Carlsbad Real Estate and Market Updates → EncinitasCarlsbad.com

New Ocean View Listing - Solana Beach, CA

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:04:23 -0800

Here is our new listing at 301 S. Granados Ave, Solana Beach, CA 92075 with our zoomable photos. To see any of the images, just click on one of them and you'll be taken to the web page. Enjoy! Margaret Hokkanen SurfTheTurf.com Realty DRE Lic: 01338432

	301 S. Granados, Solana Beach.Location, location, location! This home has it all, with views, walking distance to the Cedros Design District, restaurants, and Amtrak/Coaster station, great schools, and easy access to Interstate 5. Explore the Spanish architecture of the home by zooming and panning around the image.
	The Kitchen. This home is made for entertaining! Zoom in to see the views, dining room, and patio beyond.
	The Viewing Deck.Enjoy outdoor dining or relaxing on the wonderful viewing deck just off the dining room.
	The Dining Room.Large enough for a table for eight! Ocean and sunset views for your dining pleasure.
	The Office.Located on the far north side of the house, this room is away from the hustle and bustle of the living spaces and has a spectacular view and a small balcony.
	The Office Balcony.The sunset photo shows the wonderful evening glow, along with some village lights.
	The Music Room.The music room has the stairs to the downstairs level. The doorway leads to the master bedroom.
	Upstairs BedroomLocated across from the living room, this bedroom has a nice size and offers a secluded feel.
	Upstairs Bedroom off Kitchen.This bedroom is a guest bedroom with its own bath.

	The Courtyard.After coming through the gate to the front of the home, one enters a large courtyard. Perfect for entertaining, the courtyard can accommodate dozens of guests.
	The Living Room.Spectacular sunsets from a delightful room. Keep clicking on the view to see it just as you would if you were standing there. The thumbnail image looks small, but this image is actually 600 million pixels!
	The Master Bedroom.A wonderful place to wake up in the morning. The window seat offers a nice place to enjoy the orange sunsets or read a book.
	The Master Bath.Another ocean view! Total pricy, too.
Downstairs
	The Family Room.Downstairs, there is a great family room.
	Downstairs BedroomThe two downstairs bedrooms have ocean view and share a common bath.
	Downstairs Bedroom.Both bedrooms have sliders to the back yard.
	The Laundry Room.There is plenty of room for the mechanicals as well as storage.
Nearby
	Fletcher Cove.Just a short stroll away is Fletcher Cove. View the picture and see why this is a great spot to meet the locals!

Check this out - display of high res photos

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 07:48:57 -0800

We have been taking high-resolution images for many years so that our printed brochures look good. And my husband is into all this web programming stuff for our web site. So now he has set it up so we can publish our high resolution photos on our web site. Here's an example pole photography shot that we took a few years ago in Solana Beach: This is nice, but it doesn't look like much because it's only 60,000 pixels. The high-res version of the photo is 8 million pixels, and with the new setup, you can see now the entire image, including the white water at the back of the photo. To see it, just click on the image or click on this link: http://www.sandiegoeast.com/page.cfm?page=InfoHighResPhoto Our current photos range between 20 to 40 million pixels, which is substantially more detailed than this one. And, for a new listing, John has created a 600 million pixel image. Sounds crazy, but I'll put it up in a few days and you'll see why this is pretty amazing. Margaret Hokkanen

Do you do your own marketing? Check out this site!

