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PFRE is the original online resource for real estate and interior photographers. Since 2006, it has been a community hub where like-minded professionals from around the world gather to share information with a common goal of improving their work and advancing their business. With thousands of articles, covering hundreds of topics, PFRE offers the most robust collection of educational material in our field. The history of real estate photography has been documented within these pages.

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How to Move Lightroom Catalog to External Hard Drive

Lightroom Classic CC catalog functions as a database to track and manage your photos. You can store your Lightroom Classic catalog on an external hard drive if you have less space on your internal drive, use more than one laptop, or need access to the catalog while traveling.

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For over a decade, photographers from around the world have participated in PFRE’s monthly photography contests, culminating in the year-end crowning of PFRE’s Photographer of the Year. With a new theme each month and commentary offered by some of the finest real estate & interior photographers anywhere, these contests offer a fun, competitive environment with rich learning opportunities.

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PFRE prides itself on the depth and breadth of the information and professional development resources it makes available to our community. Our goal is to help real estate and interior photographers be successful while bringing the community together and elevating the industry as a whole.

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How High Should Your Camera Be When Shooting Real Estate Interiors?

01/03/2021

9 Comments

Are you wondering at what height to set your tripod? When should you shoot lower or higher? Height consistency is essential in real estate photography, so we're going to discuss the appropriate shooting level for different parts of a property, including factors for changing height when shooting across one.

Shooting Real Estate: How to Take Pictures on a Cloudy Day

24/02/2021

13 Comments

The real estate market is open all-year-long, which means the weather can influence your lighting. You can push through as long as you how to take pictures on a cloudy day.

How to Get into Real Estate Photography

17/02/2021

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Becoming a real estate photographer is a unique and rewarding career choice. Ready to take the next steps? We tell you everything you need to know.

Top 53 Real Estate Photography Tips

16/02/2021

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Homeowners and agents want to sell properties at their target prices fast, so they need real estate photographers who can take enticing and high-quality pictures to market listings. That’s why we're going to discuss real estate photography tips involving equipment, settings, lighting, compositions, shot list, post-processing, and work ethics. Real Estate Photography Tips Real estate […]

Stream the Entire 2020 PFRE Virtual Conference Now!

01/01/2021

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By: Brandon Cooper

On November 20th and 21st 2020, 537 attendees from 21 different countries came together to experience the first-ever PFRE Virtual Conference. This two-day online event featured 25 presenters and over 40 hours of content. For a limited time, PFRE is offering 30 days of unlimited access to the PFRE Virtual Conference online streaming library. New […]

Sneak Peek - PFRE Virtual Conference 2020

07/11/2020

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By: Brandon Cooper

We are less than two weeks away from the PFRE Virtual Conference. Check out this sneak peek of the virtual portal and if you haven't registered yet make sure you get your tickets right away. Prices go up on Monday, November 9th. Check out the virtual portal sneak peak:

PFRE Virtual Conference 2020 Announcement: Presenter Line Up Part 2 of 2

14/09/2020

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By: Brandon Cooper

Purchase Full Conference Replay Here Here are the remaining 13 presenters: Adam Taylor Develop Your Licensing Mindset (and sell more photos too!) In this session, Adam will talk about developing what he calls a "licensing mindset". Once you learn (and adopt) this new mindset, you'll begin to notice opportunities to make extra income from your […]

PFRE Virtual Conference 2020 Announcement: Presenter Line Up Part 1 of 2

14/09/2020

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By: Brandon Cooper

We're a few short months away from the PFRE Virtual Conference 2020 and are excited to finally announce this year's roster of presenters! One of the challenges we've faced with last year's in-person event was the difficulty of covering technical, hands-on topics. While we would love nothing more than to see everyone again in Las […]

Reader Poll: Which Topics Should Be Covered at the 2020 PFRE Virtual Conference?

31/07/2020

By: Brandon Cooper

Planning is well underway for the 2020 PFRE Virtual Conference and we've already got a great list of presenters committed to the roster. One of the most exciting things about going virtual this year is our ability to tackle some of the more technical issues that we deal with on a regular basis, i.e. lighting […]

How To Manage Challenging Color Casts

09/07/2020

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“Can you please recommend a way to get at nasty color casts? I don’t know if it’s my camera but I tend to have a lot of my shots turning out with this ugly, dingy-looking green. I’d appreciate any suggestions.” Brandy, from Louisville, KY Thanks Brandy. That’s a tough question because I’m not sure you’ve […]

Don't Take Your Eye Health for Granted.

