Blue Sky Replacement: The value of a vibrant sky for your real estate photos

What is Blue Sky Replacement?
Sky replacement is a photo editing process using digital tools to alter or replace the sky background in a picture during the post-production phase. It is often used to enhance real estate photographs that were shot in less-than-ideal conditions.

Why replace the sky?
The late Ella Fitzgerald sang, “Blue skies smiling at me. Nothing but blue skies do I see.” Those are fanciful words for sure, but they certainly do not ring true in the world of real estate photography, where a photo shoot often needs to be completed when the sun is in hiding and the skies are dull with clouds.

And yet, image quality is one of the most important factors that leads to customer engagement with a property listing, social media post, or web page. 

In the highly competitive world of real estate, where nearly ninety percent of homebuyers who search online place photos at the top of the list of useful features on a listing website, it is essential to present not only the highest quality, but the most compelling images possible. After all, viewers spend only about twenty percent of their time reading your property descriptions – and about sixty percent of their time viewing your real estate photos. 

What’s more, studies show that seventy percent of agents believe high-quality photography helps them to win more listings and improve their business brand. Plus, those photos garner sixty-one percent more views online and help homes to sell faster.

And yet, even the most competent photographer using the most sophisticated photography equipment cannot control every condition during a photo shoot. A perfect picture is not always possible. That is where photo editing comes into play. A Blue sky replacement service can enhance your photographs after the fact, when conditions were not ideal during a photo shoot.

What is involved in blue sky replacement?
As you probably know, post production and editing take place after a photo shoot has been completed. Digital files are uploaded into editing software where they can be cropped, adjusted, and altered. Like twilight conversion or virtual staging, a blue sky background is one of the services provided by professional real estate photographers and editors. Blue sky replacement can be done to both outdoor and indoor images where the sky can be seen through the windows.

To perform the service, a photo editor will select the sky background section of a photo and swap it out for a vibrant and cheery blue alternative. But the editing does not end there. To make sure the altered photo looks natural, the rest of the image must be enhanced to blend with its new horizon. For instance, an editor must pay careful attention to highlights and shadows, or to the color effect that a brighter and bluer sky might have on objects in the photo. A background that is too bold or saturated, or one that includes colors that are inconsistent with the rest of the picture can look fake and unrefined. Likewise, if an editor fails to consider where the light falls on trees and buildings and other structures, a picture can appear unnatural.

Photo editing is as much an art as it is a science – and that includes sky replacement. Blue sky replacement photographers and photo editors develop a keen eye, a sense for composition and color in a picture. An understanding of how light affects a subject. That holds true when framing an image through the camera lens and when enhancing that image on a computer screen.

Why hire a professional for blue sky replacement?
In today’s technological world, there are advances made almost every week. New cameras. New mobile devices. New software packages. Open houses are now online and real estate videos are taken from flying drones. Not only are the tools getting better and smarter, they are getting cheaper.

If there is a downside to the advances in technology and the decreases in cost, it may well be that there are a good many people, agents included, who are attempting to perform “professional” services without professional skills – or results.

Sure, some agents are skilled photographers and editors. But that is not the majority of agents. The evidence for that can clearly be seen in the plethora of poorly framed, lighted, executed, and edited pictures that accompany property listings on the MLS. Many agents would be better served if they considered professional photography for their customers.

And while some agents undoubtedly possess the skills to take care of their own photography (some might also have a staff photographer in house), the sheer amount of time it takes to set up a photo shoot, assemble the tools, take the pictures, and do all of the editing (including sky replacement) can take a serious bite out of the time left for other responsibilities. 

Interestingly enough, most agents agree. According to one study, more than nine out of ten agents are passionate about the importance of using professional photography, and yet only half actually do so for all of their listings, and fifteen percent do not hire a professional photographer at all. And yet, those agents who rely solely on professional photography tend to earn higher commissions. And those who have the finest images available for their clients boost their brand identity to boot.

A professional photographer will take hundreds of photographs, cull them down to a select series of shots, edit them according to your conditions, and make them available to you in short order – usually within 24 hours. Professional photographers and editors have a faster turnaround time for a finer product. Blue sky and all.

So, handing off photography responsibilities to a professional service can not only free up time, but it can offer a good return on investment. Photography services are remarkably affordable, with packages starting below two hundred dollars. 

The main goal of blue sky replacement and other professional editing features is to attract buyers to your listings, your print ads (like postcards and brochures), and your website. Unless your pictures pop with vibrant color and vivid detail, and yet with a natural look, they will not have the impact that you desire and your sellers deserve. 

So, maybe Ella had it right: “Blue days, all of them gone. Nothing but blue skies from now on…”