Interior Photography of Rental Apartment (Part 1)

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With the rapid development of apartment complexes today, investing in an apartment for resale or rental has become increasingly popular. However, while investing in good interior design is important, selling or renting out a property easily is another challenge.

After selling a plot of land in District 2, Mr. Trung and his wife decided to invest in a high-end apartment for rent. They furnished it with full amenities—a 100-square-meter unit on the 10th floor of a building with a “view” of the Saigon River. They took photos themselves and posted advertisements on various online platforms, including their personal Facebook pages.

However, things didn’t go as planned. For months, they received very few inquiries. Most of the calls they did receive were merely to negotiate lower rental prices. Eventually, they realized that the interior photos they had uploaded were not visually appealing—appearing cluttered and even “shabby” compared to reality. A friend then introduced them to a professional photographer specializing in architectural and interior photography. Though the cost was quite high, they decided to have the entire apartment re-photographed—from the living room with its river view to the bedrooms, kitchen, dining area, and even small corners like the laundry space. When they received the edited images, they were amazed. Although they had expected better results, they hadn’t imagined the photos would look so stunning. The lighting, composition, sharpness, and overall clarity of the images gave the apartment an almost dreamlike quality. Even small rooms, such as the bedrooms, appeared more spacious in the images. Thanks to the wider field of view, each photo captured multiple elements in the room, providing a comprehensive perspective.

Once they used these professional-looking images for advertisements and shared them with friends, the results came quickly. Within just seven days, after a few potential tenants came for viewings, they successfully signed a rental contract.

Ms. Thuy’s story was slightly different. She invested in three apartments, hiring an architect to create 3D designs and decorate the interiors meticulously, intending to sell them for a profit. However, due to fluctuating apartment prices, she decided to switch to renting them out—targeting foreign tenants. Confident in her investment in interior décor, she didn’t pay much attention to the photos she took with her smartphone for online advertisements. While the pictures looked decent, something felt off. (Explanation: Professionals can immediately spot flaws in photos, whereas non-experts might feel something is wrong but can’t pinpoint exactly why.)

Given the highly competitive rental market, Ms. Thuy struggled to find tenants. She considered hiring a professional studio for interior photography. However, while this might be reasonable for one apartment, she had three to rent out. Although the cost was not prohibitively high compared to the rental prices, she hesitated—wondering whether the investment would yield the desired results.

Fortunately, she remembered a close friend whose son was a final-year architecture student passionate about photography. His father had bought him high-quality camera equipment. With just a small “coffee money” expense, she managed to get a set of stunning, professional-looking photos for advertising and archiving. The quality was about 70% of what a professional photographer could achieve, but for the time being, it was good enough. As a result, it didn’t take long before she secured a rental contract for the first apartment with a foreign tenant. Soon after, inquiries started coming in for the other two units.

These are just two examples, but not everyone has such luck or resources. In reality, many apartment or house owners who have tried finding tenants online share a common frustration: their listing photos look terrible. No matter how well they decorate their properties, the images often fail to capture their true appeal—appearing plain or even rundown. Most of our clients are well aware of this issue before approaching us. However, in today’s tough market, the cost of professional photography—on top of advertising expenses—is a serious consideration.

Keeping costs low while maintaining high quality not only gives clients peace of mind but also helps retain them for future business.

Many statistics from reputable international websites have shown that rental apartments photographed professionally have a more than 50% higher chance of being rented out, with significantly reduced listing time. This also means a considerable decrease in revenue loss.

HOW DO WE PROVIDE CUSTOMERS WITH A LOW-COST BUT PROFESSIONAL SERVICE?

1. Photography Equipment:

Whether photographing a small bedroom or the grand lobby of a luxury building, using a high-end camera body is essential. Additionally, ultra-wide zoom lenses (Super Wide) of high quality with adjustable focal lengths, such as the Canon 16-35mm F2.8 L USM III or the Nikon 14-24mm F/2.8 G ED Nano, play a crucial role. The camera body must be high-end, with a large full-frame sensor, and the higher the resolution, the better.

For wide-angle shots of landscapes, urban architecture, and both large and small interiors, we frequently use the best duo available today: the Canon 5DsR camera body and the premium super-wide Canon 11-24mm F4 L USM lens. This combination offers the highest resolution camera body with the world's widest field-of-view lens.

Using an ultra-wide (and also ultra-powerful) lens allows us to capture more space in a single frame. However, interior photography also requires some narrow-angle shots to highlight key subjects. Occasionally, blurring the background (bokeh) is necessary to make the subject stand out more and enhance the artistic value of the photo. In such cases, we use the Canon 50mm F1.2 L USM, a high-end fixed lens that has reached legendary status among Canon lenses.

