Real Estate Photography

[Scalatron]

Is anyone using this camera for real estate photography? Just wondered what their thoughts are on it for this purpose.

 

[mrgooch]

Just need a wide angle lens.

[kim]

Shot my own house for sale with it, did really well. Get the right lens.

[nspur]

Just need a wide angle lens.

Not too wide, though. I find 24 mm equivalent is quite wide enough.

[deva]

get the 10-24 lens and you are set

[nielsgaastra]

I use the Samyang 12mm F2 for this purpose. A nice wide angle, with a much friendlier price than the 10-24...

[milandro]

Both lenses will work well. I had the  Fuji 10-24 and replaced it with the 12mm Samyang because I used the 10 at arounnd 12 for interiors, which is just as good as the Fuji lens. You really don’t need an autofocus lens for interior photography. Set the aperture just past f8 and hyperfocal distance and you are good to go.

 

 

 

Tilting the LCD upward ( effectively transforms the camera into a waist level viewfinder) will greatly help to compose and shoot when your camera is set too low to comfortably look through the OVF. Customers will appreciate peeking on it too and you don’t risk altering your composition by bumping the camera.

 

The only slight drawback with the X-T1 is the need for an electric shutter release but you can do very well with the remote app for phones too or the self-timer.

[Aswald]

For really good results, use a wide angle tilt and shift with an adapter.

 

Samyang has a T-S 24 F3.5. or if you have an old Canon FD T/S lying around. You'd be good.

[milandro]

There are many ways to skin a cat.

 

But, I really don’t think that most estate photography needs the extra complication of any tilt shift ( adapters or lens) unless you are talking architectural reproduction of tall buildings and even then the perspective might be correct but your viewpoint will always be the low one where you are shooting a

 

Unless the estate in question is the size of Buckingham Palace, most good wideangles, used knowingly, will do just fine.

 

Besides, tilt shift for full frame just simply don’t cut the mustard because they aren’t nearly wide enough and cost a fortune.

 

Another point is that, unlike on film photography, when you use a tilt shift lens on a digital camera you enhance proecisely what the sensors deal badly with, rays not coming as straight as possible onto the sensor, which deals with this in a completely different way.

 

 

 

On focal length, I disagree on the 24mm equivalent and personally prefer larger lenses, indeed I used 17 or 15 mm in my 35mm film days ( 58mm with 4” x 5”  on my Cambowide) and now I am more than happy with 12mm Samyang, but again horses for courses.

[milandro]

a 24mm samyang will be a normal focal lens on a aps-c hardly of any use for interiors

[Aswald]

There are many ways to skin a cat.

 

But, I really don’t think that most estate photography needs the extra complication of any tilt shift ( adapters or lens) unless you are talking architectural reproduction of tall buildings and even then the perspective might be correct but your viewpoint will always be the low one where you are shooting a

 

Unless the estate in question is the size of Buckingham Palace, most good wideangles, used knowingly, will do just fine.

 

Besides, tilt shift for full frame just simply don’t cut the mustard because they aren’t nearly wide enough and cost a fortune.

 

Another point is that, unlike on film photography, when you use a tilt shift lens on a digital camera you enhance proecisely what the sensors deal badly with, rays not coming as straight as possible onto the sensor, which deals with this in a completely different way.

 

 

 

On focal length, I disagree on the 24mm equivalent and personally prefer larger lenses, indeed I used 17 or 15 mm in my 35mm film days ( 58mm with 4” x 5”  on my Cambowide) and now I am more than happy with 12mm Samyang, but again horses for courses.

17mm is my favorite for t&s.

 

I didn't want to push it as I wasn't sure how serious OP is into real estate photography.

 

If it's for a RE sales brochure, sure any wide angle will do.

 

If it's for photography, I highly recommend a T&S.

 

However, good point on the 24mm on crop body. Missed that point as I'm still shooting FF for interiors.

[milandro]

The 12mm will give him a lens with pretty much the same angle as an 18mm of a FF, it is cheap and one of the best quality lens on the market.

 

I really don’t see the point of tilt and shift on a Fujifilm camera.

[Aswald]

The Kipon T&S adapter is quite fun to use.

 

Some examples with the Samyang 24 T&S. Stitched results look good. And the architectural one. I'll wait for OP to let us know what he intends it for.

 

http://www.fujix-forum.com/threads/tilt-shift-lenses-for-the-x-pro-1.44289/

[milandro]

With which lens (focal length?) it “ fun" to use and more importantly, why would you use it (aside from “fun”) if not making your life difficult without a reason.

 

If you have a sufficiently wide lens you don’t need to tilt the lens up (or dow) and just lift or lower vertically your tripod with the camera straight ( so no need for shift) and the 12 mm at f8 has plenty of depth of field and image quality to not ever want to use any tilt unless you are strapped for ISO ( and since the incredible results of the Fuji sensor at ISO1200 and higher you would have to shoot at night real estae photography to need to use the tilt movements)

 

I have used extensively camera of all formats with movements of the front and of the back ( when available) but the smaller the camera the more fiddly it gets.

 

Besides, what it the minimum focal length that you can use with any of these adapters on a Fuji camera? Can you use wideagles on one of these adapters? I mean lenses which on an aps-c will still be a wideagle?

 

I don’t think so.

[Adam Woodhouse]

If this helps ....

 

I have shot many places with my XT1.  For agents, builders and property owners.  Just a small sample here -> http://adamwoodhousephotography.ca/portfolio/real-estate/     1/2 of my work there was done with Fuji as I've been on the Fuji system for 18 months now.

