Real estate photographers will find it critical to combine images with various exposures to create a single image with such a dynamic range by editing. In order to photograph a well-lit room without having the whites in the windows completely blown out, it’s super important to use HDR photography while photographing rooms and buildings in real estate. Outside it’s just as important to retain all the details of the home while also seeing a natural looking sky surrounding.
We’re providing the top HDR software for real estate photographers to help you flawlessly capture every detail in your interior and exterior photographs.
Reviews of the Best HDR Software for Real Estate Photography
Regarding filters, editing capabilities, and user interface, Adobe Lightroom is our top HDR application for assisting customers in editing polished real estate images.
We are also comparing alternative picture editing tools since real estate photographers have varying editing abilities, styles, and budgets.
Adobe Lightroom
Real estate photographers largely choose Adobe Lightroom due to its bulk editing, presets, and HDR Merge features. Additionally, its user-friendly toolkit has a gradient, brush, and HSL sliders to modify particular areas of photographs and fine-tune the final appearance.
It has advanced much since its introduction and offers several useful capabilities for producing HDR photos. Much of your editing features, like those of Adobe Elements, would come from the HDR Merge Preview.
Real estate photographers may use the Auto Tone tool to instantly create a blended picture with evenly-toned tones. The Auto-Align tool is another choice, and it’s useful if your outside images include fleeting motions like cars driving by or people strolling.
A Look-Up Table mechanism is also available for converting one hue into another. You may create original and captivating pictures for your customers using this strategy.
You may use the deghosting option to provide a cleaner output even when consumers see only partially visible results. LR has a Create Stack option that compiles many exposure-bracketed photos into a single stack.
The most recent version now includes Panorama. Your photos effectively create an expanded field of view and combine many exposures into a single picture.
Additionally, it has a handy profile tool that converts RAW camera data into readable photos, like JPEG or PNG. Users may also arrange files into catalogs to make adding information, geotags, and comments easier.
Users have the same subscription options as with Photoshop: monthly or annually. This gives you a minimum of 30 days to assess whether this is the best editing tool.
What We Like
Your work is automatically synced to cloud storage so that people may access it from anywhere at any time.
Wide-angle lenses that perform profile adjustments and eliminate chromatic aberrations
What We Don’t Like
limits sharing and are not compatible with plugins
Aurora HDR Enhancing Program
The Aurora HDR Enhancing Program, developed in partnership with photographer Trey Ratcliff, provides a variety of editing options for photo editors who wish to create composites with fine details.
The main editing features of the application include Exposure Stacking, Tone Curve, and Graduated HD Filter. Once the system has loaded your files, you may choose whether you want auto-alignment, auto-ghosting, or chromatic aberration reduction.
When editing, you should begin with the Structure panel to make changes to an image’s clarity and detail. You may modify images to create realistic-looking effects by altering the temperature, lighting, and shadows with the slider controls.
Top & Bottom Lighting, one of the program’s distinctive features, lets you change the exposure settings of an image’s top and bottom halves individually.
Aurora HDR falls short of LR in having a wide variety of settings. Filters on this tool often have been “overcooked” and oversaturated. However, it includes cutting-edge AI capabilities that examine a picture before adding intelligent filters to make your alterations seem more authentic.
In addition, the color grading tool may be used to make improved color modifications, which is ideal for images that accurately reflect the sky, ceiling, or roof. Additionally, it contains a LUT mapping tool that offers live previews of the various color grading techniques.
Your images will display additional richness and depth when coupled with the HDR Smart Structure. Wide-angle lenses’ chromatic aberration may be fixed using perspective and lens adjustments. You may create images with realistic highlights, strong contrast, and vibrant colors by using these features.
Finally, Aurora HDR offers a user-friendly interface that generally enhances responsiveness and quickness. Users may thus employ brushes, luminosity masks, and texture overlays while working with several layers.
