Unnatural angles = bad real estate photography.

Are they perfectly straight up and down, or do they appear angular, as if they would intersect each other if followed beyond the edges of the photo?  This effect happens when the photographer shoots at a slight angle either up or down.  It is best to shoot the camera straight to get the straightest verticals possible, but sometimes it is necessary to tilt in order to get a better composition.

Just Edit >> Transform it!

To fix verticals in Photoshop, get familiar with the Rotate, Perspective, Distort, and Skew functions all found under the Edit >> Transform menu.    Scott Hargis, an excellent real estate photographer in the San Fransisco Bay area, recently created a detailed video tutorial describing how to fix verticals in Photoshop using the Transform tools. (Watch the video below)

Scott Hargis:  How to Fix Verticals (the video):

Why care about verticals?  Because it makes a photo look more natural.   Larry Lorhman describes in his post regarding verticals below:

First of all, why are verticals even a big deal? The problem comes from the fact that we all live in an environment that as perfectly vertical walls. Try walking into some building that has a wall out of plumb. You’ll have a problem even finding a building that doesn’t have vertical walls, but if you could find one, imagine how it would feel; disorienting to say the least.

Because we live in this vertical world, where gravity defines up and down and vertical defines the direction gravity is pulling, we all have this built-in hyper-sensitivity to vertical. If we walk into a building with the verticals off or look at photo where the verticals are off we feel a tension or uneasiness. It’s an unconscious warning in our head that says, “something is wrong here”. As a real estate photographer you want to keep verticals perfectly parallel with the edge of the photo so this tension is eliminated and doesn’t distract from your main message. – PFRE

Straightening verticals on an interior or exterior architectural photo is one of the most important steps you can take in post-production.  Be sure to use your Edit >> Transform, Distort, Perspective and Skew tools along with your

The listing photo can go a long way in gaining more traffic (online and in foot) to a listing.  Agents who opt not to hire a professional photographer should study the basics of good real estate photography, and invest a little into a decent camera and photo editing software.

In the article, Fletcher expresses her dissatisfaction with the quality of MLS images, and offers a few basic staging tips.

Since nine out of 10 home shoppers begin their search on the Web, according to the National Association of Realtors, I’m appalled that some sellers don’t make much of an effort to make their houses presentable and visually appealing. After all, listing pictures are your main mode of advertising. If the pictures are poor quality, or don’t show every room of your house, as well as front and back views both of and from the house, many buyers won’t bother to visit.

Of course, in these tight times, many sellers don’t want to spend upwards of $1,000 a day to hire a good architectural photographer (unless the house is worth millions). Instead, they rely on their agents to take the photos, which are usually taken hastily with a handheld digital camera. And since agents aren’t required to take photography courses to get a real estate license, it’s not surprising that the results are often poorly framed and lit, grainy and washed out.

You can find a photographer who specializes in property photos in your area using this list.  And remember, if you are looking for an Austin real estate photographer, call 832-755-1312.  If you are outside of Texas, check out the PFRE directory to find the perfect real estate photographer in your area.  If the directory is useful to you, please let us or Larry know in the comments.

We often take advantage of dawn and dusk to capture our best architectural photos.  We commonly refer to this time as “golden hour”.  Other photographers do not use this term.  Probably because it does not last for an hour, and often the sky produces a deep blue effect (not a golden).

Watch the video below:

If you are interested in the higher-level lighting challenges with rooms and buildings, check out this excellent video interview with architectural photographer Robert Reck.  Robert uses a temperature meter to measure each source of light in order to take the steps neccesary to balance out the final composition in post-production, whether it involves multiple exposures, adding light, blocking light or changing light.

Of the buyers who used the Internet, they rated photos as the single most useful element in their search for a home. An article by Gar Benedick in RIS Media explores some of the reasons photos hold so much value in marketing real estate.

“The photograph is almost always the first element in any ad that connects with the buyer. It is the handshake, the first impression, the thing that cuts through the visual clutter to capture the buyer’s attention. Everything in the marketing campaign to sell your home relies on the quantity and quality of the photographs of your home. Photographs are needed for the MLS listing on the Web and in print, a website, brochures, flyers, photoboards, newspaper ads, possible magazine articles, real estate preview guides, blogs, etc. Many times, buyers will decide if they will visit a home, and agents will decide if they will show a property based on the strength (or weaknesses) of the photos accompanying a listing. Quality photos can and do make a difference, a big difference.”

Benedick then explores the research findings on the impact that photos have on listing traffic, days on market, and final selling price.  Statistics compiled from surveys conducted by the NAR, California and Houston Association of Realtors, as well as vendors like Point2.

Point2 (point2.com) conducted a study monitoring listings over a 30-day period which clearly showed that properties which feature just one photo generated approximately five views and 1.37 leads, while listings displaying 21 or more images received over 77 views and close to 11 leads. Clearly, the listings that added 20+ photos generated nearly 10 times the number of leads and over 15 times the number of views. Another study relating to the number of photos a listing posts compares photos to the number of Days on Market (DOM). The findings show that listings with more photos sold faster.

Read the whole story on RIS Media here.

Professional photos can work wonders for listing traffic, both online and on foot. Photography  should be viewed as the ultimate weapon by any real estate marketer.

Well, if you follow us, we promise to delight you with a link to a cool real estate photo or video imaging related piece of content every now and then.  And if you are not delighted or enlightened with what we post… you get your money back!

I tried to get a cool name and ended up with twitter.com/txrephoto .  You may also follow my personal stream at twitter.com/carsoncoots

On a side note, I snapped this at West Ranch.  It is a Trendmaker model.

]]> http://www.texasrealestatephotography.com/blog/hey-we-are-also-on-twitter/feed/ 0 http://www.texasrealestatephotography.com/blog/our-new-website-is-live/ http://www.texasrealestatephotography.com/blog/our-new-website-is-live/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:10:32 +0000 Carson http://www.texasrealestatephotography.com.php5-1.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com/?p=50 Welcome! This is the first blog post for the new Texas Real Estate Photography website.  Subscribe to our feed and get updates when we post new content.  Content will consist of photography articles, profiles, web tools, tips, how-tos, before and afters, and other crazy real estate photography fun.  With our new site, you can rate and comment on individual photos.  Go ahead, we appreciate feedback and constructive criticism.