Other necessary equipment includes tripods to stabilize the camera, display screens, and sometimes flash lighting. Additionally, since we use ultra-high-resolution cameras like the 5DSR (50.6 megapixels), powerful graphic computers are indispensable for post-processing each image. Only high-performance computers with strong graphics cards can efficiently handle large image files.

2. Essential Factors in Interior Architecture Photography:

a. Perspective and Straight Lines:

Unlike landscape, portrait, or other types of photography, architecture is fundamentally composed of straight lines. A high-quality interior photograph must convey the architectural space through straight, well-aligned lines that create a three-dimensional perspective. Low-quality wide-angle lenses or compact cameras with fixed wide-angle lenses often distort lines, curving them unnaturally. Even though post-processing software can correct this, it still cannot completely eliminate the unnatural look.

To ensure straight lines when shooting ultra-wide angles, advanced and complex lens technology is required. For instance, the Canon 11-24mm F4 L USM lens consists of 16 different glass elements with an extremely intricate autofocus system.

b. Consistent Image Quality and Clarity:

A premium ultra-wide lens ensures that sharpness is evenly distributed across the entire frame, preventing the common issue where the center of the image is sharp, but the edges become blurry. Similarly, high-end cameras with large sensors and high resolution can capture stunning images even in low-light environments, such as interiors illuminated by decorative lighting. This produces images that are vibrant and much more attractive than those taken with standard cameras.

3. The Photographer:

Who will be your photographer?

A significant advantage in interior and architectural photography is having photographers who have studied architecture. Architecture students constantly engage in spatial design and learn both theoretical and practical aspects of lighting and perspective selection. Architectural students are exposed to photography early in their academic journey while researching projects. As a result, they require minimal training in this field.

For this reason, our budget-friendly interior photography service is assigned to final-year architecture students and young architects. Combining photography with architectural design work allows young professionals to gain experience and explore the synergy between architecture and photography. This is an integral part of our training program.

4. Light and Shadow – Interior and Exterior:

Using a tripod is essential to control exposure time when taking photographs. Depending on the shooting time and space, natural light may or may not be incorporated into the shot.

At night, when there is no natural light, all lighting and decorative lights inside must be turned on. However, capturing the nighttime cityscape through windows or glass balconies is also essential. This requires using multiple exposures (3 to 5 shots) to ensure both interior and exterior views are perfectly balanced.

During the day, apart from using curtains and turning on most lights, natural light should be allowed to enhance the interior ambiance. Additional lighting may also be required to balance brightness and contrast according to the photographer’s vision.

Daytime photography also has ideal "golden hours" when artistic values can be maximized.

5. Post-Processing:

Unlike traditional film photography, digital photography is inseparable from post-processing software, which enhances image quality while saving time. For regular photos, a simple workstation and software application suffice.

However, with ultra-high-resolution cameras like the 5DSR, which produces images as large as 8,688x5,792 pixels, processing is a different challenge. Standard computers struggle with handling such large files efficiently. That’s why we use high-end graphics workstations designed for video production to ensure quick processing times while optimizing labor efficiency.

6. Creating Videos from Still Images:

As specialists in architectural video production, we can easily and professionally transform interior photographs into engaging video presentations. When converting still images to video, the advantage of high-resolution photography becomes apparent. Zooming into high-quality still images in video format creates a lasting impression.

However, video production requires an additional budget. Therefore, only customers who truly need this service usually request it.

7. Why Are Our Services Affordable Yet High-Quality?

Our photography services span a variety of fields, including landscapes, tourism, events, artistic portraits, advertising products, and architecture. Within the architecture segment, we cover a diverse range of projects thanks to our professional expertise in the field. We handle interior photography for hotels, restaurants, cafés, and real estate projects, which are typically high-cost and time-consuming due to their complexity.

For rental or for-sale apartments, however, we offer budget-friendly services for several reasons:

We leverage our existing high-end equipment.
Final-year architecture students and young architects execute the work, gaining experience and fostering their passion for photography.
High market demand, as apartment rental businesses continue to grow.
Many investors and property owners manage multiple apartments at once.
Rental apartments are generally smaller in scale than commercial properties (except for penthouses and duplex units).
Many landlords renovate or redecorate between tenants, requiring updated photos.
Affordable, professional photography encourages real estate investors to allocate more budget for advertising.

8. Why Should You Choose Us?

The seven factors above ensure that our professional interior photography service meets the highest standards for apartments and all types of real estate projects.

Conclusion:

If you own an apartment, townhouse, or villa in Ho Chi Minh City and need professional images for advertising, contact us via Zalo at 0906868016 for a customized quote.