I recently sat down with an architect to poke his brain about what he looks for in architectural photography. It was quite the eye-opening conversation to hear what the things that the person who designs a home or building is looking for. The number one takeaway I got from the discussion was the importance of how the light flows, which is balanced by shadows. For most real estate photography, us photographers shoot very wide to show as much of each room as possible. The problem with that in the architect’s point of view is that that is not how we see a room with our eyes.

The other difference is that with most real estate photography, you want everything in focus. You’re showing off the room, so you want to make sure that the room is fully in view. With a more architectural shot, you might focus on a point of interest and let the rest of the room fall out of focus using a more shallow depth of field. This light and airy look is popular in portraiture, but it can be effective when used with the  color, direction, and quality of the ambient light in the room to create a mood.

These concepts alone wouldn’t work for most real estate agents as there is a very valid reason that most real estate photography has a specific look. But, if you combine the different styles to tell a more complete story, you can often convey a feeling of a room beyond just the clinical representation of it. That might be the eye-catching photo that makes a potential buyer save that listing!