Photographing luxury homes no matter if it’s in Germany, Italy, or even France is the same.
The look, clients, and location might be different, but the goal remains the same it is all about the lifestyle.
When assigned to capture a multi-million dollar property, our goal is to capture the lifestyle and overall experience.
We no longer look at the “real estate” side of things, we focus on the experience and lifestyle of the client.
So the first “secret” lies in the understanding of what makes people “tick”. 4 walls and windows you can find in 99% of homes today, it is all about selling the lifestyle (location, views, design, materials, and finishes”
Client Type Matters
The client type matters, Each one has its own agenda and focus point when it comes to capturing the property.
We approach each one differently in terms of focus.
The client focus is on the overall experience for both their documentation and for future or current property sales, this should cover all the main spaces.
The architect may want to focus on the architectural elements while the designer would like to keep the focus on the interior.
The developer would like to see the surrounding areas while the luxury agent might be looking to focus on privacy and as many photos as possible.
At the end of the day all of your clients want to see the same, they want to see how the architecture ties to the interior design, environment, and soundings.
Making sure to tie all of those aspects into a single well-thought image is crucial.
Scouting Luxury Homes Prior to Photoshoot
No matter how many luxury homes we photographed around the world, it all starts with understanding of the client’s needs and space layout.
Starting from the entrance and going through the entire home to understand the work, craftsmanship, detail, uniqueness, and scope of work.
During the scouting process, we would understand better the space, this will help us determine the angels and shoots we are going to produce.
Luxury Home Exterior Images
A good place to start is always at the exterior in the daytime, between the front and the back capturing the architecture even if the client is an interior designer, it’s very important for the “big picture” to capture the exterior.
If the client is an architect or a developer we might spend more time outside and focus on the architecture and the environment (landscape, views, development).
Incorporating the surroundings and views is also important for the designers as a kitchen can be anywhere, having visuals of the architecture as well create “start to finish” projects in photos allows your clients to understand the scope of the projects you are working on.
Main spaces
Covering the basics is always important, Starting with the living room, moving to the kitchen, and then the master bed and master bathroom is a must for any high-end home.
While photographing a high-end home you need to prioritize based on the number of working days.
What is considered a keyspace and what can be captured at a later time?
Each home has a living room, kitchen, master bed, and bathroom, those are the minimum images you need to showcase a project.
But when we are talking about luxury we have so much more space we need to take in mind including appliances, design elements, artwork, and more.
Make sure you focus on one great shoot per space, Create the feeling. ” I want to wake up in this room every day ” or ” I want to entertain in this space” Creating emotion with photos is crucial for elevating your photos from beautiful images to images that sell.
Lifestyle
As we already know, lifestyle is the key, and here is where the amenities and the location come to play.
First, we incorporate the views from the living room or master bedroom, it’s a part of the luxury lifestyle experience, as they always say in real estate “ location, location, location “.
Second, is the actual amenities tied to the lifestyle experience, from the pool, bar, gym, and maybe even spa and golf features.
Entertainment
One thing that ties all high-end homes is the entertainment features.
Capturing the home theatre, bars, living room, entertaining room, outdoor space, and terraces are important to express the lifestyle.
Luxury Amenities are the ones that elevate your client’s experience.
Twilight / Dusk Images for Luxury Homes
While one of the things we are most known for is our twilight exterior shoot, not every space screams exterior lavishness.
For custom homes, we definitely finish the day with an amazing twilight shoot from the front or the backside of the home.
Post-Production / Editing
Every successful photoshoot must be refined and polished in the studio.
After capturing multiple images of ambient and artificial lighting for each and every one of the spaces we must bring them to the post-production and editing studio.
We start by building multiple layers of images to eventually look striking and most importantly genuine.
Cleaning out distractions, fine-tuning the colors, and improving other elements.
