Real estate photos have to be polished and of high-quality all the time. These are best used for sales and marketing in order to sell your properties fast.
Photos can also make or break your business. When you post a low-quality photo for a listing, most of those who are in the market might not even bat an eye on your property. In turn, this can affect your sales and your bottom-line.
Using photo editing tools is a must in order to post-process and make photos better. This helps in creating amazing images that convert. If you’re in need of photo editing tools for your real estate photos, here are some free tools that you can use:
• Canva.
This is one of the most used tools for creating visuals across different industries. Canva is a web-based for graphics, logo, textures and other creative designs. It’s a user-friendly tool that makes anyone seem like a professional graphic artist. The tool has a drag-and-drop interface and provides you access to different layouts, photographs, fonts, and graphics for your needs. Aside from editing your photos, you can also use Canva to great graphics and photos for social media use.
• PicMonkey.
The program has a similar interface to that of Instagram. It has a free and a premium version that you can use to enhance your photos. You can also add text, borders, and buttons on your images that you can use for listings and social media postings. It has a live preview feature for faster editing. You can also choose a print or an online quality for your image, depending on how you’re using it.
• Pixlr.
This program has a desktop and a mobile version that you can use. Their free web app makes a majority of the editing tasks a breeze. You can do a ton of different edits through Pixlr. You can crop the photo, adjust the color balance, contrast, and brightness, and make eye corrections. It’s a great tool for both beginners and intermediate editors.
• Gimp.
This is a free and an open-source software that’s been around for a while now. Gimp can be used across multiple platforms. It can be a useful tool for resizing, adjusting the contrast or light. It’s great for doing simple editing options and in creating certain looks that you want for your photos. No matter what your photo editing knowledge is, Gimp provides you with sophisticated tools that you can use for image manipulation and in getting the job done. What’s great about Gimp is that it has a large community that can help beginners in using the software.
If you want hassle-free photo editing without doing all the work yourself, you can contact Phixer to do the post-processing work for you. Phixer has a professional team of photo retouchers that are experienced with real estate photos. This ensures that you have high-quality photos for your listing while you can focus on the more important parts of your business.
They say a photo is worth a thousand words, and a properly edited one probably expresses a million different things at a time.
In today’s competitive marketplace where photos have the power to represent a brand or a business, photo editing services is rapidly becoming one of the most outsourced processes in the industry. Nowadays, the general public are becoming more and more image-centric and they tend to relate to visual cues better, making good quality photos a powerful tool to build a brand and generate more sales. This is where photo editing services come in.
But what is a photo-editing service?
Basically, a photo-editing service is an outsource company that edits your photos for you.
Being a photographer entails a lot of work. It means not only shooting and editing the photos, but also dealing with clients. In fact, a recent studies have shown that photographers spend almost thirty percent of their time editing photos, almost thrice as much as actually shooting pictures.The job of a photo-editing service is to help photographers who value their time by doing the daunting task of editing the photos to make it better and more attractive. Examples of photo editing services are usually photo color correction, photo restoration, real-estate photo editing, portrait photo retouching, and high-end photo retouching.
Typically, a photo retouching company usually specializes in photo retouching, corrections, and manipulations. The services include:
1. Real-estate image enhancement. Photo editing services make real estate images more professional by enhancing the background to provide a more accurate version of the property, remove unwanted objects or extra elements, control the brightness, clean the background, adjust the contrast to make it more presentable for customers, change the scenery, alter the overall light color and provide a more natural appearance by adding shadows.
2. Photo restoration. It uses different techniques to restore fading and discolored photographs to original conditions. Photos damaged by rips, creases, mold, water and fire are fix are restored, while black and white images are turned into colorized photos.
3. Photo retouching. Photo editors changes the colors, remove spots or blemishes, retouch product photo, correct exposure errors, eliminate marks and scratches, make subject blend seamlessly into the background, and overall enhance the details of the photos.
Other services also include: removing background from picture, adding a drop shadow to create a sense of reality, creating a 3D effect as the image casts an image shadow or reflection, and vectorizing of images using Illustrator Pen Tool.
What are the benefits of using a photo-editing service?
1. Economical. Editing photos consumes a lot of time, and for photographers and business owners alike, employing a photo editing service company to edit the photos definitely comes handy. It saves time, money, and effort, and makes running a business a whole lot easier. Business owners and photographers can focus on other aspects of the business such as taking photos and managing and dealing with new and prospective clients.