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 21:18:17 -0700

I am going to reveal one of my favorite vendor web sites. We do a LOT of marketing, and this site specializes in one thing, but it does an AMAZING job at offering great products at super reasonable prices. WEB SITE: www.OnlineLabels.com CHECK IT OUT - I mean it. You will never buy labels (some folks call them stickers) from Office Depot or Staples again. The concept is very simple - select your materials first (e.g., gold foil), then select the die cut. Or, select the die cut (e.g., Round 2 inch circles), and then pick from the array of materials. They even sell synthetic (i.e., plastic) labels. These are great for printing signage related stuff since it won't matter if it gets wet! Finally, their customer service is also great. In all the years that I've ordered from them, I've only had one instance where they sent the wrong labels (correct cut, wrong material). I just emailed them and they told me to keep or discard the old ones and they put the new ones in the mail the same day. Margaret Hokkanen www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

Mailing Software - Another Approach

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 18:17:52 -0700

If you are interested in sending out direct mail, bulk mail is the only way to keep costs down. In the past, we used letter houses to do the addressing, but in recent years, we just went ahead an bought a bulk mail permit in our local town. The challenge was then how to generate the rather complicated mailing paperwork for the USPS, as well as the intelligent barcodes. We purchased high speed addressing equipment and Satori bulk mailer software. But, in the past year, we have learned of an alternative. Lorton Data. This company will allow you to buy subscription units (essentially a pre-purchase of services). For example, you can buy a 100,000 credits which can then be applied against any of their services. This can include running a list against the USPS move database or pre-sorting the list and generating the mailing paperwork. ANALYSIS If you are running more than 250,000 pieces/year, then it probably makes sense to buy software. But the software isn't cheap and it can have limitations. For example, the annual renewal on Satori's software is $1000, but that's for the basic version. With the basic version, you can only have a list of 5,000 addresses. If you have a list of 10,000 addresses, you have to break it into two pieces, generate two lists, two sets of paperwork, and deal with two transactions at the post office. If you're only mailing 20 lists of 5,000 names, then it's not so much hassle, but it's costing about 1 cent per address. Lorton has an online service that allows you to do the same things as Satori (or other) mailing software, and, if you are running less than 250,000 pieces, it will probably come out to the same cost or less. If you are sending only 50,000 pieces, you'll come out considerably ahead on a per-address cost. Plus, the units you buy are good for 2 years. Plus, you can have them generate PDF files which you can then print on pre-cut labels, so you don't even need a high speed addressing system. (However, you will have to hand affix the labels - not so hard if you're doing 250, but a hassle if you're sending 5,000.) Anyway, our team may be moving its entire mailing operation over to Lorton. We've tested their output with our high speed printers, and we can export the lists to Microsoft Word and then print them to the printers. This should work just fine. Good luck with your mailing! Margaret Hokkanen http://www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

2203 Recodo Court, Carlsbad, CA

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:26:01 -0700

Big lot, 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 3 car garage. All for just $687,000 Address: 2203 Recodo Court, Carlsbad, CA 92009 Huge south-facing back yard and large swimming pool are great! Call 760-942-4242 for a showing. Listing Agent: Margaret Hokkanen, SurfTheTurf.com, Inc. For more info/pics/virtual tour, visit http://www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com. See the pics-here's the brochure at the house:

Pole Photo of Pool

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:01:37 -0700

Here is my most recent pole photo of a home in Carlsbad, California. The home has an unusally large lot in La Costa, and the owners put in a large lap pool. We took a photo on the ground of the pool (see below), but we decided that we had to get the camera up to really show how grand the yard was. The second photo is nice, but you'll see what I mean.

Explanation of Why Pole Photography Works

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:15:26 -0700

It's hard to imagine how being just 16 feet off the ground can make such a HUGE difference in photograph of a home. So, I decided to show with a real example of why it works so well to show the setting of a home. The photos below show a home with a ridge behind it. The ridge is about 300 ft higher than the house and about 1000 feet behind it. With the ground level shot, the home completely obscures the hillside, and you have absolutely no idea that the lovely setting is there. By getting the camera up off the ground on a pole just 16 feet, the ridge comes into view as well as the trees. That's how it works. The photographs really show it. So, if the home you are photographing has a lovely setting, you might seriously want to try to get that camera UP just a bit. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate PS: If you need some help creating your pole photography camera, you might take a look at my husband's new site, www.PolePixie.com, where he is selling his cool little camera adapter for your standard painter's pole. ;)

