A collection of workarounds to keep your website and your marketing materials on-brand and high-quality

A must-have for creating an excellent website and social media content? Images that speak to you and your brand. Whether they’re photos of your latest listing or images that drive home your core message, a visual element is essential to getting your point across.

So, what to do when you don’t yet have the high-resolution images you need? Maybe you’re just starting, or you’re working on rebranding and leaving old visuals behind. Don’t panic! There are plenty of high-quality options for getting and creating the right pictures for your luxury real estate website.

Convert Your Image To Be High-Resolution

If you’re just a few pixels short of your ideal measurement, it’s entirely possible to edit images to make them larger and higher-resolution. Many computers have photo editing software pre-downloaded, like Paint. It’s also common for people to use software like Photoshop for other projects, so this capability is just an added bonus!

If you don’t have software to alter your images, there are plenty of websites with the same functionality. A quick Google search for “image enhancer” will give you plenty of options to choose from! If you’re in decision overload, Pixlr is a great place to start. The tool is cloud-based and comes in handy for all kinds of graphic design needs!

When you set out to convert your existing images to be high-resolution, it’s important to keep a few main considerations in mind. First, be sure to select “maintain aspect ratio” whenever you’re defining new dimensions for an image. Otherwise, they can come out warped and appear unprofessional.

Also, be mindful of the original size of the image. While it’s possible to convert many pictures to high-resolution using software or online tools, some size increases simply won’t work. Since it’s not as smooth to add pixels as it is to take them away (like when we shrink images), it’s all too easy to end up with grainy images that don’t match the quality of the rest of your marketing.

Source Alternative Pictures

If you don’t already have a bank of high-resolution images to use for your site and social, it may be time to compile one! One way to source images is to hire a photographer to come to any events you put on or new homes you’d like to spotlight. Of course, this strategy involves a higher cost than many of our other methods and can require extensive planning.

For those who need images sooner rather than later and can’t wait for coordination with a photographer, stock photo websites can be a saving grace. Sites like Unsplash and Pixabay offer high-resolution images for commercial and personal use, free of charge. They’re not the only ones, either! When browning free stock photo sites, just be sure to triple-check licensing information to ensure you’re meeting requirements as far as crediting creators.

Of course, there are also paid stock photo sites like Shutterstock or iStock. If these fit in the budget, they’re well worth it! The variety and selection available on the paid sites mean you’ve got the creative world at your fingertips and never have to worry about needing to reuse the same photo for a blog or social media post.

Take High-Resolution Images Yourself

Even if you already have an excellent collection of high-resolution photos or a subscription to a great stock photo site, it’s a great idea to learn how to take these images yourself! In real estate, beautiful moments can happen at any time. Being ready to snap photos that highlight the elegance of your town, a detail of a new custom home or the joy of a new homeowner can mean the difference between effective and emotional marketing and cookie-cutter, formulaic attempts.

With a few tricks, it’s possible to take high-resolution photos even from an ordinary iPhone or an affordable digital camera! These all come with enough megapixels to yield a perfectly crisp image. The definition and guidelines for what “high-resolution” really means are always changing, and nowadays, smartphones keep up with the industry standards quite well. The nice thing is, photos used online don’t require as high of a resolution threshold as prints do.

It’s a good idea to take all new photos at the highest resolution available. Once you’ve parsed through the pictures you’ve taken, you can then go back and delete or convert the images that don’t need to remain high-resolution, which will save storage on your phone, computer, or drive.

Of course, the resolution isn’t the only concern when it comes to taking great photos yourself. There are plenty of other factors that play a role in the quality of an image! Keeping the subject simple, finding impeccable lighting, and using proper exposure can help photos feel professional and crisp.

Use Alternatives

If you simply can’t find the right high-resolution photo to fit your purpose, it’s better to find an alternative than to use a low-quality, grainy image on any of your marketing materials.

In many situations with real estate, there may be a prepared video that will get the same point across as a polished photo. Embedding the video or directing users to a Youtube channel can still serve the purpose well. If the materials aren’t related to a listing, checking out stock video sites instead can add some movement and make your site or post dynamic without sacrificing quality.

If all else fails, work some word magic! With well-chosen words, you might not even need a thousand of them to make up for one picture. Employ some pretty language and tell a story to bring readers in. There’s a reason buyers place so much stock in property descriptions! Even when there are plenty of images to look through, it’s the words that help people empathize and imagine.

With any combination of these strategies, you’ll quickly spring from an empty photo bank to endless options!