real estate photography: Do you include floor plans in your marketing materials? - 01/19/11 03:56 AM
What's the first thing prospective buyers want to see when searching online for a home?  That's easy ... they want to see photos, good ones and lots of them.  But what else do they look for?  Floor plans!  I can't tell you how many times I've seen comments on Zillow and Trulia bemoaning the fact that there are no floor plans with the photos.  Floor plans help buyers put those photos in context.  Yes, the dining room looks big, but will their 12-foot long table fit?  Is there a way to position their massive four-poster bed in the master bedroom without … (1 comments)

real estate photography: Who Owns the Photos? - 01/18/11 10:40 AM
So you've hired a professional photographer to take photos of your newest listing (yay, you!).  Do you now own those photos?  In most cases, no ... what you've paid for is a license to use those images.  The extent of the usage depends on how the licensing agreement is worded.  Here's what mine says:
LICENSE AGREEMENT
Grant of License.  This license grants the Client (“Licensee”), an individual, non-transferable and non-exclusive right to use the images described on page 1 of this invoice.  You may not sell, rent, lease, or sublicense the images to any other companies or entities not mentioned in … (5 comments)

real estate photography: Thinking of selling in the spring? Get photos now! - 09/10/10 07:54 AM
So many people wait for the traditional "spring market" to sell their homes ... but the spring market starts around March when your home probably looks like this:

 
Or, even worse, like this!

If you're thinking of putting your home on the market any time in the next six months, get your exterior photos now!  While May or June is probably the best time to photograph the outside of your home, most people don't plan this far ahead.  But if you take them now, you'll still have leaves on the trees and, depending on where you live, a … (15 comments)

real estate photography: Step away from the potty! - 06/25/10 01:17 PM
Did I get your attention? 
It's driving me crazy to see so many photos of toilets in the listings.  It seems that some listing agents feel like they have to take a picture of every toilet in the house!  I understand that it's difficult to get a shot of a bathroom without including the toilet, but it doesn't have to be the focal point!  Everyone knows there's a toilet in there ... otherwise, it wouldn't be a bathroom.  Enjoy these photos, then scroll down for some hints on shooting bathrooms:

If there's no way to avoid including the toilet, at … (75 comments)

real estate photography: "Thanks to you, my husband doesn't want to move!" - 06/02/10 09:10 AM
These were the words I heard from a seller whose home I photographed recently.  She meant it in the nicest possible way, of course!  While the agents I work with almost always take the time to give me feedback from their clients, it's rare when I get calls from the homesellers themselves.  It felt good! 
"Everyone wants to know what we did to make the house look so good.  I just told them we had a fantastic photographer!"  (Okay, I'm blushing now ...)
But the nicest thing she said was "You were born to do this!"  (I think so, too ...)  I may use … (8 comments)

real estate photography: It's not just a house ... it's a home - 05/18/10 11:36 PM
As a professional real estate photographer and full-time real estate agent, I like to think that my agent experience helps me do a better job as a photographer.  While the goal of photography is to market the home to potential buyers, I always remember that I'm photographing someone's home and I try to get some shots that are just for the seller.  Like the homeowner who told me how much she would miss her rhododendron bush that she lovingly planted in memory of her mother ...

The sellers who were concerned that their dog would miss the home she had … (60 comments)

real estate photography: Create a YouTube video with Photoshop Elements - Part 2 - 05/09/10 11:05 AM
If you followed along in Part 1, you now have a slide show that needs a bit of tweaking to make it look more polished. 
Panning and Zooming
Because my camera creates photos with a 3:2 aspect ratio and the Slide Show Editor is limited to a narrower 4:3 aspect ratio, I'm going to end up with black space at the top and bottom of each photo in the slide show.  I could correct this by cropping the photo to a 4:3 aspect ratio before sending it to the slide show, but I prefer not to lose parts of my image.  Instead, … (5 comments)

real estate photography: Turn down the noise ... in your photos! - 05/07/10 04:49 AM
Has this ever happened to you?  You take what you think is a great photo, but it's just a little too dark.  No problem, you think ... I'll just lighten it up with a little Photoshop.

