Real Estate Photography: Ace The Race With These Killer Tips

As per a report by the National Association of REALTORS®, 2018, about 50% of property buyers use the internet to have their dream home.

With digital advancements, home buyers are majorly relying on the internet to purchase properties. And when it comes to online trading of real estates, images play an essential role.

Real estate listings having professionally clicked photos sell faster than listings that don’t have any. No doubt, why impressive images are imperative to sell properties online.

You will hardly come across a real estate listing sans images, simply because real estate buyers who are looking for properties online majorly rely on real estate photos to make their purchasing decisions.

However, adorning listings with mobile-clicked images may not serve the purpose. Even with a high-definition digital camera, you need some expert skills to get the perfect angle that can help attract buyers and sell more property.

To sell properties quickly, you have to focus on how you represent properties through HDR real estate photography. The real estate images should give people an accurate idea of the property and its surroundings. You have to give an actual representation of the property in such a way that they are impressed and triggered to visit the property in person.

Hence, you have to think strategically to identify how you are going to hook the audiences’ attention through your real estate photography. So start thinking differently to sell more property. Here are some effective tips that will help you ace the game by telling you the right approach to clicking real estate photos.

1. Decide For Some Standard Shots

Being in the real estate industry will require you to be familiar with multiple properties at one go. You must note that no two edifices are identical. Yet, there are some basic shots that are required in real estate listings. Hence, prepare a shot list that can be applied for each property without any extra efforts. Here are some of the shots which you can include

Have 2 wide shots at priority for bedrooms, kitchen and living space.
2 shots of the backyard. Can click more if the property has some unique features or design.
2 shots of the exterior of the property. It showcases the curb appeal.
1 shot each of the features like the balcony, laundry room, garage, pantry bathroom, etc. (unless they have some specially designed space)

These are the must-haves that your listings should never miss. You can even share the list with the realtors to inform them of how you are going to proceed and what they should expect from the photoshoot. Now, you are clear in your head what you are going to cover through your photography.

2. Do Not Wait For The Last Minute When It Comes To Preparing Gears

When it comes to photography, issues like a dead battery, no memory, tech faults are common. However, such item-fails also indicate that you need to be more focussed and professional.

For a photographer, nothing is worse than being at a shoot and coming across gears that simply refuse to work. Hence, prepare your gears a night before the shoot.

Get your bag ready with extra batteries, charger, additional memory cards, hard drive, backups, etc. Having a secondary camera is another good backup that ensures you to be on a safer side.

3. Make Sure That The Property Is Free Of Clutter

Homeowners are often used to bits of clutter that build up with time. However, such distractions that we overlook in a property often stand out in an image. It diverts the audiences’ attention. Hence, brief homeowners about the importance of having clear real estate images that are free from clutter like countertops, coffee tables, desks, etc.

Keep the surface as clean and clear as possible. You can have decorative items. But never overdo them. Include only 1-3 sparingly.

Leave closets from the interior shots. You can include them only if they are extraordinarily spacious, customized or designed.

Even after telling your homeowners to clear the space, if you come across any such item that you feel is not suitable enough to be in the image, you can suggest them to hide those things. Or, you can even leverage real estate photo editing if by any chance you still get some clutter in your images. We will cover some effective photo editing techniques later in the blog.

4. Get The Sense Of The Property Prior To Capturing It

Before starting the shoot, roam around the property. Get the feel from inside as well as outside. Every property has a different structure. Thus, walk through the property and get a sense of it before setting up your shoot.

Doing this will enable you to understand the structure and how you want to capture it. You should notice the details you want to highlight. Or, you might come across some spaces that may result in perspective distortion. You can work it out by mentally analyzing how you can manage to overcome this issue.

Lighting is another thing that can be analyzed while walking through the house. While there are some spaces designed with an abundance of natural light, others need some artificial lighting to brighten the space warmly. Getting the idea of such spaces beforehand will enable you to identify the exposure level you need to play with in order to get that perfect shot.

You will get ample time to work on the challenges to bring out a better perspective of the property. It will also help you to structure the right approach of taking real estate images of the particular property.

5. Avoid Distortion By Leveling Your Camera

While switching from one angle to another, often the positioning of the camera gets disturbed. This results in distortion which you have to rectify leveraging real estate photo editing.

A slight disproportion and the vertical lines will appear slanting in the image. Hence, keep your camera straight at a height of about 5 feet. This is the ideal height that enables you to capture balanced images. Going lower than this will bring the furniture in focus leaving the rest of the room. Similarly, if you go a little above the said height, it will highlight the ceiling and will not cover the living area. In both cases, you will get distorted images.

6. Leverage Photo Editing To Enhance HDR Real Estate Photography

Even after considering the best of HDR real estate photography techniques, there are fair chances that some discrepancies may creep in. In such cases, it is best to bring in your photo editing skills into the picture. You can use them for:

Enhancing the real estate images

Sometimes, the lighting in the images is not enough to clearly highlight all the aspects of the property. For such images, you can adjust the white balance, brightness, image sharpness, etc. using photoshop or lightroom. Simply adjusting these effects will transform a dull image into a more attractive and focussed one.

Correct the color balance to get the lost appeal

Even the most high-quality camera is unable to capture the exact color of the setting. At times, the lighting affects the color balance of the image or the camera setting is not up to the mark. Eventually, you get images that will not do justice to represent the actual colors in the property. With the color correction technique via Photoshop, you can simply enhance the colors of the image to make it look more appealing to the audience.

Eliminate the unwanted distractions from the image

Sometimes, even after setting the property in the right mood, there are some unwanted objects that you just can’t get away with. For instance – trash cans, cars, wires, etc. Such things disrupt the outlook of the property in the image. Hence, get rid of these objects before presenting your real estate images to your clients. These objects can easily be removed via photoshop through the object removal technique. And, you will have images free from distraction and ready to be uploaded on the real estate listing to attract home buyers.

Conclusion

Real estate photography is an amazing profession for those photographers who enjoy capturing edifices and interiors. Besides, the real estate industry reaching heights on the internet brings more prospects for HDR real estate photographers. However, with extraordinary photography skills, you will always need some tips and tricks to ace this game. Therefore, follow the above-mentioned tips in your next shoot to maintain consistency and excellence in your real estate images.

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At PhotozWorld, you will get an experienced team of real estate image editing experts. We offer an array of image editing services, including perspective correction, HDR real estate photo editing, image enhancement and more.

If you wish to check out what we can do to enhance your real estate images, get in touch with us at info@photozworld.com.