ECHO Fine Properties Lead Photographer Chris Cutro on Luxury Real Estate Photography

Estatenvy: How did you originally get interested in photography?

Chris Cutro: Way back in fourth grade, I had an interest in taking pictures. My dad gave me his 35mm Minolta camera, and I took it on a field trip. After that, I was always taking pictures on family trips, at events, at school, etc. My dad was a city planner, so every single trip had its own architectural history tour. So, when we went to New York, I learned about the Flatiron Building, the original World Trade Center towers and how the city was laid out.

Early on, I had a lot of exposure to both architectural and regular photography, and it’s just been a continuous thing throughout my life that photography, architecture and technology have linked together.

Estatenvy: Photography is an art. How do you mesh the art of photography with the beauty of the homes you are photographing? What makes your work a form of art rather than just a picture of a house?

Cutro: Truly it’s all about the angles. It’s all about what you put into something. Anybody can go into a house and take pictures of the interior and exterior, but I look at each angle and each photo individually to get the best shot each time. It’s not just an automatic thing. Every house, apartment and mansion has a different feel. If you can get that feel to come out in the pictures, that’s what people really want. I want all of my pictures to have meaning and thought behind them, and when you are intentional about angles and colors, it shows.

Estatenvy: How do you figure out what feelings you want to come out in your photos?

Cutro: Well, I have a very active imagination. I’ll start the process by looking at the property on Google and checking out the street view. Based upon what’s in the driveway, if there are lots of kids’ toys sitting out front and other things like that, I’ll start imagining the angles and shots that I want to get. With this comes a possible story about the house. Other times, you might have a house with almost no story, and you can get creative. At that point, you have an empty canvas and complete creative freedom.

When I joined ECHO Fine Properties, it was really implanted into my brain that we want to tell the story of the house. I had always told the story of the people. No matter what you’re photographing, if you can get a concept of meaning into the photo, that’s where the magic happens, and you get pictures that are worth 1,000 words.

Estatenvy: How do you choose when to go to a job? Does the weather and natural lighting impact how and where you work?

Cutro: At ECHO Fine Properties, we really like to wait for the best weather and the right lighting. So for instance, all houses that face east have to be photographed — at least the front of the house — in the morning so we have light on the front of the house. West facing houses get photographed in the afternoon because that’s when the light is going to be on the front of the house. I try to avoid really early or really late in the evening unless that’s what I’m striving for. For me, the middle of the day is the most honest time because the sun is shining directly directly down and you don’t get a lot of shadow. Sometimes you want that, but like I said, each house is special. Each property is unique, and I take the time to really sit down and figure out when that unique time is going to be.

Estatenvy: How do you identify what you want your photos to communicate?

Cutro: Especially with super high-end houses, I walk in and ask the property owners what they want. I always strive for perfection, but luxury houses that aren’t your typical home in an average community have different stories.

Case in point — Fortezza. We just did a $30 million mansion. It’s not even a house; let’s be honest, it’s a museum! This owner created a museum that happens to have rooms attached. Right? It is gorgeous. We want perfection, and with unique properties like this one, that can take some time. I was at Fortezza four or five times, just shooting, reshooting, getting more angles and looking at the space from different points of view. When you adjust your viewpoint, you can catch and highlight different things.

Estatenvy: What do you take with you to photograph a house? 

Cutro: In my equipment bag is a Pentaax K-1 II, 36 megapixel full frame camera  with a 15 millimeter lens, along with a DJI Mavic 2 Pro for aerial photography . We also use a Matterport Pro2 for Matterport 3D tours and a Theta Z1 for Zillow 3D tours.

Estatenvy: Do you bring a team or professional lighting setups?

Cutro: That’s the benefit of HDR; it takes three to five photos from dark to light. Later on, those images get combined to create a picture that looks very similar to what our eyes see. For real estate, I want to capture what the home is going to look like for the owners without lighting. They’re not going to have professional lights to make their primary bedroom look really really bright at any given time, and I want to be honest with what the interior of the house looks like. When you use HDR, you get a really honest effect.

Estatenvy: What is one of the most important things to know about the industry?

Cutro: Keeping up on technology is really important, especially with real estate photography. At ECHO we always look for the latest trends and whatever is new. We want to research and invest in whatever will get people more engaged.

For example, we have a DJI FPV racing drone. Typically, these drones are for people who like to race drones indoors, but I use them to get an immersive feel. The DJI FPV drone has a very wide-angle lens, gets up in the sky, flys down into the house, moves around within it and flys back out. We want to show something unique that no one has seen before — that’s what most people want to see. And that’s what rings true here; if you get that new piece of equipment, you can get the right angle that no one else has.

Estatenvy: Are there any other inside secrets you can give me?

Cutro: Always walk the house first. Don’t make your angles as you go. Walk through the house, see what’s out of place and straighten the little things up. Get rid of the remote control, get rid of the phone charger and figure out any small things. People will always notice that tiny little crack in the counter. Identify those things and make a plan to handle them whether that’s later in Photoshop or by using an interesting angle so the distraction isn’t in the photo.

And always watch out for your reflections! Especially with 3D cameras. You have to be really careful about what you’re aiming at and where you’re standing. Sometimes I’ll catch myself in the mirror of a mirror. You can always edit those things out later, but fixing it at the property is always faster.