Are landscape and property photography the same thing?

Yesterday I got an e-mail from someone wanting to know if landscape and property photography were the same thing. They were looking at taking a landscape photography short course in order to develop the skills required to photograph house. They wanted to know if that was the right course to be taking.

The short answer is no - landscape photography is not the one to focus on if you're interested in property photography. Property of Architecural Photography would be the one to focus on.

For the most part landscape photography does not involve the use of flash or additional lighting. Day time property photography typically requires the use of additional lighting and/or HDR to overcome the disparity between light levels inside and outside properties. Twilight property photography can be done without additional light sources but the time window is very narrow.

On top of this landscape photography typically focuses on wide open spaces. Property photography focuses on small, enclosed spaces.

That being said overall the basic principles of photography are the same regardless of what you are taking photos of (it's always about capturing light).

Once you have the basic principles under control you will be able to take lessons applied in one area (landscapes for example) and apply them to any other.