2. Better sales. The main purpose of photo editing is to make a photo more appealing, and a well-edited photo speaks volumes to what a business or a brand represents. Photo editing services make sure that you present your product in the most visually attractive way. This, in turn, can give you a bigger chance of generating more sales.
3. Increases credibility. Photos are always an essential part of any marketing and branding activity, and the use of good quality photos is an effective way to increase the credibility of your business. Images are necessary to build a brand. With the help of a photo editing service, customers tend to find it easier to trust a business that projects high quality images.
1. Cost. Cost is always a major factor. You want to find a company that matches your budget without sacrificing the output. Look around and compare the prices of different companies.
2. Experience in the industry. As a photographer or business owner, you want to entrust your photos to a company that has a proven experience in the industry. Google the company, look for customer reviews, and see sample works prior to availing their services.
Provides a one-stop solution for all your editing needs. A good outsource photo editing company offers a wide range of photo editing services any photographer or business owner may demand for as this reduces their work of looking for other companies to provide other services.
Final words
In today’s competitive market, the employment of photo editing service has been proven to be a beneficial way for photographers and businesses alike to achieve their business goals.It cuts unnecessary spending, saves time and effort, and helps gain credibility from customers.
As the years go by, strategies for effective sales and marketing have changed. Often, consumers’ taste and preferences change along the way and marketers have to adjust. Being in the real estate industry, you also need to be abreast with the trends and sell your properties quickly. With the amount of competition in the market, you could not afford to keep the properties on listings for long.
If you want to take your business up a notch, then you need to be smart with your marketing strategies. Here are some tricks that you could use this 2018 to market and sell your properties quickly:
Use videos
Video is the new king in 2018. Social media platforms like Facebook are giving it more weight when it comes to organic reach. More online users are also like watching videos. This allows you to stand out among the crowd. This builds your brand in the process while improving your conversion. It’s not just about adding videos to your listings but also adding different types of videos on your social media platforms that add an interesting take on your brand.
Improve listing photos
Make sure that you upgrade your listings in order to sell faster. This will encourage potential buyers to check your properties. User better photos and hire a professional photographer and real estate photo editor. Doing so ensures that you get high-quality images and the best angles for your photos. Better photos give potential buyers a clear picture of what the property can offer them.This is one of the best ways to get more people interested in the property. You have no excuses why you couldn’t get the best images for your listings since there are a lot of reliable real estate photographers around already.
Add live chat
Do not underestimate the power of having a live chat option, especially if you have your own website. Make sure that you use your website to its best potential when it comes to selling properties. If you use your site for this purpose, then it would be better to have a 24/7 live chat option. This is an effective tool for conversion. Visitors can ask questions in real-time. Live chat also improves their user experience. You are also able to get information and follow up on these prospects later on. This ensures that you won’t miss any possible sale.
Be active on social media
Social media is in the forefront of marketing today. If you want to effectively reach your market and make a sale, then your best bet would be having a strong presence on different social media platforms. Aside from this, you are also able to build your brand through social media. You don’t have to stick with posting listings on social media. You need to go above and beyond this common tactic. You can post videos and helpful tips when it comes to real estate purchases. Become a go-to resource when it comes to your industry. This increases engagement and creates a more reliable brand for you.
Ask for referrals
Do not underestimate the power of referrals. Ask your clients for referrals and make this your practice. Clients who have had good experiences with you will definitely refer you to family and friends. A majority of people trust recommendations from those they know even more than other types of marketing efforts. Make sure that when your clients are happy with your service that you ask them for referrals. Ask them to pass along your business card to those who will need your services.
Follow-up your clients
As a real estate broker, maintaining good relationships with previous clients is a must. Make sure that you stay in touch with them. You can do this by making and sending email newsletters to former clients. Make sure that these are valuable and helpful. Provide content that they can use and is relevant to your industry. This will ensure that clients will remember you in case they will need your help again.
Today, businesses need to have an online platform to be successful. Having a strong online presence can help you in reaching new markets and establish a credible brand in the industry. In line with an online presence, a professional and functional website is a pre-requisite. This is what you need to start with in order to build your brand and strengthen your business. This is especially necessary if you’re in the real estate industry.
