Yesterday was the 21st Annual Neiman Marcus/Adolphus Children's Parade, held in the streets of downtown Dallas. For the second year, my assistant Joseph was up very early in the morning to serve as a "Giant Inflatable Handler" Ebby Halliday has sponsored a balloon for several years now, and Joseph first volunteered last year when he was working on the office side of Ebby, as an Advertising Coordinator for the Plano and Allen offices.

The parade, presented by Capital One, benefits Children’s Medical Center, and is Dallas’ largest outdoor event. Yesterday the crowd was estimated at 350,000. 

Can you imagine 30 or so Realtors working together as a team?

Joseph sent me some pics....

 

Hi again everyone!

This is Kay's assistant, Joseph, with the #1 of my top 5 Tips to Better Photographs. But before I get to that, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about my background: 

I am not a professional photographer, and have taken no formal photography courses (actually when I first started college I was going to major in Painting and Drawing with a minor in Philosophy...eventually got my B.A. in Psychology with Philosophy minor. I did grow up with photography, as my mother's father, Wyman Parr, opened a chain of camera stores in Dallas starting in the 1950's (Parr's Cameras). By the time he died, both my father (Martin Bros. Cameras) and mother (The Camera Store, Inc.) owned one of his stores. Times change and now the stores are all gone. But what I learned lives on in my photography......and a lot of what I have learned has been trial and error, and reading. 

So don't think that what I know is the result of some specialized education.  If I can improve my photography, so can you.

Ok, so without further adieu, here's my #1 Tip, and just like in retail they say success is all about "Location, Location, Location", my Number One Tip is....

Composition, Composition, Composition

Nothing makes your photos come alive more than a good composition.  Composition directs our eyes and tells them what to look at. Bad composition leaves your pictures uninteresting to the eye.  When I was taking art coursework many years ago, we were taught The Principles of Design.  I won't explain every one of them, but they are:

Balance

Unity

Gradation

Repetition

Contrast

Harmony

Dominance

When I go to photograph a house, I first think of the lighting conditions and camera settings I'm likely to use.  After that everything is about mentally noting how do I want to compose the shots., before I even look through the viewfinder.  I look for angles and views that will create interest.  I think too manny realtors I have known confuse staging with composition, but the truth is that a well staged house with poorly composed shots will look worse than a badly staged house well-composed.

I pride myself on the ability to work around almost anything people have in a house without having to move things around.....kid's toys, dog cages, cluttered desks.  In this picture:

Just to the right of the picture were two huge dog cages.  I'd always much rather move myself than objects, if at all possible.  Call me lazy.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind in Composing Shots

1. Whether horizontally or vertically, do not divide the picture in exactly two equal halves...leave just a little more above or below the midpoint line.  It may seem counter-intuitive, but putting the horizon above or below the midpoint will "feel" visually more solid and stable:

2. Look for unusual angles or views to create interest and make people look longer.  We look longer at images that look less familiar:

3. Use perspective to create sense of space and height.  I often shoot pictures with the camera about 2-3 feet off the ground, looking upward.  Often for Master Baths, I shoot them at the level of the vanity:

 

4.  Interest is often created in compositions by putting the main subject just slightly off-center, rather than perfectly centered, as long as you keep balance in the composition:

I could have shot this from directly in front of the mirror above the mantle, with the mantle in the center, and the chairs symmetrical on either side of the mantle; or with the huge window dead centered 

I thought it would be more interesting to shoot with the small table just right of center, with the left side of the window acting as a counter-balance.  The open space and low bar to the far left balances the high mirror to the right.  Also notice the line of the floor is below the midline, and the horizon line is slightly above the midpoint.

Hopefully these Top 5 Tips have been helpful.  I'll leave you with a couple of my personal photos from around McKinney, Texas:

 

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University has just released its 2008 Market reports for the 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA's) that make up Texas.  The report covers the year 2007 and compares the market historically to previous years.

Among the statistics and charts is this one:

Notice:

1. Although apprciation fluctuates in Texas, it has much greater stability overall and remains more constant than in Texas overall, and is far far more stable than the rest of the United States.

