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Will the real W Arch Street house in Searcy AR please stand up? Photoshopped?

By Barbara S. Duncan

Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Advantage

July 11, 2012 09:46 PM

One house has been on the market three times within the past few years. When I had it listed it looked like this.

W Arch Searcy AR

It sold two times and now it is back on the market and looks like this.

W Arch Searcy AR

And the middle sale showed the picture in the MLS that looked like this.

W Arch Searcy AR

I am still bothered by this photo. Was it photoshopped to make it look great. Super Sleuth and Photo Whiz Don, is it possible to take a picture and make it look this lovely? How long would it take? I drive by it a lot and never saw it look like this but perhaps my eyes are bad.

Do I need to learn how to enhance photos?

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Mark Delgado

houses for rent, Solano County & Glen Cove - Benicia, CA

Benicia and Vallejo, Property Management, rental h

Lighting can do wonders. Overcast days have a more diffused gentle lighting that helps homes, people etc look better. Framing you shot correctly (ie focusing on one aspect that is attractive) is also vital. A good photo is defined not only by what's in the frame but also by what's left out. I see good photographer at play here.

Jul 11, 2012 09:55 PM

David Grbich

Realty One Group - www.FindCARealEstate.com - San Juan Capistrano, CA

Orange County Real Estate - 949-500-0484

Given that the grass is now gone, they must have used an old photo!!

Jul 12, 2012 12:09 AM

Don Thompson

Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Mark nailed it. A property look can be enhanced with photo editors like Photoshop but nothing beats getting a good pic in the first place. I don't use Photoshop but I do use a program called Picture Publisher that I have used for more than 15 years. It isn't even made now. I have become comfortabel with it and it does all I want to do.

Here's a look of the bottom picture merged with the top picture showing the lighting contrast. I added grass to make it more attractive. The similar shooting angle made it possible to merge the pics. The lower pic did need to be sized to match.

Merged Pics

Jul 12, 2012 01:14 AM

Barbara S. Duncan

RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR

GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mark, thanks for the comment. So you think it was just a great photograph?

David, it is interesting how the shot is so good. It may have sold the house!

Don, so you do or don't think it was enhanced. That house has never looked as good as that photo. It even appears white instead of the pale brown. I like the merge you did. I use Dell Picture Studio which isn't made anymore. My new computer forced a new program on me and I don't like it nearly as well.

Jul 12, 2012 01:24 AM

Anonymous

Anita Fuller

Don didn't let us down, he never does! The pretty green grass helps the picture and the landscaping....but as to the color: beats me. It's a pretty little retro house in the last picture. I like it.

Jul 12, 2012 03:45 AM

Anonymous

Anita Fuller

Forgot to ask: WHERE on West Arch, my old stomping grounds?????

Jul 12, 2012 03:47 AM

Tony & Darcy Cannon

Aubrey and Associates Realty - Layton, UT

The C Team

Barbara, I am not an expert so I am not much help. I do know that lighting makes a hug difference but the grounds look so much better in the photo that you think may be photoshopped, I don't know if that helps or not.

Jul 12, 2012 02:36 PM

Myrl Jeffcoat

Sacramento, CA

Greater Sacramento Realtor - Retired

The lighting made a significant difference. That little house has gone through an evolution of its own in a pretty short time, however. What a difference a green lawn and a few plants can make!

Jul 12, 2012 10:36 PM

Barbara S. Duncan

RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR

GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Tony, it remains a mystery for us.

Myrl, excellent photographer that you are, do you think it is just lighting? How about the porch light on? Would it glow that much in the daytime?

Jul 13, 2012 12:20 AM

Don Thompson

Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Anita, I think Barbara is tricking us again for the location of this house. I don't think it's on West Arch St. or Ave. now. The Google Man and I traveled W. Arch end to end twice without spotting the house. I saw at least two that were very close in appearance. Also the views of houses nearby are strange. Fess up, Barbara, what's the location of this house? The area looks like it could be near the end of Arch where it curves around near Beebe Capps.

The porch light will show up brighter with camera settings for the overall house. I think it's real.

