Selling real estate is very different from the way other products are sold. In selling real estate, pictures play a critical role in influencing the prospective buyer’s decision to buy or not buy a property.
Even the most skilled real estate photographers with the best equipment do not always get the shots they envisioned. Either the colours are off, or the brightness is not right. Whatever the reason, even the best gadgets and the coolest tricks do not guarantee good pictures.
When looking for property, people first look at the pictures used in the listings and ads. Much of the real estate photography happens indoors – without natural light. In photography, lighting and exposure are essential. Not surprisingly, real estate pictures straight from the camera require a lot of work to make them look perfect and engaging – before they can be used in any sales or promotional material for real estate.
Pictures used in listings and ads need to be shot professionally, but they also need to be edited professionally. Often professional real estate photo editing services are used for this purpose. Empirical data has repeatedly shown that real estate with great pictures sells faster than those with not-so-good pictures.
Great pictures not only bring more engagement to real estate listings and help establish a favourable brand image. Great pictures help the property stand out from the competition.
For photo editing of real estate pictures, to aid sales efforts, seven pro-tips that can help you get the best results to include:
- Picture Cropping. Cropping helps correct any composition errors that might have crept in during the shoot. The efficacy of cropping is often not valued enough. Cropping can help rid the picture of many unnecessary aspects. Using cropping, the aspect ratios can be changed to fit the specific requirements of different sites. Cropping also helps alter the image’s perspective – the spotlight can be turned on to the elements that need to be highlighted to make the picture more engaging.
- Tweak Exposure Levels. This is a key foundational step in enhancing picture quality. Correctly adjusting the colour, contrast, image sharpness, and tone can make a difference. People naturally gravitate to brighter images. Real estate images need to be properly lit. Dark images hide features and highlights of the image. The right contrast, colour and tone enhance the image and make it more appealing and lifelike.
- Perspective Correction. This correction is used to alter the angle at which the image was shot. A minor change in the image’s perspective can enhance impact. Changing the perspective can also help correct lens defects. Images can also be distorted by other factors such as the shape of the room, camera position, etc. Perspective correction can alter this misalignment. Perspective correction directs the buyer’s attention to the image’s key strengths.
- Clutter Removal. Removing clutter in the images is essential to make them look more professional. This step involves digitally removing all the unwanted elements in the frame and then a little blending and re-touching to fill in the space – to give the images a touch of perfection. The unwanted elements could be a painting on the wall, a power cord, a kettle on the countertop, a car blocking out the garden, etc.
- Replacing the Sky. Typically, the best real estate images feature brilliant skies and clouds. Most often, the skies in these images are not real. Usually, the image of the sky is taken from elsewhere and superimposed on the real estate pictures to make them more enticing. This is fairly obvious – sunny, bright days make for better images compared to overcast and gloomy skies. Gloomy outdoors can make the best real estate look dull and dreary. The right image enhancements can perk up a picture.
- Noise Reduction. Noise, more commonly known as grain, noise refers to the hazy dots that affect image quality and degrade image clarity. Noise is caused by low-light settings, errors in sensor size, exposure time, or pixel density. Noise can cause an otherwise well-composed picture to look unappealing because of its grainy appearance. Suitable editing techniques can reduce this noise. Noise removal makes the pictures clearer, vibrant, and aesthetically enticing. It would be prudent to avail of the services of a specialised photo editing services agency for such tasks.
- Flattening the Lighting. The property’s exterior can be shot under natural light. However, to shoot the interiors, artificial lighting is inescapable. This can often create uneven lighting. The best way to eliminate unevenness in lighting is by editing the shadows and highlights in the picture. The shadows can be reduced to create a more flat picture to brighten up the picture. Conversely, the highlight can be increased to whiten the picture and makes it look brighter. The opposite needs to be done for reducing the brightness of the picture.
Final Thoughts
A well-edited picture will highlight the best features of the real estate property. Competent editing is not an option but essential for every real estate firm to make its property stand out from the competition. It would even be advisable to avail professional real estate photo editing services for this purpose. It can distinguish between a prospect being turned off or being convinced that the property is worth considering and investing in.