2.  None of the three lines drops into negative appreciation, so the question is....if you don't own your own home, and you are sitting worried about the values of your stocks and retirement accounts, why aren't you thinking of buying a house?

3.  Real estate has overall been a relatively safe investment in DFW, in terms of increased home values (This should not be taken as advice for any person to immediately go buy investment houses....if you are thinking of buying multiple houses for investments, consult a REALTOR and individuals familiar with the ins and outs of residential real estate investing.  The market isn't a "flip it and let's get rich" market anymore.  There is money to be made, but there are still shirts to be lost.) 

The full report can be found at:

http://recenter.tamu.edu/mreports/DallasFWArl.pdf

 

Joseph: 

Hello again everyone.  This is Kay's assistant, Joseph.  In today's tip we will look at the next to last of my Top 5 Tips for Better Photographs.  Let's talk about light.

Years ago, when I took a drawing class I remember the instructor constantly reminding us to draw what we saw, not what we thought we saw.  You see (pardon the pun), our eyes and our brain do a very good job of taking visual images and processing them so that objects never seem to change much even though we see them at different angles or in different lighting conditions.

But cameras are very good at recording what is really there, as opposed to just what we see.  Take a look at the two house photos below:

 

 

Now what do you notice about the top house photo when compared to the bottom house photo.  The house photo on the bottom looks brighter and sharper, doesn't it?  Why do you think that is?  The camera in both shots was set on automatic.  I'll give you a hint: look at the shadows.....

Do you also notice that the top house seems to have a bluish tint to it?  Why do you think that is?  Here's another hint:  the top picture was shot in October, the bottom was shot in April.....

Figured it out yet?

1) It's Hard to See With the Sun in Your Eyes:

First, in the top picture the sun was behind the house.  This is called backlighting. Anytime the main source of light is behind the subject it is backlit.  The front of the subject is actually in shadow.  Since we are use to seeing just a house, we likely don't notice it unless we have trained ourselves to look at things and see light and dark, instead of seeing just an object (such as a house, or Uncle Bernie standing on the beach with the sun setting in the background....).

Backlit subjects wreck havoc on the camera's ability to determine the correct exposure.  It can't win.  If it chooses the exposure based on the brightly lit background, our subject will be too dark.  If it chooses an exposure to make the subject lighter, then our background will be too bright, and the colors will appear weak (or washed out as it is know, just like a pair of faded jeans).

 

The Blue Tint:

As for the blue tint, this is because light has a different quality during the fall and winter than it does in the spring and summer.  The sunlight in winter is cooler and has more blue in it than summer, when the light is warmer has more red in it.  Have you ever wondered what it is that makes you look outside on a sunny winter day and think, "it looks cold out.."  Even though you can't put your finger on it, your eyes sense the bluish change in light that comes with winter. 

This is called the color temperature of light.  It may seem unfamiliar, but it you are familiar with it if you have ever wondered why that picture of you someone snapped under the florescent bulbs makes you look like you're half-dead, or why those shots indoors without the flash when you had that powerful lamp on, and you ended up looking a little pumpkin-skinned. Different light bulbs produce light with different color temperatures.  You don't perceive the difference, but the camera sure does.

As a little trivia for us older folks........Anyone old enough to remember the days of Ektachrome and Kodachrome slide film will also remember that Ektachrome was biased to the blue side, whereas Kodachrome produced warmer tints...in those days it really mattered because for magazine photography professionals had to use slide film.

Well, what do I do about this Joseph?

HOW TO DEAL WITH BACKLIGHTING

1) If a subject is backlit you have four choices:  a) Get you and your camera into the shadow to take your picture.  If everything (or most everything) you see through the camera is in shadow, then your camera will make the correct exposure.  Look at this picture, where the whole house was backlit, so I moved into the shadow cast by the trees:

 B) Turn your flash on.  Using your flash on a blacklit subject is called using a fill flash.  Many cameras these days are smart enough to realize that a subject is backlit, and you may even get a warning to turn on the flash.  Usually, if you turn on the flash, it will adjust the power to give you a better shot, like in this photo of a backlit sign (the sun was rising directly behind the sign) that I used a flash on.  Important: Flashes are not usually powerful enough to be a fill flash for the entire front of a house that is backlit!!!: 

C) Reposition yourself so the sun is more behind  or to the side of you.  The first picture is no flash, the second picture is no flash, but at a slightly different angle.  Notice the difference it makes: 

 

 D) If you can't do any of the previous three options, then come back and reshoot when the sun is at a better angle!

