The real estate market is fast-paced and rapidly evolving due to the many economic, societal, and health changes in recent years. Real estate companies practice aggressive pricing changes, better listing copy practices, and photo standards. If you want to remain competitive, you need to improve the quality of your photoshoots or rely on experts.

Seattle real estate photography standards have improved to accommodate the ever-changing global lifestyles. Well-known professional photographers use tips and tricks to showcase the best real estate angles and promote sales.

Here are some of the exciting ways to shoot properties and sell better:

1. Choose and start from a unique focal point

Your images should always have a point of focus or focal point. The purpose of the focal point is to capture the viewer’s attention and ultimately entice a purchase decision. If you are shooting a personal property, you should know the top reasons why someone would want your real estate. The focal point shows the potential customer features that they would find appealing.

You should know what your property focal points are before you book real estate photography services. Here are some of the possible spots to look out for:

• Scenic background
• Accent colors or unique features
• Swimming pool or artificial pond
• Front porch design
• Colorful garden
• Art pieces

Make a list of all the unique features you can find in the property, and strategize which ones to highlight in the listing.

2. Use the correct property photography perspectives

The image perspective matters a lot, especially in presenting dimensions. There are standard Seattle real estate photography processes and procedures, but the primary purpose is to have genuine photographs. You should market and promote your property by following the appropriate methods. There’s a thin line between stylizing real estate images and looking artificial, so it’s essential to practice the correct angles and perspectives.

Here are some tips on perspective:

• The horizon should be a straight horizontal line flat on the ground.
• Avoid special lenses and perspectives like worm’s eye and bird’s eye views.
• Drone shots help show off large properties.
• Don’t shoot from the ground up to prevent unrealistic height expectations.
• Take a photo of the front porch area.
• Showcase at least two walls of the room.

There are numerous terrific real estate photography tips, and perspective is one of the most tricky ones to master. The wrong lens or angle may leave you with a wonky-looking image.

3. Clean and organize the real estate

You should clean and organize the area before conducting photoshoots. You need to present a tidy and neat place, especially when you’re doing property photography. First impressions last long, especially when your photo is up against thousands with similar appearances. You can also do virtual home staging when the rooms are unprepared.

An orderly surrounding gives the impression that the property is well maintained and may not need significant maintenance services.

4. Compose photos according to Target Market

You can compose images to suit your prospective customers, and curating your photoshoot according to your target market’s wants is an excellent way to attract clients. There are many subtle ways to accommodate your possible buyer’s psyche and give the feeling of being homey.

Here are some accents or features according to potential buyer preferences:

• Art pieces
• Accent wall colors
• Garden statues
• Inclusive pieces of furniture

Final Thoughts

Real estate photography is an art, and it’s essential to improve your perspectives and techniques to compete with other listings. You might also need real estate images with perfectly worded listing descriptions to enhance sales potential. If you’re in doubt, you can contact trusted real estate photography services that offer specialized assistance.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) states that 90% or nine out of ten home buyers start their decision-making journey online, so it’s essential to invest in high-definition real estate photography for more sales and better conversion rates.

Here are some of the essential real estate photography rules to live by:

 

Real Estate Photography Do’s

1. Do Plan Your Shoot to Sufficiently Prepare

You should know what you want to shoot and how you want it done to prepare for equipment, people, natural lighting, and timing.

2. Do Use the Right Equipment for Best Possible Quality

First of all, use the appropriate camera or phone camera setting if you want a high-definition output. Secondly, bring a tripod or a stable surface to avoid blurs on your property photography.

3. Do Highlight Best Features to Ensure Uniqueness

There are thousands or even millions of real estate photos on the real estate market, so you should try to capture the selling points by highlighting unique architectural details in your photo.

4. Do Take a Photo of Entire Property to Set Expectations

If you’re selling a house or a property, you should take a photo from the curb to showcase the entire home. The scenery is part of the purchase, so it’s essential to set expectations by showing the surroundings.

5. Do Home Staging for Better Space Utilization

Home staging is essential in bringing out the best space usage, and this process inspired what we know as showrooms for real estate photography Seattle. Virtual staging is the digital equivalent of home staging.

6. Use Current Technology to Enhance Image Quality

There are many post-production software and tools you can use to improve your images. You can also hire professional real estate photography near you.

7. Do Post Production to Ensure the Final Output is Listing-Ready

Regardless of how the images look in the viewfinder, it would help if you edited them to ensure there are no missed spots or out-of-focus areas.

 

Real Estate Photography Don’ts

1. Don’t Forget to Give Your Photos Variety to Avoid Being Monotonous

Play with different angles or areas if you are featuring multiple properties at a time as long as they are realistic angles.

2. Don’t Use Unrealistic or Flashy Lenses to Avoid Unrealistic Expectations

Ensure that the images look as close to the real-life model as possible, especially when you’re doing property photography.