What We Like
One-click tools for selective editing, brightness changes, and noise reduction
Users may test out the program for free and then utilize it after making a single payment, similar to Photomatix Pro.
Users may test out the program for free and then utilize it after making a single payment, similar to Photomatix Pro.
What We Don’t Like
Updates come in newer versions, so sometimes, you may need to buy a different version.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021
One of the most often updated photo processors for real estate photographers is Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021. Like Lightroom, Elements’ primary picture composite editing tool, Photo Merge Exposure, combines several exposure brackets to create a single image.
You may also assemble two or more picture files using the Panorama function. Applying Tone in ACR allows you to alter exposure, add warmth, improve clarity, and eliminate shadows brought on by erratic lighting.
Toning may enhance plain photographs. This function enables you to add effects to improve brightness and make your picture more colorful if your photos don’t stand out for whatever reason. Denoise, meantime, may eliminate noise or extraneous components so that customers can only concentrate on what is important in your photographs.
Additionally, the Group Shot feature lets you reposition both people and objects. This option saves time when you need to create a lifestyle vibe so clients can imagine having people and stuff in a certain place.
Users who wish to improve existing photographs using color, level, and lens correction tools should utilize this platform. This program includes the tools you need to edit, improve, and alter any element of your photos, much like Photomatix Pro does.
Users of Photoshop, a tool for manipulating photos, may remove some components from one picture and then replace them with others. PS is the best editing tool for changes and the addition of 3D work on numerous levels.
You may operate in layers, crop out items, and modify color balance using this program, among other things. Even menu commands like Fill, Transform, and Stroke may be modified.
Real estate photographers that use this program may post-process the same final photographs whenever and whatever they choose, which is another amazing feature. The main drawback is that learning it is difficult, so as a beginner, you may not first like it.
To provide you with an unequaled editing experience, the photography bundle includes picture editing software with 58 step-by-step guided adjustments, built-in prints, and gift services.
Real estate photographers may also use the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan to combine the functionality of both Elements and LR. If you wish to add vector-based graphics to your work, a free trial is a wonderful choice since it allows you to open Illustrator files.
What We Like
Large cloud storage capacity
allows you to choose between manual and automated editing modes.
What We Don’t Like
You may need to acquire the most recent version every time you upgrade.
Photomatix Pro 6
It may be difficult for real estate photographers to add as much detail as they want without making the image seem too staged, overly processed, or just fake. By mixing exposures, employing presets, and using color modification capabilities, Photomatix Pro 6 offers considerable advancements over previous Photomatix iterations.
You may choose between global and selective ghost removal when you first start Photomatix Pro. There is a distinct adjustment set for the technique for each of the rendering approaches. Photomatix Pro provides automated alignment of hand-held images, much like LR.
With Photomatix, you may tweak and edit photos using powerful HDR rendering techniques. This suite of tools includes perspective and distortion correction tools, edge-aware brushes, better color adjustments, and exposure mixing.
Each image’s color, saturation, contrast, sharpness, and brightness may be changed using these tools.
This Photomatix Pro edition also includes Tone Balancer. This tool, a new contrast optimizer, adjusts shadows & highlights to produce results that seem more natural, giving the sky or backdrop a more genuine appearance.
Another noteworthy feature of Photomatix Pro is its capacity to batch-process bracketed JPEG photos to create timelapse films.
Additionally, Photomatix Pro offers presets ideal for shooting interiors and exteriors. Users may also alter how preset thumbnails are displayed and store their settings.
Unfortunately, when compared to other contemporary photo-editing and enhancement programs, Photomatix’s user interface seems a little stale. This is due to Photomatix’s extensive experience in the field. However, the software’s usability and potency continue to be strong.
What We Like
Both a standalone program and a plugin are available for Photomatix.
Combine exposures and modify colors for photos and movies using the batch processing mode.
What We Don’t Like
When not updated, Photomatix Pro’s UI lags and is less user-friendly than comparable apps.
