Photography For Real Estate

This week I have a variety of videos to show you. The overall theme is an idea that Mike Miriello mentioned when he sent me his video he did recently. That is as photographers and real estate agents video is creeping into our lives whether we like it or not. Even if you think of yourself as a still photographer and are not really passionate about video it’s getting pretty hard to ignore. Every camera or cell phone you buy can shoot HD video and your clients are thinking about it even if they aren’t using it yet because they see others using video.

Here are some video’s I ran across this week that caught my interest:

1. Park and Market, Raleigh, NC – By Mike Miriello. Some nice slider shots and a pleasant audio track. Notice that Mike is using Vimeo which is a nice alternative to YouTube. Vimeo is aesthetically more elegant than YouTube and works nicely if you are going to integrate your video into a page like Mike did.
2. Real Estate Video: How To Use Video In Real Estate – By Stephen Garner of Grand Canyon Title Agency. Notice that  Stephen is working for Grand Canyon Title, teaching agents how to use video in their marketing. For those of you not familiar with Title companies, they do all sorts of free things for agents so agents will give them their Title Insurance business. I found Stephen’s pitch pretty good for why agents should use video and good info on how to do it. He has some other videos in his channel that give agents specifics about how to shoot video.
3. 90 George Street Condominiums – By Virtual Tours Ottawa. While this is not my favorite style of real estate video it is an example that is one of the Animoto style videos. I don’t know that this is done with Animoto but Animoto takes stills and applies various styles of animation and sound tracks to the stills. This is a popular style I know. If  you are going use stills to create a video I’d rather see this style than simple Ken Burns panning to music.
4. Buying Real Estate in a small town – From Charlie Dresen’s video blog. This is a short (1:24) video from the PFRE Video For Real Estate flickr group that is a great example of how much you can get across in under 90 seconds of video. Great little video Charlie!
5. Pebbles-Mudjimba – By Jon May, Mt. Coolum Sunshine Coast, Australia. Another little video from the PFRE Video For Real Estate flickr group that Jon shot for a holiday rental that promotes doggy friendly holidays.
6. Videomaker’s Tutorials – By videomaker.com which is a magazine and community for those interested in video production.

For those getting started in real estate photography in many ways the software tools you use are every bit as important as the gear tools you use. I get many questions about what software to use for real estate photography. While there is diversity of opinion of what you need I think it is valuable to look at what the PFRE readers use and how they vote with their money and actions (for details see the polls here). Here are the types of real estate photography software and what is used by readers:

1. Workflow: The hands down winner here is Lightroom. You can do 95% of real estate post processing in LR the only things that you need to leave LR are to do sky replacement, manual blending/layering and bracket processing. For managing your workflow and making the myriad of touchup and adjustments you need to do LR is the fastest and easiest way to get the job done.  For Mac users is Aperture 3 will do almost the same job as LR4 but you will have to leave Aperture to remove lens distortion and straighten verticals in either Photoshop or PTlens. 50% of PFRE readers us LR and 5%, Aperture and 45% don’t use workflow software at all.
2. Pixel manipulation: By this I mean those things like sky replacement and layering (as in window masking). The two major choices here are either full Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. For someone starting out most will not say you need to need the full $670 version of Photoshop CS6. You can easily get by with Photoshop Elements for $79 which does a major part of what full photoshop does. At the same time I need to also point out that 66% of PFRE readers use the full version of Photoshop  either by itself or along with Lightroom or Aperture. The reason is that it’s a professional product. Photoshop is the gold standard for pixel manipulation. 66% of PFRE users use some version of full Photoshop and 12% use Photoshop Elements.
3. Bracket Processing: This type of software is only for those 52% of real estate photographers that are shooting brackets rather than using lighting. The following is what PFRE readers use for processing brackets.
• Photomatix – 49%
• LR/Enfuse – 20%
• Photoshop -13%
• EnfuseGui – 4%

Conclusion: So the recommendation of PFRE readers (based on what they use) is as follows:

• Workflow software: Almost half of readers (45%) are getting by with no workflow software. For those that use it, the majority use Lightroom.
• Pixel Manipulation: The majority of readers use it and use the full version of Photoshop.
• Bracket processing: 52% of readers shoot brackets and Photomatix is by far the most popular processing software.

The May PFRE Photographer of the month is now closed for more entrants and the jury will soon start their deliberations. We have a bunch of great entries! To check them out click here or on the photo to the right.

We will have a winner picked in 7 days. I’ll then then post the points for each photo, juror comments and names of the entrants for the last week of the month.

The voting process works as follows:

1. Each juror has 10 points to cast in the voting.
2. Some jurors prefer to cast all points on one entry while others prefer to vote for more than one entry. Jurors can use their 10 points to vote for up to 3 entrants splitting their points (votes) up any way they like.
3. If there is a tie I will cast 10 points to break the tie.
4. Jurors can anonymously make comments on one or more of the entries for educational purposes or to just say why they liked or didn’t like a photo.