Pole Camera Adapter

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:14:11 -0700

Over the years, people have asked about our pole photography. So, this past year, my husband John finally produced our painter's pole adapter and some other useful tools, and they are now for sale at at new web site: www.PolePixie.com has the adapter to make any painter's pole into a camera mount! It also has some other great tools. The adapter is really great; it's very high quality. This now allows any other agent to take pictures just like the ones that we take. Below are a couple of photos; we have many others at our web site. Check it out! The painter's pole adapter costs just $29.95, and there are kits available too! Margaret Hokkanen, EncinitasCarlsbad.com On-the-ground shot: With the PolePixie adapter:

1744 Foothill View Pl, Escondido Home Brochure

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:18:35 -0700

Here's a listing that we just brought on last week in Escondido, CA. The biggest photographic challenge was the incredible height of the living room. I didn't measure it with my laser ranger, but it looked to be at least 25 feet (look at the height of the slider compared to the height of the wall, and the ceiling slopes up from there). Consequently, I used my 17mm tilt shift lens and shifted vertically to capture the height. The front photo was taken about 16 or so feet off the ground using a painter's pole and our pole adapter. Feel free to ask any questions. Margaret Hokkanen, SurfTheTurf.com Team

Home Brochure 6606 Daylilly Dr, Carlsbad, CA

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:23:06 -0700

This home just went on the market about two weeks ago, and I meant to post the brochure last week but got tied up, and now it is pending (which is a good thing). Anyway, I think the photos show off the home; most of them are blended HDR images (using both HDR and non-HDR images blended together). We shoot with a Canon 5D, Mark II. The photo processing and layout are done in Photoshop. The cover photo was shot with my new PolePixie.com pole photo adapter about 15 feet off the ground; that's the painter's pole adapter developed by my husband John. Feel free to ask any questions. Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

Home Brochure - 1756 Shadow Mountain Dr, Encinitas

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:08:26 -0700

Here is our most recent home brochure for a nice home in Encinitas. We pre-print the open house sticker on the face of the brochure so that we don't have to sticker all the brochures as we will typically mail between 5000 to 10,000 brochures. Instead, the pre-printed sticker is undersized so that we can cover it up with a real sticker for the brochures that go in the flyer box. We usually print on 100lb gloss text paper, acqueous coated (but not laminated). Feel free to ask any questions. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate

Recent HDR Blended Images

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:49:28 -0700

Here are some examples of two photos that we created for a recent listing. The home had a lot of glass, so creating effective marketing images was important to really show off the home. The first photo in each series shows the exposed image using flashes to properly expose the interior. The second photo shows an HDR-processed image. In the first series, this was a non photo, and in the second one, it was a flash photo (you can see the flare in the window which I had to remove). Notice how grey the walls are in the HDR images; this is a big reason why I like to create blended images. The third photo is the final, blended image used for marketing. Camera: Canon 5D, Mark II, Image format: Raw Lens: Canon Tilt/Shift; for #1, the 17mm version, for #2, the 24mm version HDR Processing: Photomatix (most recent version); Image work: Photoshop Final Image Size (after shifted images blended together): 40 megapixels Feel free to ask any questions. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate

Taking Brochure Mailing to the Next Level

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:54:07 -0800

We've been trying to increase our mailing, and we have finally been able to ramp it up to some pretty serious levels. How? By taking control over the database and addressing of our brochures. Recently we purchased a used Rena Imager I addressing machine (photo below). This is a really cool machine, and can print addresses at a rate of 15,000 or more postcards an hour! It has 3 print heads, allowing you to print about a one and a hall inch tall address, including endorsement and barcode. We're not printing postcards but instead are printing addresses on our 11x17 brochures. I think top speed on those is about 5,000 per hour, but we actually slow it DOWN to about 3,000 an hour just so things don't get out of control! So, to address 5,000 brochures takes about 90 minutes, which isn't too bad at all, and you can listen to music while you're running the machine. So far, we've probably mailed out about 25,000 to 30,000 brochures, so it's working fine. We bought our addresser used (they stopped making this model a couple of years ago), but these machines are rated to print millions of addresses, and our machine was in great shape. Brand new a machine like this would probably cost over six or seven thousand dollars, but we got our used one for less than $2,000, and we have already broken even on the unit from savings in fees to the mailing house this year. (We used to pay $0.05 per address, and 30,000 addresses @.05=$1500 saved already!) Margaret Hokkanen, www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

