As a professional real estate photographer, you need as much control over how your work is used as possible. Even with the right equipment, the perfect lighting, the best angle, and your creative vision, any photo (and subsequently, a real estate photographer portfolio) can be ruined with pixelated digital imagery.
In the real estate photography industry, your real estate photographer portfolio is not just comprised of what you share – your clients will also share images you created and those files will become a part of your reputation. What if they share grainy images on a hastily-created digital flyer with your name attached?
As with most anything, there are some things you can do to preserve the quality of your craft.
Work with the Right Clients
It’s essential to be sure you are starting with a client who understands the value of what you provide and is dedicated to a two-way relationship. If you have a client who doesn’t fit this description, it might be time to consider pursuing the type of client who will help build your business.
Give Them the Right Tools
When the real estate agent truly understands they have hired you to capture the essence of properties and provide them with the best possible photos and videos for their real estate listing, they will adhere to your guidelines, suggestions, and tools. That said, the responsibility falls on you as the photographer to recommend (strongly) the ways in which the agent will share images and videos for marketing a real estate listing.
By consolidating all property tours, photos, and videos in one location that is professional and ready for customized branding and presentation, you’re one step closer to ensuring the agent won’t take your work and try to come up with a different or less polished way to display the art.
The real estate agent will feel good knowing they’re getting extra value from a website of all of your work, and you can rest easy knowing your work will be displayed and shared at the best possible quality. A true win-win scenario.
Share the Potential, Results, and Methods with Clients
As a part of being an entrepreneur (as well as a real estate photographer), you should consider how you’re marketing your own business with current and potential clients. Sharing your work on social media and your website is a great start; make sure you’re also sharing successes and testimonials on social media and on your own real estate photography website so you can attract new clients to your work as well.
To further enhance your efforts, consider assembling a client newsletter to share successes, design inspiration, and ways to make the most out of their finished product. This is just one more way to deepen the client relationship and strengthen your customer base.
By giving your real estate agent clients ways to work with you that benefit your portfolio as well as your client’s property marketing, you’re setting yourself up to build a solid, professional reputation as a photographer and helping your client move real estate. It may, at times, feel easier to claim to be just a photographer and attempt to sidestep the business angle of the profession. In the end, taking steps to protect your name in the industry is critical for continued success.
HDPhotoHub: the Blog 