Why a reasonable price for photographers is justified

I’m a real estate photographer in Berlin and I’m writing this post for everyone who wants to know what a real estate photographer or architectural photographer actually does. More specifically, in this post I would like to explain why a reasonable price for real estate photos is absolutely justified. When a photographer sends an offer to a customer, they often say: “he only takes photos – I can do that myself with my cell phone”. … I hope that I can bring a little light into the darkness with this article.
It should be noted: I write about my personal view and my situation as a real estate photographer in Berlin. However, I am sure that I speak from the soul of many professional photographers here.

What do I actually do as a real estate photographer?

The opinion of most people is the following: The real estate photographer (or architectural photographer) appears at the object on the agreed date. There, in the first room, he unpacks the camera, sets it up on a tripod, pulls the trigger, and that’s it. Off to the next room. There, the whole procedure is repeated until the property is “in the box” in the shortest possible time.
After that, the photographer goes home and uploads the images to his computer, and then sends them to the client in no time.
If this workflow were true to reality, my job as a photographer would be a breeze.

Reality:

First, let me state the following facts.
It’s the photos of an apartment ad or a web store; it’s the imagery of a commercial that piques the interest of potential customers. The willingness to buy increases through corresponding images. In my previous life as a packaging engineer and packaging designer, I know: our subconscious mind decides in less than a second whether a product will eventually end up in our shopping cart or not.
And that’s exactly how it is with real estate photos. Except that real estate photos are not a supermarket item for a few euros. Here, we are talking about 6- or 7-digit amounts, as is generally known. Keeping these values in mind, the photographer has a very high responsibility! The photographer is the entity that takes the exact photos that appeal to customers or buyers.

What are the activities of a real estate photographer?

First, the photographer must find the right perspective and angle for each photo. For me personally, photography is not working off or “painting by numbers”. I want to tell a story with my pictures and that the viewers of my pictures understand the property emotionally and rationally. My ambition is that the viewers do not experience an illusion, but an actual representation of reality through my pictures. The right perspective and the right angle of view are war decisive for a successful photo.
In connection with the perspective is the so-called “staging”. Here, too, I bear full responsibility as the photographer: Should the flower vase on the table be further to the left or to the right? Or should she be in the picture at all? Do I leave 4 or 6 chairs at the dining table, and should the yellow pillow stay on the sofa or does that interfere with the impression I would like to give, and and and. Many decisions have to be made in a very short time. Decisions of a technical AND design nature.
After the right perspective has been found and all the props have been placed in the right place, the picture must of course be taken. Here, the illusion most people have is that the photographer snaps a photo, and the image is ready. In rare cases, that may be true.
Some also think that the photographer is doing an automated HDR. This is also wrong – at least in my case.
The reality of most pictures looks like this: The photographer takes several photos of the same perspective while the camera is firmly fixed on the tripod. The images differ by different brightnesses or by using flashes in certain places. Some of my shots consist of 5-10 individual photos. These individual photos are then painstakingly stitched together manually on the computer to create the final photo.
While the shot is being taken and flashes are being used, for example, I need to know exactly what the final image will look like. The incidence and direction of light must be logical and coherent. At the same time, the image should look natural and not like an artificial flash parade. So the same applies here: I have to make a lot of decisions in a very short time. I have to blindly master the technology of my equipment. I have to shoot everything according to my vision in order to be able to create a high-quality image in post-processing. The horror would be to realize, when post-processing the images at home, that you forgot a crucial frame.

Post-processing:

Once you have everything photographed, you go home to edit the pictures. What most people don’t know: Post-processing the photos takes a lot of time. Likewise, few people know that technical as well as creative and artistic skills are extremely important here. Multiple software applications must be mastered. At the same time, the photographer’s creative marketing eye and artistic eye are war deciding factors at this stage. The different exposures you had according to your own vision at the shoot now become tangible results. Since pictures speak louder than words, I’ll show you an example. Here I took several individual shots and used my flash to set many accents according to my vision of the final image:

From these photos I then created the following image:

I think this gives you a little insight into how I work and the quality of my images compared to automated HDR shots.

