Palo Alto Craftsman Bungalow

Here is a nicely remodeled Craftsman bungalow in Palo Alto that I shot for a real estate listing earlier this year.

Front Exterior

Rear Exterior

Kitchen

Sitting Room

Living Room

Master Bath

Master Bath

Residential Twilight Exterior

Traditional style home in Silicon Valley, substantially renovated by my client, Bay West Builders.

Rear Exterior

Recent Interior Photography

Here is a shot of the dining room of a very nicely updated Mid-Century-Modern home in Pebble Beach. When an interior space has nice built in lighting, as in this case, twilight is often the best time to show this, since strong daylight (perhaps with supplemental lighting) will tend to distract from or obscure the quality of the space's built-in lighting.

Dining Room

Recent Interior Photography

Some interior photos from my recent shoot of a nicely remodeled Eichler home in the San Mateo Highlands. (Client: Monique Lombardelli: McGuire Real Estate).

The owner acted as his own designer and contractor.

Living Room

Kitchen

Shower Detail

Recent Architectural Photography

This is an Eichler Home located in the Highlands section of San Mateo, California. It has been substantially remodeled and I think the owner did a nice job of it, while maintaining the essential character of the original design. (Client: Monique Lombardelli/McGuire Real Estate).

This listing became a pending sale within 5 days of going on the market, with multiple offers, and a sale price over the asking price. This occurred in the week before Christmas, traditionally a very slow period for real estate sales. I think this is an indication of the appeal of this house and the general demand for Eichler Homes in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Landscaping by Garden Art Group.

Rear Exterior

Front Exterior

Entrance

View of the Interior from the Atrium

Atrium

Rear Yard with Fire Pit

San Francisco Cityscape

Yerba Buena Center-San Francisco

San Francisco Cityscape at Night

Night Cityscape-Downtown San Francisco

This image was shot from a moving boat at night. Shot at F:2 at 1/80th of a second, at ISO 6400, with a Canon 5dII and a 24mm F:1.4 lens.

5070 Alpine Road, Portola Valley, CA

Here are some photos I shot recently for a real estate listing for Matt Zampella (RE/MAX). This property is a Georgian-style estate located in the upscale town of Portola Valley.

Another Article About the Importance of Quality Real Estate Marketing Photos

Forbes, the well-known business magazine, recently published an article that provides yet more support for why high-quality photos are vital for real estate marketing: Photos of Your Home Matter in Real Estate.

While I agree with most of what the article says, one thing I take issue with is the implication that it is the quality of the camera that matters most, and that a homeowner or realtor might be able to take decent marketing photos with such a camera. In my experience, this is usually not the case. In fact, I would say it is often the case that professional photographers who are not practiced at photographing architectural and interiors subjects will not do a great job either, though they are still likely to produce better results than amateur photographers. As I have mentioned previously in this blog, photographing buildings well is actually one of the more challenging types of photography, in terms of composition, lighting and even the digital processing of the photos.

Another thing I take issue with in the article is about choosing the right time of day for the photos, so that the property can be photographed with the best lighting. While this is the ideal, and is what professional architectural and interiors photographer try to do as much as possible, it is often not possible for most real estate photography. First of all, all parts of the house will not receive the best light at any one time of day, and the modest marketing budgets that are available for marketing most homes do not permit hiring a photographer to shoot throughout an entire day or more. For most real estate marketing of individual homes for sale, the marketing budget does not usually allow for more than an hour or two of photography (perhaps a bit more for larger homes), in one session. To compensate for this, a skilled photographer will often use supplementary lighting, perhaps with some specialized Photoshop techniques; however, with occasional exceptions, for standard real estate photography, using supplementary lighting is not practical for photos of the exterior, in which case it is usually best to try to schedule the photography for a time of day when the front exterior of the house receives good light, since the front exterior is usually the key marketing photo. Nevertheless, some exterior views will never get good light during the day, because of obstructions (such as trees or neighboring buildings) shading that side of the house from direct sunlight, which is generally the best kind of light for daytime exterior photos. Twilight photos can sometimes be an alternative in these cases, and can yield especially attractive and compelling photos, but they entail more time, which usually means a higher cost.

Deciding how much money to allocate to different marketing material can be a challenge, and there is no scientific way of determining what will provide the best results for the marketing dollars spent. However, whatever the overall marketing budget, because of the importance of the Internet as a marketing medium, I would argue that the photography should take precedence in the marketing budget.

