Archive for May, 2011

Congratulations to PFRE Photographer of The Month For May: Briana Gray

May 31st, 2011

It’s now June 1 UTC/GMT, so I’d like to congratulate Briana Gray of San Diego, CA for her winning master bedroom image. Briana’s image won the vote by six votes. There was a tie for second place between Ron Kenny and Chris Wood. Olin Redmon took third place. Briana says: For the last two years I have [...]

I Just Discovered Guy Kawasaki’s New Book: Enchantment

May 30th, 2011

I had a different post scheduled for today but I just discovered Guy Kawasaki’s new book Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. So I am anxious to pass it on to everyone. I don’t read books any more. I’m in the process of listening to Enchantment in audio book form. The theme [...]

The Radioactive Look in HDR – Does It Work For You?

May 29th, 2011

Last week my wife Levi got a e-mail flyer for a new listing in Redmond, WA on Seattle’s Eastside. She forwarded it to me as she exclaimed how this single little front shot made her want to go see this little cottage. This is exactly what front shots are suppose to do right? While what [...]

Photos of Sexy $15.95M Malibu Beach Home by Mike Gardner

May 25th, 2011

Mike Gardner, a Malibu Realtor and photographer, just showed me this great listing he shot for Jeff Chertow and Caroline Lindqvist, of Pritchett-Rapf & Associates in Malibu. Mike says he shot 1200 images and distilled the presentation down to the images you see in the slide show. I have to say, I like the presentation that [...]

How Fast Should You Move In A Video Walk-Through?

May 24th, 2011

Charles Mackenzie-Hill of CMH Properties in Marbella, Spain asked us for some feedback on a recent walk-through video that he shot with his Glidecam HD-4000. Charles has also posted a abbreviated version of this video on flickr in the PFRE Video For Real Estate forum. My feedback to Charles is as follows: There are a couple of parts [...]

A Technique For Quick Sky Replacement in Photoshop or PSE

May 23rd, 2011

Thanks to Jonathan Calvert of Houston, TX for passing along his tutorial for a quick and easy way to replace skies. Jonathan says, “I know there has been a hundred tutorials on sky replacement, but they all seem too “intricate” for fast turn around real estate pictures, especially if you have multiple outdoor shots on [...]

What Things Are Important For A Real Estate Photographers Website?

May 22nd, 2011

Jason Lusk ask me to do a post about real estate photographer websites and pose the question:  ”What do you find effective or think is necessary to have in a Real Estate Photographer’s site?” Jason is in the process of updating his site. So let me start by listing what I think are essential features [...]

CambridgeInColour.com: A Great Resource For Photography Tutorials

May 17th, 2011

A few days ago I visited cambridgeincolour.com which I haven’t been to in years. I went there looking for some good quality online resources for a online Digital Photography class that I’m building for my local high school Technical School. I remember being impressed with the quality of the photography tutorials the last time I was [...]

Behind The Scene Look At Shooting Wide Screen Video

May 16th, 2011

This is a series of stills and some video showing the rig that the PlatiumHD.tv crew used to shoot the very wide aspect ratio property video that I posted on May 10. Also, notice that they have the full screen mode fixed so the video hold it’s aspect ratio when displaying full screen.

Real Estate Photographers and Stagers – A Mutual Business Opportunity

May 16th, 2011

I recently got a question asking what to charge a Stager for reuse of some photos for the stager’s web site. I realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve talked about the potential synergy between real estate photography and staging. In upper-end interior photography stagers, frequently called stylists almost always are an integral [...]