Your guide to real estate drone photography.
Get epic aerial shots of your home to help seal the deal with these pro tips.
Drones may be small cameras, but they offer mighty creative potential. They’ll give your photographs an entirely new perspective by taking images from above.
Drone photography is great for capturing new angles, seeing scenes in new ways, and taking photos in hard-to-reach places — whether it's a dramatic shot over the edge of a cliff, a serene shot over open water, or an aerial survey of a neighborhood or city.
Another, and perhaps more practical, use for drone photography is in real estate. Drones can help capture the size, scale, and layout of a property, be it a large home, land, or commercial property. If you're looking to put your hobby drone to use, then learning how you can get valuable property photos from them can play a big hand in helping to close a sale. Discover more about how you can do just that in this guide.
Three types of real estate drone photography.
You can use drone photography in many ways and for several different kinds of real estate. These include:
- Residential real estate, like homes, developments, and communities. Highlight the layout, yard, and size of larger properties, or give prospective buyers a sense of what the neighborhood or block looks like from above.
- Commercial real estate, like business parks, malls, offices, hotels, resorts, or golf courses. Drone photography is a fantastic way to show various pieces of the property that are hard to capture from ground level, like the layout of amenities and the scale of the space.
- Land, like ranches, farms, or empty buildable lots. For this type of real estate photography, drones provide more context for where the property sits and what's around it.
Four drone photography tips.
So, you've got your property picked. Now it's time for the fun part: taking the photos. Keep these tips in mind throughout your drone photo shoot.
- Get your light right. Full sun is the best way to get a well-illuminated shot of your property. Usually the noon hour is best; since the sun is at its highest, it will minimize those long, distracting shadows. Alternatively, opt for sunrise or sunset if you want more dramatic photos.
- Pick your focal points. In drone photography, you're trading scale for detail. Be sure not to tip the balance too much, though. If you're zooming out too far, you'll miss the details. Pick some property focal points to highlight and frame shots around those.
- Be mindful of mishaps. With high reward comes high risk. While you might get awesome aerial shots with your drone, you should be aware of some snags that could happen while shooting with a flying camera. For example, high winds can blow your drone off course and ruin a shot, or a glare from a window or nearby building could obscure a perfect photo. Be sure to take several pictures from each angle to ensure you've got at least a few good ones.
- Practice your skills. This might go without saying but be sure you’re comfortable operating your drone in all sorts of conditions, so you don't have to stress about flying it as you're trying to get the right shot. Practice shooting in different weather to get a feel for how your equipment responds.
Take your photography to new heights.
Want more helpful drone photography tips? Learn more about how to get your most creative aerial shots yet. And explore how you can use Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom to elevate your images even further. The sky's the limit.