{"id":173,"date":"2006-08-04T10:36:02","date_gmt":"2006-08-04T17:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=173"},"modified":"2007-04-20T17:26:17","modified_gmt":"2007-04-21T00:26:17","slug":"real-estate-photography-snapshot-composition-is-salesmanship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/173\/real-estate-photography-snapshot-composition-is-salesmanship\/","title":{"rendered":"Real estate photography snapshot: Composition is salesmanship . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming back to this<\/a>, I wanted to spend a few minutes on photo composition techniques. That’s almost absurd: Who doesn’t know how to take a picture? Almost everybody, it turns out. We’re not talking about Ansel Adams levels of perfection, we’re talking about taking real estate photos that sell the property but don’t require a lot of back-end effort on your part. That means that we want to take a photo we’re ready to show off as-is, not one that requires cropping or re-touching in PhotoShop.<\/p>\n

Here’s an obvious rule first: A camera is not a gun, and a house is not its target. If you look at published real estate photos, again and again you’ll see the house centered in the frame with miles and miles of do-nothing sky above it. This is wrong. Fill the frame with whatever it is you’re drawing attention to. If you think you might want to crop the image later, why not crop it now by filling the whole frame?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We like drama, so often we’ll get in really close at a point of view much lower than normal (it’s called crouching or kneeling; even old people can do it). In this case we also blasted hard with an electronic flash — even in bright sunlight outdoors — in order to bring out the details that would otherwise be in shadow.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another way to lend drama to a scene is to go higher than eye-level and look down. Most digital cameras have a video viewfinder, so it’s easy to frame photos while holding the camera overhead.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If the ceiling is interesting, it should be in the photos. The wide angle lens on your camera will include the floor and ceiling of your interior shots, so you should be watching for things to bring out. Here in Arizona, ceiling fans are worth money, so we make sure we show them off.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here is the value of a very wide angle lens: We can see this whole bedroom in two photographs. The human eye is much more adept at apprehending visual information than any camera. Our eyes-forward range of vision is Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming back to this, I wanted to spend a few minutes on photo composition techniques. That’s almost absurd: Who doesn’t know how to take a picture? Almost everybody, it turns out. We’re not talking about Ansel Adams levels of perfection, we’re talking about taking real estate photos that sell the property but don’t require a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-enduring-interest","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-photography","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1384,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1384\/picture-this-digital-photos-can-sell-your-home\/","url_meta":{"origin":173,"position":0},"title":"Picture this: Digital photos can sell your home","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in today's Arizona Republic (permanent link): \u00a0Picture this: Digital photos can sell your home Here's the brutal truth about the real estate market in the Valley of the Sun: There are nine homes for sale for every motivated, qualified buyer. So what should you do to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":161,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/161\/real-estate-photography-snapshot-choosing-a-camera\/","url_meta":{"origin":173,"position":1},"title":"Real estate photography snapshot: Choosing a camera . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I keep meaning to write about real estate photography, and I keep not getting it done. Let's consider this a first cut, to which I may return more than once. Mark Reibman of Rain City Guide has written two great posts on digital photography for real estate, and we can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6662,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6662\/selling-real-estate-the-engenu-way-because-i-can-make-content-rich-web-sites-so-easily-i-can-make-my-points-more-convincingly\/","url_meta":{"origin":173,"position":2},"title":"Selling real estate the engenu way: Because I can make content-rich web sites so easily, I can make my points more convincingly","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Can premium rental homes in suburban Phoenix throw off positive cash-flow at 75% of market rents? An investor asked me that question the other day. It's an academic problem, really, a matter of costing out typical homes to see how they perform under that scenario. I can do that much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3168,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3168\/unchained-at-the-sign-printer-how-we-make-our-custom-yard-signs\/","url_meta":{"origin":173,"position":3},"title":"Unchained at the sign printer: How we make our custom yard signs","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I think this might be less than useful, but it keeps coming up in my mail. I love it that people are trying to make custom yard signs for their listings, but it seems plausible that the best technical advice will come in the comments. Why is that? Because I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10401,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/10401\/new-cameras-for-the-bloodhounds-my-take-is-that-the-panasonic-lumix-dmc-zr1-offers-a-lot-of-bang-for-the-buck\/","url_meta":{"origin":173,"position":4},"title":"New cameras for the Bloodhounds: My take is that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1 offers a lot of bang for the buck","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"If your car keys are with you, your camera should be with you.\" That's one of the mantras I preach at Realtors when I speak in public. The language of real estate is photography, and you cannot do your job properly if you can't communicate what you're seeing to your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11541,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11541\/the-purpose-of-real-estate-photography\/","url_meta":{"origin":173,"position":5},"title":"The Purpose Of Real Estate Photography…","author":"Harry Bisel","date":"March 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"First, an apology.\u00a0 One thousand apologies, in fact.\u00a0 On January 20th I introduced myself and expressed my gratitude to Greg for giving me the opportunity to be an occasional contributor to this forum.\u00a0 I mentioned a photography class for real estate professionals that I teach for brokers in our local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}