Real Estate Photo Retouching: A Step-by-Step Tutorial, Benefits & Pricing

Real estate photo retouching refers to the retouching work applied to property images, interior and exterior photos, home and office locations, inside and landscape views, etc. The type of retouching such images require includes photo cleaning, object removal, color correction, HDR, photo collage, 360-degree image creation, etc.

Property image retouching has an impact on how buyers interact and decide to purchase. The cost of retouching in the US starts around $0.70. Renowned photo retouching companies include Clipping Path Studio, PhotoUp, Phixer, among others.

What is Real Estate Photo Retouching?

Real estate photo retouching is the photo editing segment to enhance real estate images, property images, office and home space images to make them visually polished and conversion-focused. It includes cleaning up spaces, correcting lighting, balancing colors, removing imperfections, and refining details to highlight a property’s best features to convince potential buyers. Real estate retouch ensures that interior and exterior shots look bright, spacious, and inviting, presenting the property in its most attractive form.

Professional photo retouchers use software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom-like tools to achieve a realistic visual representation. Such images help both buyers and sellers by providing the following benefits.

• High-quality, visually appealing images immediately capture attention and increase interest in listings among renters and buyers.
• Retouching works highlight architectural features, spaciousness, and natural light, making the property the best choice.
• Professionally retouched images have the removal of unwanted objects, reflections, or minor flaws to retain viewers’ focus.
• Listings with enhanced visuals tend to generate more inquiries and quicker sales or rentals.

What is the Difference Between Real Estate Photo Retouching and Editing?

The key difference between real estate photo retouching and editing is the level of editing they cover. Retouching covers a specialized task of detailing and enhancing the property to make it conversion-worthy, whereas editing covers all types of changes, adding and removing that happen inside the image.

Other differences between real estate editing and real estate retouching are as follows.

Topic	Real Estate Photo Retouching	Real Estate Photo Editing
Editing covers	All types of editing, changes, adding, and removing	Only focuses on enhancing the image’s look
Detail Enhancement	Flexible depending on images	Enhances textures, architectural features, and room depth
Adjustments	Exposure, white balance, cropping, basic color fixes	Brightness, color grading, highlights/shadows
Objective	Corrects technical flaws in images	Enhances aesthetics and makes images market-ready
Impact	Makes photos accurate and clean	Makes photos stunning to attract buyers

Why Do Real Estate Agents Use Professional Photo Retouching Services?

Real estate agents use professional photo retouching services because they enhance the property’s look, remove flaws, and make it spacious. Such photos directly impact realtors’ sales velocity, brand credibility, and listing performance. According to a 2025 blog by World Metrics titled Real Estate Photography Statistics has been stated that “70% of buyers form an opinion about a property within the first 60 seconds of viewing photos.” As a result, retouching property photos has become a strategic business decision that drives measurable results.

Other reasons why realtors hire professional photo retouching services are as follows.

1. Retouched Photos Increase Engagement and Lead Quality

Professionally retouched photos make property appear brighter, wider-looking, and emotionally inviting, stopping buyers from scrolling. Higher-quality images generate more listing clicks and better-qualified leads, which saves them from chasing uninterested buyers.

2. Edited photos display the Property at a Higher Value

Agents use retouching to showcase a property’s benefits, space, natural light, layout flow, and curb appeal, to make the listing appear premium. Such photos can justify a stronger asking price and reduce buyer negotiation pressure.

3. It Strengthens the Agent’s Personal Brand

Agents compete in crowded markets. Sharp, polished positions the agent as someone who invests in quality marketing, building buyers’ trust in his profession and work. This elevates brand reputation and helps secure future listings from sellers who want premium space representation.

4. It Supports Consistent Branding Across Multiple Listings

Editing ensures a cohesive visual style, consistent brightness, colors, tone, and composition in property images. It makes their portfolio look unified and high-end. This consistency is critical for agencies targeting luxury or competitive urban markets.

5. It Helps Agents Reduce Staging Costs and Time

Retouching improves the visual of the property. Virtual enhancements, such as sky replacement, clutter removal, window masking, and lawn repair, allow agents to present a polished property without paying for expensive physical staging or waiting for perfect weather. This saves time and cuts marketing costs significantly.

How Do You Retouch a Real Estate Photo?

Here is the step-by-step guide in Photoshop for retouching a real estate photo.

Step 1: Upload the Images to Your Photo Editing Software

• First, open Photoshop.
• Then go to File.
• Click Open and then select your RAW/JPEG files.

