Real Estate Challenge

In my never-ending quest to improve my real estate photography skills (to see if I could sell my work as a service), I found a house that was on the market. Here it is:





Compare these pictures with the one in the listing:

Why I like mine better:
1) The house looks bigger

2) The framing is better

3) The focus is better

Why I like the one in the listing better:
1) The land looks nicer

2) The straight-on view is great

Here's a picture of a house that isn't on the market that reminds me of the one in the listing:



So, I can take pictures that enhance the appearance of the land. I'm capable. :)
I'll need to do another one of these - maybe this weekend - but what do you think?

Monday - how I scrapped an entire photo shoot - something I'd never done before.

An Imperfect World

It's really easy to take pictures of beautiful houses, as I demonstrated yesterday. But what about situations like these:





In both cases, the houses are nice, but the yards aren't. In the first one, I was able to focus on the nice, curved driveway. In the second one, I let the tree and flowers help me, as well as the blue sky. I also cropped liberally. I also focused on the spaciousness of the house.

How about if the house itself is so-so, like this one:



The solution is easy - take the picture at angle, and look for blue sky.

There were two other things about this neighborhood that I had to face:

1) It's cherry blossoms season, and there were "No Parking" signs everywhere. I had to photograph around them.

2) This neighborhood has huge, above-ground power lines. I had to stand under them to take my pictures. This is why a wide-angle lens is so important. Standing under the lines put me very, very close to some of these homes. Without the wide-angle lens, the houses would have been "cut off".

I have dinner meetings the next two days, and I'll therefore be working quite late. So, Friday - I'm going to compare my pictures with those of a house that is on the market. Whose are better?

Takin' it to the Streets

First, it's great to be back - with new content! It has been far too long.

A few weeks ago, I stepped far (far) out of my comfort zone, and took a class in a new area for me. But, what's the point of taking a class if I can't test myself and see if I learned anything? I suppose there is no point. Because the Kite Festival was postponed, I'd run out of excuses. So, out I went, in the freezing cold.

To make things a little better, I went out to one of my favorite neighborhoods to take pictures of my favorite houses. Here's a big lesson learned: Winter makes the nicest houses look very sad. So, how did I do? Well, here are examples of how I did with my "Tier 1" houses (aka my absolute favorites):







The intent of real estate photography is to make someone want to buy the house. I think I got the point across here.

The first picture was on a hill. As you may recall, one of the lessons I learned was to take the picture at the top of the hill. Here, I also wanted to showcase the green grass and the nice steps. I didn't love the picture straight on, so I took it at an angle.

The second picture looked very good straight on, so I stayed with it. Notice that the blossoms are beginning to bloom. If it were up to me, I'd make sure that all of my real estate pictures were taken during the peak blossom period. However, that's not always possible, and so it is what it is. :)

The third picture would have been FABULOUS without that car in the driveway. If I were hired to take this picture, I'd make sure that car were hidden somewhere else. Notice the blossoms, the curved driveway, and the green grass.

What settings did I use? ISO 400 (it seemed appropriate at the time), automatic white balance setting, and my wide-angle lens. Post-production, I cropped out some of the extra space.

These were my best case scenarios. Tomorrow - when the house isn't as pretty as these.