Real Estate Photography Tips For Realtors - Don't Do it Yourself, You'll Lose Your Commission Check

I've done it myself; taken what I thought were great listing pictures and used them for my online MLS listing. My clients thought they were fine and I thought they were just fine, until I started working as a buyer's agent in Seattle a few years back.

I worked with over 40 different buyers a week and everyday I'd hear, "Did you see those listing pictures? There's no way we want to see that house, it's a dump! Does the listing agent know how bad they are?" Obviously, the listing agent didn't spend anything on real estate photography.

My buyers would also see some great listing photos and want to get in to see the home that afternoon. We'd step inside and they'd wonder if it was the same home they saw online. They felt cheated because the pictures were nothing like the real home. (but at least the listing agent got buyers walking through the house).

It all came down to the listing pictures they saw online. That's essential marketing for listings! Give buyers a great picture and they'll jump inside the house that day. Give them a "do-it-yourself" picture and they'll move onto the next home. The listing pictures make the difference, especially when you spend a few bucks on professional real estate photography!

Even when the listing pictures were better than the actual house, guess what? It still got the buyers inside! That's your goal as a listing agent; get as many showings as possible. Professional real estate photography makes that happen.

With upwards of 80%+ of buyers looking online now, the listing photos are the first thing they're looking at and basing their initial impressions on.

How much money in lost commissions do you think you're missing because you won't spend a couple hundred bucks for professional real estate photography?

If you did spend the well invested marketing dollars on some professional real estate photography.......

You could have more satisfied clients because the home sold faster. You could have made more cash because you didn't have to drop the sales price when the listing became stale on the market. You could look like a top producer in the area because of the quicker sales, better looking listings and more satisfied clients. Your overall image is enhanced, big time!
Isn't it funny how such a small aspect of your business can affect the whole thing? Anytime you realize how one issue affects your net profits, that'll make you perk up, right?

Now don't give me the excuse that it's too expensive because it's not. Look at it as a marketing and advertising expense because that's exactly what it is. And real estate photography is one of the best things you can spend your marketing dollars on.

You have a couple options........

You could grab a professional in real estate photography in your local area and offer them -0 to come to your listing and take some fabulous photos. Make sure they're top notch, have all the right equipment and understand the goal of these photos. You don't want to pay for real estate photography that's no better than your own.

Your other option is to go with a company like Vicaso.com who does real estate photography exclusively. Their business is listing photos for real estate agents!

You can schedule your photo shoot on their website, pay about 0 or so and get the most captivating listing photos you'll ever see. Even if you have a crack house listed for sale, their real estate photography will make it look like a palace.

I'm telling you; don't skimp on your real estate photography. Look at the cost as an investment. If you spent 0 on professional real estate photography and got back another ,000 in commissions that year from faster sales, more clients, and higher listing prices, wouldn't that be worth it? You betcha!

Real Estate Photography Tips For Realtors - Don't Do it Yourself, You'll Lose Your Commission Check

Photography Tips

Real Estate Photography Tips For Realtors - Don't Do it Yourself, You'll Lose Your Commission Check

Real Estate Photography Tips For Realtors - Don't Do it Yourself, You'll Lose Your Commission Check
Real Estate Photography Tips For Realtors - Don't Do it Yourself, You'll Lose Your Commission Check

Photography Tips

12 Creative Photography Ideas

Here are 12 ideas to get your creative juices flowing and increase your skills and value as a photographer.

TIP 1 - Time Lapse photos. I showed my niece how to do this with clay figures and stitch the resulting frames together into a video file, and she was busy for days. If you control the exposure consistently to keep the images consistent with one another, you can do some really fun stop-motion animation. Or, you can set up your camera to capture other slow motion effects such as flowers opening and seedlings growing.

TIP 2 - Night Lights. Things look very different at night. Shooting city scenes with available light creates some interesting images. And shooting outdoor images under moonlight or with "light painting", where you open up the camera shutter for an extended exposure, and "paint" your targets with colored or plain light, can create some truly bizarre images.

TIP 3 - Astrophotography. Hook that SLR up to a telescope, and you are ready to peer into the depths of space and time. You'll need some adapters, and ability to compensate for the earth's rotation for really long shots. Start with the moon and move on from there.

TIP 4 - Macro photography. From flowers to coins to stamps, you can polish your skills at close-up photography and capture some really detailed images. Often a macro lens or close-up attachment will help. See my tips on Flower Photography to get more information.

TIP 5 - Micro photography. If you can interface that camera with a microscope, you can get some really crazy images. Or, stack up a bunch of close-up magnification and try your hand at turning salt crystals into surreal imagery.

TIP 6 - Insurance Photos. OK, maybe a bit boring, but you and your friends and relatives will thank you. Take a couple hours and touch and photograph everything of value, with a full shot or two if each item of value, accompanied by a shot of the identifying marks - manufacturer model or serial number. Then burn a CD or DVD and store it off site. If you have a fire or other loss, this could save the owner thousands of dollars.

