Knowing How Professionals Perform Real Estate Photo Blending
Transparency is key especially when you want to know what your photos go through as you hand them over for editing. Sometimes we think that we’re getting an HDR done but the photos come out much better than we ever expected. This is one of the benefits of real estate photo blending or real estate manual photo blending. The way photos are able to be manually controlled in terms of light, color, depth, and darkness are important in making sure the integrity of the photo is preserved. From the customer or client perspective, real estate photo blending should be a preferred choice due to its genuine representation of the photo and people need to know this.
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So why is both transparency and quality are relevant. The former lets your client understand what processes are involved and how each contributes to the outcome of the image. They will be interested to know how real estate photo blending works and how the effort they spent snapping those images will be changed. Quality is no doubt and a no brainer as a requirement. These photos will be used as the face of the business in their adverts and these photos will likely do the talking as people view it on their devices before anyone else comes in contact with them on the businesses’ end.
What is Blending in Real Estate?
So, what is blending in real estate and does this become a more magical and more effective technique when compared to HDR editing? Real estate manual photo blending takes the same concept coming from bracketed photos. It starts with several images that have different exposures which could be at different parts per photo taken using external or off-cam light sources which contributes to the added brightness. It can also be a range of a really dark image all the way to a really bright one. From here, it is thrown into an editing software where real estate photo blending takes the stage of the workstation.
Basically, in a nutshell, the process is similar to HDR photo editing but from the term real estate manual photo blending, we get rid of the automated stacking of images and go through a process of hand and eye coordinated enhancements. The best part? You get to control the most attractive parts of the images where the HDR automated processes might take out due to their innate built-in logic and algorithm.
Having said this, you know are able to know how much more effort a professional would need to go through in order to create a more stunning image. It is convenient to use HDR as an alternative, but it simply won’t give the same charm as real estate images blending. This alone proves that a photo editor is willing to go the lengths to give you a smile that spans more than just from ear to ear.
How Do You Blend Real Estate Photos?
More than a camera and a real estate photo blending software, you would need to pack the patience and grit in order to get going on this technique. But don’t be discouraged, it is definitely a fact that all techniques hike on the back of a learning curve and only true perseverance can one be able to do this. So, the next time you see someone performing a real state manual photo blending technique, you better bet they care about the quality of your images.
- Open all of the images and create a separation you can later determine. By separation, you must label each as dark or light and separate them into a spectrum. You will end up with a middle or a neutral photo and that is where you should mark it as the working layer.
- This will now serve as your base layer and mask all the others on both ends.
- Setting an opacity of 20-35%, start by brushing on the bright or overly exposed parts of your middle image. Now the concept of bright might differ from one person to the next and as such could raise debate on what is the right level. You may want to save your work at this point so several streams or several iterations of final images can be made for the client to choose from.
- After this critical step, move on to the photos that are brighter than the rest and start the process of brushing in those images while using the same settings for the brush tool. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all images have been edited and your base layer should show the final product that will send shockwaves of awe across your client’s face.
Exposure Blending in Real Estate Photography
At this point the elephant in the room is always the question, why do we need to go through such a process when all of it can be done in a click of a button? Well, the beauty of real estate manual photo blending is anchored on the fact that it is custom-made in a sense. The differences in perception of brightness, the level of exposure, and the controllability of the changes are all present in this technique. Real estate photo blending beats a standard template by HDR any day by adding a human touch into the mix.
Going back to the point of transparency, it is relevant to the client how the photos were made and how the contributes to the finished product. While some may argue that the end does not justify the means, the professional on the other side of the transaction would be happy to serve the client with a labor of love rather than being a machine that churns out the same edit day in and day out.
Final Thoughts
Real estate manual photo blending might be tedious and cumbersome, but it is one of the things that when done right, will be able to bring out deeper yet more vibrant lighting. It will definitely be appreciated by the client as it is not a run of the mill enhancement where the edit is done on a highly critical choice of exposure. If you have always been that one-click guy, this is your time to try out something new to wow your side of things.
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