Understanding Drone Photography
Chapter 12
Alec Wilkins
Table of Contents
Introduction to Drone Photography
Presenting a home from many angles helps sell it. Aerial drone photography captures impossible viewpoints. It gives potential buyers an aerial view by highlighting aspects that may be hard to see from ground level.
What is Drone Photography
Drone photography, also known as aerial photography, is a method of capturing photos or videos from a birds-eye view with a remote control unmanned aircraft. This type of photography allows the drone pilot to capture unique views at various altitudes that result in unique and often breathtaking shots.
Aerial Photography Is Growing in Popularity in Real Estate and Design Industries
Drone photography has really grown in recent years as the technology has become more and more accessible to the private market. Not too long ago aerial photography could only be done in a plane or helicopter with a large cost to go with it. With the growth of drone technology, many industries have taken advantage of the benefits it has to offer including the real estate sector. All facets of the real estate industry has adopted the technology into their daily business activities from real estate agents and property management companies to design and construction firms.
Drone Photography Helps Professionals Keep Up With The Market
Drone photography has gone from nice to have to an integral part of any real estate listing. Consumers have come to expect to see drone photography when they are looking for a new apartment, condo or when buying a home. Aerial photography has the power to stop the scroll and grab the viewers attention. This helps real estate agents and leasing companies to stand out in a crowded market because not all of their competitors have adopted the technology and us humans still are excited by a birds-eye view.
Benefits of Drone Photography for Various Professionals
Professionals can employ drone photography to capture breathtaking aerial photographs in real estate. Below, we will examine some benefits of drone photography in real estate marketing.
Enhanced Visual Appeal and Unique Perspectives
Since clients are used to seeing images from a lower angle, raised photos can catch their attention. The property may seem unique and expensive due to the extra time and effort spent taking the photos.
Increased Engagement and Interest from Potential Buyers or Renters
Aerial drone photography provides aesthetically appealing property photos. Such photos may sway potential buyers and renters to choose the displayed property.
Showcasing Property Features and Surrounding Attractions
Drone photos allow prospective purchasers to visualize their potential homes. They show a property’s land extent and integration with neighbors, which may not be seen from the street.
Drone Photography Use Cases for Various Professionals
Drones benefit many industries in the diversified real estate sector. We’ll look at some instances and demonstrate drones’ usefulness.
Drone Photography For Realtors
Real estate agents increasingly employ drone-captured aerial photography. They use freelance drone pilots to take aerial photos and movies of properties. These high-resolution photos help realtors market properties.
How Homeowners Can Leverage Aerial Photography
Aerial photos boost your listings as a homeowner. Aerial imagery of properties can help in selling them. Listing websites allow homeowners to highlight important spots and add dimensions, square meters, and neighboring companies to photos.
Why Property Managers Should Take Advantage Of Drone Photography
Property managers can use drones to take high-resolution photos of the property and its surroundings to provide potential purchasers with a complete picture. They can create virtual tours of residential properties for prospective purchasers to view from home.
Vacation Rentals need Drone Photography
Airbnb - VRBO - Vacation Rentals - Long-Term Rentals
Preparing the property for visitors is essential as most rent vacation homes for their visual and experiential appeal. Employing drone photography to achieve high-quality real estate photography and create 360° Virtual Tours is great for showcasing the neighborhood.
Interior Designers Can Take Their Portfolio To The Next Level With Aerial Photography
Modern drones’ fixed camera technology makes inside photography easy and safe. Interior designers can use these devices to take photos and create video tours. This allows a thorough site inspection before a meeting.
Take your marketing to the next level with aerial photography
Aerial photography helps real estate agents interact with online buyers. Aerial real estate photography has several financial benefits, including the following:
Captivating Visuals From A Unique Perspective
Real estate sales need to offer prospective buyers exclusive viewings. Aerial photography allows viewers to spotlight specific elements of a house or those that complement it. Thus, your listing may become more intriguing and unique.
Competitive Edge in the Real Estate Market
Aerial property photos taken from a drone will help you stand out from other real estate agents. Aerial photos and videos in online real estate posts can boost traffic.
Immersive Experience Showcasing Entire Properties
Aerial shots of houses might include the neighborhood. This ensures that the potential purchasers have a complete view of the entire community where the property is located.