HERE
you can see more interior shots from my portfolio

Equipment

What I haven’t mentioned yet is the photo equipment.
I could rave about my equipment for hours! I love every lens, every camera, every flash, my Macbook; even my backpack. However, when I look at it unemotionally, this is all just my work tool. Work tool that costs money. A lot of money! And here we are again on the subject: with every job, the equipment gets worn out. Sometimes even things get broken. All of these are additional factors that you should have in mind when hiring a professional photographer and possibly stumbling upon their prices.
In terms of equipment, in my case, I don’t just need a camera, a lens and a tripod. I control my camera with an iPad. This way I don’t have to press the button on the camera and thus avoid camera shake. However, for me this means that I also have an iPad and a “camranger” (=modem that connects the iPad to the camera) in my luggage. It all costs money.

As a real estate photographer in Berlin, I travel to all assignments by public transportation. Why? I do not have a car. I also don’t want to have a car as long as I live in Berlin. When you have such a good public transport network in the city, you don’t have to put an extra burden on the environment. So with my jobs, there’s always an additional “workout” as well – and my jobs are almost carbon-neutral.
Almost climate neutral? Yes – because before each job, of course, all the batteries still have to be charged. With rising electricity prices, this is also a cost factor in the long run, which is not insignificant.

Even if this post may sound different: I love my job as a real estate photographer in Berlin and all its facets. I am not writing this to complain, but to explain to you what is actually behind the term “real estate photographer”.
Or much more, what real estate photographers are all about, the talents they bring to the table, and the importance of their work. Keeping in mind the fee rate of an agent selling a property, there should be enough money left over at the end of the day to pay a photographer fairly and appropriately for good photos. The same applies, of course, to real estate companies or property management companies.

Real estate photographer in Berlin but…

I am a real estate photographer in Berlin – but I can also be booked throughout Germany or worldwide.
I also have a business as a wedding & portrait photographer – for more info please click here:
www.trumpp-exposures.de

I am so happy and still in disbelief: I am one of the winners of the 7th 35Awards photography contest. I participated in the category „urban landscape“ with 4 of my black and white fine art photos. I would have never thought that I would be honoured in any way in such a huge competition of photographers. Overall there were more than 124.000 photographers in the competition.
Especially with my more or less „exotic“ black and white fine art photography.

My Results in the competition

I was surprised when I opened my certificate file as it shows 7 of my achievements in this contest.
1: One of my photos will be displayed in the catalogue of the contest
2: I made it under the top 100 photographers of the overall competition (overall more than 124.000 from 174 countries participated in this contest)
3: I made the 2nd place in the category „urban landscape“
4: I am under the Top 35 photographers from Germany
5: I am in the top 10 of Berlin
6: My photos made it into the top 35 urban landscape nomination
7: All of the photos I submitted reached the 3rd and final stage of the voting process

Here is the official certificate I received from the 35Awards-Jury with some more information.

The stories behind the images

I would like to tell you something about the photos that I submitted and some stories behind them:
The „oldest“ one of the series I submitted is the photo of the „Tempodrom“ in Berlin. I remember it very well when I took this photo. I was in a terrible mood. I was scared. I was afraid about the future. I was worried basically about everything in my life.
It was the beginning of the Covid Pandemic. I knew that there would be no job for me as a photographer in the near future. I had no idea how things would work out; if things would work out. I felt like it was a mistake to leave my 9 to 5 job years ago as all of a sudden I was falling into a deep hole with no bottom. When I left my 9 to 5 job, I promised myself to dedicate the rest of my life to photography – no matter what. I remembered that promise and took the following decision: Use every second (and acceptable weather conditions) before the first Lockdown. Walk through Berlin and take as many long exposure photos as possible. Use the time during the Lockdown at home to process these photos to black and white fine art photos. Learn as much as possible about post processing, photoshop, masking etc. during the Lockdown when going outside is restricted / not allowd. And that’s what I did. My goal was to use the terrible pandemic to become a better black and white fine art photographer.
To make a long story short: This is one of my first more or less professional black and white fine art photos. This photo was taken during really dark days in a mindset of uncertainty. This makes this photo extremely special to me on a personal level. The fact that this photo got the recognition in the 35Awards contest means the world to me.