3. Don’t Neglect Cleaning Up to Avoid Spending Too Much Time on Post-Production

There are a lot of companies that can offer decluttering and post-production. However, it may take up too much of your resources to digitally alter the images rather than hiding the garbage bin while you’re doing the shot.

4. Don’t Forget to Assess All Shots Before Editing

Prepare pass, reassess and fail piles when looking through your real estate photography Seattle images. Save time during post-production by sorting them in advance.

5. Don’t Skip the Test Shots to Check if Your Equipment is Working Properly

The last thing you need is an unfunctional camera. You should conduct test shots before the actual shoot to ensure that your camera is working accordingly.

6. Don’t Include Photos of Yourself or Your Pets Unless They Come with the House

The property listing is not an opportunity for you to showcase yourself or your pets, and your image is in danger of being tagged as irrelevant.

7. Don’t Disregard Expertise when Hiring a Photographer

Every type of photography has its own sets of standards and quality, so remember that when looking for real estate photography near you.

Final Thoughts

Real estate photography is evolving faster due to the innovation and introduction of cutting-edge technology. You’ll create better listing materials as long as you follow the do’s and don’ts mentioned above and plan your listing.

Beautiful high-quality real estate images help promote and sell properties online, especially in 2021. The community lockdowns and work-from-home protocols increase the need for homes and properties, and due to market saturation, real estate photography is in high demand.

Resourcefulness and creativity are the keys to compelling property images. You can create high-quality images without the hefty price tag with a few tricks and tips.

You might want to try the following real estate photography hacks before hiring a professional real estate photo editing service:

1. Utilize equipment with high-definition capabilities

First and foremost, if you want to create high-quality images, you need to use the appropriate cameras and lenses to help achieve that. Most newer cameras and lighting devices may be too expensive, so you need to optimize each piece of equipment with its corresponding accessory and settings. You can even use your smartphone as long as it has the proper prerequisites.

Lighting is one of the essential elements that enhance the overall photograph, and there are many ways to improvise. Take pictures during days with natural sunlight or repurpose used umbrellas as light diffusers. You don’t have to spend a lot on equipment as long as you understand real estate property design and composition principles.

If you want to use your phone camera for photos, make sure that it supports ultra-high-definition (UHD). Most UHD cameras have a Pro mode that can take pictures like most digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, especially when you attach macro lenses. Ensure that the photos are easy to manage and clean so that the real estate editor won’t have issues in post-production.

2. Tether camera to a computer or laptop

You can connect your camera to a laptop to see your image previews in real-time. This process allows you to distinguish which images you want to keep quickly and those you want to trash. This technique also enables you to assess if the shot is sufficient or if it should have retakes. This style would help the real estate editor quickly determine which images to keep and which ones to trash.

3. Capture images from realistic angles

The rule of thumb in real estate photography is making sure that the horizon is a flat straight line. This simple rule ensures that you’re maintaining the correct angle. Determine the appropriate property spot by checking the necessary curves and lines before sending the images to a real estate photo editing service.

The horizon or the flat of the land in the background should not be slanted or tilted to ensure that the property looks realistic. You can use a wide-angle lens with a 24mm to 35mm focal length to ensure that you capture the entire landscape.

4. Post-production hacks

It’s tempting to shoot and post the result immediately, but high-definition real estate photo editing can increase real estate sales potential. The images will look better, and you can catch objects, shadows, and colors out of place.

Here are some editing tips:

• Make sure your cameras and monitors are sufficiently calibrated.
• Create separate layers for each element.
• Check the lines and angles to ensure their all straight and realistic.
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) adjustment to neutralize the image’s tone by adjusting the excessively bright and dark parts.
• Crop and remove unimportant details of the photo as long as it looks natural overall.

Conclusion

The high-quality real estate photo editing techniques can directly influence your real estate listing performance. If you want to sell your properties fast and compete with the current digital market, you need to establish attractiveness through beautiful real estate photos.

According to a report called Emerging Trends in Real Estate®2021 for the US and Canada published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), over 90% of the respondents believed that companies would continue to allow remote work-from-home setups for employees in the future. The work-from-home trend boosted the demand for homes outside of urban and industrialized areas.

Employees have relocated to rural areas or the suburbs due to social distancing protocols. The 2021 market movement has increased the demand for outdoor real estate photography as more people are looking for permanent dwellings. Listing photographs have become competitive with most real estate deals happening online.

What Makes Excellent Property Photos

There are thousands of ways to take great photos, and you can make the most out of every element available. You can showcase a scenic mountain backdrop on a sunny day or a nighttime light display. There are no hard and fast rules to outdoor property photography, but there are ways to ensure that you get the best results.