Anyone  can join the PFRE Photography of the Month group and make comments on or flag their favorites. Who knows your comments may effect the jurors decision.

About a month ago I went on a rant about so many PFRE readers using Flash, Java etc that can’t be seen on mobile devices and Terry Iverson rightly accused me of not eating my own dog food, since my site still used Flash based 360s and slideshows. Who me? Okay, okay, so I’ve got my website fixed now.

Here’s what I did to get the site into the 21st century where you can’t depend on your viewers having Flash installed:

1. My 360 Spherical panorama: I’ve used PTgui Pro to stitch spherical 360s for a long time. The last several versions of PTgui has a feature called “Publish to website” under the “tools” menu that will generate non-Flash code that you can put on any website. So I just re-stitched the panorama (I know it has a stitching error in it that needs fixing) and used that code to generate code for the website. The code I believe is using Flash where Flash is available and using Javascript where Flash isn’t available. It works pretty well on iPhones and iPads although the little fullscreen button in the upper right hand corner has a problem on the iPad that I have to look into. I know, this 360 is not all that real estate related but this panorama is sentimental to me. It’s a hand held panorama I shot of the TripleX drive in Issaquah, WA in about 2003. The TripleX is the last XXX Root Beer Drive Inn left on the planet. Jose, the owner hosts car shows at the drive Inn almost every weekend of the year Feb through Oct. As you can see the place is filled with 1960′s memorabilia. If you are ever in the Seattle area and want a 1960′s style hamburger and milkshake this is the place to go!
2. My exterior and interior slide shows: I use to use a very old version of Monoslideshow that uses Flash. I decided to replace it with SlideshowPro (the hosted version). This is a good solution if you are doing your own slide shows or portfolio on a site that you’ve build yourself or if you have a tour format that you’ve created yourself and supply to your clients. This hosted version costs $49/year for unlimited number of slide shows and you can mix video and stills, add audio etc.

So now iPad visitors can see my site and if you are a masochist you can even visit it on a iPhone. I’m still seeing two or three sites and/or tours a week that use Flash or Java. Not having your site visible to mobile devices is one thing, but selling a Flash or Java based tour product to agents is at this point in history pretty irresponsible.

Posts that I’ve done in the past discussing gear to get started in real estate photography have been some of the most popular posts on the blog. Every year or so I like to revisit the subject. The underlying assumption here is that you want to get started with the lowest possible cost. First some general principles:

1. Don’t fool around with point-and-shoot (non-interchangeable lens) cameras: A primary gear driver in real estate photography is a good quality wide angle lens and this means you need a DSLR (interchangeable lenses). Don’t even think about using a wide angle converter that screws on a point and shoot, most are total crap!
2. Ultra wide-angle glass is the most important gear you need: For real estate photography the range of effective focal lengths you will want is between 16mm and 24mm. Understand that low-end cropped sensor DSLRs have a 1.5 (Nikon) or 1.6 (Canon) multiplier effect on the effective focal lengths. Spending money on wide angle glass is far more important than spending it on a camera body. For a list of the possibilites see my lens table that shows all the major choices and a reader poll that lists what’s popular with PFRE readers.
3. Which DSLR body you use doesn’t make much difference: What I mean is that compared to the wide angle lens you choose the DSLR body doesn’t have all that much effect on your results. I assume that if you are going for the lowest possible cost you will be starting out with a cropped sensor DSLR. See my Camera table that lists all the current choices and has a reader poll that shows what is the most popular. Continue Reading »

Up until this week I’ve been featuring only real estate video from YouTube. While there are some huge potential exposure benefits from using YouTube there are also some obvious aesthetic downsides to YouTube like the clutter of related video and advertising. You can control some of the clutter but not all of it. Agents and videographers that are serious about presenting video in a clean, elegant, controlled  way will also want to use something other than YouTube. So this week I’d like to feature some examples of  how people  are using iPlayerHD.com to present real estate video and integrate video into sites and tours without using YouTube:

1. 19 Albatross Walk- By Steve Lindqvist, Adelaide, South Australia.
2. 9335 Springfield - Candace Kuzmarski, Evanston, Ill. This is a great example of integrating video into a tour along with floor plans, stills and all the other features clients expect in a tour.
3. Marbella, Nagueles, Holiday rental - Charles Mackenzie-Hill, Marbella, Spain
4. Malia Campbell (new work page) – Malia Campbell Photography, Seattle, WA. Malia uses iPlayerHD to create a play list of recent work.
5. Steamboatsmyhome.com – Charlie Dresen, Steamboat, CO. Charlie’s site is an example of how clean and elegantly iPlayerHD can be integrated into your website.
6. Abby Lofts Toronto –  Ryan -Toronto, Canada. This is Ryan’s first attempt a real estate video. Looks like a great start to me.