So you lighten the photo, but look what happens:

I know it's kind of hard to see the problem at this size.  Here's a close-up ... see the graininess? 

Now what do you do?  Photoshop Elements does have a noise reduction filter, but it's only marginally effective.  A better solution is a third-party filter - my favorite is Topaz Denoise.  They've just … (18 comments)

real estate photography: Preparing your home for professional photos - 12/17/09 09:50 AM
I love doing real estate photography - especially when the agent and/or sellers have taken the time to make sure the home is looking its best.  But, of course, there are times when it's a challenge ...
  

I did a photo shoot recently of a home that had been staged ... I'm sure the stager did the best she could under the circumstances, but there were some problems: electronic equipment (DVD player, cable box, etc.) on the floor next to the TV; an office desk with the particle-board backing facing the door.  The worst thing was the light bulbs ... yes, … (9 comments)

real estate photography: Are your listing photos "good enough?" - 11/20/09 07:48 AM
As a professional real estate photographer (in addition to being a full-time real estate agent), I often hear agents tell me they think their photos are "good enough."  With so many buyers relying on the property photos to decide which homes they want to see, is "good enough" ... enough?  Take a look at these photos taken by the listing agent ... they're not bad (and certainly better than a lot of MLS photos I've seen).
    
    
    
Now take a look at the same rooms done by a professional photographer:
    
        
      
In … (29 comments)

real estate photography: Do you use a wide-angle lens? Then you need PTLens! - 07/27/09 12:55 PM
I admit it ... I don't have a really wide-angle lens - I use the 18-55 mm lens that came with my Nikon D60.  But I still need PTLens ... why?  Pretty much any lens will have some distortion when it's zoomed all the way out.  Look at this photo that should toggle betweeen the before and after photos ... the only difference was correcting the distortion using PTLens:

Okay, the animated gif file doesn't work ... here's the after photo:

The effect is subtle, but noticeable.  PTLens will not only automatically correct the lens distortion, but allow you … (23 comments)

real estate photography: Replace the blank TV screen with a photo - using Photoshop Elements - 07/27/09 11:13 AM
Open two photos in PSE - the photo that contains the TV (target photo) and the photo you want to show on the TV (replacement photo) - I usually use a picture of the front of the house.  I have two methods of doing this - the first is quicker, but the second gives better results.  Here are the photos I used:


Method One: 
On the target photo, use the Polygonal Lasso tool to draw a selection around the portion of the TV that will contain the replacement photo.  Make the replacement photo active, Ctrl-A (or from the menu … (23 comments)

real estate photography: How to add a copyright watermark to your photos - 10/10/08 01:04 AM
My recent post on the Orphan Works bill was reblogged (thank you!).  This generated a comment requesting a tutorial on adding a copyright watermark to photos.  This can easily be done in Photoshop Elements.  (Don't let the long list below intimidate you - it's actually a very simple process.) 
Open your photo in Photoshop Elements editor. Select the Text tool - this will create a new Text layer. Choose a somewhat heavy font; I use white for the color, but any color will work. Type your text.  To insert the copyright symbol from a standard keyboard, hold down the Alt key and … (43 comments)

real estate photography: Adobe announces the release of Photoshop Elements 7 - 08/28/08 01:38 AM
If you're addicted to Adobe Photoshop Elements (like me!), this will make you sit up and take notice.  However, after reading CNET's review and Adobe's product description, I'm not sure this release will be anything noteworthy ... unless you've been anxiously waiting for automatic online backups to Photoshop.com (more on that in another post).  This looks more like a 6.5 release.
The most highly touted new feature is the Photomerge Scene Cleaner that allows you to blend two or more photos for the "perfect group shot".  While I make extensive use of the Panorama feature in version 6, I don't see the … (10 comments)