Bright, Bright, Bright Sun Shiny Day

Grab their attention.....

Grab potential home buyers' attention with a great front shot of the house.  Let's face it, no one wants a dull, drab house.  They want to see a happy, bright, sun-shiny day! 

Blue sky in the background and full sunlight on the front of the house.  About 70% of the homes listed can have such a shot.  The exceptions are if the house faces due north or if trees shade it.

The most important shot is the front exterior shot of the home.  Take the time and get it right!

What do most agents show for the first shot of a home?  The exterior front.  So that automatically makes an exterior shot in the search results as the teaser thumbnail.

Make it the Best You Can!

So the thumbnail photo of your brand new listing competes on a page of 10-50 other listings.  You want that photo to jump. 

Don't you want your new home to be cheery, attractive, and shown in the best possible light? A blue sky for the background and full sunlight on the front is more attractive than a drab home on a cloudy day.  It evokes an emotional response.

TIP!!

A photograph with more contrast draws a viewer's attention to a photo with less contrast.   This is a fact.  A photo with full sunlight in the front and blue skies in the back wiill draw your attention because it has more contrast..  Don't believe me try it.

Look at the photo of the list of homes for sale to the right.  Close your eyes for 10 seconds and then open them, looking at the photos.  

For most people, your eye will be drawn to the middle photo of a home listed for 309,900, 27 Cottage Street and 11 Parker Ave will compete for a little, but your eye will seemingly want to land back on the one for 309,900. 

As hard as you look away, it will continue to draw your eye back to it.  662 Bay Street and 96 Lee Street get overpowered by the other photographs and are hardly noticed.

Your front exterior shot is just like curb appeal; it sets the tone for the property and sometimes will help draw the home buyer into looking at the details.

Below is a sample of a house in that you can never get sunlight on the front, given the time of year.

You could barely catch almost skimming across from the left-hand side at 7:30 am.  The first shot was taken by another agent in my office then they asked me to photograph the house for them. 

While full sunlight is ideal, this is the best that can be done.   But by waiting for the optimum time, I got the best possible exterior shot I attainable. 

Again close your eyes and open them and look at the two photos.  Your eyes will always be drawn to the photo on the right.  It has more contrast.

What's Ideal?

Let's look at how houses are designed to know what's ideal.  The architects use roof lines and overhangs to add interesting details to a house. 

To best show off those details, we want highlights and shadows.  So we need sunlight to create those highlights and shadows.

Cloudy days or houses in shadow do not create the shadows and highlights that best showcase the details of the home.  It is extremely difficult to get a good shot once the sun gets in front of the camera lens. 

You will have a hard time getting a good exposure and the house will be in shadow and your sky will be washed out.

The ideal situation for me to photograph a house is:

• 

  Camera Angle Just to the left or right of the center of the home so the view of the camera catches about 10-15% of the side.
• Time of day-  Before 10 am and after 2pm.  The later or earlier in the day, the better.  The closer you get to sunrise or sunset, the longer your shadows and there is a hint of warmth and softness to the light.
• Sun Position The position of the sun should be to my left or right behind me in about the 4-5 o'clock position or the 7-8 o'clock position.  I prefer to have the sun on the opposite side of the home I am showing.  I prefer that the 10-15% side showing is in shadow.
• Sun Full sunlight with no clouds blocking the sun.
• Sky Either clear blue or some clouds.

These are what I strive for but not always achievable. There are just some houses because of their position, tree lines or obstacles that this is not achievable.

We are trying to take a 3-dimensional subject and put it on a 2-dimensional plane.  We need those highlights and shadows to make the house pop and give it a third dimension on a 2-dimensional plane.  In the example below, we show the relationship of the shadows to our sun's position on a subject.  The longer the shadows the more depth we will have.  The other advantage is that the light is not as harsh and has a nice quality.

The other thing to remember is the sun's position in relation to "modeling" the subject.  If the sun is directly overhead, you're highlighting the roof and your shadows are straight down and appear almost non-existent.  We do not want to highlight the roof. We want to highlight the front of the house.  If the sun is directly behind the house, we are putting the front of the house and the landscaping in shadow, the features we want to highlight the most!

I generally will plan carefully the time of day I go to photograph the exterior of the home.  You can use Mapquest and see what time of day will be best and swing by at the optimal time.  I use an app called Sun Surveyor where I can type in a property and show me a 3D model of the path of the sun in relation to a given location. 

A little bit of thought and planning and you can improve your front exterior shots and get more exposure for your listings!

__________________________________________________________________________________________

This post, Bright, Bright, Bright Sun Shiny Day, is provided by Kevin Vitali of REAL Broker MA. Providing professional-level real estate photography is part of Kevin's exceptional marketing plan to help get your home sold faster and for more money.  If you are looking to sell your home in Northeastern Massachusetts, call Kevin at 978-360-0422