30/06/2020

By: Tony Colangelo

Author: Tony Colangelo Some time ago, PFRE published a survey asking everyone in our community to offer suggestions on the types of topics they’d most like to see covered in future posts. One of the topics that I was pleasantly surprised to see was a desire to read articles related to improving one’s health as […]

PFRE Conference 2020 Announcement

27/06/2020

By: Brandon Cooper

Purchase Full Conference Replay Here As many of you know, last year we hosted the first-ever PFRE Conference at Southpoint Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was a risky and ambitious venture, but when everything was said and done, we believe that the event was a great success. There was plenty of excitement in Las […]

Watch the Video from a Stellar Fundraiser Event (and You Can Still Contribute!)

08/04/2020

3 Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

As you may be aware, a number of well-respected photographers in our field came together on April 7th to hold a fundraiser event aimed at supporting those social service organizations that work directly with the most vulnerable groups within our population every single day during the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized by our community’s good friend, Rich […]

What Are the Things You Should or Shouldn't Skimp on When Starting Out?

17/01/2020

9 Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

<frida, in="" las="" cruces,="" nm="" writes:="" <blockquote="">“I’ve learned so much from this site. Thank you. It’s allowed me to jump into something that I didn’t know about until a real estate agent friend of mine asked me to do a photoshoot for her last month. I loved it and I want to do more of […]

2019 PFRE Conference Speakers Panel; Covered by Shooting Spaces

18/12/2019

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By: Brandon Cooper

On November 20th and 21st, 2019, we hosted the first annual PFRE Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. We had two jam-packed days of lectures from industry leading speakers, a huge party, and an awesome speaker's panel to close out the event. Brian and Rich from Shooting Spaces were on hand to capture all the action […]

PFRE Conference 2019 Summary

26/11/2019

By: Brandon Cooper

I could not have been prouder or more happy with how the first annual PFRE Conference turned out. From beginning to end, it had the feel of an event that had been going on for years. The feedback that we've received on all aspects of the conference--from our selection of Las Vegas, to the cream […]

What’s Your Preferred Camera Height for the Exterior "Hero" Shot?

14/08/2019

14 Comments

By: Tony Colangelo

Robin, from New Bedford, MA writes: “When I go through the Flickr group, I see some people shooting exteriors from a low camera height and others who seem to put their camera much higher--like on a pole or something like that. Do you have a suggestion about what is the best camera height for exterior […]

6 Tips for the New Real Estate Photographer.

06/08/2019

7 Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

Bill from Texas writes: "I'm relatively new to real estate photography and I'm finding that the learning curve is very steep. I've been able to find plenty of information from numerous sources online, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice from what gear to use, to what technique is best, to how […]

3D/Floor Plans/Measurements

08/06/2019

24 Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

John in Vancouver writes: I'm getting lot of requests for measurements, floor plans, and 3D walk-throughs. I know there have been quite a few new technologies released lately; I'd love to know what most people are using these days and why? I've actually been getting more requests for floor plans and measurements lately as well. […]

Announcement: The Art and Science of Great Composition Video Tutorial by Tony Colangelo

05/06/2019

14 Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

?? I am so excited to officially announce a brand new video tutorial from Tony Colangelo, a long-time contributor to PFRE and one of the most respected people in our community. Over the years, many people have benefited from Tony's advice on the PFRE Flickr group and especially, from his in-depth comments made as a […]

Is It Time to Start Incorporating Smartphone Cameras into Our Work?

29/05/2019

By: Tony Colangelo

Over the past two or three weeks, I’ve been thinking about smartphone cameras, as my two-year term on my current cellphone will be expiring soon. The more that I started exploring smartphones online, the more those pervasive machine learning algorithms took hold and started bombarding me with smartphone-related advertisements. The one that got my attention […]

Conquering the Glare of Stainless Steel Surfaces

22/04/2019

3 Comments

By: Tony Colangelo

Lane, from Topeka, KS writes: It doesn’t seem to matter how hard I try to get it right, my kitchen shots get killed by bright reflections and glare coming off of stainless steel appliances. This gets really bad with the fridge, which ends up looking like a circus mirror! What can I do? There’s no […]

The Importance of Composition in Real Estate Photography

15/03/2019

8 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

This is a tutorial that Scott and Malia did a couple of years ago. I've done posts on it before, but photo composition is a super important subject in real estate photography and this tutorial is worth watching again if you've already seen it. The most important question you need to ask yourself with each photo is […]

Selective Perspective Correction - with Garey Gomez

24/12/2018

11 Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

As real estate photographers, shooting interiors often presents challenges with getting the camera positioned far enough away from the subject to get the desired field of view for what we want to capture. Interior spaces are obviously defined by their walls and since walls don’t move, we have to resort to shooting with wide-angle lenses. […]

Run and Gun Real Estate Photography Workflow Tutorial by Gary Kasl

28/10/2018

By: Brandon Cooper

Southern California real estate/interiors photographer Gary Kasl, has created a video tutorial outlining his approach to shooting real estate quickly and efficiently without sacrificing quality. Here's what Gary has to say about the material:

Scott Hargis, Mike Kelley, & Wayne Capili Photography Workshops

09/08/2018

12 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Scott, Mike, and Wayne (as Allan says below, "the holy trinity" of interior photography) have created a new workshop series. These are not "real estate photography" workshops. They won't be talking about how to shoot wide, work fast, or be low priced. These workshops will be geared towards making the best possible photo, period - […]

You Can Shoot Real Estate with Only a 24mm Lens!