Raw files will first open in Camera Raw. Here you can work on exposure, white balance, colors, tones, etc.

Step 2: Create a Non-destructive Editing

Go to Layer and Duplicate Layer (or press Ctrl+J / Cmd+J) to create a copy to retouch a photo. Now you are safe to work and can work on it non-destructively, with a backup.

To keep the editing process reversible.

• Go to Layer, and then Adjustment Layer.
• Right-click the layer and select Convert to Smart Object to convert your layer.

Step 3: Adjust the Image to Correct Perspective

Crop or stratify your property images to make it appear natural to the human eye. Select Crop Tool (C) and drag edges, then press Enter.

Use the Straighten tool in the Crop toolbar to fix tilted horizons or leaning walls. Once done, follow these steps to Perspective correction for the interior/exterior lines.

• Go to Edit → Transform → Perspective or Warp.

• Drag corner handles until walls, door frames, and window lines look vertically aligned.

• Press Enter to apply.

Step 4: Remove Distraction and Flaws that Hinders the Viewer’s Focus

Edit the flaws out for a clean appearance of real estate photos. For that, use Spot Healing, Healing Brush, and Content-Aware Fill from the Tools Panel in Photoshop. Alternatively, go to Edit → Content-Aware Fill.

If you need to quickly fix something, such as light switches, window dust, wall marks, or floor blemishes, use the Spot Healing Brush Tool.

• Select the Spot Healing Brush (J) → set Type: Content-Aware in the top bar → click over small flaws to auto-remove them.

If you need in-depth and precise cleaning, for example, adjusting textures, cracks, etc, follow these steps.

• Choose the Healing Brush (J, long-press).

• Click Alt/Option + Click to sample a clean area.
• Brush over the distraction to blend it naturally.

For removing furniture, people, or signage-like objects from an image, follow these steps.

• Use the Lasso Tool (L) to select the object.
• Go to Edit and click Content-Aware Fill.
• Then adjust the sampling area if needed.
• Click OK to cleanly erase the object.

Step 5: Work on Colors, Tones, and Lighting

Enhance colors and lighting to make a better view of the spaces, for that use Adjustment Layers (Layer → New Adjustment Layer) for reversible, pro-grade edits. Use the following tools to make an interior look clean and realistic.

• Color Balance: Neutralize color casts from indoor lights (reduce yellow/orange for tungsten-lit rooms).
• Curves: Add contrast and brighten interiors without blowing highlights.
• Vibrance: Boost color gently to keep rooms natural but lively.
• Selective Color: Adjust whites, blacks, and neutral tones to get clean walls and balanced shadows.

Save your edits as a Camera Raw preset or apply a LUT so every room maintains consistent brightness, white balance, and color tone across the whole listing.

Step 6: Export the Retouched Images

Once the retouching is complete and the photo has gained the expected appearance, save the file.

• Go to File → Export → Export As.

Choose the format based on your needs, for example, JPEG for web listings, PNG for images that require transparent backgrounds, and TIFF for high-quality print output. While saving your files, use sRGB color space for web display, 80–90% quality for JPEG files, and 300 DPI resolution for anything intended for print for the best output.

What are the Best Real Estate Photo Retouching Services in the USA?

The best real estate photo retouching services in the USA are Clipping Path Studio, PhotoUp, Phixer, and Offshore Clipping, decided based on turnaround, service category, and quality, cost, and rating from the users as follows.

Service Provider	Turnaround	Free Trial	Cost (per image)	Rating
1. Clipping Path Studio	12–24 hours	5 images	$0.70–$3.99	4.3 (TrustPilot)
2. PhotoUp	12–24 hours	10 free edits/credits	$1.00–$1.5	4.9 (Google Review)
3. Phixer	12–24 hours	Yes	$2+	4.7 (Google Review)
4. FixThePhoto	48 hours	3 images	Pricing is unclear	2.2 (Trustpilot)
5. Offshore Clipping	12–24 hours	5 images	$0.60	4.9 (TrustPilot) 4.2 (Google Review)
6. BoxBrownie	24 hours	4 free edits	$1.60–$2+	4.9 (Google Review)
7. PhotozWorld	12–24 hours	Yes	Quote-based
8. ProGlobalBusiness Solutions	12–24 hours	Yes	$0.30–$0.90+
9. Smart Photo Editors	12–24 hours	Yes	$0.50–$0.80
10. BeatColor	12 – 24 hours	Not clear	$0.70

1. Clipping Path Studio

Clipping Path Studio is a high-end photo retouching service that offers business-specific, fast, and affordable image enhancement solutions. Backed by a team of 200+ Photoshop experts and industry knowledge over 10 years, the company offers real estate enhancements, object removal, exposure balance, and color correction with fast 24‑hour delivery and flexible revision support.