Field of View Comparison

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:59:09 -0800

Well, we got our Canon 17mm tilt/shift lens (TS-E 17mm), and so I decided to run a field of view test for my three primary lenses. We take our real estate photos with a 24mm tilt/shift lens, a 14mm lens, and now a 17mm tilt/shift lens. Because the 17 and 24 can be shifted, this gives us a total of 5 field of views. Here's the largest of the images (the 17mm shifted image), with boxes showing the approximate field of view of the various options that we have. As you can see, the next largest image is the 14mm, followed by the 17mm non-shifted and the 24mm shifted with the 24mm non-shifted being the smallest. We bought the 14mm lens a year ago with the explicit intention of using it on the new 5D Mark II to speed our HDR processing by avoiding the use of the shifted 24mm. Unfortunately, we didn't buy the Mark II body until last week, and since sharpness mattered more than processing, we continued to take pictures with the 24mm lens, shifting it to take 3 photos and blend the 3 together. This resulted in a 20megapixel image. With the new Mark II body, we can take a 20 megapixel image with the 14mm lens, and that makes the 24 mm lens less important. The one advantage that the 24mm lens retains is that it is super-sharp. Canon just released its 17mm tilt-shift lens. This now allows us to take super-wide images by shifting the lens (it's probably around a 10mm lens), and these images are 40 megapixels! The other thing that we really like about these images is that they are more of an 8x10 look (actually a 6x8), and gives a great look to brochures. If we just used the 14mm, we would likely have to crop some of the image to make it less rectangular, but with the 17mm, we can shoot full-frame. Note: We are guessing that Canon released the 17mm lens in part for people with a Rebel or 50d that are not full-frame sensors. Using this lens on one of those bodies gives nearly the same field of view as the 24mm shift lens on the 5d, and those cameras are a lot less expensive. So, if you have one of those camera bodies and want to go even wider and get more of an 8x10 look, the 17mm shift lens might be a good choice. Anyway, I haven't tested the 17mm shift lens for sharpness yet; I hope it compares to the 24mm in this regard, though I have some concern about it because there are so many elements in the lens. We'll try to write a review and let you know what we think after taking some real photos with it. PLEASE NOTE: The photo above was taken to show field of view. It also illustrates the point made elsewhere that super-wide shots can sometimes not be the best image. Of all of those images, I think the size framing for this room is the 8x10 look of the 24mm shift, but I would reposition the camera to the right to get the piece of furniture to the far left out of the photo as it is a distraction. Super-wide can be great when used correctly; the nice thing about a good wide angle lens is that you can always crop it tighter. Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate http://www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

Anyone try the Canon TS-E 17mm Lens Yet?

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:23:40 -0800

We're thinking about buying Canon's new addition to the tilt/shift lens category. They now have a 17mm tilt/shift lens. This means that we could take near-panoramic, 40 megapixel images in our real estate photography using our new Canon 5D Mark II camera body. We've used the TS-E 24mm lens for years, and love the low amount of distortion and super-sharp images that it gives. We bought their 14mm f2.8 lens last year in an effort to avoid using the shift lens for every image. Then lens is good and sharp and low distortion, but 14mm tends to start making stuff look weird out at the edges. If you've had a chance to test the TS-E 17mm lens, please let me know. Our local rental department hasn't even gotten a copy of the lens yet, and it's available at only some of the online stores. The online reviews have been good, but I would be curious to hear from some folks that are not in the photography business. Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

