Solid advice. Just wish agents were more secure about the lights off look. Even as a well established vet in the field that gets 4x as much for the lights off look on commercial gigs, agents still insist we must prove that they have working $4 lightbulbs...

There's a bit more room to back up and use the 24mm TSE and use the Canon 1.4x extender to convert the 24mm to 32mm.

https://datacore.app/behold/

Plug in a crew and it will show the chron/cred/faction investment needed to level to 100.

Sounds like everyone was an amateur, including the agent, which primarily should be responsible for hiring a pro to produce the most important marketing piece in selling the home. Having a friend of the seller's spouse do the photos because they sell photos as a side hustle is a recipe for disaster. Any experienced agent should know this. Sorry you got roped into it. Tell the seller the agent sucks too 😉

Ideally you should be using smart lights that change color temp throughout the day from daylight (5600K) to warm (2700K) light at night.

I personally use RGB at night with several different colors as the gradation of color bleed mixed with the kaleidoscope of shadows produces free acid trips 🫠

That's some grudge to hold for an agent slowing you down 15 minutes at a shoot. I usually end up being super friendly to them and they return the favor by working around me - potential new client. Mistakes happen, it's when it becomes a pattern when it's an issue. I knew a photographer that would get up in a tiff for all kinds of stupid shit related to self-importance. Those agents roll their eyes and find someone else that has chill. Understand life is full of curve balls and we, as vendors, aren't the center of the universe. Little inconveniences can eat away at our happiness like cancer. Shrug it off and appreciate what we have.

I've blacklisted several people for chronic issues, egotistical reasons, and ironically those that have 'no chill.'

My point being vertical video resolutions are often much lower than horizontal limits, so it's better to shoot horizontal to minimize quality loss. You will have to find a way to show 9x16 guides when recording. Not an issue with real video rigs. The best of both worlds is to charge for both vertical and horizontal and record as such.

You are better off cropping horizontal video as most vertical video platforms are super low-res. This also means you'll generally have to compose with too much negative space on the sides. There is no good solution.

I exclusively shoot with TS and have been for over 10 years. The 17mm is a heavily hitter for non-luxury RE. If it doesn't fit on the 17TSE then you aint gettin' wider from me.

I can DM you a shoot but wish to keep my reddit account anonymous.

If you're running into scheduling conflicts - definitely up your pricing all around. I did about 400 shoots last year. Forgot to mention I take a month off, 1-2 long weekends a month, and it's generally slower on the off season. So it's more like $750-$2200/shoot on the RE side and $1200-$4000 on commercial stuff.

Gross. Half of it is from commercial clients. I'd be making closer to $225k if it was just RE.

Running your own business is not the easiest road to carve out, but once the path is laid you are mostly set. Haven't done an ounce of marketing in RE in over 10 years. Referrals do all the heavy lifting. I spend all my marketing energy on commercial gigs these days, so the hustle can be endless if you dare.

You might want to wipe down your lenses before photoshoots. I think you left a watermark in your bag somewhere.

You are expected to be burnt out by photo mills. The pay is shite compared to doing it yourself and hiring overseas editors to do the dirty work. I don't know how you're working so much while only getting paid part time, but full-time at $47k USD isn't great either.

I do about 3 homes a day, 5 days a week (roughly 35 hour weeks with travel and communications), outsource editing, and still rake in over $400k USD. Branch out at the earliest sign of bravery.

No vendor should ever agree to a payout based on the sale of the home. Payment before delivery in RE solves 99% payment issues.

The only times I allow clients to download photos prior to payment are for commercial shoots. The funds are in no way tied to an individual's bank account and non-payment isn't an issue.

And those two are cannibalized by soaring prices. People are shopping cheaper elsewhere.

General strategy:

Nice weather - speed traps everywhere.

Rain - they don't want to get wet. I never see them out.

Near Sun down - they don't want to stare at the sun with the radar gun, so you're safe traveling east.

Bundle priced at $15/mo with ads.

Saved you a click.

I know you're not trying to step on toes, but as a photographer:

Photo credits go to Bruce Damonte

Oh, that makes a bit more sense. As long as you're available 5 days a week that's solid. Time of day usually isn't too important in this field :-)

I get what you want. I'm talking about what they want. Nobody wants to work with someone that just wants 2-4 gigs a month. It would be hard to schedule with you. They would rather build a relationship with someone they can depend on.

Imagine a restaurant that is only open from 4:30pm-6pm every other Tuesday. Do you think anyone would want to go there? Availability is huge and those operating hours are a deal breaker for most.

Real estate photography is prime for AI replacement as there are a lot of cheap agents out there that have no loyalty to anything other than the dollar amount. It might not affect the top 10%, as they at least have to maintain an illusion they aren't cheap.

Gaussian Splatting is rapidly getting more sophisticated to a point where I could see in a few years agents walking through homes with their phones recording video and AI will create a highly detailed 3D model of the home. The agent pays $100 bucks and some overseas editor will position a camera in the 3D model and render out a bunch of photos. Another competing company will offer to do the video capture service for the agents and pay some guy minimum wage as they need to know nothing other than making sure they point the camera at all the corners of a room. Even then, the AI will get better at filling in the gaps over time.

There will be additional layers of AI editing that can communicate to clients like a customer service agent. (bot) So they could ask it to simply remove a piece of furniture or change the color of something without needing to know anything about editing.

The bottom of this industry will for the most part be wiped out, as will be the case in most industries. Remember that when comparing your pricing to your competitors. Grow relationships with clients that aren't looking for the cheapest option...

Freelancing for 15 years. Love it. You still have to suck up every once in a while, but if the client is toxic you get to dump them and move on. Like taking long weekends 1-2 times a month and setting my own hours. Luckily, the spouse has the health plan - so best of both worlds!