Must-Have Real Estate Photography Gear
- Real Estate Photography Gear - Ultra-Wide or Fisheye Lens
- Real Estate Photography Gear - Camera and Light Mount
- Real Estate Photography Gear - Panoramic Nodal Point Mount
- >Real Estate Photography Gear - LED Lights
- Real Estate Photography Gear - Wireless Remote
- Real Estate Photography Gear - Google Sheets
- Other Recommended Photography Gear
- Real Estate Photography Lighting Tips You Can’t Miss
- Critical Tips for Low Light Photography
- Essential Camera Accessories
Photo by Jokic via iStock
I’ve delivered a lot of real estate photography over the years. In doing so, I have found new methods of capturing images, developing them, and delivering them, all of which add to my skill set.
Along with those real estate photography tools like bracket and merge HDR, multiple light sources, drone imaging, and video tours, I’ve also found some great real estate photography gear that either helps me do a method more simply or allows me to do something I couldn’t do without that gear.
Here are a few ideas for real estate photography gear that you can find online and put into use immediately.
Table of Contents:
Real Estate Photography Gear - Ultra-Wide or Fisheye Lens
After your camera, choosing a good lens is a top priority for real estate photography gear. Since many photographers starting out in real estate photography as a side hustle probably have APS-C format prosumer or other advanced-level cameras, I’ll key in on lens ideas to cover that format.
The wide-angle zoom range of lenses is one of the more useful lens types. Another fantastic lens option, especially if you want to create spherical panoramas, is a true fisheye lens. Here are two fine lenses that fit these categories: Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG Fisheye lens and Tamron 11-20mm f-2.8 Di III-A zoom lens.
The Sigma 8mm f/3.5 EX DG Fisheye lens (like this one in Canon EF-mount) is a true fisheye lens, providing 180-degree coverage across the diagonal of the film frame. It shows as a 180-degree circle inside of Full Frame format images, so this lens can be used in both formats.
The fast lens aperture of f/3.5 means your “sweet spot” aperture will be in the range of f/5.6 to f/8.0, allowing for using the lens hyperfocal depth of field of less than 1 foot to infinity while simultaneously having the sharpest lens aperture.
The Tamron 11-20mm f-2.8 Di III-A zoom lens (like this one in Sony E-mount) combines features and quality that are essential as real estate photography gear. The maximum lens aperture of f/2.8 means you can shoot in low light and also gives a sweet spot that is also fast, around f/4.0 to f/5.6.
A zoom lens is useful as real estate photography gear so that you can instantly adjust to capture just the right amount of space when switching from room to room. It’s a pro-style lens, so it can withstand some more extreme usage than the common “kit lens” styles of lenses available for our cameras.
Both of these lenses are available in all of the popular camera mounts and can also be used on either DSLR-style cameras or mirrorless.
Real Estate Photography Gear - Camera and Light Mount
With most real estate photography, you’ll need to keep your camera as motionless as possible, either for capturing an HDR bracket and merging a series of images or a long exposure image. Additionally, you find yourself requiring some extra light from portable LED lights or off-camera flash units.
A good heavy-duty tripod is going to be a major part of your real estate photography gear kit. Still, some situations call for using a tripod alternative. My go-to choice for a tripod alternative is the Octopad Camera Mount.
Octopad is a unique tool that I think is an essential part of my own real estate photography gear bag because of how versatile it is. It is a semi-rigid (more rigid than not) disc that is heavy enough to securely hold a tripod head on top with a camera and lens mounted.
It has a unique non-slip pad underneath that, when combined with the slight give in the material, lets you place the Octopad on almost any type you might run into, even if that surface is slanted by up to 45 degrees.
Besides holding a camera, I also use mine for holding other items, depending on what type of photography or videography I’m doing. A prime thing I use the Octopad for is holding portable lights and mics. I keep a couple on hand for whatever venue I’m in or what type of camera work I’m doing.
Real Estate Photography Gear - Panoramic Nodal Point Mount
To make those spherical panoramas mentioned earlier, a nodal point panoramic mount is a valuable piece of our real estate photography tools.
SunwayFoto CR-3015A is one of the better options for a nodal point panoramic mount. It has great stability and lots of easy-to-set controls to let you control the specialty movements needed for this style of real estate photography. It can be held on a tripod or the Octopad.
The video shown above is from the YouTube channel of Todd Norman Kamp and is part of a series on creating Spherical panoramas. This segment is all about using PTGui to stitch together all of your images into the interactive panorama that can be attached to commercial and residential real estate jobs.
Real Estate Photography Gear - LED Lights
Sometimes, even with the HDR bracket and merge technique, we find ourselves needing to add in some more controlled lighting.
Portable LED lights are my go-to choice for handling this job. They are usually powered by rechargeable batteries and have adjustments for controlling the light level and the light color balance.
An example that can also be used in a photography studio and for videography production, in addition to being an essential part of our real estate photography gear outfit, is the Neewer 660 LED panel light. It can be battery-powered or plugged into AC power.
These can be mounted on a light stand or use the Octopad listed earlier when you don’t have enough room or a flat enough surface for light stands.
Real Estate Photography Gear - Wireless Remote
When shooting for real estate, you will want to use a remote release to ensure you have no movement during exposure and no movement of the camera and lens between exposures for the HDR or panoramic imagery you’re capturing.
Personally, I prefer the wireless style of remote releases, such as the Pixel TW283-DC0. This wireless release comes in models to fit most of the current digital cameras in use today. In addition to triggering the shutter remotely, this remote has a long exposure timer and an intervalometer.
Real Estate Photography Gear - Google Sheets
Photo by Inside Creative House via iStock
The subject of real estate photography tools covers more than the physical pieces of technology that we need as real estate photography gear. Business software is an important part of the real estate photography business model.
One of the best tools is the online suite of technology known as Google Sheets. What makes this tool so usable is that it is accessible from mobile devices on multiple platforms. I can use it on my smartphone for shooting lists, helpful reminders, and instructions, and I can even share spreadsheets online with clients and business partners.
Add all or several of these real estate photography gear ideas to your tool kit and see how much you can get done in your side hustle or main photography business!
Other Recommended Photography Gear
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