It’s worth mentioning that iPlayerHD hosted video solves all the technical issues of playing smoothly on all devices.

Joanna Michl, who does real estate photography in the Greater Philadelphia Area ask for some feedback on this twilight shot because she says she doesn’t do many twilight shots.

First of all, from a marketing point of view, a great twilight exterior shot is the single most valuable photo that you can have on a listing.

Steve Pacinelli argues that a twilight thumbnail on a listing site will increase the online visits a listing will get. I can tell you for sure from direct experience a twilight shot will bring the listing agent more listings. We’ve gotten several listings solely because the home owner saw our twilight shot on our listing, website or flyer and wanted one for their home.

My feedback for Joanna on her twilight shot (click on the photo above to see a larger size) is that I would work at controlling the exterior lights on the home. This happens to me all the time. The exterior lights on the lower level and the deck level (where the red arrows are pointing) are too bright and distract. The ones on the lower level could easily be just turned off with no loss. The yard light in the foreground is a distraction too. Same for the 5 or 6 big lights along the top of the railing on the deck. Another option would be to take an exposure with just the deck lights (all other lights off) and then bring in the those bright lights into Photoshop on a separate layer so the intensity can be controlled with the layer opacity.

Shooting tethered can help you spot these distractions right on site. It’s frequently difficult to notice these kind of distractions in a small LCD screen on your camera.

I think watching Mike Kelley’s excellent video tutorial on shooting a layered twilight shot is a great way to start thinking about twilight shots where various areas are on different layers. If you shoot different groups of lights on a separate shot you can then easily control their intensity. Mike’s example is much more elaborate where he’s lighting with a flash but the same approach could be used here if you wanted to keep the exterior lights on but bring down their intensity. In this case, a quick and easy solution would be to try a shot with the exterior lights off. Some times you can run around and just unscrew some bulbs to save time in finding all the switches. The best solution is of course having the home owner there to run the light switches for you.

Anyone else want to give Joanna feedback on her shot?

I just ordered a hard copy  and a Kindle copy of Scott Kelby’s Lightroom 4 book for digital photographers. The hard copy is in stock and shipping at Amazon. I’m in the habit of getting an updated edition of this book every time a new version of Lightroom comes out. It makes a great reference book and I love Scott’s writing style. I think I’m not alone in this feeling because this has been the number 1# selling book on Lightroom ever since Lightroom came out.

This is the first time that I’ve gotten both the hard copy and the Kindle version. I use the Kindle App on my iPad (when I can manage to get my iPad away from my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter). I purchased both digital and paper media this time because I have this idea in my head that I’m going to get paper media out of my life but after using Kindle books for a while I start to have beautiful book withdrawal. I’ve managed to do it about 80%. I don’t do newspapers and most books I either read on the iPad or listen to the audio version but there are a few books that I have a hard time giving up. Using a well laid out and designed book like this one is special. I appreciate and pay more attention to the design these days since I started laying out my own books.

Thanks to Kerry Bern of Gladbrook, IA for pointing out this listing in Ames, IA.

I have a theory that a good way to find real estate agents that need a professional photographer is to just look through active listings in any given area starting at the high end and see who is doing what for marketing. Usually the targets of opportunity will jump right out.

This  $1.9M listing stands out a little more than most. This listing agent needs help big time! Call up this agent Kerry and offer your services!

As I told Kerry, this listing takes the concept of a drive by shooting to a whole new level. Even, if the photo was right side up, it’s unclear where the property is that’s for sale.

John Sembrot pointed out recently a post on agbeat.com about the continuing debate on syndication. Jim Abbott has a follow up statement on the issue of listing syndication that he raised in late January of this year.

John raised the questions:

As photographers I would think that as a group we would support non-syndication? I think it would increase the value of the photos by making them more scarce. I wonder if there has been an industry discussion regarding this debate. Am I doing my clients a service or disservice when I syndicate their virtual tour? What if a Realtor client selects do not syndicate, but uninformed the photographer syndicates the listing?

I believe as real estate photographers it is important to support the point of view of  all of your clients. Sure, you probably have a personal opinion on this issue but it’s essentially irrelevant. You are a professional providing a service to a client. You have a professional obligation to support the needs of your client. Very likely you are going to have clients on both sides of this issue and some that don’t care or don’t even know about it. But because of this issue, if you are providing a tour with your shoot that has the ability to syndicate (like tourbuzz or pfretour) you need to be asking “do you want your tour syndicated?”. Agents have the ability to check or not check the syndication box when the create the MLS listing but the photographer frequently also has the ability to syndicate a tour if they provide one. You can no longer assume that all agents want their tours syndicated… ask them to be sure what they want.