Here are the reasons why you need to create a multi-functional site for your real estate business:
1. Build your brand.
photo score.org
Your branding is important when it comes to keeping yourself afloat in the real estate business. There are hundreds of other similar businesses in your state and you need to make yourself different from the rest of them. Creating a recognizable and professional brand online will make potential buyers more confident in making transactions with you. Most buyers will do their research and check your company or brand online before working with you. Having a website and making sure that it’s updated and filled with information will help real estate buyers in making decisions. A professional-looking website will also give you more authority in your industry and will help in gaining the trust of interested buyers. In real estate, you need to set yourself apart from others. Make sure that you have a well-designed website that will work for your brand and your bottom line. Having a good website makes you competitive.
2. To sell more.
photo housingwire.com
Aside from just making your website a branding page, you can also use it to sell properties. You don’t have to rely on different property listings in your area to sell. You can also add a listing platform to your website. This ensures that you are able to compete with others by making your properties visible online. Potential buyers who are just checking your credibility can easily see all the properties that you are currently selling. The great thing about doing this on your own website is that you are not limited by the restrictions of some online listings.
3. For SEO purposes.
Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a useful strategy for dominating online. This can be helpful especially when you want to target buyers who are using the internet to search for properties. A well-designed website can help you in terms of searchability. Make sure that your website is also mobile friendly so you can cater to all potential buyers. Taking SEO into account when creating and maintaining your website can help your business be on top of searches for a local area that you’re targeting.
4. To create a client resource.
One of your goals in building a website is to create a resource for your clients. Educating clients can be a great goal, especially when you’re targeting first-time home buyers. Add helpful tools for potential clients, such as mortgage calculators, information on loan programs, and other real estate buying tips. These will not only keep your website active, which is good for SEO but will also make it the go-to website whenever they need information for a big property purchase. This, in turn, directs more traffic to your website which can help your brand and business.
Make sure that your website is well-designed and well-maintained to ensure customers are visiting your website regularly. This is your online platform and portfolio that will evolve as you evolve and grow your business.
The real estate industry is one of the top users of drones around the world. A third of the drones are sold to real estate brokers or to real estate photographers. Drones are effective in taking aerial photos of a property, be it commercial or residential. In listings, this can be a great addition to your photos so potential buyers can see a better view of the entire property. The drone is a proper investment that can make a difference in your business. This helps in selling properties way faster while also giving amazing photos for clients to use in their listings.
If you are looking into purchasing a drone for your business, here are the top drones that you can use for real estate:
• DJI Inspire 2
The first DJI Inspire was the drone that made a difference in the filmmaking industry. The new Inspire 2 came with a new imaging system that can record 5.2K in cinemaDNG, 4K at 60fps, or other file formats at 30fps. The drone can go from 0 to 50 mph in less than five seconds. It can fly up to 58 mph. The Inspire 2 comes with a dual battery system that helps in lengthening the flight time to 27 minutes. It also works great in low temperatures so you will encounter less issues with the weather. The DJI Inspire 2 is a professional drone so it is a bit pricey. The accessories can even cost you more.
• DJI Phantom 4 Pro
This is one of the most popular drones in the market today. The DJI Phantom 4 Pro has a 20 MP camera and a 4K video feature at 60 fps. It also comes with a mechanical shutter and a one-inch sensor. What’s interesting about this drone is that it can automatically evade obstacles, track subjects, and travel to a designated point. It’s also easy to use the Phantom 4 Pro with its preset cinematic modes. Use it with the DJI GO 4 app for adjustments in the camera settings, image transmission, and video content downloading.
• Yuneec H920 Tornado
This is another pricey yet heavy-duty hexacopter, or a six-rotor drone, that comes with different safety mechanisms. It also has an advanced flight system that will provide ease to the user. This Yuneec drone has carbon fiber frame for extra durability. The H920 Tornado is made to fly Panasonic’s mirrorless GH4 camera to shoot stills and footages. This camera is great for capturing high-quality images and videos with its 16.05-megapixel sensor. What’s great about this drone is that it has auto-landing and return-to-home features.