Some Recent Interior Photography

Entrance

Massage Room

Stairway Landing, Window and Decorative Ceiling

Office

Master Bath

The above photos are from the historic Hellman-Heller Mansion (2020 Jackson Street, San Francisco).

Landscape Photography

Cliffs at Fort Funston/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Daly City, CA

Some Serious Real Estate Marketing

Here is a double page ad in a local newspaper (The Palo Alto Weekly) for a real estate listing that I shot recently for Ken DeLeon of DeLeon Realty. Ken was the number 1 realtor in the US in the 2012 Wall Street Journal rankings, and it is marketing such as this that has no doubt helped him to gain the top spot, marketing that includes large advertisements in newspapers and magazines, high quality photography (by yours truly), video, high-quality 4 and 8 page brochures, custom websites for each property and social-media marketing. In short, Ken makes extensive use of both old and new media to give each listing broad market exposure. The more market exposure, the more potential buyers, which can mean both a quicker sale and a higher sales price. An additional benefit is that this kind of marketing results in broader market exposure for the realtor, so that the marketing for each listing is also helping to market the realtor to gain new clients. Of course this kind of marketing is not cheap, but Ken has clearly proven that a serious investment in marketing can pay off in a big way.

Before the advent of the Internet, many realtors did not invest much in marketing, either for the listings or for themselves, relying primarily on networking and referrals. However, the Internet has provided a major new avenue for marketing all kinds of products and services, including real estate, and studies have shown that the vast majority of home buyers now start their search for a new home on the Internet. Furthermore, in some markets at least, print advertising is far from dead and can be leveraged to great effect, as I believe the ad below demonstrates quite well.

1505 Cowper Street-Palo Alto Weekly Ad

Getting it Right in the Camera

From time to time I see some photographers boast that, when they shoot photos, they "get it right in the camera," meaning that they produce an image that needs little or no processing or retouching after they take the photo. I especially see this comment from architectural and interior photographers who use supplementary lighting, who take pride in working this way and who seem to disparage photographers who do not work in this way as somehow less professional. I think this attitude comes from the days when transparency film was the standard medium for professional color photography. This film is very unforgiving and and provides very little flexibility for manipulating the image after it has been created. Color negative film provided more flexibility, but for various reasons was seldom used for professional purposes, with the exception of portrait, wedding and event photography (the end use for which is usually a photographic print, rather than a reproduction made with a printing press).

Because of the limited flexibility of color transparency film, architectural and interior photographers traditionally used a considerable amount of supplementary lighting, among other reasons to minimize color imbalances from mixed light sources and to reduce the contrast range of the scene to fit within the limited tonal range of transparency film. This process tended to require a lot of expensive lighting equipment and a degree of lighting skill not commonly found in other genres of professional still photography. With the advent of digital photography, some architectural and interiors photographers continued to use their traditional methods of lighting, generally only using the basic digital processing controls to finish their photos, except for doing the kind of retouching (in digital form, of course) traditionally done by airbrush artists when film was the only photographic medium. However, digital photography now offers a tremendous amount of control, both for solving traditional technical problems and for creative expression, and I don't see any reason to dismiss using the potential of digital photography as somehow less than professional. Certainly, if a traditional lighting method is giving a photographer the results he or she wants and needs, all well and good.  In the end, however, I think the end result is all that matters to the viewer or end user of the photos.

Recent Work-2950 Alexis Drive, Palo Alto Hills

Here is an exterior photo from a recent real estate marketing job. The front exterior is often one of the "money" shots for marketing homes, and is sometimes the most important shot. This photo was used for the cover of the marketing brochure for this listing, and as the lead photo for some of the ads.

In this case I was able to photograph this home at an ideal time of day for the front of the home, with the sunlight falling at an angle directly on the scene. This kind of lighting creates attractive shadows which provide a sense of depth and bring out the structural and decorative details of the architecture. This is also excellent lighting for showing off the attractive and extensive landscaping. 

2950 Alexis Drive-Front Elevation

Recent Work-848 Southampton Drive, Palo Alto

Here are some more photos from my recent shoot of this contemporary style home, designed by Maydan Architects.

View from Living Room

Master Bedroom

Kitchen

Contemporary Staircase

Here is another staircase from a recent shoot of a home in Palo Alto, CA, designed by Maydan Architects.

