Someone needs to tell the truth... PHOTOS LIE!

In my previous post today I showed Before & After Photos of a property that we just completed staging. What I did NOT show  was how I got those After Photos to look so good.

Realtors and stagers need to understand a very important point about digital cameras... THEY DISTORT THE TRUTH.

Below is the raw Before (left) and edited After (right) photo of the Living room we just staged. PhotoShop is the tool I used to make the After look so good.

But what did I do to transform the image? Well, first I applied BASIC principles of photographic perspective.

Let's break it down by looking at the 2 photos shown below....

RED MARKER LINES: Above are the same Before and After photo that has been "marked up". Notice the slanted/angeled red lines in the photo on the left. Next note how in the right photo these same lines now run straight up and down. THAT is because I applied a BASIC LAWS of perspective (A LAW IS A HARD RULE THAT DOES NOT CHANGE... EVER!) VERTICAL lines are to be vertical. They should NEVER flair OUT!

Unfortunetly many digital cameras now FLAIR the image in order to get the whole picture. So this must be corrected.

Moving on...

YELLOW MARKER LINES:  While vertical lines  MUST always run staight up and down... horizontial lines are flexible. By flexible I mean that the do not always need to run "flat" from left to right across the page. Notice how the lines about the framed artwork have been corrected to run "flat" while the line above the window (formerly yellow now sky blue) is still at an angle.

Finally...

GREEN ENHANCMENTS: PhotoShop allows one to edit and enhance a photo so that it makes a difference and convey the TRUTH of a property. Circled in green (left photo) is the ceiling light I removed from the After photo on the right. Why did I remove it? Because, in reality it can easily be removed/replace/updated... it really is not a permanent part of the room. I also improved the photograph... by adusting the brightness and contrast. This adjustment is closer to reality than what the orignal photo is conveying.

As Realtors if you are not able to see and make these sorts of edits on your own using a software such as PhotoShop... then hire a professional.

Stagers... I believe it is our responsibilty to make sure every visual expirence of a property is a PERFECT expression of that space. THIS is one of the distinctions of a TRUE PROFESSIONAL STAGER!

Dawn Shaffer constantly talks about the inportance of this in her blog... and she also knows and shows how principals like these are NOT only improtant in still photoraphy but also in videography... HER speciality. Thanks Dawn for the inspiration.

To drive home the point here are 2 random shots of a building I found just doing a random search on Realtor.com. All I know is it is a current listing in Boston. Anyway, SEE the difference? The building on the left looks like it is about to fall over, but on the right a... SOLID SALE!