The next photo ist the „Spielbank“ in Berlin. I took this photo between Lockdowns. It resided on my laptop in a folder called „walking with no plan through Berlin“ for a while. Somehow it intrigud me every once in a while when I saw it. And one day I sat down, remembered the situation when I took the shot and translated that mood into my black and white fine art processing. As you can see, this photo has the same stylistic elements as the Tempodrom-photo. They belong together in my head as they fall under the umbrella „Covid Pandemic“. I remember that I was listening to music and almost reached a mindset of trance and meditation while processing this image. Suddenly it was done and I couldn’t really remember very much of the post processing work (and no – there were no drugs / illegal substances involved)! Here is the final result:

The 3rd photo I sumitted was taken in the Olympic Village in Barcelona. To be precise: It is the „Torre Telefónica“ by the mastermind architect Santiago Calatrava. I was on vacation when taking this photo and I planned this photo ahead of time. I had the exact shooting angle and the visualisation of my black and white fine art processing in my head already before I took this photo. I love the shape of the tower. I love the background elements and the stairs in the foreground. What I admire and love the most however is when ordinary things are executed in a tasteful extraordinary way. This tower is – in my opinion – an architect’s way to tell a city „I love you“. Communication towers are usually not as beautiful (they could have put up some rusty antennas). But this tower – embedded in this surrounding is an hommage to a city, a spirit and an idea. It took me a long time to process this image due to the fine structures and masks / selections. As well, when I have a vision for a photo even before taking a photo, the black and white post processing takes longer.

And last but not least – the youngest photo of the series I submitted for the contest. I took it in the beginning of the year in Doha.
I was hired as Immobilienfotografen-berlin to take interior and exterior photos of 3 properties for DAMAC. When planning my trip and the shooting for DAMAC I added one extra day that I could use to take photos for my black and white fine art photography portfolio. Luckily my architecture shooting went according to my plan and I really had one day for my fine art photography. One of the photos I took during that day has the title „desert balance“. I stood on desert sand when I took it and I used the desert sand as a foreground element of the photo. The main element of the photo are the so called „Lusail Twin Towers“. They seem to defy gravity; inviting the viewer to dance with them. In the background behind the Twin towers you see the bright tip of the „Katara Towers“. This contrast between desert and high tech was extremely intriguing to me.
I consider „desert balance“ as the happy end of this series.

In case you want to see the site and more details of the 35 Awards – click HERE

If you’d like to see more of my personal fine art work – click HERE

Thanks for reading all the way to the end – I hope it was interesting for you to get some background info. Feel free to send me a message with some feedback or let me know if you want me to write about a specific topic in my next blogpost.

Thanks a lot & stay tuned,
Tobi

We were once again on Madeira! For the fourth time in the last 2 years. And you know what? We are already planning to visit this paradise island again in not so long time.
However, this fourth time was different for us:
On the one hand, we had our new horse in the stable – namely our drone (DJI Mavic Pro) and could finally let off steam in terms of aerial photography. The drone laws on Madeira are fortunately not as strict as those in Germany :-)…….. And on the other hand, we actually had photo shoots or photo assignments during our stay (2 as real estate photographers-Berlin and one as trumpp-exposures Wedding photography Berlin (HERE you can go to the blog entry of our Wedding Photography Berlin – Shooting on Madeira)):
Our more or less “second living room” at Leeno’s restaurant in Funchal needed interior photos for the upcoming relaunch of their homepage. Likewise, the owner of the restaurant wanted a short feature film that was a mix of photos and drone – video sequences.
Shortly after our arrival in Madeira, we met with the owner of the restaurant to find out which aspects and facets of Leeno’s corporate identity should be emphasized by the images and shots:
– Down-to-earth
– Organic shapes
– Coziness
– familiar atmosphere & size – NO mass processing
– Location of the restaurant & proximity to the sea (via drone footage).

You can see the result of the video HERE.

Here are a few photos of the shoot at the restaurant. You can see more pictures in our Immobilienfotografen-Berlin – Gallery.

Thank you for reading and watching this article. Coming soon is the blog post about the second shoot we did as Immobilienfotografen-Berlin in Madeira (this blog will be about a hotel and – just like this post – will include photos and drone videos).