Can’t I Just Use My Smart Phone Camera?

In today’s world of internet real estate marketing, beautiful pictures are a must. Smart phones produce lovely photos these days, right? Won’t that be enough? Well, not really. The pictures throughout this email have images shot with one of the highest quality cell phone cameras images on the top and images professionally shot and edited by Picture That Property on the bottom. What do you think?

The Camera Matters.

You’re right that in today’s speedy market, you could take pictures with your phone and your home would probably sell. However, there are few other considerations to factor in. While smart phone cameras these days boast high pixel counts, the lenses are far inferior to those of DSLR’s. This impacts the level of sharpness, detail, color, angle, and focus that can be achieved in each setting.

In addition, cell camera lenses cannot pick up enough light to overcome color casting nor are the lenses wide enough angle to photograph a room in the most aesthetically pleasing way, whether that space is a wide house on a narrow street or a tight bedroom with the door in a weird spot. A DSLR camera is designed to pick up things that phone cameras simply are not.

The Photographer Matters

With the ease and accessibility of digital photography and editing software, the last few years have seen a huge proliferation of photographers in all fields. Unfortunately, despite the technological availability, grabbing a camera and snapping away does not actually guarantee a beautiful or communicative photograph. For that you need an experienced photographer with a good eye for framing, detail, story, and composition and who will see at a glance where the best shooting angle is for a given room. You need someone who can shoot so that the sunlight from the window makes the room glow instead of just being an overpowering glare.

Like every other photography specialty, RE photography has its own quirks, standards, lighting techniques, and other peculiarities if you want your home’s images to be clear and colorful with bright details. In addition to the photography itself, real estate photography editing involves correcting for blown-out windows, warming or cooling the colors, brightening or toning down the image, straightening crooked angles and perform multiple other adjustments that make your photos pop. (Note that on every one of the top photos on this post, most of the vertical lines on the doors or windows are crooked, giving the photo a slightly tippy, lopsided feel. This, along with dark or strongly color-casted images, is one of the top tells of amateur real estate photography.)

Your clients could sell their homes themselves if they wanted to, but they hire you because you are an expert and because you know the ins and outs of how to make their home sell for the best price with the lowest hassle to them. This is the same reason for hiring a professional real estate photographer. They are experts in producing the most striking images with the lowest hassle for you.

The Photos Matter

As we discussed last week, in both 2010 and 2013 RedFin conducted studies on the impact of professional photos vs. amateur photos in real estate listings. They discovered that listings using professionally produced listing photographs sell more quickly and for a consistently higher price. The relatively small cost of professional photography produces several hundred to several thousand dollars return in a higher purchase price, which is a huge benefit to your client, and make your listings far more attractive to prospective buyers.