Build Your Brand Image In A Saturated Market
Success in real estate requires creating a brand and guaranteeing its visibility in all aspects of a firm, including business cards and website functioning. Aerial photography might help you reach this goal by giving your website and listings a distinct look.
The Value of Hiring a Professional Drone Photographer
Using drone photography for a real estate project requires a lot of consideration. Here is why working with a drone photographer will improve your project.
Expertise in Capturing Stunning Aerial Shots
A skilled drone aerial photographer can capture stunning project images from lofty views. They may advise on the best shooting locations, times, lighting, and angles. A thorough comprehension of the topic fosters project success and confidence.
Consistent and Reliable Results
Drone photography provides high-quality property photos compared to conventional photography. Customers can get a complete rundown of neighboring attractions. They may therefore be attracted to your property thanks to your consistent and reliable results.
High-Quality Equipment and Techniques
Professional drone photographers have the latest gear and know-how to safely and effectively capture high-quality aerial images. You may therefore trust their work and expect the best results.
What To Look For In A Drone Photographer
Good Communication
When scheduling real estate drone photography be sure to hire a drone pilot that keeps you in the loop. When you schedule they should be checking airspace limits to make sure a drone can fly in the area your looking to have photographed. If its too close to an airport or restricted airspace, flying a drone is out without prior approval. If approval cant be obtained pole photography techniques can be utilized to get you as close as possible to an aerial photography look.
FAA - Certified (Part 107)
Every drone pilot you hire should have their commercial drone pilots license administered by the US FAA. This license is called the part 107 and is required by the FAA to fly a drone for hire. If your drone pilot does not have the proper licensing you may be in for a hefty fine up to $11,000. When working with a drone pilot for the first time always be sure to ask to see their license. Any seasoned drone pilot won’t be offended and will likely be flattered by your knowledge of the flying requirements.
Liability Insurance
Liability insurance when flying drones is a must. Although they are very reliable and still amaze even the most seasoned drone pilots at their obstacle hit recovery, there are always inherent risks when flying drones. The main causes of accidents with drones are equipment malfunction and weather. Although rare drones can lose control with their controller and fly off on their own called a fly away. This risk is even higher for drone pilots who do cell tower inspection as the strong antennas in the towers can have negative affects on the controller to drone tether. Another risk with drones is strong gusts of wind. Lighter drones are more susceptible to wind gusts than heavier ones but all drones are effected by wind. Modern drone have systems on board to help combat wind but sometimes they can be over powered resulting in a crash. Having liability insurance is a crucial way to protect against these unexpected accidents.
The Importance of a Part 107 License
What is drone photography without licensing? Part 107 license is an essential aspect of real estate aerial photography. It regulates US unmanned aerial vehicles, such as drones. However, it does not cover all UAV activities. Some companies can operate under Part 107 with waivers or exemptions, but others cannot.
FAA Regulations for Drone Operations
USC 44809, the Exception for Limited Recreational Operations of Unmanned Aircraft, governs drone operation circumstances, time, and areas. Adhering to these principles helps protect humans, unmanned aerial vehicles, and airspace. The laws imply that you should:
- Follow FAA-approved Community-Based Organization (CBO) safety requirements.
- Keep your drone in sight, or use a visual observer.
- Respect other aircraft’s right-of-way.
- Not fly to FAA-authorized territories and altitudes as per LAANC and DroneZone FAA authorization.
- Fly 400 feet or lower in unrestricted airspace.
- Maintain your FAA registration, affix your drones with the registration number, and carry a copy of your registration documentation during flights.
- Avoid drone actions that could threaten national airspace security.
Legal Implications of Hiring Unlicensed Drone Operators
Drones, like other modern trends, are becoming increasingly popular. Drone operators must follow the law. Engaging a non-FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot may result in the following: Reputation risks Fines Incarceration Wasted business resources
Ensuring Compliance and Avoiding Fines and Fees
Legality is crucial when using an unmanned aerial vehicle to photograph the property. Here are the guidelines for legal compliance and avoiding illegal activity:
- Ask for the drone pilot’s FAA license and any other FAA licenses. If the pilot is unlicensed, get another.
