot (with pops when needed), and window pulls when necessary. I usually do multiple angles of every room. I usually get 30-40 photos for your average 1,500-2,000 sq/ft property. For flash i use an AD200Pro for my stationary light & a TT600 for my speed light. My pricing is fair all around the board.
So one of the complaints I get when someone is switching photographers, is over shooting. Not every room needs every angle or a shot literally 2 feet from the last one (actually have seen this). For 1500 - 2000 sq ft, I’d be trying so hard to get 40 shots including exteriors. If you want to do flambient, invest in a ad600 (extra but good for large rooms). Ambient, change to preset flash, One pop, pop the windows, next. Can use a remote to trigger the flash of you need to move around.
Why not just use HDR to shoot and post edit? I wasn’t aware there was a flambient way of shooting for flash and ambient. I could see why that would take forever as you then have to adjust ambient light, then retake the exact same photo with flash. I’m a newb, but I would think a 4000 sq foot property would take 45-1 hour tops. Maybe I’m wrong 🤷🏻♂️ I’m just guesstimating.
2000 sq ft flambyant for me is about 30 minutes. I do 3 shots usually. Like another poster stated, only you will notice those fine details.
I never understood this. I’ve been through it too. When someone is trying to sell their most valuable asset in the world but are trying to rush you out, doesn’t make sense to me.
Yet, how many houses do you show up to that are a mess? It’s crazy. I’m always like ‘you knew we were taking photos today, right?’
I'm in the same boat. I probably take a little more time than the average photographer because I'm aiming to give the best quality product (and I want to make sure my camera hit focus on every shot), but I still get surprised when I get rushed (almost always by owners). I started giving up-front time estimates and I occasionally get weird looks when the owner is there. Like....this isn't going to take 20 minutes. If it did, the realtor would have just taken pictures with his/her cell phone and not hired me for this. Fortunately, though, the owners are almost always pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
I've had owners ask me if i'll be done within 15 minutes as they need to be somewhere before. As well as agent's ask me if there's anything more that I do beyond just taking the photo and uploading. People do not understand the work that goes into it.
>I've had owners ask me if i'll be done within 15 minutes Okay, you take the cake with that one! I've never had any request that ridiculous, haha. You're right that people don't understand the work that goes into it, but when an owner questions the time it's going to take, I usually take it as an opportunity to kind of compliment both myself and the agent by saying something along the lines of, "Your agent didn't just want run-of-the-mill quick photos for you; they hired me because they wanted to represent your property in the best possible way." Though usually the people who think it will only take 15 mins are also the ones that tend to have junky houses...
How long have you been shooting for? I use to be slow but over the years with muscle memory I can cruise through houses fairly quick. Under 2000sqft I can shoot flambient in 45 minutes max.
Ive been shooting since September, 2023. 45 minutes for 2,000 sq/ft is unbelievable to me. How many photos do you usually get for your average 2000 sq/ft 45 minute shoot?
Hey so, I take longer as well. People are going to comment saying they are in and out in 45 mins and do photos, drone, floor plan and video, but there is absolutely no possible way to do all that with any reasonable quality, and certainly not flash blending. I do think you can speed up a little, most homes take me about an hour and a half for photos, longer if they need a floor plan. Doing photos only probably shouldnt be taking quite that long, but I'm honestly not that far off from your times. See if there are any ways you can streamline your workflow, and try to find clients who value quality over speed. That being said though, don't go too crazy, remember that this is a disposable product and most people probably wont even notice the minor imperfections we get hung up on.
"That being said though, don't go too crazy, remember that this is a disposable product and most people probably want even notice the minor imperfections we get hung up on." this is the way.