Other Service Categories: Video editing, clipping path service, e-commerce photo retouching, background removal, color correction, shadow creation, masking, etc.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
US-based services	Services are not available in Asian countries
Budget-friendly and business-specific pricing
Quick turnaround
Consistent quality for high‑volume projects
Hand-drawn retouching for precision

Pricing: Starts around $0.70.

Best for: Clipping Path Studio is best for agents needing high-volume listings where clean, professional images are mandatory.

2. PhotoUp

PhotoUp is a top-level retouching service that is dedicated to real estate. A team of retouchers ensures quality work through professional retouching, object removal, HDR blending, sky replacement, and marketing assets like property websites and floor plans.

Other Service Categories: Video editing, virtual staging, property websites, and virtual tours.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
US‑oriented support	Slightly higher per‑image costs
Free revisions	Account setup and onboarding may take longer
Intuitive platform
Offers consistent output

Pricing: About $1.00–$1.50.

Best for: Hire PhotoUp when you want full-service editing with web assets.

3. Phixer

Phixer is a professional visual enhancement company for real estate. It offers both photo and video editing solutions, both traditional and custom levels. With a decade of long industry experience, real-estate agents get all types of retouching solutions such as HDR blending, exposure and color correction, object removal, sky/lawn replacement, virtual twilight, and virtual staging.

Other Service Categories: Photo editing, video editing, virtual staging, lawn replacement, virtual twilight, declutter, AI editing, and AI website builder.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Phixer mobile app for quick editing	Pricing isn’t directly mentioned
Fast turnaround options	Clients reported quality inconsistency
High-Quality Edits
Helpful customer service

Pricing: $2+

Best for: Choose Phixer when speed and volume capability are your priority.

4. FixThePhoto

FixThePhoto is a renowned and long‑established online retouching service offering property and real estate retouching solutions. Their retouching team members take care of your images with HDR blending, object removal, color correction, and brightness fixes so that your images stand out and convince during buying, selling, or renting buildings.

Other Service Categories: Day to dusk, item removal, sky replacement, lawn retouch, dust and garbage, TV image replacement, HDR bracketing with indoor replacement, brightness and contrast, lens distortion, among others.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Decades of experience and varied enhancement options	Customers raised concerns about the  website price vs the invoice prices
Broad editing capabilities	Unresponsiveness is reported
Standard turnaround times
Broad editing capabilities

Pricing: Not clearly mentioned.

Best for: FixThePhoto is your solution when you need a specific type of retouch to apply beyond basic.

5. Offshore Clipping

Offshore Clipping is a specialized real estate photo retouching service provider that delivers MLS-ready, high-quality property images. Assisting professional agents, brokers, and photographers, their real-estate retouching covers exposure correction, HDR blending, sky replacement, window masking, clutter removal, and perspective correction to present real estate in the best light to drive conversion.

Other Service Categories: Photo editing, color correction, background adjustment, shadow creation, clutter removal, HDR blending, etc.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Real-estate–focused editing	Pricing isn’t fixed; quote-based on the project
Natural, non-overprocessed results
Hand-drawn process with quality control
Budget-friendly solutions

Pricing: $0.60

Best for: Offshore Clipping is best for reliable, natural-looking real estate photo retouching at a reasonable cost.

6. BoxBrownie

BoxBrownie is a popular real estate photo retouching company that assists businesses with visual marketing solutions. It transforms real-estate images with enhancement techniques such as color/lighting correction, item removal, virtual staging, floor plan redraws, sky replacements, and virtual renovations etc. With simplified upload projects, they submit projects with quality.

Other Service Categories: Image enhancement, day to dusk, virtual staging, item removal and virtual cleaning, floor plan, render, etc.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Comprehensive services	The customer reported limited control
User-friendly & convenient	Lack of design expertise
Pay-per-use system for customer convenience
Speedy delivery

Pricing: $1.60–$2+

Best for: Boxbrownie is best when you look for full-service real estate photo editing and visual marketing assets.

