Questions about being a Pro Drone Photographer

[IndySon]

Hi Everyone!

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I am new to the forum and have had trouble looking for all the answers I am looking for in one place.

I have several real estate friends and was considering reaching out and offering drone photography. From craigslist, it looks like the going rate is around $100 here in Colorado. Anyone have a good link or anything that will help train me on real estate drone photography? From what I have read, Drone Base doesn't seem worth my time.

Considering replacing the gimbal and camera on my P3S with a 4k upgrade to get better photos. Any suggestions on how to do that and if it is worth it?

Any helpful links for Photography or other Drone training would be helpful. Looking for info on Real Estate photography businesses, drone contractor opportunities, or any other helpful links.

Any feed back would be helpful. Thank you!

Edited

M

Granby Colorado
View attachment 86649

 

[John Decker]

If you get the Litchi app (which I and many others would endorse) try looking for courses on Udemy - there are courses specifically aimed at drone photography.

 

[BigAl07]

A) Get a solid understanding of Photography, photo processing, and business workings under your belt before you try to start a full blown business. A business on Real Estate photography only is going to be a tough nut to crack and sustain long term.

B) Before you spend $1 on any more equipment buy or develop a detailed Business Plan. By Business Plan I'm not talking about the 3 page summary so many people are using now. You've got to know your business model, your marketing plan, your pricing scheme, and most importantly your competition. The detailed Business Plan will teach you every bit of this from the inside out. We spent about 3 months developing ours and it literally changed our business model without costing a single cent. It's about 60 pages long but worth every penny/hour it cost us.

C) Become a great Drone Pilot long before you start trying to sell your services. Your clients will ask for some "sticky" shots and you do not want to be the kid who crashes in front of the Realtor and their client.

D) Don't quit your day job or spend your whole "Emergency Fund" on this until you can prove it will work in your area.

E) With all due respect, Real Estate Drone Photography is a tough business model. If you want to make real money long-term you need to build diversity into your portfolio and be able to do more than just RE images. Remember that each and every day more and more drone operators are trying to get into this fairly saturated market and if you're not at the top of the food chain someone else is going to eat your lunch.

F) You need to sit down and understand what Cost of Doing Business is and determine what yours will be. At $100/pop there's not a lot of meat left on the bone unless you're VERY efficient and really good. If that's the case you can get higher prices.

Good luck and Safe Flights!
Allen

 

[Pharm]

And don't forget your Part 107 certification.

 

[Mystic Sky Media]

No really, Don't Forget Your Part 107 Certification. Required for real estate photography or any other "non-hobby" flying/photography.

 

[anotherlab]

In addition to what BigAl07 said, real estate drone photography is turning into a mature market. At some point the real estate agencies will realize that it will be cheaper for them to have someone on staff with a part 107 certification do the videos than to outsource it. You will need to be able to show that you can do it faster and better than they can. You can't be compete on price alone.

Also, you will need to factor in the cost of commercial liability insurance for your drone.

You also need to be good at using photo and video editing tools to be able to show great shots.

 

[herein2014]

Hi Everyone!

Sorry if this has been discussed before. I am new to the forum and have had trouble looking for all the answers I am looking for in one place.

I have several real estate friends and was considering reaching out and offering drone photography. From craigslist, it looks like the going rate is around $100 here in Colorado. Anyone have a good link or anything that will help train me on real estate drone photography? From what I have read, Drone Base doesn't seem worth my time.

Considering replacing the gimbal and camera on my P3S with a 4k upgrade to get better photos. Any suggestions on how to do that and if it is worth it?

Any helpful links for Photography or other Drone training would be helpful. Looking for info on Real Estate photography businesses, drone contractor opportunities, or any other helpful links.

Any feed back would be helpful. Thank you!

Edited

M

Granby Colorado
View attachment 86649

Others pretty much have it covered, just doing aerial photography will not cut it no matter how good you are. The way us professional photographers make it is we diversify our portfolio. I do everything from aerial photography and videography for events, RE, construction, and venues; to traditional photography for real estate, model agencies, fashion, clothing lines etc. I also do aerial and traditional video. There are many times of the year when RE photography in general slows down, if you are going to be a full time photographer you cannot stick to just aerial drone photography to make a living. I'm also looking into offering Photogrammetry for the local construction sites.

I would also say that if you plan on starting out with a P3 you are already behind the curve. The larger sensor in the P4, mechanical shutter, and improved Lightbrige combine to provide a platform that will get you footage that is not possible in the P3.

 

[KongWerks]

The real estate market around me (Vancouver Canada) is still so hot that most properties seem to be sold with either no photos or just a few cell phone pictures. The place we are living in sold the day after it was listed. They showed it a few more times to try to drive the price up but it was basically gone before the pictures were taken.

Good luck with your business venture and as said above... Plan first, invest second

 

[IndySon]

Update: Got my 107. Booked my first job doing commercial marketing photography for my current company's website this weekend and hoping to keep doing more and more work with them going into next year! Outside of marketing I am hoping to learn how to use 3D mapping to see if that would be a cost effective way to estimate commercial solar, paint, roof, and window projects.

Got the Litchi App although my office has supplied me with a Autel x-star which has a 4k camera. (it also seems to be smoother than the phantom but not as agile. This may be ok for photography). I know this is a Phantom forum, but as far as I could tell, the Litchi app didn't work for that brand nor are there any other similar apps for Autel. Anyone know different?

I am saving up to get a Cannon to pair with my drones for Real Estate photography, which I am still hoping to do on the side part time. I was handed down a DJI Spark, which might work well for interior filming for real estate and marketing for the company I work for.

Starting my studies of the industry I have read...

Remote Pilot Test Prep Study Guide $18
Livin' the Drone Life by Paul Aitkin $13.99
Aerial Photography and Videography Using Drones by Eric Cheng $19

Next on my list to read and learn
How to Prepare and Present a Business Plan
Photoshop and Lightroom

Any other recommended books or videos for someone trying to do this on a budget in my own time?

Thanks for all the feedback. I have definitely had to readjust my plan and am glad I have a job that supports me moving into this industry with them as a side project to my current roll. I will keep you posted!

 

[Starbux]

If you are going to focus on real estate photography, you will really want to focus on photography. In my area people doing drone photography for real estate also do the ground photos as well and just put a bird in the air to get a couple establishing angles where it will be difficult without having a bucket truck, and much cheaper. I did a few of these early on for a realtor friend. He had hired another crew before. The big thing they point out is that they are not really interested in a giant over head view unless that view is to sell the property. Usually the shot angle is from 30 to 40 feet off the ground.

You will want to know how to take a good picture, understand white balance and proper exposure. You want to be consistent with what you deliver to the client. Really the drone is just an extension to already available techniques. People get in this thinking that everyone wants a drone shot to sell a house. That's not always the case. A lot of things involved like proper lighting and time of day. Will you go out and shoot a house on a cloudy gloomy day? Maybe, but can you do it while making the house look like it was done on a nice day? There are techniques, but they can be time consuming. How much time are you going to invest in a hundred dollar job, post processing the images? Can you come up with a quick workflow where you can churn out 25 images without spending hours on them. In some cases you can shoot the burnt in color profiles and be good enough. Or you shoot raw and use a LUT in Resolve to process the colors without doing much overhead work. These are all things to consider.