For folks from India, the title will sound familiar. There is a popular line from the Hero Honda campaign which went: “Fill it, Shut it, Forget”. A campaign addressed to a very mileage sensitive bike market. Could not but help borrow the line when one thinks of Real Estate Photographers of today. This is not to say that their job got easier, maybe it has. One thing for sure, with the advent of digital imaging and digital image editing and enhancement the real estate photographer has the freedom to focus on what they do best – Shoot Pictures.
With the growth of the internet and the growing presence of the real estate industry on the internet, the need for images and the way they are used has been evolving. Pictures are stitched and these allow the customer a 360° view and a virtual tour. Other techniques provide for a panoramic view of the whole property. For the photographer who is also sensitive to the medium, their images are showcased on print, glossy papers, brochures, or digital media. This increases the array of choices they need to make. With the increased choices and decisions comes a the boon of digital imaging and enhancements.
Now most professional photographers are aware of the techniques, the software and tools used and understand in theory how the process is done. Not many are experts at it, and increasingly they see no need to be experts in an allied field since there are experts who not only understand image editing and enhancement, but are extremely efficient. They turnaround work at lightning speeds and with very high quality of output. The photographer now is at the liberty of shooting images in the RAW format and using manual adjustment to not only get brilliant shots but also to adjust with different permutation combinations which then later allows the image editing and enhancing folks that much flexibility and opportunity to come out with perfect pictures. The photographers hence are not diluting their time on trying to perfect their images with tools they well may be able to use, but are no best equipped for nor best inclined to.
A Real Estate Photographer works under very trying and challenging conditions and under very tight timelines. Given the tight timelines and that today most of the images they shoot are showcased online, there hardly are any productions delays if the images are handed over with required specs of sizes, dimensions and quality. Here is where the photographer stand to gain a lot by outsourcing the image editing and enhancing functions to experts who do this very fast and well instead of pottering around. This time saved can be used for carrying out ancillary activities or for getting more work done, thoroughly enjoying what they are doing – Shooting pictures.
The typical workflow, if the photographer were to do all the functions by themselves, after a full day of shooting, they would then need to spend the following day on image editing and enhancement and with luck could turn in the pictures in around 48 hours at the earliest, everything being a stretch. Whereas if the images were outsourced to experts to perfect, then the workflow would be that the photographer had a day’s shoot, and the images can be sent to the editing and enhancing experts. In today’s global scenario, people work during different time zones. The image editing folks either work the nights or are far away, in a different time zone. They work and turn over the images in around twelve hours or there about. Meaning the photographer wakes up to completed perfected images that are ready to be uploaded on to the websites and can look forward to a productive day of shooting pictures- the job he or she is best at and loves most.
How better to put it then; “Click-it, Send-it, Forget-it” !!