Do you need to organise a Real Estate Agent Photoshoot?
If you’re a real estate agent, you know how important it is to stand out from competition. In this digital marketing world it’s vital for relators to stay consistently on top of their sphere of influence, and the best way to do this is by personal branding. A key part of personal branding for the real estate business are real estate headshots. These real estate agent portraits are professional images of you that display your brand and personality, which you can use in your marketing materials to help your business and credibility grow.
How To Get The Best Real Estate Agent Photoshoot and Agent Headshots Using A Professional Photographer
Review Other Professional Realtor Headshots for Ideas
Real estate agent photos should be treated as a key aspect of your business’ marketing efforts, and as such you should only ever hire a professional photographer and a professional makeup artist to work together and take them. Luckily, finding a good photographer who can take an excellent, professional, realtor headshot is simple, with all you need to is go through a photographer’s real estate headshot portfolio.
Going through a portfolio is additionally helpful if you aren’t excited about your photo shoot, don’t have any ideas, or don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera. Luckily, looking through headshots can help, so don’t hesitate to gain inspiration from other real estate agents. Although headshots are meant to be relatively simple and keep the focus on you, looking through others’ headshots can help you think about your background, posing, hairstyle, and even your expressions.
Dress for Success
If you want to get the part then you’ve got to look the part, especially when it comes to real estate photography. When you think about getting dressed for your realtor headshot, think of what you might wear to the first meeting with your dream client. While commercial real estate agents might wear a suit and tie, some residential agents could be more casual with jeans and a button-down shirt.
It’s important to choose clothing that makes you feel confident and represents your target audience.
For instance, a headshot that feels formal could be because of the combination of a suit jacket, a casual pose, and even a simple, calm, location, all of which would likely appeal to a more formal, yet not especially corporate audience.
This type of headshot would be effective for agents who want to put out a more casual vibe and attract clients in a more suburban neighborhood.
Try Out Some Power Poses
Even if your biggest deal of the year fell through the morning of your shoot, you can still trick your brain into feeling confident with power poses. According to psychological studies emotions can be attributed to physiology, and therefore, your bodily expressions contribute directly to your emotions.
It may feel silly, but raising your arms above your head like Superman for a few minutes has been shown to increase feelings of power and confidence.
Spending even a minute or two before your shoot in a power pose can increase your confidence and result in a better picture.
In addition, consider choosing a few poses before your photo shoot. Even if your photographer helps you pose, you likely won’t feel as confident if you’re in an unfamiliar position. Try out a few poses in the mirror and decide on one or two that feel the most natural.
Consider Professional Hair & Makeup
Your realtor headshot will be used on social media, in your marketing materials like flyers and business cards, and at events or sponsorships, so to present the best version of yourself, consider getting your hair and makeup professionally done before your photo shoot.
Getting you hair and make up done by a professional makeup artists is another way to help you feel confident, get more professional opportunities, and generate more real estate leads in the long run.
Don’t Pose With Accessories
It’s relatively common to see real estate agents with photos of them working on their phones or computers, often happening when they want to have a shot of them working in their natural element. However, technology generally doesn’t make a good impression in photos – it’s a distraction from what the headshot should focus on, you! It may even communicate that you spend too much time looking at screens instead of building relationships.
Your headshot also shouldn’t be a group photo. Even if part of your real estate brand is showing your family, lifestyle, or pets, your headshot isn’t the place for it. Instead, holiday cards are great for family pictures, and you can share the animal you bring to showings on social media. The only exception to this rule is when you are part of a real estate team. In this case, you should have an individual headshot as well as a professionally photographed photo of the group together.
Choose the Right Background
The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing a background is to make sure it doesn’t distract from the image’s focal point which is you in the case of a real estate agent photoshoot.
As such, one of the best headshot backgrounds is pure white, which is especially powerful when it comes to tiny profile pictures that appear online.
However, your background can also be relevant to the real estate you work with. If you work in the city, an artfully blurred street scene or brick wall can be an integral piece of your real estate marketing. On the other hand, agents in a more rural or suburban area may respond more to something like a blurred forest or pastoral scene, exemplified by the headshot on the right.
Avoid Over-editing Your Realtor Headshot
Light editing or retouching is an important part of the headshot process, as it acts as a way to help agents present the most confident versions of themselves. However, if you aren’t a professional photographer, it can be very easy to take a retouching or editing tool too far. Over-edited photos can easily look unnatural, awkward, or washed out.
Instead, a professional photographer should have this built-in to the cost, so ensure that this service is included in the product when you purchase a real estate agent photoshoot.
What If I Want To Break Into Real Estate Photography?
If you’re a realtor who has had their fair share of headshots and is looking to expand their skills then breaking into real estate photography might be a good option for you. Real estate photography can cover anything, from professional headshots to professional property photography.
