Home»Real Estate Photography by Kasi Liz | Blog»Rain Photography of Real Estate

Hello and welcome to my first blog post about real estate photography! Happy New Year! Today is a perfect day to start writing since it's really raining here in Pasadena, CA, and there's often a lot of debate (and cancellations) with real estate photography when it even "sprinkles" outside.
Well today is really coming down with heavy rain and guess what, I am originally from Seattle, so
I have A LOT to say about professional real estate photography in the rain!! ;)
The first issue that comes to mind when professionally photographing real estate in Southern California when it’s raining is you get spots on the camera lens AND the digital image. It's not easy Photoshopping out hundreds of blurry rain drops from a photo. If it's just sprinkling, it can be OK sometimes,and you can get by with little or no extra Photoshopping. I'll post some before/after photos of rain drops in a photo I took not long ago in Tarzana, CA. You'll see the rain spots on the image, and then you can see the after result...which I'm pretty proud of after over half hour in Photoshop!!
So... you've scheduled your professional real estate photographer to come shoot your beautiful home in Pasadena, CA at 10am. Awesome! You wake up at 6am… NOT to start making last minute preps to the house, but to the pounding SOUND of RAIN in California!! Wow, what a treat... :)
Will your professional real estate photographer still come out to take photos? Probably not.
Does your professional real estate photographer call your realtor to reschedule? Most likely.
What if it's just cloudy/overcast and it only LOOKS like it MIGHT rain. As a Realtor, should you cancel your photo shoot with the photographer?
That depends on the style of your professional real estate photographer and how much experience they have photographing in California rain.
Some of us (definitely me) prefer an overcast sky because less shadows occur in the house that's being photographed. The sky can always be replaced in Photoshop, usually for an extra fee and some great Photoshop skills. Ask your real estate photographer if their photography services offer this.
My favorite days to photograph homes around Pasadena are definitely on cloudy days!!At least you can photograph the interior of the home when it’s raining, if you’re on a time crunch, but keep in mind that the gloom may appear through the windows, and replacing that with beautiful blue skies requires special Photoshop skills, which can range from $25-150/hour, depending on who does it.
Check out the rain we're having today in Pasadena, CA from my patio (don't mind the neighbor's peeling paint on their garage)!!
Also below is the before and after of a Tarzana, CA home I photographed in the rain for an NFL player!