IMPORTANT MESSAGE: The best solution for any real estate agent who wants to have their blue skies replaced in their listing photos is to already be working with a professional real estate photographer.
A professional real estate photographer will already be offering this service at fair rate, or it’s already included in their service.
This article and video is directed at real estate agents who are “stuck” using a sub-par real estate photography company who does not offer great services and overcharges for simple editing like blue sky replacements.
Typically, agents get stuck with a real estate photography company when their brokerage negotiates for the cheapest price they can offer as as “office discount”, but in realty you just get a worse end product.
And any type of basic editing is considered a “Premium”.
Their are literally 1000’s of great real estate photographers today throughout the country. I’m sure if you look, you’ll find one in your area.
I hope you can find one and connect with him/her, because I believe your real estate photographer is someone who needs to be part of your team.
They are just as important as your mortgage lender, home inspector, and/or escrow company.
Steps for Replacing the Blue Skies in your Listing Photos
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how I outsource my blue sky replacments. You can replace the skies yourself in Adobe Photoshop, but it’s been easier to just outsource it.
I’ve been outsourcing all of our Blue Sky Replacements to a company called Box Brownie, and you can find them at www.BoxBrownie.com
Apart from the odd name, they are group of young, fun, and awesome pros. The companies founders have a real estate background and that shows in their service.
They also perform virtual staging, photo re-touching, TV screen & grass replacements, item removals, floor plans, and virtual renovations.
Step 1: Getting your Photos Ready
First, you’ll need to have your professional photos taken by your photographer, then take the exterior shots and follow these steps.
Before you upload the photos make sure you have the following ready.
- 1. Large sized photos. Try to make sure the photography company/photographer is sending you a large sized JPG image of the completed photo. The larger resolution of the larger sized photo will come out better In the end. These will generally be too large to upload to your MLS.
- 2. Set up your account at Box Brownie so that you’re all ready to go.
Step 2: Uploading Photos
- 1. Login to your Account at BoxBrownie.com.
- 2. Go to your Dashboard (Access it in the top righthand corner).
- 3. Once in your Dashboard choose the option called, Image Enhancement, and click it.
- 4. Name your project and begin uploading your photos for blue sky replacements.
Step 3: Choosing your Options and Additional Information
- 1. After uploading your project you will be taken to the next screen where you’ll choose some options.
- 2. Select if you want Grass Repair or Replacement.
- 3. Select if you want Sky Replacement.
- 4. Select the Day Sky Style you want. (I typically use “Soft wind swept cloud painting the sky)
- 5. Add Special Instructions. (See below)
Step 4: Adding Final Special Instructions
This part is important. Below I have the instructions that I send over with every exterior photo I send to Box Brownie.
Because the photos have already been edited and we are only asking for either Blue Sky and/or Grass Replacements, we need to inform the Box Brownie editors of this so that they will know exactly what to do next.
Make sure to update these remarks to fit your own editing requirements.
For example, if you want a different sky replacement, update they type of sky in these remarks.
SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS TEXT:
These photos are already edited. No other edits are needed except for what is asked for below. Please only perform the following:
1. BLUE SKY REPLACEMENT: Soft wind swept cloud painting a blue sky.
2. GRASS REPLACEMENT, please make grass dark green to look more realistic.
Step 5: The Final Steps
- 1. Review your order details.
- 2. Submit your project to Box Brownie.
- 3. Contact Customer Support using the online chatbot in the bottom right hand corner.
- 4. Update Customer Support about your new project and ask them specifically this: “Please make sure to send this additional message to the photo editors, Please Read instructions before beginning to edit this project”.
With this last step you’ll help ensure that the photo editors know exactly what to do with your photos when they are received.
Listings Marketing for Real Estate Agents
If you want to win more listings and attract more homeowners to your brand to list with you, then I believe that you have to be the very best at listings marketing.
Just putting a sign in front of house and placing it on the MLS is not enough any more.
Virtual tour videos, Matterport 3D scans, aerial photography, and social media are all tools that can help your brand stand out amongst the competition.
Even more awesome is that these tools are available to you right now.
No single brokerage own any technology that you cannot buy off the shelf today.
This means you can compete with any agent and any brokerage in your market.
Now start marketing Amigo…
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