Here are some shooting tips tailored for residential real estate, commercial real estate, and Airbnb photography to help capture high-quality, appealing images:

General Photography Tips for many Real Estate • Use a Wide-Angle Lens (16-24mm on full-frame cameras)–This helps capture more of the space and makes rooms look larger. • Shoot in RAW for better post-processing flexibility. • Use a Tripod for stability and sharp images, especially in low-light areas. • Turn on All Lights to create a warm and inviting look. • Shoot at Eye Level (about 4-5 feet for interiors) for a natural perspective. • Keep Lines Straight (avoid distortion by keeping the camera level). • Stage the Space–Declutter and add simple decor to enhance the appeal. • Use HDR or Bracketing (multiple exposures combined) to balance bright windows and darker interiors.

1. Residential Real Estate Photography Tips

Aim: Showcase a home’s warmth, space, and selling points. • Prioritize Natural Light–Shoot during the day with blinds open for even light. Highlight the fireplaces, built-ins, and architectural details. • Capture Every Room–Even small spaces (bathrooms, hallways) matter. • Exterior Shots Matter–Shoot the front and backyard during the golden hour (early morning or late afternoon). • Use a Drone (if possible)–Aerial shots provide context to the property’s location. • Avoid Extreme Editing–Keep colors natural and realistic.

2. Commercial Real Estate Photography Tips

Aim: Showcase business properties in a professional, clean, and inviting manner. • Shoot When the Space is Clean and Well-Lit–Especially for offices, retail, and industrial properties. • Capture Scale and Layout–Use wide shots to show usable space. • Highlight Functional Areas–Focus on workspaces, meeting rooms, storefronts, and customer areas. • Include Context–Show surrounding areas to emphasize accessibility (parking, nearby businesses). • Night Shots for Retail & Restaurants–Capture lit signage and ambiance for a welcoming feel. • Use Professional Lighting–Especially for high-end commercial listings.

3. Airbnb & Short-Term Rental Photography Tips

Aim: Make the space look inviting, stylish, and comfortable to attract guests. • Focus on Lifestyle Appeal–Show cozy setups (beds, dining areas, patios). • Emphasize Unique Features–Does it have a pool, fireplace, balcony, or a magnificent view? Highlight them! • Add Small Details–Neatly arranged towels, coffee setups, or plants create an inviting touch. • Show Amenities–Wi-Fi, kitchen appliances, workspaces, and entertainment areas matter. • Capture Different Angles–Give a full sense of the space with multiple shots per room. • Exterior & Neighborhood Shots–Show nearby attractions, parks, or cafes to help sell the experience. • Use a Virtual Tour (if possible)–It helps potential guests visualize their stay better.

Real estate photography and Airbnb photography share similarities but serve different purposes and require distinct approaches.

Real Estate Photography: • Purpose: Aims to sell a property quickly by showcasing its best features in a professional, polished way. • Style: Bright, wide-angle shots that emphasize space, layout, and architectural details. • Editing: Often includes HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing, color correction, and sometimes virtual staging. • Staging: May involve decluttering, professional staging, and depersonalization to appeal to a broad audience. • Perspective: Typically shot at eye level or slightly higher, using wide lenses to make spaces look larger.

Airbnb Photography: • Purpose: Aims to attract bookings by making a property look inviting, cozy, and unique for short-term stays. • Style: More lifestyle-oriented, focusing on ambiance, comfort, and guest experience rather than just space. • Editing: Natural and warm, with an emphasis on realistic, inviting colors rather than just brightness. • Staging: Often includes small details like coffee cups, books, fresh linens, or candles to create a lived-in feel. • Perspective: Mix of wide-angle and close-up shots to highlight unique decor, amenities, and special touches.

Key Takeaway: • Real estate photography is about selling a property by making it look as large and impressive as possible. • Airbnb photography is about marketing a space by making it look comfortable, stylish, and appealing to travelers.

The primary difference between residential and commercial real estate photography

The primary difference between residential and commercial real estate photography lies in the type of properties being photographed, the intended audience, and the approach to capturing images.

1. Purpose & Audience • Residential Real Estate Photography: Aimed at attracting potential homebuyers or renters. The focus is on creating inviting, emotional connections through well-lit, warm, and natural-looking photos. • Commercial Real Estate Photography: Used for marketing business properties, such as office buildings, retail spaces, hotels, or industrial facilities. The images appeal to investors, business owners, and corporate clients.

