All You Need To Know About Professional Real Estate Photography

Visuals can make or break a real estate listing. As more homebuyers shop online for properties—a whopping 97% of people already do so, according to one recent study—high-quality images can go a long way to demonstrate a property’s value.

Top-notch visuals also have an impact on buyers — according to a 2023 National Association of Realtors report, photos are the most useful listing feature for homebuyers browsing online listings. 

If you’re a realtor hoping to upgrade the quality of your listings, this is the article for you. We will explore the advantages of investing in real estate photography and how to set your listing up for success by putting your best marketing foot forward.

Why you should invest in real estate photography

Navigating today's real estate market requires more than just listing a property. The U.S. alone boasts more than 1.55 million realtors—with all that competition, agents have to go the extra mile to catch the eye of potential buyers. And that’s where quality real estate photography can help. 

Using professional photography as a tool in your marketing arsenal can transform how buyers perceive properties and increase their marketability.

Make your listings stand out

High-quality, professional real estate photography captures the essence of a property and highlights its strengths. And these images go beyond aesthetics—they’re a vital tool in communicating a property's value and potential while also differentiating your listings.

Professional real estate photography transforms standard listings into compelling visual narratives. This kind of visual storytelling invites potential buyers to envision a future in the home and fosters a deeper connection with the property. It's about creating an immediate, impactful visual dialogue that resonates with the emotional and aspirational desires of buyers. 

With that emotional connection established, potential buyers are more likely to take the next step on a property. Research shows that homes with pro listing photos get 61% more views than listings without high-quality images. And another 83% of homebuyers said photos are crucial in helping them figure out which homes they’ll view in person. 

Boost your online presence

In addition to differentiating your listings from the sea of sameness online, pro real estate photography also helps more buyers discover your property portfolio. High-quality images offer significant SEO benefits since they’re more likely to be shared, which generates additional traffic and improves the listing's search engine rankings.

And if you optimize real estate images for search engines, you can further improve your website's ranking and attract more traffic. By incorporating targeted keywords, alt text, and file names for your real estate photos, your listings can climb up the search results. 

Well-optimized images with relevant metadata can also appear in image search results, further increasing visibility. These SEO advantages contribute to a broader online presence, attracting more potential buyers and driving engagement with the listing.

High-quality images and a few real estate SEO tactics enhance a property’s appeal and leverage the power of search engines to attract a wider audience. Ultimately, more potential buyers browsing your listings increases your chances of a sale. 

Increase engagement 

One of the goals of creating compelling listings for properties is to encourage potential buyers to engage with them. Buying agents will encourage potential buyers to peruse the photos, read through property features, and maybe even browse a property via a 3D walkthrough. The more buyers engage with a listing, the more likely they are to book a showing. 

High-quality photos play a crucial role in increasing engagement on your listings. Listings with professional photos see a huge spike in online engagement—a 118% boost in views compared to listings without images.

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As most buyers begin their property search online, the distinctiveness of quality real estate photography captures and retains buyer interest, making them indispensable marketing tools.  Pro photos accurately and attractively show off a property, which makes it easier for buyers to envision themselves in the space. As a result, engaged browsers are more likely to schedule visits and offers.

Build a foundation of trust with your customers

Professional real estate photography establishes a foundation of trust and sets a standard of quality with potential clients. By showcasing properties through high-quality images, listing agents communicate their commitment to excellence and attention to detail.

This perception of quality and professionalism not only attracts more clients, but also encourages them to associate these values with the agent or brand, fostering long-term relationships and enhancing your reputation in the marketplace.

Close more deals

The numbers don’t lie—better images lead to more sales. Properties featured with HD images sell up to 32% faster and command 47% sales prices.

For example, homes with more than 20 professional images tend to sell within a month, while those with fewer or lower-quality images might linger on the market for an average of 70 days.

