As a professional home stager you really need to invest in a good camera. Buying that important piece of equipment can be a daunting task, though, especially if you don’t know much about photography.
If you’re purchasing a camera primarily for taking before and after photos in your home staging business, stick with digital. Film is great for a lot of things but it doesn’t make sense for before and after photos. You’ll mostly be sharing your home staging portfolio over the Internet and putting photos on your website or blog so it makes more sense to take them digitally.
When you go shopping for your camera, don’t go to a department store. Go to a proper camera store where that’s all they sell and the people you deal with are experts in digital cameras, not washing machines and microwave ovens.
Explain to the sales person that you’re a home stager and you’ll be shooting home interiors so you’ll need a wide angle lens to be able to capture as much of a room as possible. Tell them you won’t be bringing specialty lights with you and you won’t have an assistant standing there holding reflectors. Just say you need something that you, as an amateur photographer and professional home stager, can basically turn on, point and shoot.
I suggest you have a wide-angle lens that screws onto your camera rather than choosing a camera with a built in wide-angle lens.
The camera I use is a Nikon Coolpix P5100. There’s most likely a newer version of it because I bought it a couple years ago. It has lots of settings I never use! I just put it on the setting with an icon of a shaky hand, the one that compensates for you if you are a little unsteady when you take your pictures.
This is only the second camera I’ve bought in 11 years and it only cost a couple hundred dollars so you’re not talking a huge investment but it’s so important to buy a good one.
You’re going to be taking before and after pictures of all the properties you visit for as long as you’re a home stager. You can get a good camera for a few hundred dollars and it’s worth doing because that camera is what creates your portfolio that actually gets other people to hire you!
Don’t cheap out on your camera purchase – it’s a very important tool for stagers that you should look at as an investment. The holidays are pretty close so you might want to print this article and staple it to your wish list. Or buy yourself a camera for Christmas. Why not? You’ll be able to write it off on your income tax!
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Stagers, what kind of camera are you using these days?
Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging
Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. She is frequently profiled in the media for her home staging expertise and is the author of 5 guides for home stagers.
Excellent article…..I’ve started my research on purchasing a new digital camera for my staging photos and I really appreciate the information you have shared with us on this topic. Your suggestion of the screw on wide angle lens versus the built-in was especially helpful.
Season’s greetings to all,
Tracey Phillip
S.O.$. home staging
Montreal, QC
Glad I could help! For anyone wondering, the wide angle lens I use is also Nikon. It was the original one I had from my very first digital camera. To get it to fit this one 11 years later, I just had to buy this little adapter that screws onto the camera lens and then the wide angle lens attaches to that.
So, the thing to note here is that even if you invest in a quality wide angle lens to attach to your camera and years later update your camera, your investment in the separate lens will not be wasted.
Thanks Debra – I’ve always wondered what camera you use!
Debra, thanks for the information, it will help me as I for camera shopping today.
Glad I could help Jennifer! So what did you end up getting, is it working out for you?
I’m about to purchase a Canon EOS 600D SLR digi-cam, not sure what wide angle lens I should buy. A home stager friend has a Canon EOS 550 and a Sigma wide angle lens and happy with those.
It’s a good idea to check photographers blogs for advice. Doing this, I found that many recommend the Tamron 17-50 2.8 for interieur shots.
I agree 100% that good equipment for taking home staging shots is overly important. Otherwise you have to give the job to a professional photographer and he takes the fee, not you.
Gisela, thanks for sharing that info! Happy shooting!
As a professional real estate photographer for the last 10 years, I would recommend the Tokina 11-16mm for your digital slr camera (Canon T series or nikon d series).
Debra posted some great advice as far as camera – if you are not buying a digital SLR, make sure you can get a screw on wide angle lens.
If anyone has any questions I’m happy to answer what I can for you.
Thanks Greg for your advice. Totally agree with the wide angle lens comment, it’s amazing what a difference that makes!
I LOVE this topic! I have made it a passion to take great shots of my installations and work, as it is the ONLY way to prove to new clients what we are capable of. I have invested in good gear right from the start and while expensive, it has paid itself off four-fold over the years. I started with a Canon 550D (or Rebel) and after three years have updated to a Canon 7D with a 10-22m wide angle lens, a 50mm lens and a 35mm lens. I also have a canon speedrite flash to add extra bounce to the shots internally.
I got the Canon 7D recently for a few reasons, mainly the high quality shots but second for it’s video capability. The camera can take full HD video allowing me to do video blogs when I want to or film some of the work we have completed saving me money on professional shoots.
So when you are looking at cameras, keep all that in mind. A base camera may seem like a good investment initially, but you’ll soon be needing to upgrade and spend more later.
Thanks so much for jumping in with your advice Adam, much appreciated!