Photography in Las Vegas
As commercial and advertising photographers, we definitely enjoy shooting architectural photography here in Las Vegas. Because we love capturing architectural photography, we want to share with you how many different styles there are of architectural photography. We have a lot of clients who call us to shoot architecture, but a lot of times don’t realize how vast that request is. This is because one style of photographing architecture is not the same as another.
If a real estate agent calls to have a low income apartment complex photographed. The budget and expectations of the final architectural photographs would be very different than a high end resort looking to get architectural photography captured. Likewise, the capture process and editing of the images would be vastly different as well as the amount of time spent on the assignment. This is why when a client calls and asks how much to shoot their architecture project, we always have to follow up with a few more questions. So in order to provide our clients with a little more information on why the price of architectural photography in Las Vegas may vary. Below I will go over a few of the different types of architectural photography we have had the chance to capture for our Las Vegas clients.
Photography for Documentation
This is about as basic as you get when it comes to architectural photography. This is a very bare bones point and shoot no additional lighting added technique. The most external lighting you would probably use would be an on camera flash. This would also require minimal post production, maybe just minor adjustments of color and exposure in Lightroom or a basic batch editing software.
Reasons you would need this type of architectural photography would be for documentation purposes. Whoa! Bet you didn’t see that coming. The architectural photos would be taken for a sense of proving something, for example you could be documenting the property for insurance purposes, a lawsuit, an application, anything that you might need photographic proof for. These photos are not trying to sell you anything, there is no marketing value to them. They are as the name states, architectural photography for documentation purposes. Because the shooting requirements and editing are simple and don’t require extra time these services come with the lowest price tag.
Photography for Real Estate
This type of architectural photography is shot with available light typically. You would most likely shoot all the images of the property in one time frame window. Meaning you would shoot the exteriors at sunrise and the interiors midday when the lighting was better. You would sacrifice some of the quality of the images by shooting everything in the same time window. This is what helps reduce the cost compared to our next subject, architectural photography for advertising.
This type of photography would require more time than documentation because you would be making sure to shoot on a tripod. An architectural photographer for real estate would still need to make sure there was little to no distortion. The images should still be color balanced, and evenly lit. Perhaps with the help of HDR techniques they would make sure to bring up the shadows and darken the highlights. The images would reach the greatest quality they could, but with minimal effort in post to still keep the budget down.
Photography for Advertising
By far the most time consuming of all the techniques we are talking about today. Due to working on mother nature’s clock. For exteriors you need to choose the time of day to capture your architectural photography. This will be based on when the sun or lack of sun hits the building. For your interiors you are most definitely using external lighting to fill in and highlight the architecture itself. By bringing in the addition of external lighting, you also need an additional skill set. You will need to know how to properly light the architecture. This skill set and the additional time it takes to place the lights is what increases the cost.
A true professional architectural photographer shooting for advertising purposes, is more times than not someone who has trained and possesses a higher skill set than what is needed for architectural photography for documentation and real estate purposes. Because of this their time comes at a higher cost.
I could give your toddler five dollars to paint me a picture. The results would most likely not be something I would frame and hang on my wall. Likewise, I know I could not buy a piece of art that an artist who trained for years made. Using time and a skill set I do not possess for the low price of five dollars. Don’t get me wrong. You could potentially have the Picasso of pipsqueaks, a rare prodigy of art at the age of 5. Same way you might get lucky hiring Uncle Bob or a real estate photographer to shoot your advertising architectural photography. But how many times do you want to waste your five dollars before you get what you actually want?
Find Your Fit
In closing we wrote this blog to help you find the right fit for your needs. If you are trying to sell your own home you don’t need magazine quality images. Nor do you need the price they come at. If you are the Bellagio in Las Vegas, you need to have the highest quality of architectural photography. Since you will be advertising to a higher end client. At Square Shooting we have spent years training and educating in our field. We fit best in architectural photography for commercial and advertising purposes. Should you find yourself in the market for an architectural photographer in Las Vegas. Please reach out for your commercial or advertising purposes, we have your back.
More resources on the different types of Architectural Photography: