It’s no secret that the sale of real estate properties depends a lot on the property images posted on the listing site. Even with the best equipment and the right skill, sometimes you will not get the perfect shot you envision. Maybe the color scheme is not appropriate. Or, perhaps the image seems a little dark due to lack of light. Now you can add the magic in your clicks with the help of real estate photo editing techniques without compromising in quality. In this industry, the first impression matters a lot. High-quality appropriate property images are a must for compelling your target audience to buy the property.
Real Estate Photo Editing Best Practices
With perfectly enhanced and balanced property images, the chance of selling your property gets increased by 100%. Having a good DSLR might not be enough if you are not aware of the real estate photo editing best practices. So, how will you stand out from the tough competition? Below is a list of a few real estate photo editing techniques that will help you in gaining a competitive advantage in the market.
1. Color Correction
As one of the easiest and quickest real estate photo editing practices, color correction has a crucial role in bringing perfection to property photos. Starting from Adobe Photoshop to Adobe Lightroom, all renowned photo editors have the feature of color correction. Flat colors of your property images can be easily adjusted to give the image a realistic and dazzling look while adjusting the level of saturation and hue. Tweak the colors of your property and see how the viewers are reacting to your edited real estate photos.
2. Balancing Light
For a real estate agency, getting the right lighting for the property images is essential for converting potential buyers to customers. Light balancing is the most important aspect that helps in creating bright images that enhance the features of the image. Photo shooting using artificial mirrors and lighting can lead to overexposure or unpleasant dark spots. Adjust all the light levels using the Adobe Lightroom by changing the highlights and shadows and create balanced property photos.
3. Image Cloning
Image cloning is another real estate photo editing best practice through which you can clean the images for making them crisp. Before shooting, decluttering a room if it is still being lived can be very tough. Property visitors need to watch the blank canvas of the house so that they can picture their dreams and lives. Using the clone tool in Adobe Photoshop you can clean the images within minutes.
4. Object Removal
Whenever you click any photo of your property, you will find a few unnecessary objects which you may want to get rid of. It can be a cup or a plate on the serving table on your porch. Or it could be a car parked in the garden blocking its beautiful view. All these unwanted items can be removed digitally while enhancing the beauty of the property. Object removal is one of the real estate photo editing trends that all agencies use for providing a proper look at the property.
5. Mastering HDR
High Dynamic Range (HDR) is one of the most popular real estate photo editing trends used by editing professionals as it can add life to your property images by enhancing the richness of color. Nowadays most DSLR have the effect of HDR mode. This HDR mode helps in balancing the highlights and shadows by merging several shots of the images of the same subject but with a different focus.
6. Color Cast Removal
Color cast removal is used by the photo editors to bring back life and lighter especially inside the room. For instance, if the room has beige color walls and outside the weather is cloudy, then the room will look dark in the image because of low light. Even the color settings on the camera can alter the natural colors of your home. However, with the usage of color cast removal, now you can bring the property’s original colors in the image. Color cast removal neutralizes the effect while removing the unwanted tint that hides the actual colors.
7. Noise Reduction
Grains or noise refers to the hazy dots present in the image that affects its clarity. Noise reduction is a useful editing technique that removes the grainy picture that looks unappealing. The haziness and the grainy look come due to a few factors such as low light settings, errors in exposure time, sensor size, and pixel density. Professional photo editors can reduce the noise by various editing procedures. With the use of noise reduction, you can make your property images more vibrant, clearer, and appealing.
8. Sky Replacement
Sunny days are the best time for clicking property photos as you will get ample light and brightness. However, if you have clicked any photo in dark or gloomy weather, don’t worry about it. Sky replacement techniques help in replacing gray and overcast skies with summer and sunny skies. With all the proper image enhancement techniques, the property image will look like they were shot on a perfect sunny day.
9. Photo Manipulation
Photo manipulation techniques is an unusually famous photo editing technique that is not only famous in real estate photography but every type of photo editing. This technique works wonders in creating magic in your photo by adding richness and saturation. It involves alteration or transformation of an image using retouching techniques such as double exposure, darkroom exposure techniques, dodging (lightening), burning (darkening) techniques, etc.
10. Perspective Correction
All real estate photographs have vertical and horizontal lines that usually don’t converge. However, these lines may be distorted due to several factors such as curvature of the camera lens, shape and size of the room, the position of the camera, and so on. Perspective correction is an editing technique that helps in correcting distortion and misalignment. Make your photo more natural using this technique by aligning the distorted lines with the frame of the image. It allows the viewers to focus on the main point of interest since the picture looks more cohesive and compact.
The Bottom Line
Now, you can imagine how real estate photo editing techniques can work wonders when used perfectly. A properly edited property photo will showcase the warmth and the glory of the place and its interiors. Hence, real estate photo editing is not optional anymore. But it is the most essential service for any real estate agency that not only enhances the property photos but also it increases the sale of your company in leaps and bounds.
Selling a property revolves around a beautiful presentation of your property to the clients where they can imagine their dreams. Photos are vital in projecting the vision of the customers. Play around with the above-mentioned real estate photo editing techniques and create an amazing customer experience with your perfectly edited photos.
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