This post is in a series. Please see other posts about Bathrooms and Kitchens.
Family rooms are probably one of THE most important rooms in home photography. The modern family spends more time in these rooms than any other. How inviting and attractive these rooms are can affect whether an offer is made and for how much. I try to take a lot of care in photographing the family rooms.
Rather than having me yack on about taking family room pictures, I thought I would make this post into a more interactive blog post. So, DON'T SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE YET; there will be plenty of opportunity for that. Take out a piece of paper and pen and look at all four of the pictures that I took. Jot down what you think is RIGHT with the photo (or what you really like), and jot down what problems you see (I don't think I've taken a perfect picture that can't be improved yet).
LOOK AT EACH PHOTO AS CRITICALLY AS YOU CAN. You can't be too picky. What I'm trying to do is have you think about what you are seeing if you were standing in the room and what you liked and what you didn't like BEFORE you took the picture. This IS what you should do each time you walk into a room to take the photo. First STOP, look at the room and critically assess it. Then, make changes. Then take the pictures. OK, enough talk....onto to the first picture.
PICTURE ONE
PICTURE TWO
PICTURE THREE
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OK you had a chance to jot down your notes (which you should share with me as a comment if you don't mind just so I know that this is a useful exercise). I am now going to share with you what I really liked about each of the photos. Compare what I thought improved the picture with what you thought. NOTE: Some of the items you would not have necessarily known about (e.g., that I moved something OUT of the picture); however, if you noted that you liked the open space, then we're saying the same thing. If you did notice such things, then think about this exercise the next time you take pictures of a family room.
PICTURE ONE
PICTURE TWO
PICTURE THREE
PICTURE FOUR
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Did you note some of the things that I noted? Did you see other things that you liked? If so, please comment so that I get that feedback. OK, now we're going to move on to problems.
PICTURE ONE
PICTURE TWO
PICTURE THREE
PICTURE FOUR
I hoped that you found this exercise to be useful and to really help you think about composition. I have some other ideas about how to elicit conversation about some of these ideas, so please share with me your observations and whether you think this is worth doing on another part of the house photo shoot.
Margaret, Carlsbad Real Estate
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