Professional vs Smartphone for Real Estate Photos in Omaha
In today’s fast-paced Real Estate Market, especially in Omaha, it’s tempting to rely on a smartphone for EVERYTHING. Including to capture listing photos. Now, don’t get me wrong, iPhones AND ONLY iPhones have the phones with the good cameras. Sidebar, today I was thinking about the mid 90’s when I lived in Alabama and gas was 87¢/gal and we had Kodak Cameras and no cell-phones of any kind. Oh shoot, I’m doing that thing that food recipe bloggers like to do- drone on and on about anything besides the recipe.
Okay, back to it. iPhone cameras are great, but they don’t, won’t, and can’t produce the same results as Professional Real Estate Photography. ESPECIALLY in a competitive market such as Omaha, Bennington, and lately it seems like La Vista is the popping place to be.
If your goal is to attract buyers, generate more interest, help a property stand out online, and not pay two mortgages in this economy because your iPhone photos aren’t doing it, then you want to hire CMFW Media. Let’s break this down.
LIMITED DYNAMIC RANGE
Smartphones do a decent job of capturing both bright and dark areas, but when the contrast is so different (windows on a bright day compared to the inside of the house) they absolutely fail. This often leads to blown-out windows or dark, shadowy interiors.
DISTORTION AND PERSPECTIVE ISSUES
Wide-Angle Lenses on photos will distort rooms. They achieve that “wideness” the same way GoPro did in 2009- Fisheye. Smartphones have programming to combat that, but it pales in comparison to what a true wide-angle lens can deliver. You don’t want your listing to look unnatural or misleading, so if you’re a Smartphone Photo kind of Realtor (I’m going to kind of throw one under the bus at the end), I thoroughly encourage you to SCHEDULE US TODAY for your next listing. Unless you’re holding your phone at the same level in each shot, your rooms will absolutely look distorted.
INCONSISTENT LIGHTING
Indoor lighting conditions vary from room to room. It’s common to have warm lighting in the bathroom and maybe some cool lighting in the living room. Without proper equipment and editing, Smartphone photos often appear dull and to me, unexciting.
LACK OF PROFESSIONAL EDITING
Professional Real Estate Photography includes some mild to moderately advanced editing techniques that enhance brightness, color correction, and clarity. Smartphones are smart, but they cannot do that. Yet. The day they can, you bet you’ll see me giving Smartphone MLS listings a try.
WHAT PROFESSIONAL REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY DOES DIFFERENT
BALANCED EXPOSURE
Professional Real Estate Photographers use techniques like HDR and exposure blending to ensure that both the interior and exterior details are properly visible. Our technique is HDR blending. We snap 3 photos at different exposures to capture the lights, the darks, and the mids.
TRUE-TO-LIFE PERSPECTIVE
Camera angles and lens choices are carefully selected to represent spaces accurately while still making them look inviting. I personally use the 10-18mm Wide Angle Lens and keep it set around 12-14mm depending on the size of the room. On top of that, we set our aperture to f/9 so we have such an amazing field of depth that everything near and far is in focus.
CONSISTENT IMAGE QUALITY
Every image is edited to maintain consistent lighting and color throughout the listing.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
From straightened lines to properly staged compositions, professional photography ensures every shot is intentional. Fun fact about that word, on my first date with my girlfriend, I wanted to compliment her eyebrows and I called them “intentional.” I had meant that the effort she put into them was very detail oriented. She responded with “Yeah, but my birth was unintentional, but here I am.” Oh shoot, I’m doing it again. Let’s continue.
SMARTPHONE VS CAMERA
FIRST IMPRESSIONS HAPPEN ONLINE
Most buyers will see your listing photos before anything else. Poor-quality images can cause them to scroll past without a second thought. I get it, some houses require a lot of love and you might think that particular home in Bellevue or Millard or wherever you are isn’t worth spending money on professional photography.
HIGHER ENGAGEMENT
What if I told you that my buddy Derrick had a home he had listed that really needed a lot of work and he used his iPhone. A month later he called me up to provide our Real Estate Photography services and within a week he was getting offers. Time is money. Good photos bring in interest. Great photos bring in buyers.
STRONGER BUYER PERCEPTION
Our photos will make a home feel more valuable and well-maintained. Take that lesson from Derrick so you don’t have to learn it yourself! In Omaha’s competitive Real Estate Market, listings with high-quality, properly frame, professionally edited visuals and media consistently outperform those using basic smartphone photos.
Hey you. I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you had a lot of fun reading it too. And if you don’t know how to read, I hope you have somebody in your life who loves you and read this to you. And I hope you enjoyed listening to them read this to you. Go check out our favorite INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS so you can see what we provide. Then snap a photo of your living room with the window in the background. Do a compare.
Anyways, now Derrick calls up Nicki more than me. Wow buddy. We used to be Medic Partners together. Traitor. (jk love you buddy) He’s never gonna read this anyways unless somebody reads it to him and it won’t be me, I’m still learning.
Ready to make your listing stand out in Omaha? CMFW Media will provide that professional touch via Real Estate Photography with fast turnaround and high-quality results. SCHEDULE YOUR SHOOT TODAY!