• DJI Mavic Pro
For real estate, having both interior and exterior photos are also essential. With the DJI Mavic Pro, shooting interiors has become easier. It’s a compact drone that’s versatile and durable. It shoots 4K videos at 60 fps. It can fly up to 40 mph for 27 minutes. It’s ideal to use it for high-ceiling properties with mezzanines or those with large interiors. The drone also has an optical avoidance systems that steers it clear from any obstacles.
This drone is designed to carry bulky DSLRs and action cameras. I is portable and compact and can be easily brought to any locations for flying. It can operate up to 60 minutes in the air because of its battery capacity. This makes it the perfect companion for longer shoots and aerial videos. The QR X800 is made of strong carbon which makes it a sturdy drone.
• Yuneec Typhoon H
This drone comes with unique features that are quite useful for real estate. For its price, the Typhoon H is packed with robust capabilities. It’s a hexacopter that can be used for rugged purposes. It comes with a fail-safe mechanism and a collision prevention system. It has eight smart flight options, automatic landing, take-off and flying, and GPS Stabilization. Using this drone requires little to no effort. It has a 12-megapixel camera that can take 4K videos.
Working on your own keeps your fixed costs low and in turn, increases your profit margins but it’s not really a business. At some point as you expand you will find yourself struggling to reach the expectations of your customers. Once you don’t have the capacity to take on any new clients without dropping the ball it is time to retool your setup. The following steps will help you retool your business strategy and make your photography business scalable. This will allow you to make more money and give you more of your time back.
Step 1: Reduce your inventory to the core products
Decide what core products actually sell and make you money. To do this create a complete list of the Cost of Goods Sold for each product. You will then want to Calculate the net revenue on each product by subtracting the COGS from the gross revenue on that product. This will give you a gross profit amount. This is the number you have to play with. If this number is too low then either raise the price or discontinue the product. Cut out the stuff that takes up all your time and is a hassle to deliver to your clients. Focus on what you do well and if you really want to offer that product then after you get your business streamlined you will have the time you need to work out how to make it efficient.
Step 2: Create an easily repeatable on-site process
If your photography business and brand are centered on you and your skills, then you must recognize that there is a limit to how much you can expand. This can be a blessing if you are looking to create a boutique business as this creates scarcity and thus drives up the value of your service. The challenge is that it limits your ability to scale. You have a limited amount of work you can do, which means you need systems and people to create scale. After photographing over 100,000 homes Phixer has figured out the on-site process to create consistent products. Phixer videos can show you how here: Phixer Youtube Channel
Step 3: Outsource your post-production processing
Professional real estate photo editing companies like Phixer have a team of experts who are skilled in photo editing. Instead of spending hours worrying about how to edit and make your photos look good, outsourcing this work will let you focus on money making activities. Ask yourself how many hours you spend in post-production and how that affects your ability to secure more work. Spend more time meeting with potential clients and open up your schedule to accept more projects. Outsourcing will save money versus of hiring a full-time expert photo editor in-house. This allows you to increase the number of projects you can take on while keeping fixed costs down.
Step 4: Hire Expert Vendors
Your business needs systems in place that allow you to focus on your real role – growing your business. This means that your workflow, your accounting systems, your lead management, and customer experience systems must all be dialed-in and functioning. Don’t try and recreate the wheel. Instead of investing a lot of time into learning and creating systems in these different areas spend some time investigating the different options from experts in these respective fields Over time you can determine if you want to hire a person to do these things in-house to reduce your costs. Another bonus is that you have a chance to see how these expert companies handle your needs and you can then replicate and tweak these processes as you bring in your own employee to take over these areas.
Step 5: Hire Employees
There are 168 hours in a week. The only difference between you and your competitors is how you choose to spend them. There will never be more time and you can’t save any for later. Any service business is therefore limited by human capital. Part of the solution is delegating key tasks to team members.
If you have an expensive property that you want to sell, then it’s not enough that you take your own photos for listings. Only 10% of the total property listings have photos that are taken by professional real estate photographers. You need your listings to stand out. Being competitive is essential in order to stay ahead in the real estate industry. Making sure that you have great quality photos for listings is a representation of your professionalism and also of the quality of the property that you are selling.
If you are in need of real estate photography services, you might want to look into the top real estate photographers in the country.
These photographers are the best in their field and are among the most-sought-after photographers in real estate (random order).