This increased sales velocity and potential spike in sales prices highlight the strategic importance of investing in professional imagery. The bottom line is this: High-quality photos aren’t an expense, but instead, they’re an investment. And considering how much pro photos can boost your bottom line, it’s an investment that pays dividends in terms of both the speed and profitability of real estate transactions.

Common real estate photography types (and inspiring examples)

Location is the key, foundational factor for how agents and photographers approach shooting real estate photography. Here are the four types of real estate photography you need to understand and have in your portfolio to successfully build your real estate photography business or upgrade your portfolio of listings.

Residential real estate photos

The bulk of a real estate portfolio consists of residential properties, such as single-family homes, condos/townhomes, and luxury properties. Listings typically have anywhere from 20-30 photos to showcase the property’s unique qualities and provide a visual sense of what it might be like to live there. The quality of these photos can attract more buyers for the agent and move the listing off the market faster.

^{Hawaiian Oceanside Villa in Lanikai, Hawaii}

Architectural elements photos

Architectural real estate photography focuses on the property’s structure and unique characteristics, such as textural elements, symmetry, and lines. Real estate agents, architects, designers, and building owners use these photos for listings, marketing materials, and publications, like Architectural Digest and Dezeen.

“AirBnB’s Most Popular Treehouse” has been featured in over 300 articles and TV shows, including Architectural Digest and Condé Nast Traveler.

Beyond structure, architectural photographs capture the space’s ambiance, such as a home’s fun and sunny outdoor BBQ area or the cozy intimacy of a cabin. Architectural photos can also document pivotal points in a building’s design and construction.  

Exterior real estate photos 

Exterior photography highlights a property or location’s outdoor elements from multiple angles, including aerial street images. Real estate agents leverage these photos as a way to highlight the neighborhood. 

These types of images also showcase the property’s landscape and illuminate any seasonality, such as a location with plenty of trees during autumn.

^{The Round House’s backyard, located in Romford, United Kingdom}

Commercial real estate photos

Commercial real estate images for office buildings, hotels, and retail establishments focus on attracting potential companies to lease or buy a building. These photos also help potential employees and visitors who need to envision themselves in these spaces. 

Typically, real estate photos for commercial properties will also appear on company social media profiles and physical marketing materials, which impact and craft their respective brands and appeal.

^{Brass Monkey Bowling in Dubai, India}

When taking photos of a commercial space, highlight amenities like parking lots, lobbies, landscapes, and any surrounding businesses. Businesses will use your quality images in marketing materials to motivate visitors to book at the hotel, visit the shop, or apply for a position with the company.

5 tips for better real estate photography

When listing a property for sale, the photography stage of the process is key. For realtor to set their listings up for success and build strong relationships with photographers, here are five tips to keep in mind.

1. Choose the right time of day

Natural lighting is the key ingredient for every type of real estate photography. Potential buyers for residential properties want to see how much natural light each room receives, so aim for late morning and early afternoon. Architectural and exterior photographs may focus on the atmosphere, so the timing may be the “golden hour” (1-2 hours before sunset) to translate the experience to visitors. 

Be sure to keep communication open and coordinate with your photographer to get their opinion on the best time of day to capture both the interior and exterior features of the property in the best light.

2. Plan the shot list

The shot list showcases your organizational expertise. Go over your plans for all interior and exterior locations, and give an estimate of how long you expect the process to take. Allow your photographer some creative freedom (within the style) to ensure that the listing has unique photographs that will help the listing stand out from competition. 

For example, real estate photography firm Whiskey & Lavender put together a list of key shots to take for each room in a property.

3. Make sure the property is well staged

While lighting and time of day are important, staging is another key piece to consider. Educate home sellers on the importance of depersonalizing a property through staging. While staging is a more upfront investment, this step will ensure that furniture is well laid out, counters are clean and uncluttered, and listing photos can give potential buyers an opportunity to envision themselves in the space.

