Smartphone Photography for Real Estate: 10 Great Apps
You probably already know that photography and video are a real estate agent’s best friends when it comes to marketing. But, where to begin? Lots of us are great at sales, but perhaps photography isn’t our strong suit. Thankfully, there’s an app for that. Or many, as it turns out – below are ten photo and video capture apps that can help you to take stunning shots and efficiently post and share them on social media, your website, with individual clients and, in some cases, directly to your MLS.
- LightTrac: LightTrac, which operates on iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices, is a definite favorite among Realtors who are successfully using photography as a marketing tool. The basis for LightTrac is to help the photographer determine what is the best time of day to photograph subjects based on light conditions.
- Takes: While not specifically geared to real estate professionals, Takes will transform your still photos into dynamic videos, complete with filters and matching music. This iPhone app can extract the best video clip for representing the snapshot moment, while maintaining the original photo. The included soundtrack engine matches your video to music that is appropriate based on your video’s temp and length.
- 360Panorama: Exactly as it sounds, this iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android app can capture a panorama in real time. Especially for a buyer who might not be able to see a property in person right away, this can help provide a great impression of a home that traditional photos might not be able to accomplish.
- Camera+: In addition to features like touch exposure and focus, stabilizer, photo flashlight, grid composition and digital zoom, this app features a Lightbox that helps you to easily organize your photos and keep your camera roll uncluttered. For the real estate professional who is on the road, this is essential – you might have taken photos of multiple homes during the day, and this can make it easier for you to sort and manage each set of images.
- Diptic: This app might be the next best thing to actually viewing a house in person. It allows you to create a photo collage, juxtaposing contrasting imagines and creating before-andafter sequences. Neat, huh? There are 179 layouts from which to choose; you select photos, position them, and customize the inner frame dimensions. Then, apply filters, add text, modify brightness, hue and saturation.
- Tout: When a photo’s not quite enough, Tout can add a mobile video update to your site in minutes. You can instantly share footage with your website, app, contacts or social media followers.
- Tourzilla: Tourzilla touts itself as “anti-frustration software”; indeed, reviewers agree that its interface is an easy and fast way to quickly share video. The agent photographs the home, and then Tourzilla will create an effective video virtual tour without complex editing. Your video can be shared both on social media and on the MLS, if available. As well, you can enter the house details like address, price, bedrooms and other stats into Tourzilla so that the information accompanies your video.
- Animoto Pro: As real estate agents continue to extol the virtues of video for marketing, they’re using Animoto not only for property listings, but also for Realtor videos, “just sold” and neighborhood videos, as well. The app allows you to create your video from your photos, share it, accompany it by 2,000 licensed music tracks, add captions and text and link your video to your listing. The app was created by TV and film professionals, so the videos don’t look amateurish.
- Instagram: In all likelihood, you’ve seen an Instagram photo, whether you realize it or not. The tremendous benefit to this app is that it already has a devoted following. Many users love it because of the filters and other instant-editing features. However, the big benefit for a real estate agent is that you can shoot a property and then mark it with a searchable hashtag, which can go a long way in helping potential buyers to find you and your properties. Instagram now also offers 15-second videos, which are easily shareable and can be an effective “tease” for your property.
- Snapseed: This app makes professional-looking photo editing effects available to the on-the-go photographer. Bright, intense filters can make your photos look exciting and enticing; as well, use a “selective adjust” tool to make precise selections and enhancements with just your fingertip. Finally, a “drama” filter will create custom effects that you can use to make your photos look either slightly enhanced or wildly artistic.
Use your mobile device to its fullest potential with these apps; you’ll be making the most of your time, engaging your customers where it counts and hopefully drawing some new business that you might not have had the opportunity to harness before. It’s a “snap”!
Drew Meyers
Posted at 17:00h, 26 JulyI somewhat use instagram (most to view photos from friends), but none of these others.
Truthfully, I’m in “photo overload” territory. There are so many photos on the web that bombard me from all directions, that I’m sick of seeing them. And it’s causing me to share fewer and fewer photos publicly. But that’s just me.
Jon Russo
Posted at 08:54h, 02 AugustDrew, you’re definitely right that there are tons and tons of images on the web. I think, though, that for a lot of users, they add tremendous value, especially in real estate. What’s nice about most of these apps is that they are easy for the Realtor to use, but the client can either choose to follow/use them or not. Also, some of them can be used on a request-only basis (i.e. if the client wants to see a specific property, the agent can photograph it and just send it to that person); they need not all be shared on social or other sites.
Michael Borger
Posted at 11:45h, 27 JulyI’ve never really jumped on the Instagram train, but I might change gears simply because of the massive following it has. I doubt I’ll be a power user, though.
Regarding the others on the list, they all look they might be useful on the surface, but they still look like shortcuts to going back to the home office, editing with Photoshop/iMovie/etc and then sharing a much better image/video than what you’d do on your phone. I’m rarely ever in a need to immediately share a property photo.
Jon Russo
Posted at 08:51h, 02 AugustI agree with you that these are shortcuts; I think where Realtors use them is for the client who is out of town or who really does want to see a photo immediately.
I think, though, that although a “professionally” edited image/video is preferable for some Realtors, many don’t have time (or skills) to spend doing heavy editing and so they really like some of these apps because they’re fast and simple to use.
I think you’re on the money re: Instagram, too! Its following is growing exponentially, and I think that its biggest advantage is the hashtag capability. Good luck!