Enhancing Features in Photoshop for Real Estate Photography

It is no secret that more attractive things draw a larger crowd relative to those that are simply just too boring. A touch of color and brightness sometimes suffices for an additional dab of beauty and makes all the difference there is. Looking through the lens of marketing, this is what most advertisements tend to lean on. The case is no different throughout every industry that relies on marketing as a tool to let people know what they are selling. Zooming further into the real estate industry, they play in a market for enhanced photos that help sell, more than just attract people to properties for sale.
So, what exactly goes into these kinds of photos? The effort begins in real estate photography. The photographer must be aware and guided of the parts of the home that they have to showcase and more importantly they must be able to take photos of different lighting or in other words, exposures. The second half is where these images are fed into a computer an on to a real estate photo editing software. It is through the software that these images are enhanced and transformed into something worthy of the client’s money. This two-step process is then crucial in the entire real estate photo editing process.
The Basic Definition of Enhancing Photos
Oftentimes, we get lost in the jargons, interchanging terms as if they meant exactly the same thing. Well in this case, the word enhancement in real estate photography stands out on a pedestal all to its own. Enhancing the photo equates to bringing out the best in that photo, making it look like it is at its best days. In more technical terms, it is the way real estate photo editing software makes the photo brighter, more vibrant, more striking, and overall pleasing to the eye. This does not include yet any form of major change or manipulation relating to the sphere of editing which means to create changes on a higher degree.
Enhancing Features to Make Photos Stunning
This list of enhancing features through the aid of real estate photo editing software will make the photo of a home skyrocket its way through the awe-inspiring threshold. People would want to fall in love with such a pretty sight and hopefully this reels them in into ringing the cash register (not that properties are sold over the counter).
- Color Correcting the overall image – Not to be confused with making colors stand out, color correcting is removing the imperfections that cameras inherently produce during real estate photography. These include color casts, hues, tints, white balance imperfections, and so on. Photoshop has a hue and saturation adjustment panel where you can also select pre-sets to automatically execute the correction. If none of the pre-sets are to your liking, then you may do a manual adjustment of hue, saturation, and lightness to achieve your desired tones.
- Straightening the image – Another flaw in real estate photography is the presence of curved areas of the photo. These might take the form of exteriors not completely faced in a planar perspective because of height limitations during the shoot. Fear not as Photoshop, being one of the premier real estate photo editing software out there provides the rectification options that can pull those pesky skews into the right angles.
- Brightening the image and distributing the light – You may notice that photos captured may not necessarily turn out the way we want it to. Your eyes will definitely perceive an interior space better than the camera as the window’s view is vivid and visible through the former and everything seems simply natural. Real estate photography cannot replicate this perfectly even with the built-in technological advancements, so your real estate photo editing software has to step up by illuminating the image. It also has to make sure that there are no gobs of light present that might resemble someone being abducted by some portal from another realm.
- Making the colors of objects deeper – This is where we define making things vibrant. Interiors and exteriors of previously owned homes have definitely seen their peak years behind them. Paint will be faded, lawns may be dried up, and overall the feeling is just so dead and gloomy. Photoshop once again steps up as one of the reliable real estate photo editing software due to its ability to create localized color improvements. There are techniques such as masking, painting, or even deepening colors using the burn tool.
- Sharpening the blur – Blurry spots may not appear during real estate photography if you have a stable set-up for your camera. It may retain the crisp and clear state of the image but contingency dictates that this skill be learned in the overall scheme of enhancing real estate images. A sharpness adjustment option is available with Photoshop to get to the level of clarity you need. Be careful not to over do it, as extending the clarity too far may end up leaving you with an unrealistic and damaged view of the image.
- Cleaning up – Enhancements are not complete without the finishing touches. Wrap up the session with a complete retouching of the photo just to make sure everything is in order. Retouching with real estate photo editing software such as Photoshop becomes easier due to the variety of tools available. If you need to get rid of nuisances and unwanted objects around and inside the property, you have the clone stamp tool, for instance, to patch over and hide those objects. It might require you to create localized improvements in sharpness, colors, or even brightness if earlier enhancements failed to capture them during that part of the process.
Conclusion
Focusing on enhancements at the forefront is the basic pillar of real estate photo editing. What real estate photography falls short on; post-processing will definitely make up for it. Remember that enhancement aims to beautify the photo, and not to make changes that will otherwise fall under complete editing. Enhancements alone can make a photo prettier, but editing without enhancing is a sin in the art of real estate photo editing.