2. Style & Composition • Residential: Focuses on showcasing a home’s coziness, functionality, and lifestyle appeal. Photographers frequently employed wide-angle shots, natural light, and staging. • Commercial: Highlights the scale, architectural features, and functionality of a property. It often includes aerial shots, detailed exterior and interior images, and branding elements.

3. Equipment & Techniques • Residential: Typically involves DSLR or mirrorless cameras, wide-angle lenses, HDR photography, and sometimes drone shots for exteriors. • Commercial: Requires more advanced techniques like tilt-shift lenses (to correct perspective), high-resolution cameras, drone photography, and sometimes video walkthroughs.

4. Pricing & Licensing • Residential: Priced per listing, with limited usage rights (usually for MLS and online listings). Extended use of the images for marketing, branding, and promotional materials increases prices for extended licensing.

5. Deliverables & Scope • Residential: Includes still images, virtual tours, and floor plans, with a turnaround time of 24-48 hours. • Commercial: May involve extensive post-processing, custom branding, and detailed shots of interiors, exteriors, amenities, and even business operations.

Would you like insights on getting into either field?

What is a lens Nodal Point?

A lens’s nodal point refers to one of two key points within an optical system that helps define how light rays pass through the lens without deviation in direction. In simpler terms, they are points where incoming light rays appear to pivot or pass through unchanged in angular direction.

Understanding the Nodal Points:

1. Two Nodal Points–In a complex lens system (such as a camera lens), there are typically two nodal points: the front nodal point and the rear nodal point.
2. Light Behavior–When a light ray enters the front nodal point at a certain angle, it appears to exit the rear nodal point at the same angle, as if the space between them was empty.
3. The optical center of the lens is often mistaken for the nodal points. However, in multi-element lenses, the nodal points may be located outside the physical body of the lens because of the arrangement of optical elements.

Importance in Photography & Panoramic Imaging • Panoramic Photography: When stitching multiple images together, rotating the camera around the rear nodal point (sometimes referred to as the no-parallax point) helps prevent parallax errors, where foreground and background objects shift relative to each other. • Architectural Photography: Keeping the nodal point fixed ensures minimal distortion, especially when dealing with wide-angle or tilt-shift lenses. • 3D Imaging & Mapping: Nodal points help in precise image alignment and depth mapping.

How to find your lens nodal point in photography

To find your lens’s nodal point for panoramic photography, you can use a tripod, two vertical objects, and live view on your camera. The nodal point is the point around which you should rotate the camera to avoid parallax and stitching problems. 

**Steps **

Set up your tripod and camera so that it’s level  Position two vertical objects, like poles, on the ground so that they overlap when viewed through the camera  Turn on live view and position the camera so that the poles are in the center of the frame  Rotate the camera while looking for lens distortion  Move the camera back and forth until the poles continue to overlap when you rotate the camera 

Tips If you’re using a zoom lens, you’ll need to find the nodal point for each focal length you want to use  You can use a nodal slider to help you find the nodal point  A simple method ... An easier way to find the NPP is to just put something thin like a Pole or wire near the lens and align it with a more distant object. Rotated the camera about the NPP, the alignment of the two objects occurs both when they are at the image center and at each side.

If the camera rotates and aligned objects in the image center appear to separate, this shows that the rotation is not about the NPP.  This method may be simpler than the first method described, but is more fiddly and less accurate.

We positioned a 10 mm dowel 7 m in front of the camera to determine the NPP of a Nikon 18-70 mm zoom lens set at 18 mm; this aligned it with the apex of a house roof 200 m away.  Rotating the camera around the tripod mounting point (behind the NPP), I showed the dowel’s apparent movement relative to the roof apex if the camera is not rotated about the NPP. A similarly distant point in front of the NPP illustrated this movement.

The camera’s rotation about the NPP maintains the dowel’s alignment with the house roof apex at both the left and right image edges.  Note that this is at the NPP for that angle of incidence if the lens does not have a single point for the NPP, as in some examples following.

The tripod mounting point behind the NPP was the point about which the camera rotated.  This is the normal case for a camera mounted on a tripod using the ¼” thread on the camera’s base plate.  The dowel appears to the left of the apex of the roof at the left-hand edge of the image and to the right of the apex of the roof at the right-hand edge of the image.

To show the effect of camera rotation in front of the NPP, they mounted the camera on a bar so the rotation point was roughly as far in front of the NPP as the ¼” thread on the camera’s base plate is behind it. The dowel appears to the right of the apex of the roof at the left-hand edge of the image and to the left of the apex of the roof at the right-hand edge of the image.