- Request an insurance certificate from the pilot. Requesting coverage is permissible when the job is complex, risky, or extensive.
- Ask if the pilot needs Part 107 Waivers to complete the work. Operations at night and in regulated airspace are restricted.
- Assess the pilot’s experience and safety. Competent drone pilots can answer safety questions.
Preparing for Your Drone Photography Session
Property Preparation Tips for Optimal Results
Preparation is key to any great real estate photography shoot. Just like prepping the inside of the house is important, the outside is just as valuable. Things like cutting the grass, raking leaves, picking up kids’ toys and weeding the landscaping go a long way in making your property look well maintained and photo ready. Other things to keep in mind when prepping the outside of your home is that the drone will have a different vantage point than you are used to seeing. Having the leaves removed from the gutters and roof and pressure washing the driveway go a long way since the drone will easily pick these up.
Weather Considerations and Backup Plans
Drones can fly in most winds but rain is a no go. Commercial drones are generally battery powered by open coil brushless motors and those motors and rain don’t mix. If it does happen to rain the day of your shoot, your photography will try their best to work around it. They may shoot the inside of the house first to give the rain a chance to break up. If it happens to rain the entire time a reshoot for the drone shots may need to be scheduled.
Communicating Your Vision to the Photographer
If you have specific angles of the house or features of the house you want to highlight with drone photography, be sure to let your drone photography know ahead of time. This ensures they spend extra time framing up the shots you requested. If there are landmarks nearby (parks, community pools, lakes, rivers, highways, etc) you want to feature (with or without the house) your drone pilot will do their best to grab shots that include the house and the landmark if possible. If not, they can grab the shots separately. In post processing identifier pins can be placed to let the viewer know where the house and the landmarks are for better awareness.
Checking Air Space (Your Photographer Should do This)
If you have specific angles of the house or features of the house you want to highlight with drone photography, be sure to let your drone photography know ahead of time. This ensures they spend extra time framing up the shots you requested. If there are landmarks nearby (parks, community pools, lakes, rivers, highways, etc) you want to feature (with or without the house) your drone pilot will do their best to grab shots that include the house and the landmark if possible. If not, they can grab the shots separately. In post processing identifier pins can be placed to let the viewer know where the house and the landmarks are for better awareness.
Day Of The Shoot - On-Site Guidelines for a Successful Drone Photography Session
Final Staging Touches
Just before your aerial photography shoot, its best to put cars out on the street or in the garage. Same goes for waste cans and any other moveable objects you don’t want in the drone shots. Some of these can be edited out but depending on the object and its location, object removal may be impossible to make unnoticeable. Opening pool covers and staging outdoor furniture are also great ways to stage your property.
Coordinating with the Photographer for Desired Shots
If there are specific areas of the house you have a vision for drone shots be sure to let your pilot know. Things like outbuildings, decks and patios, ponds and any nearby lakes or landmarks are great selling points to highlight with drones. Having a shot list beforehand allows the drone photographer to be more efficient and spend more time on your areas of focus.
Exploring Standard Drone Angles for Property Photography
Top-Down View: Capturing the Entire Property Layout
The top-down view is perfect for adding property lines and showing the entire property. If the property cant be fit in a single down shot due to altitude limits, multiple top-down shots can be taken and stitched together to create a pano shot of the entire property.
Bird's Eye View: Showcasing Surrounding Landscape and Amenities
The birds-eye view show is an aerial image showing the surrounding property features, neighborhood and nearby landmarks. This is a shot where pins can be added to identify where places of importance are located in relation to the property.
Conclusion
Importance of Drone Photography for Property Marketing
In today’s highly competitive real estate market, every angle needs to be taken to gain a competitive edge. Drone photography is a great way to add value to your real estate marketing and gain attention online. It’s also a great selling tool when acquiring listings when you can say all your listings come with drone photography. Capture every angle of your property with drone photography.
Benefits of Hiring a Licensed Professional
A licensed and insured drone pilot is the only way to go when looking for commercial drone services. Hiring someone who isn’t licensed can result in hefty fines from the FAA for you and your drone operator. Although it may be tempting to hire a non-professional to save money, hiring a licensed professional drone pilot is the best way to ensure quality, safety, and consistency in the end product you receive.
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