TIP 7 - Family Recipe book. Anytime those family favorites are prepared, copy down the recipe and take some photos of the food. You can produce a printed or electronic cookbook of family favorites that everyone will love.

TIP 8 - Stock Photography. This is a very busy market niche, but the cost of entry is low. Specialize in things you love, and you may be able to generate some income from your stock images. Search for stock photography sites, and make sure you understand your rights before you post images.

TIP 9 - Special Effects. Maybe you want to specialize in high-speed images of athletes, or surrealistic collages. Try your hand at using your editing skills to put someone in a soda bottle or floating on a candy lifesaver. Often more artistic than photographic, it will test your composition, lighting and editing skills to come up with believable artificial realities.

TIP 10 - Still Life. Ahh, the bowl of fruit. Sometimes a simple object or collection, properly lit, shot and edited, is a thing of beauty. It's a great way to study light. Start with an egg on a light background, a lamp and a window and see how you can learn about lighting and composition.

TIP 11 - Computer Control. Many cameras have a USB interface and remote control software. You can actually control the camera from the computer. See if you can get it to work to your liking, and maybe even program some time lapse or exposure bracketing experiments.

TIP 12 - Be Like Andy. Take some images of everyday items and try to create those neat colored backgrounds like Andy Warhol used to make. Create a 4-up print of the same image and change the colors of each quadrant to make an interesting square print.

Have fun with these ideas, and let me know when you become famous!

12 Creative Photography Ideas

Photography Tips

12 Creative Photography Ideas

12 Creative Photography Ideas
12 Creative Photography Ideas

Photography Tips

Photography Tips - 7 Tips To Make Your Photos Stand Out

Sometimes very small changes can have a huge effect on the outcome. This is especially true for photography and I'm just about to share seven of the most powerful photography tips there are.

#1 - Take the photo from the subject's eye level

It's so easy to just take a picture from a standing position, but if you're for instance taking a picture of a kid, you will get a much more interesting picture if you bend down to the same level as the kid.

Remember that you don't have to make the subject look into the camera. Simply getting down on the level of the subject will create a picture that has a more personal connection to the subject.

#2 - Avoid using a distracting background

This is a simple photography tips, yet a very effective one. By using a plain background, the picture will emphasize your subject and give you a much better result. A noisy and distracting background will draw the eye away from the subject and make the whole picture look messy and amateurish.

#3 - Use flash outdoors

On sunny days the sun often creates hard shadows and you get high contrast pictures where either your shadows burn out or your highlights get overexposed.

One of the best ways to remedy this is to use the flash. Given that your subject is within the range of the flash, it will work as a fill light, lifting the shadows and giving you a more balanced picture.

#4 - Get close to the subject

Getting very close to the subject or using the zoom to make the subject fill the viewfinder, will often give you a very impactful result. By doing this, you eliminate all background distractions and display the subject from a different perspective than what we're used to.

If you want the subject to really pop from the background, you can either zoom in on the subject as much as possible and/or decrease your blender as much as possible. This will give you a nice, defocused background.

Keep in mind that you may have to put your camera into "macro"-mode (often indicated by a flower-sign) to make this work. In addition, there is a limit of how close you can get. This depends on the lens of your camera and you can often find this distance printed around the edge of the lens.

#5 - Focus before you shoot

You'll often get the pictures you want just pointing your camera at the subject and hitting the shutter button, thanks to the advanced auto focus found in newer cameras.

However, it's not always perfect. Your camera might be focusing someplace different from where you wanted the focus to be, or maybe you missed the perfect moment when your camera was auto-focusing. If that's the case, here's what you do:
Point the camera at the subject so that the subject appear in the center of the viewfinder (usually you will see a small box or point when you look through the viewfinder. Make sure your subject is within that area). Press the shutter button halfway down and wait for the camera to finish focusing. While still holding down the shutter button, reframe the picture the way you want it. Press the shutter button all the way down.

#6 - Place the subject off-center

Placing the subject right in the middle of the picture often result in boring pictures. To spice things up a bit, imagine that the image you see through the viewfinder have three vertical and horizontal lines equally distributed, forming a perfect grid.

Place the subject at one of the intersections of lines and take the picture. Remember that since most cameras will try to focus on what's in the middle of the picture, you may have to lock the focus as described above.

#7 - Bring the subject within range of the flash

Keep in mind that the flash range of most cameras is around ten feet (slightly over 3 meters). If you try to take a picture of a subject further away than this, the flash will have little or no effect on the picture.

In the worst case you may end up ruining the picture since the flash could light up the foreground. With the camera set on automatic, it is likely to try to expose for the foreground, making your subject very dark.

Photography Tips - 7 Tips To Make Your Photos Stand Out

Photography Tips

Photography Tips - 7 Tips To Make Your Photos Stand Out

Photography Tips - 7 Tips To Make Your Photos Stand Out
Photography Tips - 7 Tips To Make Your Photos Stand Out

Photography Tips