Photographer: Scott Basile
Website: http://www.basilephoto.com/
Scott Basile is a commercial photographer based in San Diego who specializes in interiors and architecture. Scott understands the power of incredible imagery to help market luxury properties. “I am extremely grateful to to be able to do this for a living. I work closely with some very talented people and get the opportunity to work in some stunning spaces. Exceeding my clients expectations is always the goal.”
Photographer: Michael Kelley
Website: http://www.mpkelley.com/
Michael Kelley is considered one of the best real estate photographers in the world. He specializes in aerial, interiors, commercial spaces, and architecture. Mike is based in Los Angeles but photographs various properties around the world. He uses both artificial and natural light to shoot outdoor and indoor spaces while carefully crafting his images.
Brandon Beechler is a freelance photographer based in Orange County. He specializes in architectural photography and in interiors. Brandon first started his career as a real estate professional which led him to become one of the best real estate photographers. His photos are crisp and clean, which utilize traditional lighting and modern retouching.
Photographer: Richard Caplan
Website: http://www.richcaplan.com/
Richard Caplan is a professional photographer based in New York. He specializes in luxury architectural and interior photos. He is one of the most sough-after real estate photographers in the country. Richard captures amazing real estate photos that sell the property real fast.
Photographer: Harry Lim
Website: http://harrylimphotography.com
Harry Lim is a professional photographer based in Orlando, Florida and servicing central Florida. He specializes in vacation homes, interiors, and real estate. He believes in the importance of professional photos for listings and selling properties fast. Through his photography, he aims to convey the warmth of every home and represent every bit with accuracy.
Jaime Martorano is a professional photographer and retoucher based in Westchester County, New York. He has a long experience in photography with interests in visual art, film, video, design, graphics, and marketing. He specialized in real estate, commercial, and hospitality photography.
Iran Watson is a professional photographer from Marietta, Georgia and has been servicing the southeast US market since 2010. He was awarded as Photographer of the Year in 2012 by RealEstate.net. Iran visual style is storytelling. He captures images that tell the specific story of the home.
Photographer: Chris Meyer
Website: https://chrismeyerphotography.com/
Chris is a professional photographer who specializes in commercial and residential real estate photography. He provides high-quality images for real estate professionals, commercial property owners, and interior designers in the Sierra Mountain Communities and in Central California. Chris believes that high-quality photos can help any property stand out and encourage buyers to make the move.
Photographer: Jason Hulet
Website: https://www.traverse-city-real-estate-photography.com/
Jason Hulet started real estate photography in 2003. He is based in Traverse City, Michigan and specialized in integrating cinematography into real estate photography. He strives to create images that help portray designed spaces, talents, and services of different clients.
Cameron Nielson is one of the celebrated architectural photographers in the world. He is based in New York and specializes in interiors and architectural fine art photography. He started his career in photography early on as he grew up watching his father make prints in their home dark room. Cameron is known for his compelling and clean photographs that are all carefully lighted.
Aubrey Antis is a professional photographer based in Southern California servicing all of Southern California areas, such as Orange County, Inland Empire, and Los Angeles. She grew up watching the real estate boom and realized this is where she wanted to be involved in. Aubrey knows that professional real estate photography can make a difference in selling properties. She knows how to highlight features of every property to create amazing photos.
Photographer: Alex Tajarano
Website: http://www.alextphoto.com/
Alex Tajarano is a professional photographer that specializes in commercial, architectural, and real estate photography. He is based in Miami, Florida. Alex delivers professional photographs and believes that these are essential in making a good impression on a buyer. He also does aerial photography and property tours for real estate professionals.
Bree Hunter is an architectural and real estate photographer based in California providing services to all of the Inland Empire. She provides real estate images to real estate professionals. Bree offers quick and fast services without sacrificing the quality of the images. She creates eye-catching interiors and exteriors that focuses on the interesting details of the property.
Josh Pabst is an architect who specializes in architectural and real estate photography. He is based in Chicago and is providing services to the Chicago and Indianapolis area. Josh started photography at a young age but founded his photography company when the architectural industry took a turn. His style focuses on the architectural design process and its cultural context.
Photographer: Patrick Bertolino
Website: https://patrickbertolino.com/
Patrick Bertolino is a real estate photographer based in Houston, Texas. He is a certified drone pilot and has over 20 years of experience in commercial photography. Patrick specializes in commercial and architectural photography.
