Media Alchemy

If you’ve talked shop with us, you know how excited we get about our marketing.

It’s a given that marketing is only a portion of what makes an effective real estate team, but digital media is absolutely vital to selling a home. Few brokers understand what it takes to create truly powerful media that’s rich enough to propel a home into a fast sale at a desirable price. Or they are aware, yet unwilling to invest enough to provide that standard for every listing.

If you are curious about how we make our homes look so good and punchy, read on.

Every property has unique features, and we take every listing through the same creative process to deliver a media package that is 1) multi-faceted, 2) highly professional, and 3) optimized for and distributed to premier real estate and social media platforms. This post looks behind the scenes at the technical aspects behind the photography and video, so thanks in advance for allowing us to geek out a bit.

The art and science of digital photography.

Our cameras capture whopping, 42-megapixel photos that we fine-tune during the editing process. We capture three separate images for every angle — low, medium, and high exposures. State-of-the-art software compiles these three photos and merges them into one, taking the best from each exposure and creating one image. After a few more polishing tweaks – brightening a doorway here, darkening a window there – we’re left with a great final image that pops off the screen. Below you can see  the middle exposure on the left, and on the right you can see a tweaked composite.

This process allows us to infuse an inviting light and warmth into every room of your property. Think of it like using the photo filters in your phone, but with dozens more options. For example, did you know that winter light is entirely too blue to look good? It’s true. For almost all our winter shoots, we have to suck out the blue tint from the window light. These and dozens of other little tricks come together to create that Pinterest-worthy image that meets the visual standards today’s potential buyers are used to and invites them to imagine themselves living in the image they see. 

Curb shots are absolutely essential. Here in Oregon, that beautiful soft light we love for our latte-grams makes the essential first impression photo uniquely challenging. No matter the season, we can create stunning curb shots that refocus attention on the home. Swapping out a gray sky fills the negative space with color and lets your home shine. 

Another frequent hurdle for the would-be buyer trying to visualize themselves in a space is an empty room. In addition to physical staging, we offer virtual staging for unfurnished homes, which fills sparse rooms with 3D-modeled and realistically rendered furniture and decor. Sounds crazy, but the first time we used this trick was for a home that previously sat with no offers for seven months with another broker. We elicited multiple offers, plus an accepted offer, in only seven days. We’ve been converts ever since. 

The extraordinary power of film.

Done well, professional video adds a radical dimension by providing a little more context without sacrificing visual excitement. Using a gimbal to secure and balance the camera, we’re free to capture flying interior and exterior shots that swing dramatically from one key feature to the next. The walk-through is designed to give buyers an uninterrupted experience that’s constantly in motion — always in focus on the best features and always moving in the direction of the next. With some editing tricks and tweaks, we sort through and compile clips into a minute-long tour. What can we say? That’s Hollywood, baby.

Muddy, dark colors or shaky video can pose a problem in video production. Similar to our photo editing process, we clean up footage with color correction and motion stabilization, resulting in video quality that seamlessly matches the photography, brightening shadows and giving new life to colors. We even shoot in a special “gamma profile” (ooh, fancy) which allows for more profound exposure and color editing in post-production. Notice how even the little bit of shake in the clips above drags it down considerably when you compare it to the stabilized clip below. 

Exteriors benefit from something extra: We fly a drone above every property to take high-definition imagery and give a bird’s-eye view of the house and surrounding neighborhood. This lets us open every video with a gorgeous, eye-stopping shot. In a metropolitan market like Portland, it takes something extra to grab a viewer’s attention in a cluttered feed. We credit a lot of our views to the power of these two shots below. (Shout-out to Oregon for being a beautiful backdrop.) 

The post-production ends with an organized and completed media package ready for online distribution to dozens of channels and targeted ads (but that’s another story for another day).  

The Drew Coleman Team’s focus on digital media takes the technical complications out of your hands entirely, accommodating your needs no matter your circumstances. Since we employ the artisans who make this stuff full time, your schedule is our schedule. It’s one more way we work to put you at ease while providing exceptional, professional service. When you pair the artistry we provide with proper cleaning and preparation, it’s an unbeatable approach. 

For more information on our approach to media,

contact our “Media Dynamo”, Evan Melgren.

[email protected]