Contemporary Staircase

Traditional Staircase

Here is a traditional-style staircase from a home in Palo Alto, CA, which I shot for real estate marketing purposes.

Traditional Staircase

I really enjoy photographing staircases. I find something about their shapes particularly engaging. Except, perhaps, for very grand ones in luxury homes, staircases are not usually considered to be primary subjects for marketing a home. However, they are often one of the first things one sees when entering a home, and they can say a lot about the general style of a home's interior.

As is often the case for mainstream real estate marketing photography, I had to photograph this staircase at a time of day when the ambient lighting was far from ideal, for which I compensated by creating a substantial part of the interior lighting with several small flashes, one placed on the landing at the top of the stairs, and the rest located on either side of the camera. The purpose of the added lighting was not only to generally brighten up the interior, but to even out the lighting somewhat and to help direct the eye through the scene better. An additional benefit of supplementary strobe lighting is that it brings out textures, and can be especially flattering to wood.

Palo Alto Master Bath

Here is a master bath of a home in Palo Alto, CA, that I shot for a real estate listing several months back.

Master Bath

Master baths are often one of the "money" shots for real estate marketing (along with living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and media rooms), especially for nicer homes, and thus these need to stand out and look especially appealing. This bath has been nicely remodeled and was in excellent condition. I did not have to do any remedial retouching or resort to an awkward composition in order to downplay any less-than-ideal elements. The ambient lighting was far from ideal for this shot, as  is often the case for real estate marketing photography, which must often be done on short notice and with little choice of time for shooting with the best light; therefore, I used supplementary lighting in the form of several small flashes placed strategically around the room, to even out the lighting and to highlight certain areas of the scene. 

This shot is a crop of a considerably wider shot. Many real estate agents favor extreme wideangle views because the agents want to show a lot of space within one photo. The crop above is the way I would tend to compose this scene for an architect, interior designer, product manufacturer, etc., and I think it provides a very good sense of both the space and the various finishes and fixtures.

15950 Blackberry Hill Rd., Los Gatos-Twilights

Several twilight photos from a recent real estate marketing shoot for Matt Zampella  (RE/MAX).

Entrance/Wrought Iron Door

Balcony

Pool

Balcony/View

Why High Quality Photos Matter for Marketing Homes

An excellent article in the Chicago Tribune explains why Quality photos make all the difference in marketing your home. I don't think I could have explained it much better myself. 

The article notes that lighting is extremely important. The camera sees different light sources (daylight, fluorescent, incandescent, LED) differently from the human eye, and mixed light sources can create significant problems for photography, resulting in a mixture of unpleasant, clashing color casts that do not look realistic. Furthermore, the basic quality of the light in many homes, including even high end ones, is often not that appealing photographically, and time and budget limitations tend to restrict considerably the ability to wait for the best ambient lighting in each room. Supplementary lighting is the best solution for this situation, and lighting interiors is a specialized skill that a portrait, product or event photographer is not likely to possess unless he or she also spends a lot of time shooting interiors. Usually, a specialist in architectural and interior photography will produce the best results.

One thing I take a bit of issue with in the article is the suggestion that it was the advent of mobile devices that drove the need for high-quality photos for marketing homes. Mobile devices have certainly enhanced the need for such photos; however, even before the widespread use of mobile devices for Internet viewing, realtors could present the homes online in dedicated single property websites, or on their own websites, to provide a larger and clearer view of the photos than is generally possible with the major online real estate portals (such as Zillow, Trulia, Movoto, etc.), which access the listing photos directly from the MLS feeds. I note that one major real estate portal, Redfin, has recently started displaying listing photos significantly larger and clearer than the other real estate portals.

Photo Business News & Forum: Copyright - Lawrence Lessig v. Stephen Colbert

Photo Business News & Forum: Copyright - Lawrence Lessig v. Stephen Colbert

Portola Valley Home

Here are several photos of 245 Cervantes Road, Portola Valley,  a recent real estate listing that I shot for Lynn Wilson Roberts, with Alain Pinel Realty. This is a recently built contemporary style home. The staging was done by the homeowner/builder.

Spectacular Views from Russian Hill

Here are some photos I shot of the marketing of penthouse co-op apartment in the Russian Hill section of San Francisco. 1750 Taylor Street, 24th Floor. You know you are pretty high up when you can look down on Coit Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid.