Real Estate Photography in Des Plaines, IL
Des Plaines had a strong year. Redfin tracked 186 homes sold in the month through July 2026 at a median of $408,795, up 18.5% from a year earlier, with homes drawing about four offers each and 47.9% of them closing above list. The median listing still needed 44 days to get there.
Those two numbers sitting next to each other are the whole case for ordering the photos properly. Nearly half the town beats list price, which means buyers are making quick decisions off a phone screen, and the listings that sit are usually the ones that gave them nothing to react to in the first three images.
We're Ogi Optics. We're based in Mount Prospect, which puts most of Des Plaines about ten minutes away, and we shoot listing photography, drone, floor plans and cinematic video across Chicagoland. Here's what we've learned shooting Des Plaines specifically, and what it costs. The full service list is on our real estate services page.
Downtown Des Plaines and the three Metra stations
Des Plaines has three stops on the Union Pacific Northwest line: Des Plaines, Cumberland and Dee Road. The downtown station sits 16.7 miles from Ogilvie. For anything within walking distance of the restored Des Plaines Theatre and the downtown blocks around it, that walk is the product you are selling.
Condos and townhomes near the station need a different shot list than a house. Buyers want the view out the window, the balcony, the common areas they get access to, and proof of how short the walk to the platform actually is. A set of interior rooms on its own undersells a downtown unit, because the interior is the part that looks most like every other unit in the building. We usually add exteriors of the building and the street, plus a few drone frames that put the station, the downtown blocks and the roofline in one picture.
Ranches and split-levels in Cumberland, Oakton and Big Bend
Most of what we shoot in the neighborhoods west and south of downtown is postwar single-family: ranches, split-levels and Cape Cods on regular lots, a lot of them with an addition off the back or a finished lower level.
Two things about these houses on camera. The first is that the addition is usually the reason the house is worth more than its neighbor, and it is almost always the hardest thing to photograph, because it joins the original structure at a different ceiling height and gets a different quality of light. Shooting it as its own room hides the fact that the house is bigger than it looks from the street. We shoot the seam, so a buyer can see where the space opens up.
The second is the floor plan. A 1,400 square foot ranch with a converted breezeway and a finished basement is a house that buyers cannot follow from photos alone, and a floor plan comes with every package we sell. It does more work in Des Plaines than in a subdivision where every house is one of four models. We wrote more about that in what buyers actually want before photo count.
Lake Opeka, Waycinden Park and the named subdivisions
Des Plaines has a long list of named communities that agents write straight into the MLS remarks: Lake Opeka, Waycinden Park, Ballard Point, Bay Colony, Brentwood, Buckingham Pointe, Concord Commons, Coventry Place, Craig Manor, High Ridge Knolls, Lexington Park, Park Place, Pleasant Manor and Stone Gate among them. Some are single-family, some are condo and townhome communities, and buyers searching by name are looking for a specific one.
This is where the six drone photos in every package earn their spot. A listing backing onto Lake Opeka, sitting along the Des Plaines River Trail, or a short walk from a park reads as an ordinary lot from the driveway and reads as the reason to buy the house from 200 feet up. The same goes for a unit in a community where the grounds and the layout of the buildings are part of what the buyer is paying for.
New construction and townhome developments
A development is a different photography problem than a house. What you are documenting is the relationship between the buildings, and none of that exists in a ground-level frame.
In August we shot Insignia Glen, a sixteen-unit townhome development in Des Plaines, with Mark Kelner, on a full Pro package. The drone carried the project. One aerial communicates the site plan, the scale and the finish level all at once, and shows how the whole thing sits in the surrounding neighborhood. On the ground, the landscaped walkway between the buildings does the same job at eye level, and the model interiors cover the finishes buyers are actually choosing between.
Builders and developers book the same way agents do. If you are marketing more than one unit, tell us how many and we will quote the coverage the whole site needs rather than repeating a single-listing package sixteen times.
Packages and pricing for Des Plaines listings
Same prices everywhere we shoot. There is no Des Plaines surcharge.
Base — $200. 25 MLS 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.
Base handles most Des Plaines single-family listings. Plus is the right call when the layout needs explaining, which around here usually means an addition, a converted space or a finished lower level. Pro is for the listings where the video is the marketing rather than a bonus: downtown units, the larger rebuilds, and developments like Insignia Glen. Full package details are on our real estate services page.
Photos in 24 hours, video within 48 hours.
Travel and larger properties
We're based in Mount Prospect and shoot across Chicagoland. Anything within about 45 minutes has no travel fee. Past that there's a travel fee depending on how far. Larger properties need more photos and more time on site, so those are quoted with the extra coverage included. Send us the address and we'll give you the number before anything is booked.
Des Plaines real estate photography FAQ
Do you cover all of Des Plaines? Yes, all of 60016 and 60018, plus the surrounding northwest suburbs. We're based in Mount Prospect, so most of Des Plaines is a ten-minute drive.
How fast do you deliver photos and video? Standard turnaround is 24 hours for photos and within 48 hours for video.
Is there a travel fee for Des Plaines? No. Des Plaines is well inside the 45-minute radius, so the package price is the price.
Do you shoot townhome developments and new construction, or just resale listings? Both. We shot the sixteen-unit Insignia Glen development on a Pro package, and we quote multi-unit sites on the coverage they need instead of the single-listing package.
Book a Des Plaines shoot
Send us the address, the package and the date. You get the same photographer every time, and photos in 24 hours, video within 48 hours.