 

WHAT TO DO ABOUT THAT UGLY BLUE (OR YELLOW OR GREEN OR PURPLE POLK-A-DOT) TINT:

Here the options are more limited:

A) Make sure indoors under florescent of incandescent bulbs to use your flash!  The flash neutralizes these lights:

 

B) Outdoors in winter, you will need to adjust your camera settings or use Photoshop or other photo editing software (I use Paint Shop Pro Photo IX) to adjust the color temperature of the picture.  Let's take a look at the earlier picture:

 

First, in Paint Shop Pro Photo IX I choose "Smart Photo Fix" from the "Enhance Photo" button.  I then adjust the overall brightness down, increase the darkness of shadows, darken highlights, increase the color saturation a touch, then increase sharpness:

I then choose "Color Blalance" from the "Adjust" Menu, then slide the Temperature scale towards the warmer side until it is something I can live with.  A final touch I sometimes use is to finish by using "High Pass Sharpen" from the "Enhance Photo" Button.  I have seen many photos where it is obvious the originals have been enhanced....I look for something that improves the photo but still is a natural look.  Here is the final result:

I don't consider it perfect, and anytime you use software to try to correct a picture rather than using software to enhance a basically good initial picture, your final results will always be a compromise.  But considering this was a backlit, blue tinted photo, I think this result is much better, and would be okay for flyers or use on the web.

Now maybe you think "I can't possibly learn to do all of that!"  Remember:  If you say you can't, you never will.

In my final Tip I will look at My #1 Tip to Improve Your Photographs....

Till then,

Ta

Joseph: 

Hello again everyone.  This is Kay's assistant, Joseph.  In today's tip we will look at the third (and last) technical area of your camera equipment that a little knowledge about will serve you well:

!!!!!Lens Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Depth of Field!!!!!!

Lens Aperture

The aperture of a camera lens is the size of the opening that allows light through the lens to strike the film (or digital sensors) when the shutter opens.  It is also called the f-stop, abbreviated f/. Every lens has a single, or multiple aperture settings.  Almost all good compact digital cameras and SLR lenses have multiple aperture settings.  In the days before digital, you turned a ring on the lens to change the aperture setting.  Now most cameras have a button or thumbwheel you can use to change aperture settings (usually the camera has to be in Manual, or "A"-Aperture Priority Mode to make these changes).

Here is a picture showing the size of some common lens apertures:   

!!!!!Yes, you are correct if you noticed SMALLER f/ NUMBERS MEAN LARGER APERTURE OPENINGS!!!!

 

So we call f/1.4 a LARGE APERTURE, and f/8 is a SMALL APERTURE! There are also f/11 and f/16 (very very small) apertures.  It is cusomary to label a lens with the largest aperture opening the lens is capable of (remember that means the smallest f/ number).  For example if your camera or lens says 55mm f/2.8, then it is a 55mm focal length lens (we talked about focal length in Tip 4) with a maximum aperture of f/2.8.

If you have a zoom lens, it will probably have two aperture numbers listed.  This is because as the lens becomes longer, it restricts the maximum aperture the lens can have.  For example, my Nikon 18-55mm lens has the following written around the front of the lens:

AF-S DX NIKKOR        ED 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6

This means the lens is a 18-55mm focal length zoom lens with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 when the lens is at 18mm and a maximum aperture of f/5.6 when at 55mm.  As a rule of thumb, if you want your lens to have a wider maximum aperture opening, be prepared to pay a lot more!!

Ok Joseph, But What Does This Mean to Me?