07/06/2018

29 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Dave in Gig Harbor, WA (just south of Seattle) says: Here's a 750 sq ft home I shot with a 24mm. If this doesn't prove that all those zoom-wide lens aren't needed I give up. I literally never go any wider than 24mm these days (often 50mm). The 24mm TS-e hasn't been off my camera […]

How to Transfer Your Shoot Images Back to Your Home Office for Post-Processing

11/05/2018

9 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Adam in Atlanta asks: Have you ever discussed the transferring of image files from the field (at a shoot) back to a computer at the office so someone can post-process the images?

Why Is One-Point Perspective so Popular in Swedish Real Estate Photography?

08/05/2018

7 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Fredrik in Sweden asks: This past year, I have seen quite a lot of real estate pictures being shot "straight on," with nothing but straight (or rather, as straight as they could get them aligned) lines. Is this some sort of new phase? Or why are they repeatedly doing this in the majority of the […]

What Is the Best Way to Increase the Quality of Your Work?

01/05/2018

11 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Diane in New Jersey asks: How up to date is your recommended real estate photography gear page? I currently have a Nikon D3300 and am looking to move up and stay in the Nikon family would you recommend the Nikon D3400, Nikon D5600, or perhaps the newest Nikon D7500? I think you should consider what […]

Resources for Learning Real Estate Photography

04/04/2018

5 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

In the past week, there have been three almost identical questions like the following from Nancy: Can you recommend any courses one can take to learn beginning real estate digital photography? Are there colleges that offer such courses? If so, would you recommend going that route? In general, I don't recommend learning real estate photography […]

Three Part Real Estate Photography Book Series by Nathan Cool

10/03/2018

No Comments

By: Brandon Cooper

Overview: From gear to editing, composition, lighting, settings, techniques and more, real estate photographer Nathan Cool provides a comprehensive guide for shooting high-quality interior real estate photography from start to finish. Learn how to not just take, but also "make" great real estate interior photos with an efficient workflow and cost-effective tools to speed up […]

Why Don't the Architectural Digest and Dwell Websites Give Photo Credit to Photographers?

08/02/2018

17 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Craig in Virginia asked: I've noticed that seemingly legitimate websites like AD and Dwell are featuring MANY homes using photo citations such as "Photos Courtesy of Coldwell Banker" or "Courtesy from listing on Trulia." One in particular from today (1/30/18) is this one. These are full feature articles written by staff writers of prestigious magazines. […]

Can a Crop Ratio Replace a Tilt-Shift Lens?

20/01/2018

24 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

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How Do Interior Photographers Get Rid of Unwanted Lens Flare?

05/01/2018

16 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

?Ron in Texas says: I use a Canon 17-40 mm on a 5D MkIII and for the most part, it performs well. However, even when shooting north facing windows or otherwise shade-side windows in certain circumstances, l experience lens flare. The inconsistency of it is what drives me crazy. Is there a magic camera-to-window angle […]

I Don't Need No Stinken Gray Card!

14/12/2017

15 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Recently, Brad in WI asked the following: Does anyone use several grey cards in a room to get accurate color balance? There are plenty of tutorials on how to use a single grey card but they frequently have it placed near a window or tungsten light. Frequently, it's near the edge of the frame which […]

A Short History of Real Estate Photography

20/09/2017

12 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Jody who has been in real estate for a long time says: I know you've done a lot of articles on the new/correct ways to photograph real estate but I haven't seen any articles about how the process is really changing. Just 15 years ago, you weren't even able to see a house for sale […]

Three Wall or Two Wall Composition?

04/09/2017

15 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

In the process of working on a chapter of my e-book covering interior composition I came across a couple of shots of a little condo we sold last year that nicely illustrates the pros and cons of a three wall shot compared to a two wall shot. The upper shot on the right, is effectively […]

How Can You Determine if Your Interior Images Are Properly Exposed while on Site?

07/08/2017

13 Comments

By: Larry Lohrman

Ryan in California asks: I was wondering how you would suggest I shoot a whole house without editing until I get home. Currently I have to retake shots after editing on site after making sure they are exposed correctly. Should I shoot bracketed shots from the dark to light? Like 9 shots total for each […]

Making Slideshows of All the Listings You Shoot

27/07/2017

By: Larry Lohrman

Patrick in Texas says: I am feeling like I'm not taking advantage of all the listings I am shooting. I want an automated way of building a gallery and putting it up on my website so I can refer to it, build meta data, and link to it as needed. Is there a discussion on […]

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