Canon 5D Mark II

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:17:46 -0800

We finally got our Canon 5D Mark II camera body. I'm sure that it will be a great camera as we love our Canon 5D, original version. This one is 21 megapixels. The feature that is really great is the video-related features. Yes, you can actually take HD video with the camera. But that's not the feature that has promise. If you plug the video out plug into the camera, it disables the LCD display on the back of the camera and instead outputs it to the wire. This means that you can plug the wire into a TV....or a portable TV or a portable DVD player with an A/V in. THAT opens up the great opportunity for get a small (5-7 inch) flat panel TV and drop a wire from the pole that we use to take our pole pictures. Thus, when you click on the remote trigger, the output will go directly to the portable TV and you can see the image that you just took! There are still tests that we need to run like making sure the signal holds up over 20 feet of cable, and we need to get an inexpensive flat panel TV and use velcro to attach it to the pole. But that very simply output feature is going to provide immediate live viewing of the images that we're taking, and so that will be great. We COULD do this with the original 5D, but the only way to do it is to use a laptop and control the camera with the laptop, and we have never wanted to get that complicated. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate

Anyone headed to San Diego for the NAR Conference?

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:08:20 -0800

The NAR conference is in San Diego next week, and we thought we would touch base to see if anyone from the photography group was headed out here. My husband John and I live about 25 minutes north of downtown San Diego, and we plan to attend. John said he was willing to demo his pole camera rig or other camera setup if anyone had an interest. Let us know if you're coming! We'd be glad to meet up with some of the other people interested in photography (HDR, pole/aerial, etc.) or marketing. Margaret Hokkanen Encinitas Real Estate

627 Cornish Ave, Encinitas, CA 92024 - Home Brochure

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:37:54 -0700

Here's our recent listing in Encinitas Highlands in Encinitas, California. It is a super-cute beach home near the downtown, and it's a quick walk to the beach. It's also just a quick walk to restaurants, the movie theatre, and the brand new Encinitas library. We sent out about 15,000 brochures, so most people in Encinitas know about the home. I'm posting it here just in case someone from out of town has an interest. Address: 627 Cornish Ave., Encinitas, CA 92024 Particulars: 3 beds, 1 bath, 1284 sq. ft., lot is over 9500 sq. ft. The photos say it all. Call me if you have any questions. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas Real Estate www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

Encinitas Beach Home Showing Pole/HDR Photography

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:16:38 -0700

Our practice has been hectic here in San Diego which is why I haven't posted for a while. Anyway, I wanted to share some of our latest pole photography and high dynamic range blending photos. The home is a little beach cottage across from the library, and not far from the ocean. However, it doesn't have ocean view. So, it was important that we show how close the home was to the water (walk to beach). We also need to present the home in a nice way since it is an Encinitas beach cottage. First, the front view of the home. We put our Canon 5d with 24mm tilt/shift lens on our pole rig, and it was up about 12 ft off the ground. But the street was also a few feet higher than the front door, so the camera was actually up a bit higher. This is a nice pole shot because it leads into the back yard photo (later in the brochure) of the large back yard. For this photo, it's just important to see the trees and the depth behind the house of where the trees are. Also, this is the cover of the brochure. I wanted to show you the cover so that you could see the fun little map that I created so that we could present how close the home was to all the action and the water. As we turn to the interior, we have a blended HDR photo of the living room. Two sets of images were taken to create this photo. A color-balanced strobe image which gave a great backdrop, and an HDR image with some local contrast and saturation amped up to really make the picture pop and give it a 3d effect. Next we have another interior shot (I picked one of the kid's bedrooms). The technique is similar to the living room. Finally, I wanted to show another pole photo. This is the library just a few doors away. The back patio of the library has ocean view, and I really cranked up the camera pretty high (25 ft) to get this photo. But, it really does show you how close you are to the ocean. Anyway, I hope those are some fun photos. Feel free to post any questions and I will try to reply quickly. Margaret, Encinitas/Carlsbad Real Estate www.EncinitasCarlsbad.com