1. Shutter Speed:

Large apertures require less exposure time to get your picture.  If you are shooting moving objects, then you need faster shutter speed to capture the image without blurring.  Smaller apertures, because the let less light through, require longer exposures and slower shutter speeds.  Now, for real estate photography, houses  and furniture are not known for moving very fast, so you rarely have to worry about motion blur.  BUT REMEMBER THAT AT SHUTTER SPEEDS UNDER ABOUT 1/60TH OF A SECOND YOU MAY ENCOUNTER CAMERA SHAKE IAND BLUR IF YOU ARE NOT USING A TRIPOD.

The exact shutter speed where camera shake depends on how steady your hands are and what focal length the lens is at.  Telephoto lenses require faster shutter speeds to avoid camera shake and wider angle lenses can handle slower shutter speeds.

 

2. Depth of Field:

Depth of field is the name for the distance range area of your picture that will be in focus.  This is directly related to the aperture setting.  Large apertures, although they are great for letting a lot of light into the camera so you can use a faster shutter speed (good for low light shots) HAVE NARROW DEPTH OF FIELD. 

This means that only a small range in front or behind the object you are focused on will be in focus.  Any objects outside the depth of field will be blurry.

Smaller aperture settings, though they require longer exposures and thus slower shutter speeds, HAVE A WIDE DEPTH OF FIELD.  This means much more of the picture will be in focus, even if you didn't exactly focus on the object you wanted.

It is easier to show all of this with a few pictures.  I have called in a few members of my home office team to assist....

 

Here is the Home Office Team shot at 18mm  f/11.  The camera was focused on Tigger. No flash was used and the exposure time was...30 seconds! Yes, I used a tripod. Notice at f/11 how pretty much everything from Mickey to the chair is pretty much in focus.  That is the depth of field.

Again I left the lens at 18mm but used a flash, which sets the shutter speed at 1/60th of a second.  The aperture was set at f/3.5. I focused again on Mickey's face.  Notice at f/3.5 how now Tigger is no longer in focus, even though he is only 18 inches behind Mickey.  This is a narrow depth of field.

Now I zoom to 55mm, set the lens aperture to f11, which results in a 9 second exposure (tripod in use).  The camera was focused on Ninja Sock Monkey. Notice how the depth of field changes as you change the focal length.  Mickey is out of focus, Tigger is 3/4 in focus, and Sock Monkey is completely in focus. The area behind Sock Monkey gradually loses focus as you move back.

So hopefully you now have a better grasp of what is meant by lens aperture and depth of field.  In the next Tip we will leave the technical areas of your camera and talk about:

UNDERSTANDING LIGHT: WHAT YOU THINK YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET

I will leave you with a few pictures to show how depth of field can be used in your photography:

 

 

 

 

You can also check out my personal Photoblog of McKinney-

McKinney, Texas: Sunrise, Sunset, Dusk, and Dawn

Kay:  Here again is my assistant Joseph.....

 

Joseph: Hi Everyone!  Today we'll start looking at a couple of basic things everyone who uses a camera should know.  This tip is called:  

 

TIP #4: "NA NA NA NAA NAAAA, MY LENS IS BIGGER BUT NOT NECESSARILY BETTER THAN YOUR LENS!"

 

When you get right down to it, there are only a few things you need to know about cameras and lenses, regardless of whether you are using digital or film. In tip 4 we will look at the first of the two most important things you need to know about camera lenses:  

 

 Focal Length of Lenses:  

Look at the two photographs below:

 

These are not my photos and I thank Bartt Buschotts from Ireland for these.  

Both photos were taken from the same spot using an 18mm-300mm zoom lens.  Whenever you hear the "mm" or  "millimeters" of a lens, it refers to the lens's focal length.  Typically, the longer the focal length of a lens is, the longer the lens physically is.  Have you ever seen the photographers at space shuttle launches or sporting events with the HUGE lenses that need a unipod to support?  The heaviest telephoto lens ever was made by famed lensmaker Karl Zeiss....it was a 1700mm lens...and weighed 564 lbs!

The top photo is at 18mm (the same focal length I use for most of my real estate shots.  The bottom photo is at 300 mm, and the red lines show you what part of the 18mm view (called the field of view) you are now looking at.