Considerations for Real Estate Photographers Choosing the Best HDR Program
Along with a natural-looking façade, a real estate listing must have a well-lit interior. In real estate photography, every little detail counts, and the best program should bring them out naturally. However, these functions must be included in your post-production program.
Capabilities for Post-Processing
You will certainly obtain a nice real estate shot with a decent camera. To make your HDR photos stand out and appeal to your customers more, your application will need a set of editing options.
For instance, the Photo Merge feature in Adobe LR and Elements is mostly used to automatically combine bracketed images. Auto-merge features are also available in Photomatix Pro and Aurora. However, they offer improved Auto Tone and Exposure Stacking functions, allowing them to display more accurate highlights and shadows.
Ease of Use
Post-processing a raw picture might be challenging due to the convoluted user interfaces of certain tools. The majority of the software that we included in this article has simple user interfaces that even a novice photographer can utilize.
Because their workspaces are devoid of distractions, LR and Aurora, for example, offer superior user interfaces that let you concentrate on the picture. Switching between multiple property HDR photographs while making edits is simple since you have rapid access to your image collection.
On the other side, Elements might be a little challenging to use, particularly if you’ve never used it before. If you’re new to this and want photographic software that won’t give you a headache, choose LR or Photomatix Pro.
Compatible File and Video Formats
Every software has a distinct file format of its own. However, it needs to be simple to convert photographs to a format compatible with other gadgets you could utilize to display them to consumers. All editing applications in this tutorial support popular file formats like JPEG and PNG.
Images converted into these file types may be immediately viewed with the clients on your computer or phone. Users may easily compress and submit them to online portfolios, listing websites, and advertising channels.
Elements and LR use the PSD extension. In addition, they accept PSB, a large document format that may not be viewable on all devices. Conversely, RAW images function best with Aurora and Photomatix Pro.
Cross-Platform Integration
You would presumably use many computer operating systems as a real estate photographer. The majority of operating systems should be compatible with a competent editing application.
Software must be cross-platform compatible, particularly if you use many platforms or devices. You won’t need to deal with the trouble of purchasing additional software or restricting yourself to a particular operating system if you do it this way.
For instance, you must have at least Windows 10 or Mac Mojave to operate Adobe LR and Elements. For users of more dated operating systems, such as Mac Catalina, Aurora and Photomatix are preferable choices.
Licensing
Another important consideration is licensing, especially if you’re dealing with a group of real estate photographers. Some software licenses limit you to using it on a single computer, while others allow you to utilize a single subscription across many devices.
You may sign in on a single account for up to two devices simultaneously with LR and Elements. Even if you need monthly or annual subscriptions, it would be preferable to utilize Elements and LR if you want automatic upgrades.
You just need to buy a license once from Photomatix and Aurora in the meantime. The later versions would, however, get the upgrades. When you require 5 individuals to work simultaneously, Aurora is significantly better than Photomatix, which only allows you to utilize the account for up to 2 devices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is HDR the Same as Bracketing?
No, HDR and bracketing are not the same. Real estate photographers use bracketing as a photography method to create images with different colors and contrast tones. HDR, on the other hand, is the process of adjusting and sewing together multiple, equally exposed pictures.
How Should I Take Bracketed Pictures?
Utilize a tripod, camera, lens, flash, and various exposures to take bracketed pictures. Use a large aperture value and a moderate ISO setting to get crisp results. Real estate photographers may also employ exposure compensation buttons to take equally exposed, underexposed, or overexposed photos so they can be edited afterward.
How Can HDR Images Be Post-Processed?
The specific procedures change depending on the editing software you use. However, real estate photographers must generally align the images together, apply filters, mix components, and make repairs to make the bracketed shots appear like a single shot.
Conclusion
Investing in the finest HDR software is crucial to creating stunning photographs that stand out from the crowd and draw in customers. Real estate photographers may increase company sales this year by providing quality shooting and editing services to agents and sellers.
