Panoramic Property Shots

One of my newest ventures has been shooting residential properties for various agencies around New York City. I started shooting real estate photography back in 2007 and recently jumped back into the photo market.

One of the things I love about shooting properties is that it tests your artistic creativity, in addition to challenging you technical knowledge of photo capture. Anyone can pick up a camera and take a picture of a building, but it takes a professional to understand how to shoot a properly capture the essence of the chosen property.


Building are unique to architects like children are to parents. You may see a row of buildings that look the same, but they are the brainchild of the architect. Whether I’m photographing a glamour model, a bottle of perfume or a mini-mansion, my job as a commissioned photographer is to make the final image pristine, beautiful – and most importantly – sellable and usable.

I was commissioned to shoot a property in Queens Village that will be listed on the market for around $1.4Million. Naturally, my first job was to make sure I had a plan of action about how I chose to tackle the property. As I usually do, I tackled all 4 levels of the house (including about 6 bedrooms), making sure I shot my specialty angles.

With a property that has matured to a 7 figure value, I had to deliver a WOW factor to the client. I chose to shoot a panoramic shot of the front of the property, post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CS5. As just a side note, I used to work for an ad tracking company in Long Island City, where my primary job was to piece photos together to create one overall photo, in a process known as Photo Stitching. Needless to say, since 2005, technology has advanced to make Photo Stitching more efficient and less time-consuming.

When I saw the results of CS5’s Photo Stitching process, I was blown away by the results of the final product, as was the client, who chose to have it printed and mounted – which is always a humbling flattery to my artistic vision. I’m always proud at the fact that I was able to produce a photo that will continue to bring the clients joy, even after they sell the place they’ve called home since the late 1970’s.

Here’s a breakdown of the post-process stitching:

Here are the original seven shots the panoramic consists of:


Original Shot #1

Original Shot #2

Original Shot #3

Original Shot #4

Original Shot #6

Original Shot #7

Now, is how CS5 took bits and piece of each shot to create one panoramic:


Layer #1

Layer #2

Layer #3

Layer #4

Layer #5

Layer #6

Layer #7

And here is the final panoramic shot:

Click on the picture to view the final image or click here.
All photos © Brandon Sapp. All Rights Reserved.