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Introduction for Real Estate Photography

Introduction for Real Estate Photography

Hi my name is Alex and I will be taking you through a photographer training tutorial where you learn the principles and techniques of real estate photography. Make sure you have your camera and tripod on hand so you can change settings accordingly and experiment with some of the techniques intermittently as we go through different processes and ideas.<br/><br/><h2>Before we get started on the photography side of the job, we need to do a basic overview of best practices once you arrive at a property.</h2><br/>Firstly, it's important to remember that though there are formulas and rules of real estate photography that you'll be thinking about every shoot, every agent and broker has different preferences and goals, depending on their taste and the distinctive characteristics of the listing. Therefore after you've met the agent and gone through baseline introductions, ask them to give you a tour of the property so they can voice any specific shot ideas,angles are elements of the property they especially want to capture.<br/><br/>This will give you a good sense of their marketing goal and the layout of the house so you can mentally prepare for the forthcoming shoot. Don't hesitate to respectfully raise concerns if agent has a poor shot idea that you know won't work. In these situations you may want to take the shot and show them it's a bad idea rather than trying to describe why. Nonetheless, the ultimate goal is to give the agent what they want, so be compliant and experiment with bizarre ideas if necessary.<br/><br/>Sometimes you may even be surprised. After you've gotten a tour from the agent, start prepping the house for photos. This means turning on all light fixtures and lamps, pulling up blinds and hiding remote controls, Kleenex boxes, sponges and any other items inside that will show poorly in photos and make it difficult on your <a href="https://www.phixer.net/">real estate image retouching company</a>. For staged houses, you probably won't have to move anything out of the way but in properties where the homeowners are still living there, you may have to hide some personal items and declutter a bit. Remember you have a limited amount of time to finish the shoot, so if the house is overly cluttered or unprepared for shooting, ask the agent whether you should reschedule or if they're comfortable shooting the property in its present condition. There's only so much you can do and you're a photographer not a home cleaner/stager.<br/><br/><h2>Do not spend more than 15 minutes prepping the property.</h2><br/>Do what you can within that limit, however moving heavy furniture, decluttering every room, sweeping etc are not your responsibilities. If you have time, avoid including the following items in your shots; bath mats, small carpets or mats on the kitchen floor, modems and bundles of cords, the homeowner's personal photos, toothbrushes, shampoo bottles and personal toiletries in general, trash cans, bedside alarm clocks, home phones, dog beds, litter boxes and anything else that will negatively affect the marketability of the listing. Usually these items can be gently move to the outside of the frame of the photo, then returned once you finish capturing the space. A note on blinds, in general all window blinds should be pulled up there are few exceptions to this rule, so leave the blinds up if;<br/><br/>A. The view outside is really unpleasant, for example there's a dumpster and industrial refinery, a chaotic construction site or anything else that would devalue the listing.<br/><br/>B. If the agent and insists for whatever reason, on leaving them down, you are after all working for them.<br/><br/>And lastly:<br/><br/>C. If the blinds are broken and won't stay level or pull up entirely. Sometimes excessively heavy blinds can be problematic and it's best not to risk pulling them off the wall. Leave the blinds down and twist them open so light can come through the windows. Other notes on prepping the house; make sure you remove security signs from the front yard before taking exterior shots, also hoses should be either coiled or removed from view.<br/><br/>Garage doors should be closed and garbage cans either moved into the garage or out of view. In kitchen's especially, make sure you double check for cabinet under lighting and turn the stove lights on. Dining room and breakfast table chairs should be tucked in even and orderly. Fans, fireplaces, TVs in any other kinetic features of the listing should be turned off. These objects will appear blurry and disorienting once the disparate exposures are fused by your real estate photo retoucher into an HDR composite.

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3 Reliable Editing Techniques of Removing Objects Inside the House

August 5, 2021

3 Reliable Editing Techniques of Removing Objects Inside the House
Real Estate Photo Editing

August 5, 2021

Beautiful listing photos are essential in real estate sales because they provide initial impressions for potential buyers. However, your photos may have unnecessary background items and furniture that cost too much money or time to move. You can guarantee the best possible appearance by having a clutter-free background, and there are plenty of ways to do this process.

Real estate photography services like unwanted objects removal are in-demand, but there are several ways to edit images through photo processing or manipulation programs like Adobe Photoshop. For example, you can perform basic cut and clone stamp methods on your own.

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TL;DR: Here are some of the object removal techniques that you can do yourself while real estate photo editing:

Object Removal Editing Techniques

1. Lasso and Delete

The lasso allows you to draw freeform sections using a selection border. It is an essential Photoshop tool to master when you’re decluttering items from the image. The lasso tool is versatile and easy to master, and you can use it for any photo.

Here are the steps to unwanted objects removal using the lasso tool:

  • With the lasso, select the item/s you want to remove.
  • Erase the object/s by pressing delete on the keyboard.
  • With the lasso, select a part of the image that’s similar to the place you just cleared.
  • Copy and paste to the site of the removed thing/s.
  • You may need to zoom in and out several times to smoothen the cut edges.

The lasso and delete method is easy enough to understand and execute for even graphic beginners or those with non-graphic backgrounds.

Pro: Beginner-friendly method for a real estate photo editor.

Con: Challenging to cover up the deleted area realistically.

2. Clone Stamping

The clone stamp tool replaces a part of your image with a section within the same photo. The tool clones pixels or objects to create a more photo-realistic touchup or edit and often replicates areas or scenes to extend a pattern. The result makes photographs look like a real estate photo editing service took care of the post-production.

Here are the steps to using clone stamping for object removal:

  • Plan the areas to copy.
  • Pick the clone stamp from the toolbar.
  • Push Alt on the pixels that you want to copy until it turns into a crosshair.
  • Select the surface or objects that you want to copy over.
  • A small plus sign will indicate that it will copy the selected area to the current spot.

Pro: Looks more natural than a lasso cut and paste.

Con: Harder to control, especially on images with uneven lighting.

3. Spot Healing Brush

The Spot Healing tool removes small details like blemishes and wrinkles. It’s an essential part of the real estate photo editor arsenal since it can remove small objects like switches and glasses.

Here are instructions on how to use the spot healing brush:

  • Select Spot Healing Brush.
  • Select Content Aware.
  • Brush over the surface you need removed.

Pro: It only takes a few seconds.

Con: May have different results, especially for bigger items.

Option for Newbies

The mentioned steps and tips are excellent for personal and commercial purposes. However, if you tried the most reliable techniques but still couldn’t get rid of the unwanted objects, you can let a real estate photo editing service declutter the images for you.

Final Thoughts

The competitive real estate industry includes some of the most promising sales techniques. Therefore, it’s essential to brush up on real estate photo editing, especially when dealing with multiple listings. Moreover, you can rely on Phixer’s object removal if you need mass decluttering within a time constraint.

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