How to Capture Aerial Photography for Commercial Real Estate Properties
Showcasing large developments like shopping centers, multi-family housing, and even land parcels can be tricky without the use of drones as a tool. Providing your investors with aerial photography will showcase new features such as parking lot renovations, roof modifications, busy traffic, and frequently visited tenants.
For this article, we're breaking down the details of aerial photography. However, drones can also create solutions such as promo videos for LinkedIn ads, 2D maps for site audits, 3D models for infrastructure inspections, and even base maps for ALTA surveys! Unlock the full power drones with Airweb Digital >>
1) Always Hire Part 107 Licensed & Insured Drone Pilots
When capturing photography of your commercial real estate properties you want to ensure the drone pilot on-site is certified by the FAA (learn about the Part 107 here). This means they should have an understanding of airspace regulations, weather, operations safety, and can take the correct precautions for your project.
Questions to ask a potential drone pilot before hiring them:
1) If they have a Part 107 Certification or if they can provide their Certificate Number in order to search through the FAA Registry of Airmen
2) What is their limit of liability for insurance
3) Bonus: If creating an in-house drone program, look for a hull insurance plan for your aircraft
When capturing photography of your commercial real estate properties you want to ensure the drone pilot on-site is certified by the FAA (learn about the Part 107 here). This means they should have an understanding of airspace regulations, weather, operations safety, and can take the correct precautions for your project.
Questions to ask a potential drone pilot before hiring them:
1) If they have a Part 107 Certification or if they can provide their Certificate Number in order to search through the FAA Registry of Airmen
2) What is their limit of liability for insurance
3) Bonus: If creating an in-house drone program, look for a hull insurance plan for your aircraft
Need help with finding a drone pilot in your area? We have a growing network of 450+ certified drone pilots around the world! Let's get started >>
2) Ensure that airspace has been cleared
This is something we handle before all of our projects, but if you're outsourcing, ensure that the company you're hiring has a good understanding of airspace safety.
If you're starting an in-house drone pilot fleet, this is required for all successful missions. Flying near airports, TFR zones, live stadiums, and other scenarios requires an approach with safety as the top priority. This is why we advise of an address search before starting any project, then once on-site, a walk-through is helpful to identify obstacles such as power lines, cell towers, trees, and neighboring buildings. Things like this might not show up on google earth because of the lack of real-time data of certain locations.
This is something we handle before all of our projects, but if you're outsourcing, ensure that the company you're hiring has a good understanding of airspace safety.
If you're starting an in-house drone pilot fleet, this is required for all successful missions. Flying near airports, TFR zones, live stadiums, and other scenarios requires an approach with safety as the top priority. This is why we advise of an address search before starting any project, then once on-site, a walk-through is helpful to identify obstacles such as power lines, cell towers, trees, and neighboring buildings. Things like this might not show up on google earth because of the lack of real-time data of certain locations.
3) Create goals for How photos should be taken
If your end goal is an offering memorandum, then creating a clear plan of action can streamline communications. Before sending anybody to a property, they should understand all the details of angles needed and NOT needed. The latter is most important in our opinion.
Common goals in our SOP's (standard operating procedures) for commercial real estate photography:
- Showcasing high aerials between 100ft-250ft (this helps with listing neighboring real estate and attractions)
- Try and capture moving traffic and visit properties at high-traffic times
- For low aerials, try and avoid roofs (Air conditioning units get ugly for cover shots - it helps to have a skilled drone pilot that can safely get these angles)
- Include ground photos from head-on to buildings and cover worthy angles (best for shopping centers and with the right kind of editing these photos can be taken from a smartphone)
- For sunny days, drone pilots should have the right type of filters to allow for minimal photo editing and higher quality images
If your end goal is an offering memorandum, then creating a clear plan of action can streamline communications. Before sending anybody to a property, they should understand all the details of angles needed and NOT needed. The latter is most important in our opinion.
Common goals in our SOP's (standard operating procedures) for commercial real estate photography:
- Showcasing high aerials between 100ft-250ft (this helps with listing neighboring real estate and attractions)
- Try and capture moving traffic and visit properties at high-traffic times
- For low aerials, try and avoid roofs (Air conditioning units get ugly for cover shots - it helps to have a skilled drone pilot that can safely get these angles)
- Include ground photos from head-on to buildings and cover worthy angles (best for shopping centers and with the right kind of editing these photos can be taken from a smartphone)
- For sunny days, drone pilots should have the right type of filters to allow for minimal photo editing and higher quality images
If the goal is an Offering Memorandum, create a plan of action that list angles you DON'T want and ideal cover shots. Showing examples can reduce site re-visits to 0!
4) Capture the right kind of photos for your workflow
This is important if you're looking to use your listing photos for things like large prints, billboards, offering memorandums, social media ads and more.
If your photos are being delivered by a drone pilot, and you want the most flexibility in post-production, ask them to capture in RAW format rather than JPEG.
If the deliverable is video and you want the most flexibility from the original video, ask them to record in D-Cinelike.
For organizations looking to keep editing to a minimal, we recommend to use ND Filters on-site and capture photos in HDR mode.
This is important if you're looking to use your listing photos for things like large prints, billboards, offering memorandums, social media ads and more.
If your photos are being delivered by a drone pilot, and you want the most flexibility in post-production, ask them to capture in RAW format rather than JPEG.
If the deliverable is video and you want the most flexibility from the original video, ask them to record in D-Cinelike.
For organizations looking to keep editing to a minimal, we recommend to use ND Filters on-site and capture photos in HDR mode.
Keep photos organized from capture to final product - this will save you time and headaches when referencing for later use!
5) Create content for the platform
Today, we have the luxury of free distribution of our media content, and as we all know, this can help with getting more attention to spread our message. Creating content that can spread that message with the least friction is a goal that we can all strive for, that's why we believe your aerial photography can be utilized in more ways than you might think.
Today, we have the luxury of free distribution of our media content, and as we all know, this can help with getting more attention to spread our message. Creating content that can spread that message with the least friction is a goal that we can all strive for, that's why we believe your aerial photography can be utilized in more ways than you might think.
One of the best perspective you can provide to investors is a design-friendly 'property profile' that includes popular neighboring tenants, daily traffic data, and popular attractions.
Here's 4 ways to use your drone photography when showcasing real estate
Drones are used to gather data in hard-to-reach areas.
We get this data faster and safer than traditional methods, without risking human lives.
Start your project with Airweb Digital >>
We get this data faster and safer than traditional methods, without risking human lives.
Start your project with Airweb Digital >>
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