- 1). Approach an old house like an old photo album you've never seen before. Start by glancing. Walk around the outside taking photos as you see them, but don't concentrate on it first. First, you need to get a "feel" for the place, a sense of what took place there.
- 2). Consider the outside of the old house as the face of the family who lived there. Look at what image that family wanted to present to the world. This is the formal view, and you'll need to shoot it formally. Shoot the basics first: the front, the sides, the back, and the yard. Then move on to close-ups of the doors, the windows, the eaves, and items in the yard such as gardens or trellises.
- 3). Step inside through the front door. This is the transition from formal facade to real life once lived here. Again, as with the outside, make a leisurely inspection of the entire house, taking occasional shots.
- 4). Use a wide-angle lens. Use lenses that are wide without fish eye distortion. The way video real estate agents make even the smallest houses look large is by using very wide-angle lenses to show them.
- 5). Use telephoto lenses for minute detail. These will allow sharp detail for things like stairway banisters and other artistic pieces while pushing everything around them into blur and background.
- 6). Take many photos and edit into a full story later. You can tell the story of the old house without a single person in the shots by getting to know it thoroughly and paying careful attention to putting the story together.
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