We are unbelievably more visual than past times. Everyone seems to like infographics rather than verbose marketing. And, with increasing competition in the property market, professional real estate photography is always in demand.
Sure, real estate photography, in the beginning, is tricky enough. With the right set of skills, and most importantly, a strategic approach will generate the most compelling and inviting real estate photos making agencies call you every now and then.
So, let’s find out 6 professional ways to compose eye-catching and converting real estate photography!
But, before that, shouldn’t we get a glimpse of what real estate photography is?
What is Real Estate Photography?
Real estate photography is a niche-based photography genre solely focused on interior and exterior images of a property that is up for sale or rent.
It might be surprising but the truth is, real estate photographers make a substantial amount yearly and if the spot is favorable, sometimes it crosses the bar of a portrait shooter. With the dependency on internet and internet-based buying traits, realtors are focusing more on online market to reach thousands of prospects and sell their items.
And this invites more natural but lucrative images. This is where the importance of real estate photography is skyrocketing with the passing days. Moreover, even though is it not as popular as portrait/fashion photography genre, a real estate photographer makes around $200-$700 depending on the size and beyond per session.
And this is enough to sharpen your skill on real estate photography if you want to charge your agent a handsome amount. Of course, your experience will be accounted for and so the efficiency of skills.
What to do to compose inviting real estate photos?
This is where it becomes more interesting.
Majority of the real estate photographers will start shooting whenever they land on the property. But not the professionals, not the creative ones.
Here, you need strategies more than your command over your gears. Like I said earlier, it surprises many that the houses are shot to show to the clients.
Well, they have reasons. How are you going to photograph the entire house just through your lens and maintain the high quality?
It’s all about strategies that you must divide into a Prior-Mid-Post category.
Let’s crack them into simpler forms —
- What to do in the “Prior” real estate photography session?
The Prior phase of real estate photography is viable and your final output might get influenced by the action performed in this phase. So, it’s wise to stay on course and follow what’s below —
- Decide whether you’ll use a drone or not. If you are using a drone for real estate photography, make sure the property is clean and decorated before you land there. Otherwise, you’ll end up composing untidy real estate images. And most probably, you’ll have to retake the shot. What a waste a time and creativity!
If you’re not using a drone, leave them as it is. Focus on the interiors and most probably, the front side of the property.
- Take a tour to the property if possible or if it belongs to your locality. Make a list of shots you intend to take of every room, backyard, kitchen, bathroom, garage, pantry, and if available, laundry room. Prepare your gears depending on the size and feature of the rooms. Take notes regarding the props/auxiliary items required to make the setting more enticing in images.
Ask the owner of the house to declutter the house prior to shooting or even the day before. Otherwise, you’ll end up preparing the house and rooms for the shooting limiting efficiencies.
- What to do in the “Mid” real estate photography session?
Once you’ve checked boxes required to land in the Mid session of real estate photography, you’re a few steps away from composing splendid shots.
Actually, this is where you prove your talents and get the ticket of master photographer. However, when you are in the property with all of your necessary gears to start snapping, take care of a few things first.
And that could be —
- Walk through the property and particularly rooms to check if everything is in order. Look for the fragile items and mark them to proceed with caution. Depending on the weather, decide whether the lights will be kept on or off. Choose the right angles so that nothing leaves behind.
If there’s no ambient light make sure you left the windows open. If there’s still a lack of light make use of your flashes, lightboxes, and most importantly, light sources available in the houses. With lights on in a creative manner, you’ll be able to create a mystic environment further adding value to the properties. But avoid the mixture of lightings. Otherwise, you’ll have lousy images ruining the actual attractions.
It is recommended to use manual flash mode to make the best use of lights. Avoid too sharp lights and too dark zones. Real estate photography demands equal lighting conditions in every corner. So, be creative to bounce the lights off the walls and ceiling. This way, the light will be reflected and spread over the rooms perfectly.
In case, the room is larger than usual, use multiple light sources. To get more control over it, you have the option to use real estate HDR blending technique in post-production. Most real estate photography agents and professionals use this photo editing technique to create a perfect balance between the shadow and light in an image.
- Highlight the unique features available in the house. Use some props to elevate the aesthetics and practicality of some available resources. It will make the buyer more convincing. Take a few more shots than necessary if the bathroom offers spacious areas and most modern facilities.
Don’t shoot an empty room. If you no option but to shoot an empty room, add some furniture virtually. Real estate photo editing services can do that for you.
- What to do in the “Post” real estate photography session?
Amateurs or professionals, none skip the real estate photography editing session. There might be flaws in images. This is very common to have compositions with some unwanted elements. They certainly don’t add value to your images rather make them look unorganized and uninviting.
In that case, real estate photo editing services in Lightroom comes as a solution. In the post-processing session of real estate photography, you need to keep an eye on many of the details. You have to be aware of the following issues —
- Sky plays a viable role in real estate exterior photography. A cloudy sky with gloomy faces will ruin the presentation. So, choose the time and day of shooting carefully. But, if you are in a hurry, do it whenever you wish. You can replace the gloomy sky with a clear one in the post-production.
- Always look for the reflection on items when going through real estate photo editing services. There might be reflections on the glass, window, TV, or even on the floor. It won’t look good and you can eliminate them in real estate Lightroom editing services.
- Keep the permanent objects but remove unnecessary elements including people, posters, banners, etc. from the image. They ruin the beauty. Enhance colors to focus more on greenery subjects and eco-friendliness. Highlight the view through glasses of window. Tweak the temperature of images and apply inviting colors to make the property more habitable.
Consistency always rocks!
Take steady shots. Tweak colors, marge creativity with genuineness. You’ll get magnificent outputs and your agents cannot but hire you for their upcoming real estate photography session as well.
To become professional, it requires to approach strategically apart from a sound understanding of the gears. So, explore more and more to understand your shortcoming. And never stop experimenting!
turkce
February 15, 2021 at 10:06 am29