Eddy Joaquim is an architectural photographer based in San Francisco Bay Area. He is an architect by profession and has extensive experience in Portugal. His works focus on the details of the properties. Eddy has a keen eye and creates beautiful masterpieces with his photography.
Photographer: Joe Alfano
Website: https://www.joealfanophotography.com/
By Joe
Joe Alfano is a real estate photographer based in South Jersey, Philadelphia. He is a former real estate agent who knows what potential buyers are looking for in a home. Joe knows the importance of putting the best photos forward.
Taking photos of real estate can be tricky. It’s not just something that you can do quickly and send to clients in the hopes of being able to sell their properties. Real estate photography is more than just taking pictures. There’s more work to be done after every photo shoot. The real estate photography retouching and editing can take a lot of time, especially if you want to produce amazing photos for clients. Retouching and post-processing is an essential part of real estate photography. Having mastery of Photoshop and other post-processing software is important.
Retouching in Photoshop
There are different things that can be done in Photoshop for real estate. The goal is to make the image look realistic, as well as make the property look its best. Through Photoshop, you can adjust the colors and the lighting of the property or change the sky.
One of the most useful editing tricks is to blend ambient photos with flash photos. This can be most effective for interior photos. Often, you do not capture the perfect image just with your camera. The lights can be off and you have a variety of light source that makes the image look crazy. To combat this problem, most real estate photographers take multiple photos of the same subject in different lighting settings. Then, you merge the photos in order to get the best lighting in the image.
Blending ambient and flash photos
Blending different photos in order to create one seamless image with amazing lighting can be tricky but doable. If you need to blend ambient and flash photos into a single photo, follow these steps:
1. Open all of your images. Make sure that you have opened all the ambient and flash photos in your Photoshop. You might have photos of the lighting fixtures inside on and another photo with the lighting fixtures off. Arrange the photos and make the ambient photo your base layer for blending.
2. Edit your lights-on photo first. Before you start blending, make appropriate corrections for each the photo. On your lights-on photo, switch the blending mode to lighten. If you have visible lighting fixtures, you might want to brush in the lights. Put a black layer mask. Click on the brush tool and set the flow to 30 percent. Brush the area where the lights are. Make sure that the lights are already visible.
3. Correct your lights-off image. Retouch your lights-off layer by putting a black layer mask on top. With this, you want to tone down the bright areas of the image, like where the ambient lights are hitting and other sources of light.
4. Use stamp visible. This is a very helpful function that creates a new layer of the content that you want to merge. Make sure that you make all your working layers visible. Then, go to Layers menu and click Merge Visible while holding the Alt key.
5. Align your verticals. Make sure that you have straight lines on your image. The problem with shooting interiors is that you get slanted lines all over. First, you can try to use the Lens Correction function under the Filter menu to see if Photoshop can automatically straighten the lines. Photoshop usually matches the camera and lens used to create the image and automatically corrects the minimal distortion. You can also use the Skew function under Transform. This allows you to align your verticals manually. Just pull the corner until your verticals line up with your guide.
6. Remove unwanted objects. If there objects in your frame that you want to remove, like some light stands that are in the frame, make a new layer. Click the Spot Healing Brush tool and go over the areas that you want to remove.
Crop the photo as needed. Make sure that you don’t include unnecessary parts in the photo. Click on the Crop tool. Crop the image as needed in order to bring the focus into the interiors. This also removes unnecessary areas in the photo.
7. Flatten the image. Once you are happy with how the photo looks like, make sure that you flatten the layers to create one image. This would be your deliverable to the client. To flatten, make sure that the layers you want to retain are all visible. Then, go to the Layer menu and click Flatten Image. Now, you have a single photo that has all the edits that you’ve done.
There are still a lot of other Photoshop tricks and edits that you need to be familiar with as a real estate photographer. Just like being in photography, everything takes practice. Make sure that you train your eye and keep shooting. Find angles that will work for the specific space andproperty. Editing in Photoshop is time-consuming. Once you are used to it, you can easily find a flow that works for you.
The post-processing for real estate photography takes a good amount of time for many photographers. This usually takes a huge amount of time as this is an important step in creating amazing images that will help clients in selling their property.
There are different techniques that photographers can use and do in order to retouch and make the properties look great in photos.
