Images are the property of Ian Haseltine - Haseltine Photo INC.

Put your real estate listings in another class with professional photography and virtual tours by Haseltine-Photo! All of our tours are MLS compatible and can be posted to Realtor.com. Click Here for a Sample Virtual Tour! 

Thank you for checking in! Read more from Ian Haseltine - Haseltine-Photo  ---> HERE!

Images are the property of Ian Haseltine - Haseltine Photo INC.

Put your real estate listings in another class with professional photography and virtual tours by Haseltine-Photo! All of our tours are MLS compatible and can be posted to Realtor.com. Click Here for a Sample Virtual Tour! 

Thank you for checking in! Read more from Ian Haseltine - Haseltine-Photo  ---> HERE!

What kind of difference can professional real estate photographs make?

Well, they can make an incredible difference! A recent client of Haseltine-Photo was a Chicago based real estate agent with a beautiful property in Chicago's West Loop. The property has a great location surrounded by commerce, culture, and some great places to dine. Even though the real estate market has been hit pretty hard around the country, Chicago's West Loop has many forms of property still increasing in value (of course not all properties)!

This agent called our office at 5:45 PM on a Thursday evening. The call was forwarded to me in my office from one of my customer service reps who are answering phones here 7 days a week. I was already shutting down for the day seeing that I was going to be fleeing the office at 6:00. The agent was set on having professional photographs and virtual tours for her listing as soon possible. When I heard that, I quickly swung into action and made room for her listing's professional real estate photography session the next business day.

While engaging in friendly conversation with my new client I learned that she has had the property listed for some time without receiving a single call. I was not too surprised to hear this seeing that we were being hired via a Google search to take photographs of the property. Usually when a new agent calls us to inquire about our services they are usually pretty frustrated with the results of their current or past listings. The other popular "new agent/client" qualifiers are: that they are fed up with the service/quality of the other company they use, someone else in their office uses our services, or they were pressured by a homeowner to get professional photographs. In an effort to be fair, all reasons for needing our services we happily accept :-)

After completing the shoot, creating the virtual tours, and packaging everything into a link that we host at no additional cost I took the time to view the agent's previous listing for the property...and I was shocked by the photographs that I saw previously representing the property! I had to create a before and after!

My new client was thrilled with the results and promises to refer Haseltine-Photo to every agent and home seller she knows!

Here is the link to her Virtual Tour...I chose not to send everyone to the actual listing to keep my new client out of the headlines. However, she seems to be a wonderful person and agent...and I am very happy to work with her!

The new photographs will surely have an impact on this listing!

All photographs and content are the property of Haseltine-Photo INC - Real Estate Photography and Virtual Tour Provider.

Images are the property of Ian Haseltine - Haseltine Photo INC.

Thank you for checking in! Read more from Ian Haseltine - Haseltine-Photo  ---> HERE!

There are many blurry lines when it comes to what photos can and cannot be used on a blog/website/newsletter/etc. There is one rule every blogger and business owner should follow, and that is: If you are not the photographer or if you did not have direct contact with the photographer, you are not safe to use the image!

There are a lot of "free" stock photo sites out there that many bloggers and businesses are using. The only thing free about these sites is their liability!

Look closely at the terms and conditions of these sites...they will say things like, "You agree that neither (place the stock photo site's name here) nor its affiliates, nor any of their respective officers, directors, employees, owners, agents, representatives, licensors and (sub)licensees (other than yourself, as applicable), shall be liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect or consequential, arising from any use by you of the Website, even if such parties have been advised, or advised of the possibility, of such damage."

Many of these websites operate by trading or receiving photographs from its "members" who have agreed to "give" their photos and copyrights to the site to be redistributed for free. The "members" are asked to certify that they are the rightful owners of the photograph and they are submitting their work.

Well, in a perfect world...this would work just fine...but the subject of copyright is wrapped with far too much red tape to keep any users of these sites to stay out of trouble.

If a "member" uploads a photo that they copied from another website or did not rightfully own and you post it to your blog or your website...YOU ARE LIABLE TO BE SUED!!!

If a "member" uploads a photo that they did take and own the copyright to, but they do not have the proper release signed by the person or brand owner of the photographs subject...YOU ARE LIABLE TO BE SUED!!!

If a "member" uploads a photo that they did take and own the copyright and they do have a proper release signed regarding brand owner or person of the subject in the photograph and you use it in a way that can be considered defamation of character or slander...YOUR ARE LIABLE TO BE SUED!!!

Example #1:

There was a case in Minneapolis where the phone company used a Photograph of the city taken by a photographer that posted his image online. When the photographer saw his image on the phone book and knew that he had not submitted it for their use he began to inquire. The phone company claimed that they had rightfully attained the photograph from someone else who had clearly stolen it. Even though the phone company had documentation regarding the purchase of the photograph they were forced to pay $19,462 in a copyright lawsuit.

Example#2:

At a Virginia state fair in 1996 a photographer took a photograph of Andrew Marsinko holding a prize goose. The photograph was then sold to a notable stock photography agency which then sold the photograph to the Leanin' Tree greeting card company. The card company put the following quote on their greeting card over the photograph of Mr. Marsinko and his prized goose, "Since it's your birthday, you decide - Would you rather get spanked... or goosed?" The card was mass-produced in 2006...and there is an ongoing lawsuit still today.

