which Lens for Property photography?

[0to60]

Hi Guys

I am looking to hire a lens for a few days to take some photographs of a new built house, outside and inside interior shots and office interior shots.

Is a fish eye lens the best to use for this? you know like other real estate pictures you see where they manage to fit almost a whole room within a picture, which a normal lens cannot achieve.

(ps: in case it helps...my camera is a Canon EOS 450D)

ETA: http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk is what I am looking at...is a wide-angle lens the same thing?

Edited by 0to60 on Thursday 18th February 17:22

[Simpo Two]

Strictly speaking, this one: www.lensesforhire.co.uk/canon-ts-e-24mm-f35-l-33-p...

If that's not wide enough you can use a wider angle lens and straighten out the perspective/distortion in PS.

A fisheye lens will almost get your feet in, but everything will be curved to buggery so not very helpful.

[Andy M]

Things you may not have considered you may need, but probably will:

- Tripod
- Hotshoe spirit level
- Grey card (if you're shooting in anything but daylight)

Shoot RAW at as low ISO as possible (ISO 100 on Canon), and stop your lens down to f13 - f16ish, remembering to focus the lens 1/3 into the scene for largest depth of field. Remember to try to keep your verticals straight by keeping the face of the lens parallel with the vertical surfaces.

I shoot with a 17-40L on a full frame camera, so with a cropped sensor you may need to go wider. Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM or Sigma/C 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG HSM may be the best bet?

You may also want to look into taking double exposures when shooting in the directions of windows etc.

Hope this helps

[Chicken Pox]

or this on so dont have to leave the sofa to do it
http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/canon-ef-1200mm-f56...

I used Sigma 10-20mm on 350D for our flat as the Estate Agent pics were crap, try and get as much natural light as possible tbh didn't use flash/tripod or RAW but it was a sunny day.

[RobDickinson]

1st forget the fisheye, you want a rectaliniar lens, fisheye is funky but not applicable here.

2nd - the 17TSE is probably realy what you want but your probably going to get confused by it for a bit, not what I'd recomend unless you already know about tiltshift movements & are used to them.

3rd with ANY UWA lens if you want things to look square you have to keep the camera level , any slight deviation and you'll introduce converging verticles etc. You can kinda fix this in PP but will take time.

And the 10-20 and 10-22 will introduce some distortion too - again somewhat fixable, not sure if DPP can correct the 10-22 automaticaly?

So IMO hire a 10-22 , use a tripod, use a grey card for WB , use ISO 100, mirror lockup, remote release or timer. try keep the camera level.

[Elderly]

If you are going to rely afterwards on using PS to correct converging or diverging verticals,
make sure that when you take the shot, you include much more than you want to end up showing
because you will lose some parts of your original image at the crop stage to get the final
'envelope' of your frame back to a rectangle or square.

If you are not going to use PS by dint of keeping the camera vertical, use a small spirit level
held vertically to the front of the filter ring on your lens to set things up (not the front of
a lens hood).

Bear in mind that if you are going to keep the camera 'vertcal', you MAY have to keep the shooting height
at around half the height of the room - if your shooting height is too low you might get in more floor than you want
and if it's high you will see more ceiling.
You might not always have a choice, for instance the office may have partitions that you will need
to shoot over.

If you are going to hire a tilt & shift lens, don't get involved with any 'tilt'
and make sure that you bracket.

[0to60]

Thanks for all your tips guys...much appreciated.

Already got a tripod...just going to buy a remote too as you guys mentioned and gray card. I think I will stay away from tilt shift for the time being until I become more used to this, so will go for 10-22

http://www.lensesforhire.co.uk/canon-ef-s-10-22mm-...

and try out the ISO settings you guys mention.

^ that is the correct lens right?

Edited by 0to60 on Thursday 18th February 23:34

[RobDickinson]

Thats the right lens yeah.

Remote release should be a tenner, you can use self timer instead, not like the building will move.

[0to60]

thanks Rob

haha, yeh will buy one anyway, just so I can get used to doing more shots and get into it more

[Muska]

I don't think that T&S lens would have been wide enough on a crop body anyway.

[RobDickinson]

Muska said:

I don't think that T&S lens would have been wide enough on a crop body anyway.

17mm is wide but you can easily stitch titlted shots.

[Muska]

I agree, 17mm is wide. I hadn't read your earlier post, only the link near the top to the 24mm.

[jon-]

RobDickinson said:

Muska said:

I don't think that T&S lens would have been wide enough on a crop body anyway.

17mm is wide but you can easily stitch titlted shots.

It's not that wide on a 1.6 crop, it's the full frame EQ of 27mm.

[Simpo Two]

Muska said:

I agree, 17mm is wide. I hadn't read your earlier post, only the link near the top to the 24mm.

I agree it might not be wide enough for somn interiors on a cropped sensor, but was the widest I could find there.

As for tripods, well to be a perfectionist yes, but remember that ultra wide angles give you more DOF and also make any camera shake less obvious. Take one by all means but you may find you don't actually need it.

[0to60]

cheers Simpo

[RobDickinson]

jon- said:

RobDickinson said:

Muska said:

I don't think that T&S lens would have been wide enough on a crop body anyway.

17mm is wide but you can easily stitch titlted shots.

It's not that wide on a 1.6 crop, it's the full frame EQ of 27mm.

Yep but its the widest TS canon make and as I said you can always tilt and stich should make it fairly straightforwards.