Real estate photography,
explained.
Guides on pricing, 360 virtual tours, video, and what gets a listing seen. Written from the shoots we run across New York City and Baltimore.
How to Photograph a Short Term Rental
Prep, light, gear, the shot list, photo order, and the mistakes that cost bookings. A working guide to photographing a short term rental yourself.
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NYC Pre Construction Survey Requirements
The Building Code 3309.4.3 excavation thresholds, TPPN 10/88 landmark rules, who orders the survey, and what the record must contain, in plain terms.
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3D Virtual Tour vs 360 Tour for Real Estate
A 3D virtual tour builds a dollhouse model of a property. A 360 tour links panoramas room to room. How they differ, what each costs, and which listings need which.
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Zillow 3D Tour: How It Works, When to Go Pro
A Zillow 3D tour is a free, self-captured virtual tour shot with the Zillow 3D Home app. How to make one, what changed in 2025, and when a pro tour wins.
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Airbnb Photographer Cost: Is It Worth It?
What an Airbnb photographer costs, what drives the price, and whether professional Airbnb photography is worth it for bookings. Real numbers from NYC and Baltimore.
Read → Is Real Estate Photography Worth It?
Is professional real estate photography worth it? Yes, for almost any listing. Here's the ROI, what you get over DIY photos, and when it pays off most.
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Real Estate Photography Cost Explained
What real estate photography costs in New York and Baltimore, with real pricing by square footage, what moves the number, and which add-ons are worth it.
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What Is a 360 Virtual Tour? A Plain Guide
A 360 virtual tour is an interactive walkthrough of a property you steer yourself. Here's how 360 virtual tours work, what they cost, and when to use one.
Read →The guides, organized by what you're deciding.
Every guide in this journal comes from the same place: shoots we run for agents, hosts, and sellers across New York City and Baltimore, and the questions they ask us while we work. No filler, real prices, and the honest version of every comparison. Pick the decision you're actually facing.
Pricing a shoot
Most readers land here first. Our guide to real estate photography cost walks through what listing photography runs and what moves the number, with our full rate table instead of a quote form. Airbnb hosts get their own math in what an Airbnb photographer costs, priced per unit priced by the month, never per listing. Both connect to the published rates on our real estate photography services page, so you can check the guide against the real numbers.
Choosing a tour format
Three guides cover the whole decision. Start with what a 360 virtual tour is if the format is new to you. Then 3D virtual tour vs 360 tour puts the dollhouse-model formats and panoramic tours side by side, cost structure included. Listing on Zillow? The Zillow 3D tour guide explains the free app, the late-2025 Matterport change, and when to bring in a pro. The service itself lives on our 360 virtual tours page, from $300 with hosting included.
Making the case
If you're deciding whether professional media is worth the spend at all, is real estate photography worth it gives you the honest math: what a shoot costs against what a price cut costs. It pairs with our real estate photography process page, which shows exactly what happens between booking and delivery, and with real estate videography for listings that market on social.
How these guides get written
Two photographers, no content team. OpenDoors360 was founded in Brooklyn in 2020, and everything in this journal comes from the work: more than 100 short-term rental units shot directly for Airbnb, Google Street View tours that have passed a million combined views, and HDR on every shoot because standard photography can't hold a New York window. When a guide quotes a price, it's our published rate, not an industry average. When it compares formats, we shoot both and say which one we'd pick for your listing.
Where we shoot
New York City and Baltimore, with a local operator in each. Colin covers the five boroughs, from Manhattan co-ops to Queens two-families, detailed on our New York real estate photography page. Willis covers Baltimore and the surrounding counties, from Fells Point rowhomes to county singles, on the Baltimore real estate photographers page. Same services, same public rates, both markets. Every guide is written to be useful anywhere, then grounded in the two markets we actually work.
How to read a price in these guides
Every number here is a published rate for a specific scope, so check what the scope includes before you compare it to a quote from anyone else. A photo package covers the shoot, five-stage HDR processing, and delivery. A tour is priced separately because it's a separate capture, and hosting runs six months from delivery. Square footage moves the price, travel outside the core markets can too, and same-week turnaround is the standard rather than a surcharge. When a guide says "from," it means the smallest version of that job, and we tell you what pushes it up.
When a guide is the wrong tool
Reading is the slow path for a decision that hinges on your specific unit. A walk-up studio with one north window and a four-bedroom with a renovated kitchen need different answers, and no guide can see either one. If you already know the address, the fastest route is to send it and get a real number back. The guides are here for the questions that come before that: what a format does, what it costs, and whether it earns its place on your listing.
The journal grows as the questions do. Everything here is written by the two of us, Colin in New York and Willis in Baltimore, from work we actually shot. If your question isn't covered yet, send it over or call or text (701) 566-9171. The answer is usually faster than the guide.