Propertyshoot Photography Voted Tops by Peers

A photograph taken by Propertyshoot Real Estate Photography Sunshine Coast has been chosen No 1 in a monthly contest run by photographyforrealestate.net, a blog site dedicated to improving standards in real estate photography.

The group's members number over 2000 and include both professional and aspiring real estate photographers from around the world.

Read details here ...

6 Wandi Street - recent shoot with new toys!

I've recently taken possession of a wider angle lens (18mm in film terms) and a portable pole that will elevate my camera up to 20 ft - very useful for shooting property exteriors from the bottom of a sloping driveway, or if blocked by fences and hedges.

Hangloosa Property Noosa, a boutique agency on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, asked me to photograph 6 Wandi Street, a home lovingly renovated by owners Clynt and Karen using quality materials.

I'm really excited by the photos which I believe will help sell this property quick-smart!
EDIT: Property sold.

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More toys for better real estate photographs

With business picking up it just seemed right to plow back some money into new equipment.

First up was a wider angle lens - the well-reviewed Tokina 12-24mm. My previous widest setting was 18mm, so the new purchase embraces a significantly wider view, giving me cropping options while still retaining plenty of image content.

Secondly I bought an 18ft extendable pole. It's amazing how useful a modest height boost for the camera is. Prime examples are when shooting from the bottom of a sloping driveway, or when your view is impeded by a hedge or wall. Getting the camera level with the home results in less vertical distortion too (eg leaning walls).

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I know I'm biased, but of all the marketing efforts in which an agent could invest, decent photography must rank at the top. RE advertising uses visual media; internet, newspaper, signboard, in-house magazine. I don’t remember the last time I heard a home advertised on the radio! Photos are a very often a prospect's first point of contact with a property. Their next decision is made there & then. Will they click 'next'? Turn the page? Or phone the agent and make an appointment to view?

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Rain Rain Go Away

OK - enough already. Sure we need the dams full but the recent weeks of wet overcast weather are affecting business. Sunshine Coast indeed! Actually, a less than stellar day makes interior photography easier - less need to brighten the interior on order to match any window views. And when you carry lights as I do, then you create your own sun indoors. True, I might need to revisit to catch a blue sky exterior, but there's no need to wait on the weather in order to have bright crisp interior shots and get that listing posted online.

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What Makes a Quality RE Photo?

I suggest dividing the features into two groups, which for the lack of better names at the moment I'll call form & function.

Form - the overall LOOK of the photo, it's visual appeal. To a certain extent this is going to be a personal thing. I'll concentrate on interior photos. Let's face it, It's difficult to take a bad exterior real estate photo on the sunshine coast. We get a high average number of sunny days each year with startling blue skies. As long as important features are not in deep shade then - click- you're pretty much done.

Interiors are potentially problematic to capture as the eye sees them, especially if the scene takes in some of that perfect day outside which is so much brighter than the interior. While our eyes flick from living room to the picture window view our brain deftly makes rapid adjustments so that we see both scenes clearly. But a camera can't do that. At best it will average the brightnesses of the view/room so that neither is ideally rendered, or it will favour one over the other so that either parts of the room look good (although other areas may be too dark) but the picture window is a white furnace, or conversely the window view is seen clearly while the room is a dark cave.

To capture such a wide range of brightness in one image requires know-how. You can take two or more photos, whose exposures favour a different part of the scene, and combine them with image editing software. Or you can raise the brightness of the relatively dim interior with flash (and one is rarely sufficient) so that it approaches that of the world seen through the windows. Both require skills and tools that I don't see being employed by DIY real estate photographers on the Sunshine Coast. Most interiors are dim and gloomy through underexposure.

Function - the photos should show assets in relation to each other eg the main scene might be a kitchen and its fabulous stainless steel appliances, but might also include glimpses of the dining room beyond or a hall leading (..oo show me more photos from down thataway...), or of French doors opening out onto a patio.

Sure, one can't fit the whole house into one shot, but unless one is shooting for Home & Garden it's probably best to avoid zooming in on details but rather 'go wide' and attempt to convey the floor plan..how spaces might interact.

The importance of good photos

Last time I looked, shopping for real estate on the Sunshine Coast seemed largely a visual activity. What would be the affect on the number of property enquiries received by RE agencies if all the photos were removed from RE web sites, newspapers and glossy RE mags? The answer seems obvious, but an agent in the US actually measured the effect.

He found listings with more photos sold faster for more money 8-D.

Homes with no photos sold for 3.8% less than those with 6 or more, homes with one photo had an average market time of 70 days and listings with 20 photos had an average market time of 32 days.

Unfortunately he was unable to measure the effect of photo quality on Days On Market and the selling:asking price ratio. And quality is something I want to talk about next time.

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