Journal · Commercial
What does commercial property photography need to show?
Commercial images serve three different audiences at once: tenants deciding whether to view, investors assessing an asset, and press. Each wants something different.
Commercial
Three audiences, one shoot
A prospective tenant is deciding whether the building is worth a viewing. They want the arrival, the reception, the floorplate, the light, and the amenities, shown honestly.
An investor is assessing an asset. They want the building in its context, the quality of the specification, and evidence that it is well kept.
Press and awards want one or two images with a point of view: the facade doing something interesting, the atrium, the detail that makes the scheme worth writing about.
Commercial
The floorplate problem
Empty commercial floorplates are among the hardest interiors to photograph well. They are large, grey, repetitive, and lit by fluorescents that fight with the daylight from the windows.
The usual answers are to shoot toward a window with a view rather than into the depth of the plate, to use the ceiling grid and columns as structure in the frame, and to balance the interior lighting against the exterior so the windows are not just white shapes. It is a technical problem more than a creative one, and it is where inexperience shows.
Commercial
Reception and arrival are worth the time
The reception is the single most photographed space in any commercial building, because it appears in the brochure, on the website, in the agent's particulars, and in press. It is worth a disproportionate share of the shoot.
The same applies to the facade from the approach: the view a visitor gets walking up to the building, which is what people actually recognise it by.
Common questions
Frequently asked
What does commercial property photography include?
Typically the exterior in context, the arrival and reception, the floorplates, the amenity spaces, and key detail. The same set usually has to serve tenants, investors, and press, which is why the brief matters.
How do you photograph an empty office floorplate?
Usually by shooting toward a window rather than into the depth of the plate, using the ceiling grid and columns to give the frame structure, and balancing the artificial lighting against the daylight so the windows hold their view rather than burning out.
What images do commercial agents need most?
Reception and arrival images, a clean exterior, and floorplates that read as usable space. The reception shot is generally the most reused image in a commercial set.
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