had kind of a frustrating situation last week. shot a residential property for a real estate agent, conditions were fine when i got there, maybe some light overcast but nothing crazy. finished the shoot, delivered the edited photos, and she came back saying the sky looked too gray and wanted me to reshoot or swap in a blue sky in post.

i did swap the skies because i know how to do it in lightroom and it honestly looks fine now, but i spent like an extra hour and a half on it and she didnt offer any extra payment. i didnt charge for it either because i was worried about the relationship since shes potentially a repeat client. but now im wondering if i should have had something in my contract about this, like weather conditions or client approval before i even start editing.

do you guys include stuff like that in your agreements? or is sky replacement just kind of expected now for real estate work

yeah sky replacement has basically become a standard expectation in real estate photography at this point, unfortunatley. most clients dont even think of it as extra work, they just assume youre going to make it look nice. i build it into my pricing rather than trying to charge separately for it because that conversation gets awkward fast.

that said your contract should absolutely have language about what counts as a reshoot vs what counts as editing. a reshoot is when you physically go back to the property and fly again, that should cost money. swapping a sky in post is just editing. i had a similar situation where a client wanted me to come back because there was a car parked in the driveway in my shots even though i told them to clear it before i arrived. now my contract says property prep is the clients responsibility and any reshoot due to that is billed at half my original rate.

honestly this is the stuff nobody tells you about when you start doing client work. the actual flying is like the easiest part lol. i use a pretty simple one page agreement i found and modified, it covers weather conditions and says i determine whether conditions are suitable to fly, not the client. saves a lot of back and forth. might be worth looking into even a basic template if you dont have one already