Essential Outdoor Real Estate Photography Tips

1. Preparation before the shoot

Excellent planning allows you to perform better and get ready for any external factors. For starters, think about why you’re shooting the outdoor real estate photos and what you’re going to do with them. You may want to post the pictures on a listing website, or you may put it up for lease.

Here are some of the things you should prepare before the shoot:

• Clean and declutter the property.
• Decide on your equipment such as wide lens, drone, diffuser, lighting equipment, tripod, etc.
• Think of a concept or focal point in your shoot.

Your primary reason will determine the production style, composition, and equipment needed.

2. Straighten the horizon

The horizon should form a straight line to avoid awkward angles. If you can’t see the horizon, check out the topmost part of the lawn or landscape and make sure it’s a straight horizontal line. This simple reminder ensures that you’re practicing the correct perspective in your photo.

3. Check the weather forecast or season

Outdoor photoshoots are heavily dependent on the weather. Everything from the sun to the clouds will dictate the quality of your photo. While diffusers and artificial light can make up for cloudy days, you’d want to conduct the shoot while the sun is high and bright.

4. Highlight unique features

Compose the outdoor photoshoot from your potential buyer’s perspective to effectively deliver your message. Select a few angles or features in the property or surrounding that would tell a good story.

Here are some of the questions you should consider:

• Who are your target buyers?
• Why would they buy or rent your property?
• Are they planning to stay short-term or long-term?

You can include the surrounding imagery in the shoot if you’re planning to sell the property as a whole.

5. Post-production

Lastly, spend time and effort in post-production, especially when you’re planning on posting the pictures online. Raw images are only suitable for personal or family use. If you want to publish your photos, you will need to edit them.

Here are some of the standard post-production processes:

• Soften rough textures.
• Apply a blurring effect to illustrate the depth.
• Remove awkward elements like shadows or trash.
• Enhance the colors of the roof or garden.

You need to check how your images look when zoomed in, regardless of how beautiful they appear on the viewfinder or preview.

Competitive Real Estate Photos

Professionally done outdoor property photos are visually appealing to buyers. Images showcasing landscapes and unique property features have higher chances of being selected. Enhance the brightness and color levels to stand out and sell the property faster.

The concept of photography is all about capturing a certain subject or landscape to preserve a specific moment. To do this, most photographers opt to blur the subject’s background to add distinction to the main attraction of the photo.

Moreover, they use it to provide emphasis to the subject’s entirety. With the right instructions, a photographer can grasp this technique easily.

The blurring of the background is referred to as the depth of field (DOF). In a nutshell, the depth of field provides direction to photographers for them to know whether the subject or the entire frame is focused, or if only a certain part of the scene is blurred.

While this technique is effectively utilized in any kind of photography, it is more applicable to real estate photography. The proper utilization of the camera’s depth of field will showcase the property’s highlights, mainly focusing on the marketable features that the house has.

The depth of field is highly reliant on the camera’s capability to work well with light.

First, the camera lens redirects the available light to the camera’s sensor. Then, the pieces of glass within the lens will adjust the light rays, motioning for them to meet at the image sensor. When the points of light meet at the sensor, it indicates that the subject is in focus.

Meanwhile, the points of light that meet before or after the image sensor are considered blurry or out of focus. It requires patience and attention to detail as each turn of the lens or any slight movement may skew the achieved focus.

The focus is also determined by the photographer’s distance to the subject. Using a camera lens with a longer focal length may produce a narrow angle view, with the image’s focal point being farther than usual.

On the other hand, a lens with a shallow focal length can also be a substitute for a wide angle lens, which captures a wider view, but doesn’t necessarily emphasize the scene’s details. If the real estate photographer is photographing the house’s exterior, it is best to use lenses with a shallow focal length, to completely capture the property’s expanse. However, if the main subject is the house’s interiors and salient features, it is recommended to use a longer focal length.

Moreover, the depth of field serves as a guide regarding the certain extent of how the subject will remain sharp. A shallow depth of field can be tricky, for any object straying from the mandated distance will come out blurry.

At the same time, a wider depth of field gives focus to several objects even though the photographer is significantly farther from the subject. The depth of field the photographer will utilize will depend on the level of exposure and emphasis they would like the subject to have.

The camera’s aperture also plays a crucial role. Through this, the photographer can control how much light the camera absorbed through an opening in the lens.

Remember the following:

• The larger the opening, the more light the camera takes in to interconnect more points of light.
• The wider the aperture level, the shorter the distance it requires to produce a sharper subject.
• It is recommended for real estate photographers to use a wider aperture when it comes to focusing on the home’s features, while a smaller aperture level can make almost everything within the frame focused.

Above all, most photographers utilize this technique in order to magnify the central subject or the scene’s entirety while real estate photographers may use this technique to focus on the property’s selling points and specific features, which will effectively catch prospective buyers’ and realtors’ attention.