Well, anyway, the topic is interesting. Will home listing pics become more deceptive as time goes on and folks become more adept at photo editng?

Jul 13, 2012 01:23 AM

Don Thompson

Donthomp Associates - Sunnyvale, CA

Mary, I can't blame the Google Man for missing the house. Funny thing is I was thinking I was going to tell Anita the house was closer to where Harold lived than her. Interesting lot. Would make a good location for a larger house. Good sleuthing Ms Northeast Mary.

Now I have to post the Google Views.

West Arch & College 2

Jul 13, 2012 03:04 AM

Barbara S. Duncan

RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR

GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, thanks for standing up for me! This little house is getting lots of attention. It was staged inside and out when it sold the middle time. They did it up well that time.

Don, I am so glad you can post pictures and help me with this blog. Other folks who comment can't post a picture unless they are member of activerain.

Jul 13, 2012 03:14 AM

Barbara S. Duncan

RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR

GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, I don't know anything about the spam prevention. I guess I need to go out and make a comment to see what you have to go through. The look of comments to my email now looks like this below. They are fiddling around with the site again, I guess.

<p>If you remember this is near where my family lived.  My grandmother lived one block south on College and my family lived two blocks south on College.  I also remember when the property across the street - from where the Tobe Woodson house is on Arch and going west for several blocks - was vacant.  Immediately across the street from this house was a well used baseball field.</p> <p>BTW Barbara, what is the deal with the change in the "spam prevention" mechanism required for commenting.  I guess at every password.</p>

Jul 13, 2012 03:33 AM

Anonymous

Anita Fuller

Good eye, Mary....and you don't even live in Searcy anymore. Neither do I, but I always come down West Arch when I come into Searcy from Greers Ferry and go out that way,too. I have passed by this house a million times, which says something about me and my powers of observation. It's just about a block and a half from "my" house.

I agree with Mary about the passwords....good grief. Give us ActiveRainers a break, Active Rain!!!!

Mary, the well used baseball field became the lot for the Clarence Snowden house. Remember "Snowden's Variety Store" 109 W. Arch, phone 314. Bob (my husband) played baseball on that field nearly every afternoon in the summer. I would sit outside in a canvas lawn chair, under this big tree in my yard, and wait for him to pass by on his bicycle. After he passed, I'd go back in the house.

Jul 13, 2012 04:05 AM

#14

Anonymous

Harold Gene Sullivan

The house was just a block south from my home, College St. ended at our garage. I remember it well but it didn't ring a bell until Mary pinpointed the location. I believe the Glovers lived there during the years I was growing up, but I didn't ever really know them. The baseball field across Arch from the house was important to all boys in those years. The American Legion baseball league played there before there was little league.

Right behind this house was a jungle with a house burried deep in the growth. A Mr. Hall lived there and we kids had all sorts of stories about him since we seldon saw him and it was an experience to retrive a ball hit over into his lot. After I got older, he became very sick and his daughter came to take care of him. She and my mom got to be friends and then I got to know Mr. Hall. He was really a nice old fellow just not very social. I couldn't believe I acutally had believed all the old stories us kids had about him. Patsy Gail Forrest Fain lives in a new house built on that lot.

I don't remember the Snowdens building a house on th old baseball field. I remember them building a house on the southeast corner of W. Race and N. Sowell. The unusual part of that house was the bedroom had thick concrete walls so that it served as a safe room during storms as Mrs. Snowden was terrified of them.

Jul 13, 2012 05:20 AM

#15

Barbara S. Duncan

RE/MAX Advantage - Searcy, AR

GRI, e-PRO, Executive Broker, Searcy AR

Mary, Anita and Harold Gene, you all have such good and pleasant memories. Here is the Snowden house today and it just went under contract to a new owner. It is across the street from the old Woodson house. I had no idea that the area was once a baseball field. Harold Gene, all kids seemed to have an eccentric neighbor who turned out to be pretty nice. Hope we are not now one of the eccentric ones! LOL

I also didn't know about the safe room in the Snowden house.

Old Snowden house Searcy AR