 

I always use the 10-24mm/F4.  I also have a small light stand with a Yougnou flash (usually put it in a corner behind me and blast it towards a rear or side wall) and their transmitter mounted on the XT1 (I have the Nikon version of this Tx/Rx combo).

 

I almost always shoot @ F4 and around ISO 800 or 1600 (just depends).  I have all lights on in the room.  Almost always on Manual exposure due to the windows throwing off exposure.  Also shoot at hip height (so I go down on one knee to shoot).  I have found that when shooting wide, F4 gets most objects in the frame in focus, so it is adequate.  If shooting for a high end architectural magazine/publication ... it would be a bit different where I would use tripod and be around F11 in an effort to ensure everything is in focus (a greater depth of field).

 

I have found the auto white balance on my XT1 to be much greater than any Nikon crop sensor or full frame body I previously owned ... so I go with auto WB.  On my Nikons I had to do custom white balance.  

 

I do my post work in Lightroom and for this type of work I do a good boost to the shadows (approx +50).  I find that helps in the shadow areas of rooms wthout it looking overdone or amateur HDR.  I also shoot in raw to have greater editing control and put the colour  profile in Lightroom to Fuji's Velvia as I like the extra saturation.  I've had great feedback from my clients over the years.

[Adam Woodhouse]

Oh ... some places have laws against how wide a lens (how low a focal range) the listing agent is allowed to use in their advertising.  I believe full frame 24mm is OK pretty much everywhere.  But going wider than full frame 24mm ... you should research it first to make sure you or the listing agent won't get into trouble.  Where I'm located going wider than full frame 24mm isn't an issue, but that may be changing in time as that was a conversation I had with one my agents quite recently.  I personally try to stay around full frame 20mm ... but sometimes the rooms are so small, going all the way to full frame 15mm (which we do on the 10-24) does such a great job.

[jerryy]

oops, hit the enter button tooooo soon.

Edited June 7, 2016 by jerryy

[jerryy]

it is possible to try the idea of T-S lens without buying or renting one, by using the builtin digital shifting that the Raw Developer Fujifilm gives you.

 

Attached is a quick sample of using it for horizontal and vertical shifting. After making the shifts along with the usual development choices, you can export your image as a TIFF to your favorite image processing program to mangle or fine tune any remaining perspective distortion.

 

if that idea works well for you then you have enough information on how it works to decide if you want to buy the lens.

 

Note: i used the Raw Developer from Fujifilm for OS-X, but I believe it is the same for the Windows version.

 

 

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Edited June 7, 2016 by jerryy

[Aswald]

Oh ... some places have laws against how wide a lens (how low a focal range) the listing agent is allowed to use in their advertising.  I believe full frame 24mm is OK pretty much everywhere.  But going wider than full frame 24mm ... you should research it first to make sure you or the listing agent won't get into trouble.  Where I'm located going wider than full frame 24mm isn't an issue, but that may be changing in time as that was a conversation I had with one my agents quite recently.  I personally try to stay around full frame 20mm ... but sometimes the rooms are so small, going all the way to full frame 15mm (which we do on the 10-24) does such a great job.

 

Good pointer.

 

Nice photos.

[milandro]

you can easily correct perspective the way you’ve showed with many programs  however in that case you will have straight lines, represented by the lamppost but you will introduce different distortion on the shape of the lamp on top because you cannot change the point where you’ve shot the picture.

 

If you had shot the same picture with a camera leveled front-back and side to side but higher up than it was, the lamp on the post wouldn’t have been stretched the way it does and its rendition would be more natural.

 

This is more evident with buildings ( where, yes, you can straighten the building lines but you cannot change the fact that the camera is at ground level) than it normally is in a “ room"

 

In ordinary real estate photography and in interiors, a large tripod allows you to find an height which allows a wideagle lens to take perhaps more than you need and then crop the perfect shape.

 

Tilt and shift movements were very useful when you had to make the best use of the ASA/ISO shutter speed aperture combination and the possibility to achieve good optical results while conserving maximum depth of field, but all of this has changed radically now that we can shoot at ISO 1600 with results almost as god as 50 ISO.

 

Besides, on a aps-c camera lenses with a a shorter focal length depth of field is never as concern even at f8

 

Anyway, as I said, there are many ways to skin a cat.

Edited June 7, 2016 by milandro

[Adam Woodhouse]

Not sure Jerry.  I've always done my perspective correction in Lightroom because it works well and is quick and easy.

[jerryy]

I guess it is my fault for not putting enough emphasis on the idea of that being a quick example (with only horizontal and vertical shifting) to help the op decide if they wanted to buy / rent / use a T-S lens or use a different approach ....

 

but the controls are highly adjustable and also include angle adjustments. Here is a slightly less quick version of the tool results with less distortions .

 

 

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[milandro]

still both the top and the bottom of the lamppost are stretched unnaturally, not only when you correct falling line perfectly in a building ( but also in the lampost compared to all the vertical structures) although they are perfectly parallel they appear to be diverging to the eye.

 

Again, there are many ways to skin a cat. 

[jerryy]

Perhaps, but until Manifrotto and other manufacturers release easy to carry step ladders that get your camera above the 6 foot (about 1.83 meters) limit that tripods impose, tools like T-S lenses or less expensive software tools are good approaches to working around perspective distortion, but they all take some learning tome to get the best results.

[milandro]

Well there you go, people are different their expectations and experience vary. I am not going to make this a contest.