Overall, be careful when you use images for your blogs and websites. DO NOT trust sites that allow you to take photos for free but accept no liability of their own! Remember to practice safe blogging!

ALL images are always owned by Ian Haseltine & Haseltine-Photo - Real estate photography and Virtual Tour Provider. 

Images are the property of Ian Haseltine - Haseltine Photo INC.

Thank you for checking in! Read more from Ian Haseltine - Haseltine-Photo  ---> HERE!

     An effective real estate photograph should be sharp unless the photographer is attempting to give the photograph an artistic spin. After all, the point of all real estate photography should be to showcase the property in the best way possible. In my opinion, that means that a real estate photograph should show the property's best angles, optimize the room's size, show proper colors, show the room free of clutter/distraction, give an accurate portrayal of layout, and last but not least DETAILS. It is difficult to show detail in a photograph that is not sharp.

     To effectively take a sharp real estate photograph your camera should be mounted on a tripod...unless you are trying to rush the shoot...you should always use a tripod. Also, you should use a timer or remote to control your shutter. In order to get the sharpest photograph possible you should remove all influence of movement while capturing your photograph. This is also important if you are taking any form of an HDR photograph. Any movement will compromise the quality of laying one photograph over another. If you are not using professional lighting, you are likely to have a long exposure. The long exposure is necessary because you will want to have a high f/stop (above F-8) in order to extend your depth of field and create a sharp photograph throughout your image.

     The above tips along with many others will help you attain the image we are all striving for...but if your photograph does not have that perfect crisp look, here is a Photoshop tip to help sharpen your image.

     Use the High Pass Filter. Photoshop defines the filter as: Retains edge details in the specified radius where sharp color transitions occur and suppresses the rest of the image. (A radius of 0.1 pixel keeps only edge pixels.) The filter removes low-frequency detail in an image and has an effect opposite to that of the Gaussian Blur filter.

     My suggestion to using this filter is based on the fact that it gives you more control over the sharpening process, it adds contrast and sharpness to the edges of objects in your photographs, and it will not pixelate your photograph like many sharpening tools will. It is also a great filter to use on specific objects in a photograph. Anything shiny will "pop" in your photograph with the use of this filter. 

Here is the step-by-step how to on the High Pass Filter:

1. Open your image in Photoshop

     2. Create a duplicate copy of your image/background layer (Drag the current layer to the create new layer button, or select all copy and paste)

     3. Go to the menu bar and select - Filter > Other > High Pass

     4. Select a level of intensity and click "OK"

     5. Change the layer blending mode from "Normal" to "Overlay"

     6. Adjust the Transparency of your High pass layer until the photo has the level of sharpness you desire.

Compare the results...Save and Close.

I just wanted to post a virtual tour that was just done for Bill Ashley of Platinum Partners Realtors of Glen Ellyn, IL. Bill is a great guy and Realtor who understands his clients and what is needed to sell real estate in this market.

Click here to see the virtual tour of 2028 Gladstone. Wheaton, IL 60189

Bill's website and full listing for this property can be seen by clicking HERE!

It seems that Microsoft might win the race for the new style of personal computer. Mac was developing a tablet computer, but the new gadget that was leaked by Microsoft seems to rival it in a big way. This concept is impressive to say the least. I am already excited about bringing these to meet with clients to show them my work. I am excited to sit in a conference room and take notes the old fashioned way on an infinite notepad. Even having an endless history of paperless notes taken durring phone calls, webinars, brainstorms...etc seems wonderful.

Take a look at the video below to see a preview of the gadget that might be on everyone's wish list very soon!

More detail can be seen at Gizmodo

Real estate photography can create difficult situations in regards to white balance. When shooting real estate you will encounter multiple light sources in almost every photograph you take which can confuse your camera and cause improper white balance. There will be sunlight pouring in through the windows (sometimes filtered and cooled by clouds), incandescent light bulbs (casting yellow light), fluorescent light bulbs (casting green light), your camera flash (generally casting white light), and a room painted red/yellow/blue...who knows!

White balance is the action that removes incorrect color from photographs. The final result of proper white balance should make white objects in a photograph appear white. An improper white balance will result in a photograph with incorrect colors.

Correcting the white balance while taking a photograph requires an understanding of color temperature. Color temperature has been related to units of Kelvin in relative intensity to a black object...Confused?

What is important about the units of measure is that the basic "right" white can be found at 5000K or 5000 Kelvin. If you take a look at your digital camera there are two general scales that can be found for white balance. More advanced DSLR cameras will have actual 64-bit color panels to choose white balance filters from.

In the "old days," or pre-digital days, we had to apply color/temperature filters in front of our lenses to get the proper white balance in our photographs. Professional digital photographers still apply gels of different temperatures to their lights in order to add or subtract casts of color from their photographs.

If the color of your photograph does not look "right" in the back of the camera it is time to adjust the white balance. Generally auto white balance will compromise with the colors in your photograph and result in dull colors.

Finally, If your camera shoots in RAW...then shoot in RAW. It is always best to get it right in the camera, but when shooting in RAW you can adjust your white balance while downloading your images and get a redo in regards to your white balance. There are other techniques that pros use, including using 18% gray as a white balance reference, but start by experimenting and picking techniques that make your colors bright, vibrant, and true.