7. Photozworld

Photozworld offers professional-grade real estate retouching along with other image-enhancing solutions. Backed by 20+ years of experience, its services cover the merging of manual processes. Their service categories ensure improved property presentation for faster buyer engagement.

Other Service Categories: Virtual staging and property tour, HDR blending and bracketing, day-to-dusk conversion, photo stitching & panorama editing, lawn retouching, and sky replacement.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Covers both basic retouching and advanced enhancements	Quality consistency varies
Transparent pricing	Services might feel generalized
Fast turnaround
Handle large volumes

Pricing: Quote-based.

Best for: Photozworld is best when you need a property image retouch with clear revision support.

8. ProGlobalBusiness Solutions

ProGlobalBusiness Solutions (PGBS) offers professional real estate photo editing services at an affordable price. Targeting agents, photographers, and property marketers, their services produce clean, appealing, and sale-ready property images. They emphasize cost-efficiency and quick turnaround options for high-volume projects.

Other Service Categories: Day to dusk photo editing, color correction, sky replacement, lens distortion removal, HDR photo editing, virtual staging, aerial photo editing, item removal, lawn retouching, TV image replacement, adding fire to the fireplace, twilight editing, etc.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Highly affordable pricing	Less direct communication
Supports multiple file formats
Wide real estate edit range

Pricing: $0.30–$0.90+

Best for: Choose ProGlobalBusiness Solutions when you need repetitive work of basic-level editing for property photos.

9. Smart Photo Editors

Smart Photo Editors is an AI-assisted real-estate editor that merges manual enhancement to improve property images for listings. It offers color correction, exposure fixes, sky replacement, HDR blending, perspective correction, and object removal to create clean, market-ready visuals for agents and photographers.

Other Service Categories: Image enhancements, floor plan conversions, photo corrections, HDR blending corrections, perspective corrections, sky replacement, 360° virtual tour, drone image editing, and 360° panorama.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Offers MLS-ready property images	Specific rates are not clearly listed
Handle large batches
Uses AI and human review to improve consistency

Pricing: $0.50–$0.80

Best for: Good choice if you want AI-assisted, scalable editing for repetitive tasks.

10. BeatColor

BeatColor is a Vietnam-based real estate photo editing company that serves the US market. Its property photo editing services include color correction, HDR blending, clutter removal, object removal, virtual dusk (day-to-night), and virtual staging with ensuring fast turnaround and a cloud-based management system for easy uploads and tracking.

Other Service Categories: Photo editing, virtual dusk, virtual staging, retouching, video editing, etc.

Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Affordable editing starting	The interface can be harder to navigate
Consistent quality
Cloud-based workflow

Pricing: $0.70

Best for: BeatColor is best for agents or photographers seeking a cost-effective solution with a strong cloud workflow.

How to Find the Best Real Estate Photo Retouching Company in the United States?

To find the best real estate photo retouching company in the United States, define your needs, make a shortlist based on the company’s expertise, check their sample for quality works or through a free trial, read reviews, know about turnaround, support, and revisions, and check their pricing.

1. Define Your Needs: Identify the type of real estate edits you need so that you can provide clear instructions and shortlist the right providers. Knowing what you need will cut the cost as well.

2. Check the company’s expertise: Make a list of retouching service providers, ensure they specialize in real estate photo retouching, and understand MLS standards and property presentation.

3. Look into a Sample: Examine before-and-after samples to understand if their workstyle matches your preferences or request a trial to verify quality, realism, and consistency.

4. Read Reviews: Check testimonials or review platforms such as Google or Trustpilot to assess reliability, communication, and long-term client satisfaction.

5. Check Their Pricing: Check their pricing structure for single images, bulk projects. Compare per-image costs, add-on fees, and volume discounts to ensure pricing matches your budget.

6. Communicate Directly: Contact the provider to confirm data confidentiality, editing process, turnaround time, revision policy, and customer support.

What is the Real Estate Photo Retouching Service Cost?

Real-estate photo retouching service cost starts around 0.70 per image in the US. The pricing varies based on project volume, type of retouching, and their complexity, turnaround, file types, etc. Taking note of those factors, an average pricing for editing property images at Clipping Path Studio comes off as follows.

Image Type	Approximate Cost per Image
Basic to professional-level retouching	$0.70 – $3.50
Enhanced and advanced-level retouching	Starts around $3.00
Virtual staging	Starts around $15
Dusk editing	Starts around $2.50
Image clean up	Starts around $1.50
Property color and lighting enhancement	Starts around $2.50