Successful Drone Photography for Real Estate
Published in
3 min readAug 14, 2018
Drone photography add a luxury element to real estate marketing. It offers unique, unparalleled perspectives, highlights the property’s surroundings, and enhances the daydream for the ever-perfect-home. Like any photography, a drone is only as good as the person behind the lens, or flight consul in this case.
Through understanding, practice, thoughtful planning, and post production, drone photographers can create stunning photography for clients with these easy tips.
Getting Started
- Understand and follow FAA guidelines for commercial use. Read more here.
- Understand and abide by local and federal rules and regulations.
- Review and avoid no fly zones in your market(s).
- Take precautions with liability insurance
Please note, we are not lawyers/insurance agents/ accountants etc. Please consult a professional when making decisions regarding your business, and review all legal rules and regulations that apply.
Tips for Success
- Practice Makes Perfect: Review and understand your equipment. Learn your drone camera functionalities, flying behavior, and capabilities. Practice flying in open spaces, tighter, technical spaces, low to the ground, high in the air, with light wind conditions, and variable lighting. Practice, practice, practice.
- Review the Property: Talk with your client about the property details and review the key areas to highlight. Identify the property lines and which angles will be best; include nearby attractions or views that can be added to wide-angle shots like cityscapes, ocean views, and large backyard space.
- Get the Entire Property in Frame: Whether you are taking a tightly framed photo or a larger, bird’s eye view of the home and it’s surroundings, do not cut any portion of the physical home.
- Perfect Your Angles: One of the best incentives for aerial photography is the ability to have multiple angles and unique perspectives of the property, and show it off in its entirety. Angles will vary slightly based on space, design and its surroundings, but these key angles are a must:
- Drone flown at roof level and camera angled slightly down to offer perspective, and tightly framed shot of the home; expand view a bit more by framing the home, outdoor space, and/or driveway.
- Drone positioned from left or right side of the property to add dimension and avoid flat, straight on look
- Show off the big picture. Fly high to include landscape or pivotal views that heighten the property’s value.
- Avoid “roof inspection shots” that show more of the roof than anything else. Angle it to add dimension. While some clients may request a straight down arial shot, it tends to look best with stand alone homes and large open spaces with an interesting landscape.
- As with any photography, don’t shoot directly into the sun; try to properly position to avoid glares, sun spots, and the need for less editing.
- Post Processing is Essential: Turn your expertly framed photos into special keepsakes with a few important edits. Adjust the white balance, add some saturation, remove blemishes, and enhance the photo while keeping it realistic. Avoid cartoon-ish appearances through over-saturation and structural overdoses; keep it balanced and beautiful. Straighten the horizon, and resolve any lens distortions. Crop when necessary to add linear balance or interesting contrast (like the image below!), for a beautifully artistic approach.
