Photo and Drone Critique

If you have two things fighting each other in one frame, neither wins.

• Every real estate shot is one of two things. Either the subject is centered in the frame, or the frame shows the general layout and feel of the space.
• Turn on the grid and use the rule of thirds. If you do not have it set up on your camera yet, set it up.

Shooting Apartment signs the right way

• Shoot the sign zoomed in, around 85mm on full frame, so it fills the frame with nothing fighting it.
• Center it properly. Not off to the left, not off to the right.
• A wide lens can work at 18mm to 24mm if you commit to centering the sign, but if the sign is genuinely hideous, skip it. Some agents will ask for it, most will never miss it.

One or two shots that show the layout of the complex, then focus on all of its amenities like the pool and the clubhouse

• The best aerial in the set showed the whole complex, nicely framed. That is the establishing shot, and one or two of those is all we need.
• After that, go to amenities: pool, clubhouse, gym, tennis courts, a fountain, whatever the place actually has.
• Nobody cares about having multiple shots showing the parking situation
• Good job overshooting. Overshooting is not the problem. Shooting the wrong subjects and areas are.

I ask for a house to be shot and the exterior set comes back looking like you shot the neighbors home.

• Out of the whole exterior set there was one frame of the entrance and one of the door. I never actually get to see a nice front view of the home we were hired to shoot.
• A tree in the way is a real thing and I feel you, but I have shot the same situation, at a place just as tight, and the straight on shot was still there to get.

Even if a head on shot looks like trash, get it anyway. We can clean it up later, but we cannot invent it later.

• The head on shot is the one that matters most. Step way back, throw the gimbal as far back and as high over your head as your arm goes, and take it.
• From the air it is the same idea: 50 to 100 feet back, drop down to about second story rooftop level, wide angle, home dead center.

The kitchen shots started high, went mid, went low, and then lower…

• Walk in, pick your height thats best suited for the living area and keep it for the whole space. Heights that wander all over the set are obvious the moment the photos are side by side.
• In the kitchen, sit just under the upper cabinets so you barely see the underside of them. Flush if the cabinet is low enough and if cabinets are super high (in rare cases) showing showing the underside is okay for interiors you never want to shoot above your neck

Countertop line into the corner, baseboard into the corner. It is a composition check you can do before every snap.

• Let the lines in the room run into the corners of the frame. The countertop, the baseboards, etc…
• Remeber to back up far enough to get the fourth wall. (unless there are big obstructions like cabinets, sofas, plants, drawers…)

An agent told me about the lamp shade seam. I had no idea anyone cared until they did.

• If a plant is in your face, move two inches. One inch left and one inch forward hides it completely, and that is a thing we cannot Photoshop out.
• Turn the lights on. When the stager leaves a lamp unplugged, run the cord down and find the outlet, put the bulb in, switch it on.
• Turn the lamp shade seams to the wall so they do not face the camera.
• Keep the lights consistent through the set. In this one the kitchen lights are on, then off, then off again, then back on.
• These sound tiny. The only reason I know about any of them is that an agent complained about them to me first. If I can see it, one of them will see it, and if that agent hired us we are cooked.

2.5 times zoom on aerial photos is one under used

• Get the 2.5 times zoom shot from up high. It looks great, and if somebody is swimming they never even know you are there.
• Then come in closer to the pool, and take a regular wide angle top down.
• Fly low for the wide one, right around roof line, two or three feet above the roof. All the greenery and the roofs make a natural vignette and the blue really pops.
• You do not need to get into the pool area to shoot the pool. Send the drone instead of jumping a fence or hunting for a key.

When a room lines up symmetrically, that is the signal to put your back on the wall and center it.

• Chairs even on both sides, coffee table in the middle, a painting behind it. That is your cue.
• Put the camera as far back as it physically goes, touching the wall, then center and shoot.

Wide shots and corner shots show the layout. A straight on shot has a subject. Decide before you press the shutter.

• Wide angle frames, unless they are straight on, usually have no subject. They are showing the layout, so focus on making sure we can show as much of the layout as possible.
• A straight on frame does have a subject, so center it and let everything point at it.