Pictures of homes

Carson

Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to digital photography. I normally use film, so I'm trying to get used to this new format.

I started a new job where I photograph homes that are being put up for sale/rent, and I want to do the best I can. I'm using the Nikon D3100 with the 18-55mm lens.

If you have any tips or ideas on some settings that will help me get out I would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks!

bruto

The main tip I can think of here is to try as much as you can to keep your view level. If you cannot, try to go a little wider than you need, and then use post processing to fix perspective. One of the hallmarks of a bad real estate photo is bad perspective, but if you use software to correct this, it will crop somewhat, so you need to go as wide as you can.

For real estate, where information is more important than art, you're best off with a relatively small aperture and lots of depth of field. That will be little problem with the 18-55mm set at 18mm, but you will need to keep a little eye on it.

Ideally you might want to get an even wider viewpoint than the 18mm gives. One possibility here that can be cheaper than a super wide lens is stitching software.

Microsoft makes a free panorama program called Microsoft ICE, which is surprisingly good. If you have time, you might want to play around with that. It does a decent job of stitching overlapping shots both horizontally and vertically. The best results here will be gotten with a tripod with the camera set level and panned.

Otherwise, some basic rules apply. A wide angle lens exaggerates perspective, so try to keep areas that show the most exaggeration out of the edge where their lack of squareness is obvious - wall to ceiling corners, and other edges that curve.

Get as much light as you can. Open the curtains and take some lights and flashes if you can. Try to avoid harsh shadows.

Correct for color temperature. You want your colors to be bright and cool so as to suggest abundant daylight rather than the incandescent light you may actually be using.

Digital does a bunch of tricks that film cannot, but all the rules remain the same for aperture and depth of field and whatnot. So if you got good results with film, start by trying to duplicate what you did before.