Real Estate Photography: How to be outstanding?

You are new in real estate photography market. You want to position yourself in this saturated market but how do you get noticed? What’s the trick to standing out in this real estate photography market? In this article, we will mention to two major factors that can help you be different from other competitors. 

 WHAT ARE YOU KNOWN FOR?

Maren Levinson – an Artist at Redeye stated “people do not hire you because you are a good photographer with a "good" real estate photograph portfolio. Instead, art buyers are looking to hire a brand, a style, a quirk, or more plainly put, a vision”. So how to create your own brand or style? The answer is you should determine what you are known for. Are you good at interior shooting or exterior shooting? Or are you specializing in drone photography/ making video tour or retouching? If you do not have a unique and instantly recognizable answer to this question then your career as a professional photographer might be in dire straights. 

Figure out which part you are the best and then master it professionally. Once you are professional in that field, naturally you will be hunted by customers

WHAT KIND OF CUSTOMERS SERVICES DO YOU PROVIDE?

There is a fact that customers buy things basing on their feelings. If you can make customers happy with your real estate photographs, they will be willing to buy it even there are thousands of good products out there. That is also the reason why it is said that a happy client is a key to many doors that brings business to you. 

Take your time to do some research about the customer services provided by other real estate photographers, from that you can find out what makes you different from them. Your timely responses, strong communication, delivery of photos on the committed time, and on-field politeness are the ways to stand out as a photographer.

One more thing that keeps you stand out of other photographers is after-sales services. After sales service refers to various processes which make sure customers are satisfied with the products and services of the organization. After-sales service includes how you follow up after the customer has left, such as providing follow-up contact and effectively dealing with complaints.

By providing good after-sales service, you can show to your customers that you want to build a long-term relationship with them, earn their loyalty and keep their business. Moreover, providing after-sales service keeps your customers coming back to you and encourages them to refer your business to others.

Doing what your competitors don’t do is the key making you unique. We hope that this article can help your photography business stand out from the crowd. You may also want to check out our guide on Real Estate Photography: How to get started? 

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Real Estate Photography: How to get started? (Part II)

If you have read the previous article about Real EstatePhotography: How to get started? (Part I), you may get a general idea about how to get into this field. And this article will share the next steps in creating your own real estate photography business.

Build your own portfolio

In order to make clients know you are the real estate photographer they are looking for, the first thing you should do is creating your profession portfolio. So how to create a cool portfolio in a short time without paying much money? The answer is finding some available houses and offering to shoot for free. Some will choose to ask their friends or acquaintances for help. Some will approach to the real estate agents which have bad images to request for shooting without charge. However, there are some situations which real estate agents send photographers to their worst listing ever because that’s the only way they’d risk using an unknown photographer, even for free. Therefore some of photographers prefer to look up the holiday homes for rent because they are generally high end properties with beautiful features, kitchens and views. Whatever methods you do to find a property for shooting, remember to showcase your most unique and creative work in your portfolio

Build your network

After building your portfolio, it is time to let the world know who you are.

Create your professional real estate photography website

A website is the place where you show off your work and creates trust from customers. Every potential client will want to look through your past work and it doesn’t get easier than clicking on a link to do so. The easier you make it for them to see your work, the better your chances of getting the job.

If you can’t create a website, you can ask help from a Web designer who will build a simple but nice web page with all the functions you want on a WordPress platform, get the hosting up and make sure it works across platforms. When having a website, your duty is creating interesting and useful contents which attract clients to visit your website and view your work.

Making use of social media sites

Creating your own social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, and Tumblr... to get access to more potential clients. Your potential customers are real estate agents or home sellers - who also have to use social media to advertise their listings. Therefore, the chance for you to get more clients through social media will be higher

Instagram

Instagram - a social networking site all about photography- with more than 700 million users is widely considered the perfect social media platform for real estate photographers.

Moreover, Instagram creates a gallery-like space which has visual influence on viewers and you - photographers can take advantage of this. You can post photos from sessions, behind-the-scenes video, and everyday shots that help show your personality. And all that content can help you get found by clients. Using hashtag is also a great way to let customers find you, too. 

