Real estate photography these days undeniably brings great profit. This is the very reason why there are countless numbers of freelance photographers we see in our community, not to mention those who use the Internet to effectively promote themselves and their products.
One of the waterloos of a neophyte photographer is how to creatively edit real estate photos. Aside from the different tools and equipment needed in producing first-class photos, beginners still need lots of time and effort to come up with perfectly edited materials in making the business highly profitable.
It takes a lot of time, effort, and perseverance to become an excellent real estate photo editor. He has to equip himself enough knowledge of some great photo editing applications. He should also work with different photo editing services because these services have the capacity to provide him with different benefits and advantages that he can use.
Lack of time in editing real estate photos is perhaps the biggest problem that any photographer faces. Every potential buyer wanted high-quality photos of the property. For this reason, editing the photo is the main concern. Every photo should undergo editing process like color correction, adjusting shadows and perfecting the tones.
Having the best editing tools and equipment doesn’t guarantee that real estate photos will turn out perfect. If you lack proper lighting and your over-colored photos have undesirable clutter in the, they are the things that make them imperfect. Thus, editing is badly needed.
To attract buyers, make your photos free from any flaws especially in the eyes of your buyers. The necessity that is photo editing should always be at the helm of the business. This will finish all the aspects needed to be finished. With Photoshop and Lightroom on standby, you can actually enhance the color of your real estate photos. Likewise, you can remove unnecessary objects and improve lighting. Overall, you can basically change the settings to make near-perfect photos.
Enhancing the image doesn’t mean you will go overboard. Always put in mind how will people react once they see your photos. Are the photos you presented totally different from what they actually see? Make it sure that you are merely presenting your business. Avoid deceiving potential buyers as it is unhealthy for your real estate photography business.
What Should You Do?
In a nutshell, here are some basic tips for beginners on how to edit real estate photos.
1. Correct the Color
It is very hard to envision what a perfect picture is. In actuality, there is no such thing because everything really depends on how potential buyers approach your work. Getting into the details, correcting the color of the picture really does make sense. You must consider the weather condition because it affects the total perspectives of the photos. Also, you may consider the balance of your interior lighting as well as factors like window tint and camera settings. You can use the ambient shot straight out from the camera and pick the color button to give good overall exposure and luminosity. Also consider flash shot to change the composition but avoid having what is called color pollution by using camera flash with the lights on.
2. Enhance the Image
You can make your photos look better by enhancing the image. What does this mean? You can easily adjust the brightness, sharpness and contrast of your images along with what we call white balance. This will render the photos a better look. If you are doing composting and you want to have lots of frames, you may need to give star or a numbering system to for you to easily identify the images for composting.
3. Cropping Works
Cropping is one basic requirement to improve many aspects of the picture. Cropping is simply the removal of what you think are the unnecessary items in the picture. One rule that must be religiously flowed though in cropping pictures: DO NOT crop out permanent structures in your photos. These permanent structures can be electrical posts, gravity tanks, and even establishments in the surrounding area. When there are unbalanced, unsymmetrical objects that are included in your photos, it would be easier to balance the size and shape by cropping out or cutting off parts of the object. Cropping helps in the distortion issue of the image.
4. Check Vertical Alignment
Another rule that must be followed is to make sure that images are totally aligned vertically. Vertical alignment can deal a big impact on your photo’s integrity. Having the vertical alignment of your photos checked is one expectation of your customers.
- If you are into layering jobs, you can auto align layers by clicking the top layer and hold down SHIFT and click on the bottom layer. It highlights all the layers included in your editing. It will auto align all the images.
You do not want any movement to screw up your work.
- To flatten out layers, you may choose the Spot Healing Brush.
5. Replacing the Sky
Weather conditions play a major role in real estate photos. Dull weather and dreary skies can affect the mood of your customers. Therefore it may also affect their decision. Instead of instantly having potential customers, you may consider sky replacement to change the look of the property once sky background looks gloomy. Customer’s mood is analogous to customer’s decision.
6. Object Removal
video tutorial credit to Webflippy
There are times when items that are needed are present in the photos you took. These items are not fixed or permanent structures. Sometimes the property is littered with different items like garbage bins, electrical wires, lawn mowers, and even trash. During your editing process, you must not think twice of removing them.
6. Add Something Desirable
If there are times when you needed to remove objects, there are also moments where you need to add some. Minor additions can is part of editing process that can influence buyer’s decisions. They may not want to look on an empty room. This will just increase on the impression that they are also looking on a blank space. The adage ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ may sound true. But in real estate, especially in houses and buildings, it is still more acceptable to have some items properly placed in the room.