Here are some of the basic and most commonly used editing techniques for real estate photography:
1. Perform color correcting.
Color correction is probably one of the basic and essential steps in real estate photo editing. Color correction can be done on Lightroom and Photoshop. However, it’s easier and quicker to do it on Lightroom. With the eyedropper tool, just click on a neutral area to correct the colors of the entire image. Depending on the photo, you might need to adjust the saturation, hue, and tint in order to get a more realistic image.
2. Straighten the lines.
When shooting properties, you need to be extra careful with your lines. You need to make sure that these are straight and not bent in some way. Whether you’re shooting interior or exterior, you have to look at the lines and shoot them properly. However, you can always retouch them after a shoot. To align the lines in Photoshop, you can use the Free Transform. Make sure that you select the entire image and drag the corner of the image opposite to where the lines are leaning towards.
3. Even out the light.
When shooting interiors or exteriors, you might encounter problems with the shadows and uneven lighting. To combat this, use Lightroom to adjust shadows, highlight, whites, and blacks. Drag the Shadows bar to the right in order to open up the shadows a little bit. Make sure that it is a safe middle ground. If you have harsh highlights on the photo, you may want to drag your highlights bar to the left in order to bring down the hot spots. To adjust the whites and blacks, hold down the Alt key on your PC or the Option key on your Mac. Bring the whites or the blacks bar to the right until you see specs of white or black on the image.
4. Clean up the image with cloning.
Remove unwanted objects in your photo using the clone stamp tool in Photoshop. Click the clone stamp tool and choose the source area. Then, you can start cloning and painting over the object that you want to remove.
5. Adjust clarity.
On Lightroom, just push the clarity to the right in order to polish the photo. With adjusting the clarity, you might want to adjust the blacks as well in order to add depth and crisper look to the image.
6. HDR.
High dynamic range (HDR) is a technique that many real estate photographers use to create a greater dynamic range of luminosity. To create HDR images, make sure that you have shot your subject in different bracketed images. Then, all you have to do is merge the photos into one to show its highlights and shadows.
7. Lens correction.
This is a handy tool that you can use in Lightroom. It corrects the optical issues found in most lenses. To use this, just go to the Lens Correction module and click Enable Profile Corrections. Then, click on Remove Color Aberration.
8. Curves.
The Curves is a powerful tool in Photoshop. This can be used for color correcting and optimizing your colors. However, it can be an extensive tool that can be challenging to master. To use Curves, go to the Image menu, choose Adjustments and click on Curves. Click Auto in the dialog box. Drag the diagonal line at the center and pull it up to brighten the image or down to darken it. When you’re already happy with the outcome, click OK. You can freely play around with this tool and experiment in order to achieve the look that you want.
9. Using image processor.
The image processor allows you to resize your photos in batches. This is a time-saving tool, especially if you are working on hundreds of images that will have to be used in different mediums. To use the image processor tool, select File menu and click on Image Processor. Choose Folder in the dialog box and save in the same location. Choose JPEG as file type and click on Resize to fit and put in your desired dimensions. Make sure that you include the ICC profile and click Run.
10. Playing with hue and saturation.
Hue and Saturation is another helpful tool in Photoshop. This can be used for color correction and is also similar to Curves. However, Hue and Saturation can be used to enhance the greens on exterior and landscape photos. To use Hue and Saturation, go to Image menu, choose Adjustments, and click on Hue and Saturation. Choose Yellow from the dialog box. Increase the hue and decrease the saturation and lightness. Change the option from Yellow to Green and repeat the changes you’ve made to hue, saturation, and lightness. Then, click OK.
11. Do composites.
Composite is an ingenious technique that merges different photos to create a seamless image. This can be used in real estate when you’re blending together different images, such as stitching flash and ambient shots into a single photo. This is often done on instances wherein the subject is manually lit by the photographer using a handheld flash.
12. Batch edit, if possible.
If you’re working on similar edits on a number of photos, it’s best to batch edit them using Lightroom. This allows you to save time and do the minor edits all in one go. Just do the retouches and adjustments on one photo and sync these changes into the rest of the images.
13. Keep it natural.
The final yet most important photo editing technique when retouching real estate photos is to keep it natural. It can be too easy to go overboard when editing photos. However, you need to make sure that you create a more natural look in order to make the photos believable. The goal in real estate photography is to sell the property. Make sure that you err on the natural side every time you retouch your images.
