What Real Estate Photography Costs in the Northwest Suburbs (2026)
Most photography sites in this market will not tell you a price. You fill out a form, you wait, someone calls you. That is fine if you have time. It is useless if you are trying to work out whether a listing can carry the cost before you take it.
So here is the whole thing: our package prices, what every piece costs on its own, how travel works, and the three things that actually change the number.
THE PACKAGES
Base — $200. 25 MLS-ready photos, 6 drone photos, floor plan.
Plus — $300. Everything in Base, plus a property walkthrough and a basic cinematic video.
Pro — $450. Everything in Base, plus a property walkthrough and a pro cinematic video.
Photos delivered within 24 hours, video within 48.
Drone is in all three. It is not an upsell, and that is worth saying plainly because in this market it usually is.
WHAT EACH PIECE COSTS ON ITS OWN
If you only need part of it, you only pay for part of it.
Photos. 10–15 MLS photos — $100. 25 MLS photos — $150. 40 MLS photos — $200. 60 MLS photos — $250.
Drone. 6 drone photos — $75. 12 drone photos — $125.
Video. Property walkthrough, vertical and cinematic — $100. Basic cinematic video — $150. Pro cinematic video — $300. Long-form YouTube brand or property video — $200. Social media promotional reel — $125. Realtor branding package, three shorts for the price of two — $300.
Enhancements. Real twilight image shot on site — $20. Four virtual twilight photos — $50. Virtual staging, flat fee for the whole shoot — $50. Floor plan — $75.
Two of those are worth a comment.
A real twilight photo costs $20 and four virtual ones cost $50, which looks backwards until you think about it. The real one is one extra frame on a shoot that is already happening, so it costs almost nothing to produce and it is an actual photograph of the actual house. The virtual ones are rendered work. If the shoot timing allows a real one, take the real one.
Virtual staging is $50 for the entire shoot, not per image. Most of the market charges $15 to $50 per photo.
THE PACKAGES ARE A REAL DISCOUNT, NOT A ROUNDING ONE
Add the individual prices up and compare.
Base at $200 is $300 of individual services — 25 photos ($150), 6 drone ($75), floor plan ($75). You save $100.
Plus at $300 is $550 of individual services. You save $250.
Pro at $450 is $700 of individual services. You save $250.
This matters when you are comparing quotes. A $450 package here and a $450 package somewhere else are usually not the same list of deliverables — check whether drone, floor plan and video are all actually in the other one.
THE THREE THINGS THAT CHANGE THE NUMBER
1. Drive time. We are based in Mount Prospect and shoot across Chicagoland. Anything within about 45 minutes has no travel fee. Past that there is a travel fee depending on how far. Send us the address and we will give you the number before anything is booked.
2. Property size. There is no square-footage tier and no size multiplier. A bigger house needs more photos and more time on site, so it gets quoted with that extra coverage included. A 7,500 square foot house is not 25 photos.
3. What you actually need. A $900,000 listing with a feature nobody else on the street has is worth cinematic video. A $280,000 condo probably is not — it needs clean photos, a floor plan and speed. We would rather tell you that than sell you the top package.
WHAT IS NOT PRICED SEPARATELY
Editing is included. Color correction, perspective correction, sky work on exteriors, lens profile and distortion fixes — that is part of producing the photo, not an add-on.
So is the second set of exteriors. Every listing gets a straight-on hero exterior for MLS and a second angle where the address plaque does not read, for social. Here is why.
WHAT ABOUT THE CHEAPER OPTION
There are people in this market shooting listings for under $150. Sometimes that is the right call — a rental, a quick relist, a property where the photos genuinely do not have to do much work.
What you are usually giving up is turnaround and consistency. The listing-photo market’s real failure mode is not a bad photo, it is a shoot that comes back in four days when you needed it live on Tuesday, or a set where the kitchen is warm and the living room is blue because nobody color-matched the rooms to each other.
Our standard is 24 hours on photos. That is the number worth comparing on.
FAQ
How fast do you deliver photos and video?
Standard turnaround is 24 hours for photos and within 48 hours for video.
Do you charge a travel fee?
Not within about 45 minutes of Mount Prospect. Past that there is a travel fee scaled to the distance, and you will know it before you book.
Is drone included or extra?
Included in all three packages — six aerial photos. On its own it is $75.
Do I need to be at the shoot?
No. Most agents give us lockbox access and get the gallery the next morning.
Can I book just photos?
Yes. 25 MLS photos on their own is $150. The packages exist because most listings need more than that and the bundle is cheaper, not because we will not shoot a smaller job.
What if the house is not ready?
Tell us before we arrive and we will move it. A shoot in a house that is not staged costs you the same as one in a house that is, and the photos are worse. The thing that slows a shoot down is clutter, not square footage.
What areas do you cover?
Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Palatine, Schaumburg, Park Ridge, Lincolnshire, Riverside and the rest of Chicagoland, plus into Wisconsin for the right project.