Shortly after my family relocated from Northern Virginia to Omaha, Nebraska, I was driving around gathering info on what real estate agents in Omaha do to market a house. I was interested in providing photographic services to local Realtors and was curious what sorts of pictures they were using. By “what sorts”, I mean were they using professional real estate photographers, someone who had some pro level equipment but had never shot real estate images, or were they shooting the houses they listed themselves. In Virginia, almost all agents utilized pros to shoot properties who would then provide finished images to the agent for marketing purposes. Omaha didn’t do things this way. Most agents took the marketing photos themselves. It was quite obvious the agents were doing the photography and it left me feeling bad for sellers who were having their houses marketed with these images.

I asked several agents for the opportunity to handle the photography side of things, which would free them up to devote more time to handling the business side of things for their current listings. It would also give them the time to secure more listings or deal with more clients looking to buy. I was told time and time again that the photos they were taking were just fine and they didn’t see a need for my services. It is the old mindset of, “What I do for a living takes a trained professional, but a monkey with a camera can bang out a few pictures of the houses I am selling, so no, I don’t see the need to hire you”. It seems very curious to me that Realtors always insist that a seller use their services and expertise, but they don’t see that hiring a professional real estate photographer should be utilized also.

I have seen so many terrible images taken of houses that it makes me cringe worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. I always love the image of the Realtor reflected in the bathroom mirror, glass shower door or a window. Also love the images of unmade beds, unflushed toilets with the lid up, or the nice older lady sleeping in a chair. I am also a huge fan of the worthless image of the toilet and a small sliver of sink. Is this a full bathroom, maybe a half bath or is it a powder room? I just can’t tell. Perhaps it would be good to show as much of the room as you can so potential buyers can get an idea of the layout and size. My all time favorite images are those that are badly out of focus. These shots are completely worthless and of no value to the home seller or the buyer. If I was selling my house and the agent attempted to use images like the ones described above, we would be having a serious discussion.

As I have stated, I find it interesting for Realtors to be offended or shocked if a home seller attempts to make a go at selling their home themselves; but yet they go to Best Buy, purchase a point & shoot camera for $150 or so, and snap away instead of hiring a professional photographer. To hear them, anyone trying to do a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) deal is completely out of their league and making a huge mistake. These FSBO people are doomed to fail because they don’t possess the skills and knowledge to do a deal and might expose themselves to a potential lawsuit. Realtors always insist that using one of their own is the wise choice because they are educated professionals that know what they are doing. Again, I find it interesting that almost every realtor feels they are capable of producing better images than a professional real estate photographer. I have occasionally seen some very well done photography examples from Realtors, but not many. Check out these links to see some of the “impressive” marketing images Realtors around the country have used. Page #1, Page #2

A new trend I am seeing is the improper use of High Dynamic Range (HDR) images in real estate. Borrowing Wikipedia’s definition of HDR: HDR “is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wide dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight“.

My definition is: HDR mimics the human eye’s ability to see highlight and shadow tones in one image. A camera can only deal with a narrow range of  what’s visible in any given image. If the scene you are taking a picture of has bright areas and very dark areas, when you take a single picture, and you expose for capturing the brighter areas, this causes the dark areas to go so dark (under-exposed) that you lose detail. Conversely, exposing to capture the dark areas cause the highlights to go so bright (Over-exposed) that most if not all detail is lost also.

HDR takes several pictures that have been exposed for capturing specific tonal ranges, and combines them producing one final image. This final image is then adjusted via imaging software such as Photoshop. This image, if done properly, is similar to what the naked eye sees when viewing the subject of the image. I hope I am doing a decent enough job of describing this so you understand what I am trying to convey.

When done properly, HDR images can be really interesting and occasionally breathtaking. The website Stuck in Customs is full of HDR photos that are done very well. When HDR is utilized by someone who doesn’t fully understand how to achieve realistic looking images, things go bad real quick. This is an image I did using HDR that combines 5 images of the same subject.

HDR is used to achieve a final image that is representative of what I saw when looking at the Barn and trees. Depending on your monitor and personal tastes, this next image may or may not appeal to you. I have combined the same 5 images I used for the above image, but I really cranked up the HDR and it produces a surreal image.

This is nowhere near what I saw. Looks pretty cool, but not realistic. Imagine looking at house listings on the web and seeing each and every marketing image that is way overdone and bordering on obnoxious. It grows old real quick and it is not the way I would want my house marketed to potential buyers.

Until next time,

Mark