Real Estate photography V's Photography for Styling - 101

I am hoping you find this post as interesting as I do.........Whilst I was learning all about the world of styling I would have killed to have read a post like this!!!! See, not that long ago, I was confused about  Real Estate Photography V's Photography for print media - i.e. magazines etc. So I decided to investigate the styling world and find out what the big differences were.  Why did magazine photography appeal to me so much more than real estate photography???? Why after spending hours styling a property for Sale did it not photograph anything like I wanted it to. Well, here's what I have learnt so far, I hope it explains the subtle differences and why both forms of photography are important.

The photos below are from the amazing home of Super Blogger Lucy Feagins from The Design Files - I love her blog, I especially love reading her post every Wednesday, where she features an Australian home - This week it was her very own!!!!! But not only was that a great find, I was already drawn to her house, as I noticed it featured in The Age Domain on the weekend - so with that in mind, I decided to show you her space through eyes of two very different lenses!!! The First picture is the feral Estate photo, the second is the photo taken by an interiors photographer after the space has been styled! take a look and see if you can tell the difference........

the biggest learning for me has been that Real Estate photography is all about getting wide angled shots and getting as much as possible into the picture, whilst styling photography is all about the detail, colour and making a space feel lived in(even though it has probably been propped to the eyeballs!!).  Neither of them are how we actually live on a daily basis, but both serve their purpose. Most of us aspire to have a home that looks like the covers of a magazine, but the reality is very different, and so, even when you look at a home that you think looks lived in, most of the time a Stylist would have spent hours working on it, moving things the slightest millimetre and adding a lots of things to make the image look just perfect - its a real skill!!! - In my job, I am constantly trying to make Real Estate photography look more appealing, whilst also serving its main purpose, which is to showcase the space of the room/home.

Its my wish to achieve something in the middle, a little bit of both worlds.

photography - from here and here