Now, you might be asking why you, as a real estate agent, would want to start a photography endeavor? Well the truth is, there’s a lot of demand for real estate photographers given the current housing market in many parts of the world. This specialized genre may seem simple, but it does require certain skills to take effective and compelling photos of homes for sale, all of which can be easily done by those most familiar with property- real estate agents. As such, the industry has recently seen an influx of real estate agents developing their photography skills and putting on their own real estate agent photoshoots as a side project.
Is Real Estate Photography Profitable?
The key to why real estate agents are dipping their toes into producing their own photographic content is simple – money. Not only is a real estate agent photoshoot expensive for those hiring professional photographers, but it is also profitable for those being hired. As it’s such a niche discipline, a developing photographer will have better chances of firstly saving money on their own shoots, but also securing paying clients who want them to shoot for their properties.
After all, as there are plenty of real estate agents, we know there won’t be a shortage of houses to photograph, as even if some estate agents will keep old photos, the majority are more likely to commission new photographs when selling a house.
In terms of actual dollar values, in real estate photography, the location and the size of the house play a important role in determining the price.
So, if you’re a budding photographer or a sales agent looking to put on a real estate agent photoshoot, where do you start?
Before the Real Estate Shoot
Have a Shot List for Each Property
While no two homes are identical, there are typical shots that every professional real estate photographer will take. Knowing what to cover is an essential tip in learning how to shoot professional real estate photography.
For a real estate agent photoshoot you will want to have a wide range of coverage, with two wide-angle shots of each bedroom that you’re happy with, the kitchen, and the living room. Generally, you’ll only need one good photo of the bathroom, unless it’s incredibly beautiful or spacious and one to three photos of the backyard, unless it has some unique features. Of course, while these are just guidelines, it’s essential to get as much good coverage of each part of the house as possible, so at the very least aim for a good photo of every room and multiple of the house’s exterior.
Prepare Your Gear
Just like the real estate business, preparation is crucial when it comes to a real estate agent photoshoot. There’s nothing worse than being at a shoot and finding that you forgot something.
While you may be knowledgeable enough to work around it, having a few key pieces of photography kit missing means that youll need to work on your feet a little more.
If you do nothing else in terms of preparation, at least always take your charger – a dead battery is a dead shoot. On this, if you have a secondary camera, take it, as having a safety net for any unforeseen technical issues is always a good idea.
On the Property
Declutter
Decluttering is one of the most important real estate photography elements, as while we get used to bits of clutter building up over time in our own homes, all those small items that we don’t notice will stand out in a photo and make a house thoroughly unappealing. As such, it is important to ensure that homeowners keep the surfaces as clean as possible—countertops, coffee tables, desks, etc.
Sometimes you’ll arrive, and there’s still clutter that you know will not look appealing in the photos. There’s nothing wrong with suggesting hiding a few things. A professional real estate photographer will spend up to an hour constructing the scene for one perfect shot.
Walk Through the Home
Each home is different so getting a feel for space before picking up the camera will really benefit you when you come to shooting. Make sure to mentally note the best angles and what small items you may need to move. Remember, real estate photography is about making the building look good, not making the current interior look good!
During the Shoot
Use a Flash To Stay Mobile
Being able to get in and out quickly is essential for a real estate agent photoshoot so using a flash on your camera is always advised as it lets you cut down on set up time per room.
The issue with a flash it that if we point the camera flash directly into the room, we get an unappealing bright area in the center of frame.
This is known as vignetting, but it’s undesirable for real estate photography.
To fix this turn the flash so that it bounces off a wall behind you, the ceiling above, or even one of the side walls. This way you allow that light to diffuse into the space and give a more even look. Of course, these positions aren’t possible with a pop-up flash on your camera so it’s advisable to use a flashgun that features a multi-angle flash head.
Use a Drone for a Bird’s Eye Perspective
Modern real estate photography has reached new heights, quite literally, using drones. Drones can reach a unique perspective that would have been impossible or amazingly expensive only a few years ago. Drone real estate photography is often used when a unique selling point of the house is the location and surroundings. These real estate photos allow you to show off the amazing views while having the property in the shot.
You will increasingly see that real estate agents now use video as well as real estate photos to advertise their properties. Adding a drone option to your bag of tricks is a great way to make your real estate photography business stand out, and it can help increase your real estate agent photoshoot pricing as well!
What’s Next?
Now that you have started your real estate agent photoshoot journey, the next step is to secure your work. As a digital content creator who publishes any form of work online, you should know the importance of watermarking your work. In terms of security, watermarking can’t be beat, allowing you to safeguard your work from any potential content thieves and protect your copyright on all work you publish online.
Watermarking is also highly regarded as one of the best ways to establish an easily identifiable brand online.
Much like how a painter adds their signature to a painting, watermarking with a custom watermark can help potential clients identify your work, helping your photography stand out in the sea of content on the internet.
The only downside to the process is that watermarking can be difficult without professional photo editing knowledge. Luckily, WaterMarquee is here to help! While there are a few tools online that allow watermarking, no tool can match the free bulk watermarking offered by WaterMarquee. With this service you can watermark up to five images at a time, entirely free of charge!