Barrel Distortion Example - Cannon 16-35mm

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:04:53 -0700

I mentioned in my blog about the barrel distortion that occurred with the Canon 16-35mm lens at 16mm. I thought I would share an actual comparison photo. I don't want to suggest that the 16 is bad. But I would apply correcting software on any of the images as it makes them look truer and better. So, if you can't "see" the distortion, here's an overlay. I've put a black outline of the CORRECTED PHOTO on top of the uncorrected photo. The red arrow shows where I lined everything up, and you'll notice that the verticals from the two photos differ as you move out from the center of that red arrow point. It becomes really apparent in a mouseover example, but I don't think I can do that on AR. If you look at the vertical lines around the fireplace in the first photo, you'll see that the fireplace looks more oval than rectangular. I realize that I may be being picky, but I guess I look at photos a lot. For correction software, I used the PTLENS photoshop filter which seems to do a good job. Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

Remote Wireless Triggers

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:02:27 -0700

I've used a handheld remote trigger (with a wire) for a long time on my Canon 5d. However, I am planning on buying the new Canon 5D back, and so I gave some thought to whether I might use my existing 5D back on my pole. (Getting scary!) I was VERY pleased to find that there are a number of 3rd party companies manufacturing radio/wireless triggers for Canon cameras. Instead of paying $500 for the Canon unit, I got a simple two-stage trigger for $89 at Adorama, and the instructions say it will work up to 100 ft. We still have not yet implemented any remote viewing capability on our camera, but I don't think we will need it as we've been doing it the "blind" method for years. With the remote trigger, I'll be able to set the 5d on bracketed images and just push the trigger and can take 3 bracketed images so that I can do high dynamic range pole photos! Once I take some images, I'll try to post them. I've also make some changes to the pole to make things a lot safer for the expensive camera body, and I'll try to take a picture and show those too. Here's the most recent pole photo with the cheapo camera that we use. I can't wait to see what my old 5d with some high dynamic images will take! Margaret Hokkanen, Carlsbad Real Estate

Canon's 14mm Lens

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:42:00 -0700

The day Canon announced the upcoming release of the Canon 5d Mark II camera body (the new 5d body), we decided to purchase the Canon 14mm lens. We love our 28mm tilt/shift lens, but the processing time for doing high dynamic range photos was simply too much. By moving to the 14mm lens, there is 1/3 of the work because there are fewer images. Here's an example from the 14mm lens on the current 5d back. This is a blended strobe/high dynamic range photo. As we have continued to do this, our understanding of how to create these images has gotten better and better. What I like about this lens is that the lines are kept straight - VERY little distortion. Quite amazing, really. However, I've read comparisons with the Nikon 12-24, and that lens is apparently brighter and more vivid. This is less of a concern for us since we are doing overlays with a highly saturated high dynamic range image. Plus, with the new 5D back, I could keep all of my old lenses and get a big jump in resolution. Overall, I think the image makes the living room look pretty nice. The week before I found out about the new 5D and bought the lens I rented Canon's 16-35mm lens for a photo shoot. Here's a photo at 16mm. This was a nice lens, but, here's a word of CAUTION. There is a LOT of barrel distortion going on with this lens. We HAD to use our correcting software (Ptlens) to remove the barrel distortion as that improved the images a LOT. How about those reflections in the granite! That's what the HDR blending will give you. Finally, I should note WHY the new 5D back was the decision to change. The new 5D is 22 megapixels. That means that we will get the same 20 megapixel image with the 14mm lens that we've been getting with the tilt/shift lens, and we have about 1/3 of the post-processing work. So, for us, it was worth the $2100 that we spent. I'm not getting rid of the tilt/shift lens. I plan to use it when I need to create a giant-sized image (which we sometimes create as posters inside listings). With the new 5d back and the tilt/shift lens, I'll be able to create a 40 megapixel image, which is in the range of the current generation of Hasselblad cameras. Again, the post-processing time will increase, but that's OK as long as I'm not doing it with every single image. All the best. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas and Carlsbad Real Estate