Facebook

Without a doubt, Facebook is the king of social media with more than 2 billion users worldwide. With the huge number of users, your chance to get access to potential customers is pretty high. Facebook also allows users to create their own fanpage/groups. You can make use of this feature to create your own fanpage and show off your photos there. Joining groups for real estate agents or home sellers will be a wise choice to get the target customers.

Linkedin

Linkedin is a professional networking online with 467 million users worldwide, but the platform provides a robust marketing and engagement system featuring group discussion boards, private messaging and blogging.

While Facebook or Instagram is used by all kind of ages, Linkedin is mainly used by enterprises or businessmen to establish their professional reputation online.

Pinterest

Pinterest with 150 million users is used to post images.  Using pinterest, you can find the people who need you. According to a study by Millward Brown, 87% of users have purchased a product or service because of Pinterest, and 93% said they use Pinterest to research future purchases.

Moreover, when using Pinterest, you can create as many boards as you want to pin your products. Board in Pinterest is like category. In each board, you can pin all the products related to the topic. So that, customers will find it easy to follow up.

One more interesting thing from Pinterest is Pins link straight to your website. If anyone clicks on your pin, they’ll be taken right to your website to learn more. That’s why about 5% of all referral traffic comes through Pinterest — once your audience decides they want to learn more, they’ll be led straight to you.

Here are some strongest social media which all the photographers have to use. There are hundreds of social networks you can utilize to expand your reputation to the world.

This is just the basic info you should know expanding a real estate photography business. Hope this information can be useful somehow.

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Real Estate Photography: How to get started?

You may be a photographer or a newbie in photography. You want to involve in real estate photography but you don’t know how to get started. Here are some general guidelines to start you on the right path.

Real estate photograph

Market Analysis

When doing market research, there are three important factors you need to keep in mind: the target market, the number of potential customers, and the competitors. Real estate photography includes many small segments such as drone photography/video, interior photography, or other relevant services like photo editing, virtual tour… You can take a look and determine which one is your target market. When deciding your target market, you will define your potential customers who are in need of your services. The last thing you should keep in mind is your competitors. It is not difficult to find out who are your competitors in your local.  You can search Stilio.com to see if there are any other registered photographers in your area. Do some research about their business and figure out their strength and weaknesses. From that you will know what your advantages are when you join the competition.

Skill requirements

                                

For any kinds of photography, good eyes are very important. With the same property, different angles will show different looks. Therefore photographers with artistic eyes who can figure out flattering angles will make the house look totally unique.  

Technical expertise is an indispensable factor in photography, especially in real estate photography which requires many techniques about controlling light, camera, flash and software. Without knowledge about how to shoot real estate photograph, it would be very difficult to succeed in this field.

Besides that, working in real estate photography, you may encounter with busy shooting schedules and a huge amount of images which need to edit. You must be able to work under the pressure of deadlines.

Equipment

To get started with real estate photography, a camera, lens, and tripod, are all that is required. You don’t need to invest too much money in buying the latest and greatest cameras to get solid shots. Just need to make sure your camera can allow you to add a cable release, a flash, different lenses, and wireless triggers. If you already own a modern digital SLR, make use of it and invest your money in other items.

Lens is another essential equipment. It is said that a wide angle or ultra wide angle lens is key to real estate photography success. The perspective provided by wide-angle lenses allows the viewer to see the depth and the width of the house, which makes them feel as if they are actually in the home. Many professional real estate photographers suggested that for cropped sensor cameras a lens around 10-22mm or 12-24mm is perfect, and for full frame sensor cameras, a lens around 16-35 mm will do the job.

A tripod will be your savior in many cases when you need to shoot low ISO images for top quality, plus reduced aperture for greater sharpness and increased depth of field.

Chase Thibodeaux – the CEO of Xposure Real Estate Photography- states that "For anyone looking to explore real estate photography the biggest thing to focus on would be your gear. It doesn't have to be extravagant gear to get excellent photos but a DSLR and ultra wide angle lens is a must. Add in a tripod and you are set to go!"

To get started in any fields, it is always a hard road at the first time. However, if you stick to it and make your best effort, you will receive sweet fruit soon. Hope this article can be useful for those who are going to get into this field. 

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