Don’t forget to loop in your photographer, as they can also nudge the process along. By involving photographers, stagers, and home sellers in the process, the space will be set up for success in both the photography stage and for showings. 

If possible, let your photographer have a walkthrough of the space right before the photo shoot. This will enable final arrangement edits to account for the lighting conditions of the day itself. This will also help the photographer plan the process for the photoshoot and prioritize features to emphasize.  

If staging a home isn’t possible, you can always lean on virtual staging to add virtual details to a physical space.

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4. Go beyond 2D photos with virtual assets like digital twins

Although 2D photos are a fantastic place to start, realtors and real estate photographers can further differentiate themselves with virtual experiences for listings. That includes 3D photos and virtual tours. According to a 2020 survey, 99% of home sellers believed virtual tours improved their competitive edge for their listing—and 90% of potential buyers were more compelled by virtual assets. 

Beyond equipment, photographers can ensure consistency between their 2D and 3D photography (the scans that create the 3D virtual tour and virtual open house) by shooting both 2D and 3D photos at the same time of day from the same angle.

5. Research real estate photography trends and innovations

Staying aware of trends and innovations in real estate photography is essential for maintaining a competitive edge. Techniques such as drone photography/aerial photography and 3D virtual tours transform how properties are presented and experienced online.

^Source

Embracing these technologies can significantly enhance a listing's appeal, offering immersive and interactive viewing experiences that captivate potential buyers.

Set your photographer up for success with the right photography equipment for every property type

As a listing agent, you are the glue that holds collaborators together. When working with a new photographer, it is useful to work with them to bring the listing vision to life. One way to do this is to have a discussion with your photographer about the style of photography, the output expectations of the photoshoot, as well as the right equipment that they can use to capture all the visual materials you need for the listing. 

Many professional real estate photographers will ensure that their cameras deliver a high-dynamic range (HDR) and offer digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) capabilities—like fast shutter speeds—to capture the perfect picture at the right moment. But, if you are looking to enhance your real estate marketing materials, Matterport cameras are a strong option that can accurately capture every property type and render digital twins that can be used across different listing platforms.

Each property captured with Matterport includes:

• High-quality 2D photographs 

• 3D photograph renderings 

• Digital twins that support photorealistic walkthroughs 

• A dollhouse view of the property 

• The ability to highlight property features using Mattertag annotations

^{AI-driven property insights. Source}

^{Dollhouse views give buyers a complete picture of a property. Source}

Here’s a list of the equipment for real estate photography that helps make that happen with a simple “click” of a camera.

360° cameras for residential real estate photography

Ideal for small and medium spaces, our 360° cameras are portable, lightweight cameras with a range of high-quality pixelation that ensures you can quickly edit for any color temperature balance across your interior photography in post-processing.

Pro2 camera for residential property and crisp interior photos

With the single press of a button, our Pro2 camera single captures spaces with a photo resolution of 134 megapixels and implements white balance when used in full automatic mode to offer clear, naturally lit photos. With a long-lasting battery and fast shutter speed, you can capture multiple properties in a day without worrying about losing any time on a sunny day.

Pro3 camera for architectural and exterior real estate photographs

The Pro3 camera lidar sensor and 12-elemental lens make it possible to capture architecture and exterior photographs regardless of low light or direct sunlight. The Pro3 quickly scans up to 100 meters away at less than 20 seconds per sweep, which results in true-to-life depth and accuracy for your 3D photos and digital twin. 

The business case for professional real estate photography

68% of photographers using Matterport cameras report they’re more competitive in their market. And 63% of buyers are more likely to buy a home with a virtual tour. 

For decades VHT has cultivated a network of experienced real estate photographers and best-in-class photo editors.  Now, with our partnership with MTTR we are able to extend these services to include cutting-edge AI-powered real estate marketing tools to make a true all-in-one solution. Learn more about real estate photography pricing so that you can accurately price your services, and check out our solutions for photographers when you sign up for an account today.