Horse Property in Bonsall

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:58:09 -0700

Our team has a new horse property in Bonsall that is FABULOUS. Here are the photos: Aerial view showing paddock, corral, home, pool, etc. Living Room with lodgelike fireplace. Interested in seeing the home? Call Heather Foster, the listing agent for this home, at 619-665-2782. The home has 3 bedrooms plus an office. The home is offered at $1,100,000 to $1,200,000. For more details, plus the virtual tour, see our Bonsall/Fallbrook web site at http://www.FallbrookTeam.com. Margaret Hokkanen Casa Bella Realty and Mortgage

Oceanfront Living at Its Finest - Oceanside, CA

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:25:50 -0700

Here's our team's newest listing. This property is ON THE SAND with spectacular whitewater views. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Living Room Master Bedroom View of the beach and the Oceanside Pier from the deck of the home. Price: $4.975M. Eight Bedrooms, about 3880 sq. ft. To see all the info about the property, visit http://www.OceansideVista.com. It's under the featured listings. Represented by Yvonne Lillo (760) 271-3277 of the SurfTheTurf.com Team. Call her if you would like to make an appointment to see the property. The home is remodeled and clean, and the views are as good as the pictures show. Casa Bella Realty and Mortgage

Example of HDR Blending

Margaret Hokkanen, → Carlsbad Real Estate (SurfTheTurf.com, Inc.) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:47:37 -0700

We've made a number of posts about utilizing HDR images, and we have finally settled on using HDR to supplement a solid traditional exposure. This allows us to highlight just those elements of the room that we want to highlight, yielding a more 3-d effect because of the interaction of the HDR images with the traditional exposure. Some may prefer a complete edge-to-edge HDR image, but we prefer the saturated realism of our approach. Anyway, let me give an example; first the comparison image. On the left is a properly exposed image of a dining room. On the right is the final image that we are seeking to create. First, the base image. This uses strobe umbrellas (quite powerful), but nothing else. One exposure. In the past, this is the image that we would have used without any question that it was a fine image. However, now using HDR, we are able to improve upon it. Then, we layer the following HDR image underneath the base image. Here's the HDR exposure. As you see, the HDR image has gray ceilings and gray walls. The carpet is also a bit muddy. This is why we don't want to use edge-to-edge HDR images. Plus, the local contrast adaptation applied to the entire picture can make things look a bit surreal. However, the wood tones are excellent. Notice that event the distant billiard table looks great. So, with the Flash photo layered on top, we meticulously erase (not 100%) the top image to reveal the parts of the HDR image that we want to reveal. We don't use a 100% eraser because we want the blending to look natural and undetectable. Here's the combined image: Things are looking pretty good. But we still have the window in the distance. So, we really knocked down the exposure and took another HDR set with a greatly reduced exposure. Then we just cut out the window part. Again, I put the HDR image underneath the combined image, but to explain, I just did a screen capture with it on top so you can see just how dark we had to make the image to reveal the window. Pretty dark, isn't it? Then we zoom in a LOT and meticulously erase just the window part on the top image (not the lamps or any of the black part) to reveal just the window. The Result is the final, blended image, which is sharpened using the Smart Sharpen filter in Photoshop to get back a little of the crispness that is lost with the HDR image. I think the final image has a lot of great mood to it, and with the window and mountains visible beyond that, the photo shows the depth of the home. This is one of our favorite photos for showing the power of this technique. I hope this helps you understand our approach. It's a bit time consuming, but the results are what we want. Margaret Hokkanen, Encinitas and Carlsbad Real Estate