Lenses under 28mm are often called wide-angle lenses.  Lenses 200mm and above are usually called telephoto lenses.  The area inbetween 28mm and 200mm is the realm of the portrait lenses.

 

Now take a look at the field of view of a 6mm lens, also known as a Fisheye Lens, because the odd-looking lens looks like a fisheye...

 

Now go back and look at the 300mm produced photo and compare it to the fisheye.  Both of them distort what you are looking at, but the 300 mm is very subtle.  The fisheye warps everything around a circle........the 300 mm makes the landscape appear flat with little depth. This is what happens when you use a telephoto lens...you get to appear closer to what you are photographing, but it makes everything appear closer to everything else than it really is.  This can be great if you are shooting a portrait of someone, or a bird sitting in a distant tree, but not so good for capturing the spaciousness of a house or a majestic landscape.  

That is why for almost all house shots I do, I use an 18-55 zoom lens and almost always have it set at 18mm, as in these two photos: 

 

 

 

 

   One of the buildings in McKinney's Historic Downtown Square.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Formal Living Room Shot of one of our listings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So remember:

 

1.  Whether its an SLR or a small point in shoot, all lenses have a focal length, expressed in "millimeters". Under 28mm is called a wide-angle lens.  Over about 200 mm is called a telephoto lens.

2. Most lenses today are zoom lenses so the focal length will say something like "18-55 mm"  meaning it is an 18 to 55 milimeter focal length zoom lens.

3. At the extremes, small focal lengths and large focal lengths distort what you see.

4. You decide what focal length you should use based on what you are shooting.   I think most house exterior and interior photographs look best when shot around 18-30mm.  Scenic landsacapes are captured better by wide-angle lenses.  Nature photography is often done with telephoto lenses.   For my "artsy" work I use a variety of focal lengths.

 

Next Time:  "Open Wide and Show Me Your Aperture" 

            

          

 

Kay:

For today's Blog and several that will follow I am turning over the reigns at ActiveRain to my assistant, and son, Joseph, who is responsible for, among many things, most of the photography used in our flyers and on our website...We often receive compliments from clients and potential clients-who-become-clients on the quality of our pictures.  So I thought he could tell a little about what he does to make our pictures a little different...

 

Joseph:  

Thanks mom!  Without adeiu, here is Number 5 in my Top 5 Tips...

 

5) You don't need fancy equipment-you need the right equipment!

When I first started shooting pictures for my mom we used a Sony 3.1 Megapixel camera.  It served it's purpose more than admirably, and I got many great shots.  I wouldn't recommend anything less than 3.1 Megapixels for getting good shots in a high enough resolution for web and print.

About six weeks ago we splurged and invested in a 6.1 Megapixel Nikon D40 SLR (Single Lens Reflex--means it has detachable lenses) with a 18-55 mm Lens, a vivitar flash, and a polarizing filter.  Between the increase in Megapixels and the increased quality of the optics and real zoom (many point and shoot digital cameras use a digital zoom) of the separate lens, the quality of pictures we get is outstanding.  

Of course, why buy an expensive SLR if all you want to do is point and shoot? Don't!

Use the camera with the most features you can or are willing to learn how to use.  If you like learning about photography and how to use different settings on both your camera and your lens to create just the shot you have in your mind, then there is no substitute for a digital SLR and the $500-$1200 you will spend.

If cameras generally scare the beejeebers out of you, and you only want to learn enough about the camera to take pictures you and your clients will like, stick with an auto-focus camera with a good optical zoom, wide enough angle lens (the lower the mm of the lens the wider angle and the more area your picture will capture- most auto-focus point and shoot cameras are in the range of 28-35mm at their widest), and a few programmable settings to let you expand your abilities if you choose.

For most real estate photos, regardless of camera, I have always kept my lens at its widest angle.

Avoid any camera that is a fixed-focus or fixed focal length camera.  In digital terms you will be trying to take your listing's pictures using the equivelent of a 110 instamatic (for those old enough to remember...)

 

Next Tip: A Little Camera Knowledge Will Go a Long Way