Realtor Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Tips for Real Estate Photography

Gift Ideas for the Real Estate Photographer

Need some last minute gift ideas for a real estate photographer in your life? Or perhaps you are a real estate photographer and you want some ideas on things to get yourself as a gift? Here are a few small items that I think all real estate photographers should think about having in their camera bags.

I am very adamant and clear that I do not stage properties. Clients know ahead of time that I am expected to focus on taking great photos when I arrive – not rearrange furniture or clean up after messy home sellers. Utilizing a professional home stager is one of the best things agents can do to increase the level of service they provide to sellers, however a lot of Realtors still don’t take advantage of the amazing results a stager brings to the table.

To protect myself from having to do anything I don’t want to do and also to promote the hiring of professional stagers, I created a prep/todo list website that I pass along to clients when appointments are booked.

I’ve had my Manfrotto 190XPROB (Note: Manfrotto has discontinued this model and have replaced it with the Manfrotto 190XPRO3) tripod for over 4 years and haven’t had any issues with it, until the other week. The thumb screw that goes into the center column to hold the center pole in place stripped. I had to order a new thumb screw from Manfrotto (call them – their online contact form is worthless) and thought it would be a great time to clean my tripod while it was down for the count.

It took me a couple of years of running my real estate photography business before I ran into a situation where I needed to color calibrate my monitor. All of the photos that I took were uploaded to MLS and viewed online, right? And everything can see the photos like I see them, we don’t have a printer getting in the way, so what’s the point of color calibration?

I have previously discussed file management for real estate photography to show how I organize all of my files. But I’ve received questions about it and had requests from readers that I put together a video to show my folder structure.

Have you seen the video with a naked guy walking around a property filmed in black and white? Or the home owner selling her ranch because of a sickness she was diagnosed with so she has to give up her dream property? These are examples of lifestyle real estate videos – videos that show buyers what it’s like to live at a property. They tend to draw on emotion more than showcasing the property itself. While you and I may never produce something so extravagant, we do have options on providing this type of service to our client base.

Real estate twilight photography has many advantages. It can help you build your business and client base, and it can add a high-value product to your services. Let’s first take a look at some of the pros and cons of twilights for real estate photography. Then we’ll look at a video where I show how I edited a recent twilight photo for a property.

Pole aerial photography is a service real estate photographers can have in their arsenal that can set themselves apart from …

We have already looked at a HDR real estate photography tutorial using the Enfuse method of blending brackets. When I first started my business it was one of two options. The other option for blending multiple exposures together was strict HDR software like Photomatix. At the time, Photomatix didn’t have an Enfuse option so the result was over-saturated, overly tone mapped images. I see different variations of HDR photos online for property listings and thought we could go through a couple and look at their strengths and weaknesses.

You have probably read about it on the web. The hot thing right now in real estate is taking aerial images with UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Some times they are referred to as “drones”. Where do you begin when trying to put a camera in the air? Do you focus on aerial photos, aerial video or both? Let’s see what might be the best RC helicopter with video camera for real estate photography.