Out of the edit cave: How real estate photographers can reclaim their time

For real estate photographers, a significant portion of the working week is often dedicated to editing rather than capturing photographs. Research indicates that approximately 55% of time may be consumed by editing, with a mere 4% allocated to the actual photography. This imbalance can detract from valuable time, creative energy, and potential earnings.

Most real estate professionals juggle the demands of image editing and the need for fast turnrounds, which is time consuming. However, effective solutions exist to help with this challenge. By strategically optimizing your workflow and integrating automation techniques, it is possible to regain control of your time and rediscover your love for photography and why you got into the industry in the first place.

Breaking down the editing process

So why does editing take so long? It’s a combination of factors:

• Manual adjustments: Every image needs individual attention, from exposure and white balance to sharpening and color correction.
• Batch processing bottlenecks: Even with batch editing, the sheer volume of images can be overwhelming.
• Client revisions: Endless rounds of revisions can derail even the most efficient workflow.
• Lack of organization: Disorganized files and presets can add hours to your editing time.

Tools, workflows, and automation techniques

The good news is, you don’t have to resign yourself to a life of endless editing. There are a number of different techniques and tools you can use to help streamline your workflow, and reclaim your time, in order to invest it back into the thing you love to do.

Streamlining your workflow is the first place to start; A well planned photoshoot leads to less time wasted while shooting, and while editing. To combat this, you can create a comprehensive shot list to help guide you when you’re on location. Having this will also help you to visualize your outcome and help you and your creative eye while on location.

Developing a consistent shooting style will also help you streamline your workflow. This consistency will help you minimize variations between images and shoots, this in turn will help your batch editing even smoother. In addition to this you should be ruthless with your images. Only keep the best, and cut the rest.

Embrace automation; Create and invest in high quality presets so that when it comes to editing, you can have it done in the click of a button as opposed to doing the same editing for each image individually. To pair with your presets, you can also leverage batch processing features in your editing software to apply adjustments to multiple images simultaneously.

You can also think about your equipment. While it’s true you don’t need a top of the range computer to execute high quality edits, the hardware you use will have an impact on speed and efficiency. Optimizing your hardware includes ensuring your SSD is fast, to ensure your file access and processing speed are top tier.

Ensuring your computer has enough RAM to deal with the tasks you are requiring it to do will also help with your workflow speed, this will bring down both processing and rendering times. Ensuring you have a good quality monitor will also contribute to your editing success. A good monitor will give you more consistency in colour and definition, meaning you can see your images at their best. This will mean less editing for you.

Finally, set boundaries and prioritize; Use a calendar and block out specific time in your working day to edit. Ensure you stick to them as this will reduce the workload in the long run and ensure you won’t have to crunch to meet a client deadline. Prioritizing your workload is also essential, don’t work on a newer project just because you find it more interesting. Make sure you treat all clients and projects with equal respect. Perhaps most importantly. Don’t be afraid to say no. If a client is asking for unreasonable edits or requests, you can draw the line and set a boundary. However, ensure you deal with this in a professional manner, and ensure they receive the work they have paid for.

Reclaiming your creativity

Implementing these strategic approaches can lead to a significant reduction in editing time, thereby allowing the recovery of your creative autonomy. Dedicate more resources to the capture of compelling property visuals, cultivate stronger client relationships, and foster business expansion. It’s important not to allow the demands of editing to take you away from what you love to do the most.

By streamlining your workflow you can rediscover the passion that drew you to photography in the first place. Your time is valuable. Invest it wisely.

All you need to know

Real estate photographers often spend a disproportionate amount of their week editing compared to shooting, significantly impacting their time, creativity, and income. Here is what you need to know to optimize your workflow:

Why editing takes so long:

• Manual adjustments needed for each photo.
• Batch processing can still be slow with many images.
• Client revisions cause delays.
• Disorganized files and presets waste time.

Solutions: Tools, workflows, automation:

• Streamline Workflow: Plan shoots, shoot consistently, cull ruthlessly.
• Embrace Automation: Use presets and batch processing.
• Optimize Equipment: Fast SSDs and sufficient RAM improve speed. Quality monitors reduce editing.
• Set Boundaries: Schedule editing time, prioritize work, say no to unreasonable requests.

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