If you’re a home buyer, the property’s digital curb appeal can make or break the deal. Unfortunately, limited time and resources might not always let you give outdoor spaces the attention they need to look their best.

The good news is there’s an easy solution! 

With our 6 powerful tips for tidying up, adding furniture pieces, and creating that “wow” factor in your outdoor areas—your property will boost digital curb appeal and get those leads flowing in no time.

Let’s get started!

6 Edits to Boost Digital Curb Appeal of Your Listing

digital curb appeal

To capture homebuyers’ attention, you need to ensure you have the best-looking property on the digital block. That’s where digital curb appeal comes into the picture! (*pun intended)

These 6 simple but powerful real estate photo edits can elevate any outdoor living area and beautifully showcase a home’s curb appeal. 

1. Image Enhancements

If you’re hoping to put your real estate listing in its best possible light, image enhancements are the perfect cost-effective option for creating high-impact photos that will capture buyers’ attention. 

From making a dry lawn with brown patches look green and lush to bringing out colors that otherwise might be shadowed by an overcast sky (that can be transformed into a sunny and bright one) – these simple photo edits can do wonders! 

Imagine crisp outdoor scenes with clean and inviting pool and patio areas – all without ever having called a pool cleaner or landscaper. How great is that? 

Virtual Landscaping
Virtual Landscaping by PhotoUp

Get ready to wow prospective buyers when they see these stunning shots of your property’s exterior spaces.  

To see an example of image enhancement, you can check out this video tutorial on how to replace a summer sky in Photoshop:

2. Day to Dusk Editing 

Be the architect of love at first sight and make potential buyers feel right at home! By turning a daytime shoot to dusk, you can add a warm, welcoming glow to any real estate photograph that potential buyers can’t resist.

This simple edit captures the magic of a home, helping buyers see themselves living in the property. It allows you to provide that extra bit of charm with stunning dusk skies, rejuvenated lawns, and lights on in each room.  

Also, adding fire to a firepit for an extra inviting impression and window HDR bracketings showcasing what’s inside are some extra touches that make it even easier for people to visualize living in the home.

To learn how to edit a day to dusk image in Photoshop, you can check out this short video tutorial: 

3. Object Removal

Can’t stand the sight of that dated furniture cluttering up your shot? Or the driveway is blocked by an ugly car? Dirty garbage cans or garden equipment scattered about the yard? There might even be pet toys and beds all around the house… 

These are all unwanted items that can make your real estate photography look less professional and inviting. All this clutter can be off-putting to buyers and make them move on to the next listing.

In other words, decluttering your photos can make the property look more spacious, cleaner, and more appealing to potential homebuyers.

It can also help to focus the viewer’s attention on the property’s special features, such as the layout and architecture, surroundings, and decor. All which are vital elements in boosting digital curb appeal.

Luckily, you can remove distractions and show off what makes the property great with item removal editing. To learn how to do this, check out this video tutorial on how to remove a car from the driveway:

High-Quality & Consistent

Real Estate Photo Editing

Hire a dedicated editor with performance metrics from $7/hour.

4. Virtual Staging 

Not sure what to do with that tired outdoor space or an empty lot? According to a study done by Michigan State University, a home with landscaping and effort put into curb appeal can increase perceived home value by 5 to 11%.

Virtual staging of pool/patio area by PhotoUp - digital curb appeal
Virtual Landscaping by PhotoUp

“Well-manicured landscaping is inviting to potential home buyers and can help increase foot traffic, produce more offers, and even raise the final sale price for home sellers.”

Devon Higgins, Head of Sales & Marketing at PhotoUp, Realtor at Hello Homes GR

If your backyard looks appealing, potential buyers will be more likely to want to see the rest of your home. 

Luckily, you can step up your real estate photography game and enhance the landscaping with virtual staging

This powerful technology helps increase buyer interest by adding digital furniture, décor, and other elements to your exterior and interior images. 

Virtual Staging Real Estate by PhotoUp – Twilight

With the help of virtual staging, you can easily create an appealing vision for potential buyers – helping them see the full potential of a property without having to buy (or haul) furnishings right away!

5. HDR Editing

High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) is a technique that many real estate photographers use to create a greater dynamic range of luminosity. 

This technique is used to blend multiple images, taken at different exposures, and later combine them in post-processing to create one perfectly blended image.

To create HDR images, you should shoot your subject in at least three bracketed images using different exposures. Then, all you have to do is merge the photos into one to show its highlights and shadows.

For more details, see our video tutorial on how to edit HDR photos in Lightroom:

6. Ghosting Editing

Light flares and ghosting in real estate photography are fairly common phenomena. Ghosting can happen when shooting bracketed images for HDR photography.

For example, trees blowing in the wind move from one exposure to the next across multiple images, causing the final blended image to show the tree branches or leaves with a blurred or “ghosting” effect.

While it can enhance the mood of a photo, in real estate marketing, ghosting comes across as a bit manipulative and cheesy. The reason for this is that it takes away the professional look of a picture.

Thankfully, it’s easy to remove ghosting using Photoshop if you know your way around the software. Have a look at our video tutorial for more details:

High-Quality & Consistent

Real Estate Photo Editing

Hire a dedicated editor with performance metrics from $7/hour.

Let PhotoUp Take Care of All Your Editing Needs!

There you have 6 powerful edits that can help you boost the curb appeal of your listing and help you sell it faster at a higher price.

However, if this seems a bit overwhelming and you want to spend your time out on the field taking amazing property photos instead, you can always outsource your photo editing.

With over a decade in the industry, PhotoUp has a team of highly talented real estate photo editors who are ready and eagerly waiting to enhance your photos. 

Our editors can help you with for example:

  • Image brightness and exposure correction 
  • Color and tone adjustments 
  • Window masking and glare reduction
  • Clutter and advanced object removal
  • Line and angle corrections
  • HDR editing and manual blending
  • Harsh shadows and lack of light 
  • Sky replacements and grass greening
  • Twilight and day-to-dusk editing, etc.
  • And much more!

Browse Top Dedicated

Real Estate Photo Editors

Ready-to-hire editors for real estate photo editing, video editing, and more.

Eco Theme Real Estate Flyers by PhotoUp
Eco Theme Real Estate Flyers by PhotoUp

Better yet, PhotoUp has everything you need for your real estate marketing needs under one roof and also offers additional services such as: 

With our user-friendly software, you can upload and receive photos, and send instructions and feedback. Plus manage team members and clients, store final images, and more!

PhotoUp Real Estate Photo Editing Uploader Demo

Have a look at the real estate photo editing uploader video tutorial to see how easy it is to get started:

It’s really as easy as 1-2-3!

Did we say that our photo editing starts at the low cost of $1.15 per image?! And for a limited time, you even get 10 free edits when you sign up for a PhotoUp account!

So, what are you waiting for? Get started with PhotoUp today!

We hope this post helped you learn 6 powerful edits to boost the curb appeal of your listing. If you found this post useful, you may also want to check out the following resources:

Stina Pettersson

Professional Blogger

Stina is an entrepreneur, digital marketer, and professional blogger who's passionate about real estate photo editing, being outdoors with her pup, and sweaty gym sessions. She loves the written word and has been writing for publications like Forbes and Thrive Global. Originally from Sweden, she's called South Florida her home since 2013.

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