RE Photo No Nos

Following are actual real estate photos pulled from web searches and SF Chronicle's Walk Through. 

It's totally understandable to save money and get what you can with a point & shoot, but a few easy tips can help you make the most of your photos. 

Numero Uno - clear the clutter. Looks like it's probably a great kitchen, but right now it just looks like a mess. Takes five minutes to relocate all the clutter to the table and move whatever's on the floor just out of frame. Five minutes = way better photograph (and the homeowner can do this in advance and save you that time) and way better first impression to potential buyers.

Same clutter problem, but that's been minimized by terrible lighting. Turn on the range/hood light, turn on the light above the table and use the flash on your camera (if it's not too hot) so viewers can actually see what you're trying to show them. Also, move that pile of crap on the floor out of frame. Turn on the lights in the next room - that can help. Basically, just turn on ALL the lights - it'll look much warmer & inviting.

Maybe this house had a hazmat situation that prevented the photographer from getting any closer than the street in front of the house, showing us this lovely view of the sidewalk and weedy lawn. The trash bin is a nice touch - gives a sense of scale. It's one thing to show the entire lot so viewers can get a sense of how large the property is, but it's also okay to get a little closer so we can actually see the house - sans trash bin.

These are always fun - proof someone actually took the photo because otherwise, how would we know? For these tight bathroom shots, it almost always works fairly well to turn off the flash, turn on the vanity (and any other) lights and brace the camera up against the door jamb (if you don't have a tripod) so you can get a steady shot without the flash blinding the viewer in the mirror.  

Also, it's not necessary to hold the camera up this high, perhaps to help us imagine what it might be like to play for the Warriors. This makes me uncomfortable, wondering how I'd be able to wash my hands in that sink from so high up.

Other than that, at least the counter is clear and everything is tidy. I'd straighten up the towel on the wall though and remove the kleenex.

This, below, is astonishingly bad. Whoever shot this tried to cut a lot of corners in Photoshop (and failed) and someone probably paid that person for these photos which was a big waste of money. These were published on SF Gate. Amazing.

First of all - the color - everything is super saturated and off. Most likely from using too much Fill Light in Lightroom or Camera Raw (or Shadows/Highlights) in Photoshop. Those features can be helpful, but used too much and you end up with this - cartoonish, awful looking color.  

Even worse, he/she used a very heavy hand removing glare from the ceiling light - it's grey - it should be white. Same issue on the floor where glare is coming in from the window - the floor is grey and dirty instead of the color of the wood. Awful, awful stuff. And it gets even worse...

In this one below you can see the very sloppy glare removal attempt in the window. Notice the oval shape of where the brush was lazily dragged around the general area of the window and outside the window frame, where it creates the dark grey dirty "staining" on the wall. Also, the fan is on, which looks odd. Turn off the ceiling fans.

Anyone charging for this work should first be slapped with one of those fan blades and then sent to a basic Photoshop class to learn how to do a mask to properly deal with glare issues.

I post these not just to mock, but to show examples of what agents shouldn't be paying for and how easy it is to do it properly. If you don't want to spend the money on a DSLR, a point and shoot can work fine, but you'll get much better results with a tripod and a slow exposure - worry not about the glare from windows, that's normal. 

If you want clear interior views along with views through the windows & glare removed, that takes a little more effort - definitely a tripod and supplemental lighting and/or blending in Photoshop - totally doable and not that much more time or cost.

If you want to hire a professional, it's not expensive and can be done quickly and efficiently - getting you great photographs to market your listing in about the same time it might take to try to do it yourself. But whatever you do - if someone tries to give you photographs like these above, refuse to pay them and then call me.