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I am just curious how they can make it totally different than reality.
If you look at the living room, they have hard shadows coming from both sides of the room as though the sun was in two different places at the same time. That's a clue the photographer used a LOT of supplemental lighting. It's what pro photographers do. Look at the shadows.
I've been taking pictures for 40 yrs (Pentax Spotmatic, anyone?) and once had my own color darkroom at home... Three things that are different between the "pro" and "regular" photos:
1. Color saturation: the regular photos have a washed-out effect; the pro ones have certainly been digitally enhanced;
2. Lighting: notice how the furniture cast shadows, in the pro photos? That adds depth to the scene;
3. Doors and windows to the outside are too bright in the regular photos; this distracts from the main subject because our eyes are naturally attracted to a bright spot.
That's why you hire a good professional photographer when you are trying to sell expensive real estate. Those photos were taken with a good camera with an expensive lens and some suplimental lighting. The biggest difference is the good eye of the photographer, who knew how to compose a photo.
There is no point in faking photos. If buyers see a gorgeous photo and the place is a dirty dump, they aren't going to buy. Judging by the more amateur photos (which are still good, by the way) that house is going to show just fine. I think the lesser photos would have brought potential buyers in to look
What they did was take a bunch of photos with the flash at different locations in the room.
Then they fused all the images together in photoshop.
Do you see how all the shadows have no source of light?
the camera guy stands in different locations, pointing the flash where he wants light. He uses a remote control to click the shutter.
Then he crops himself out of the photos when it comes time to fuse the images together.
Flash photography and photo fusion generally looks much better than nasty artificial HDR done in Photomatix.
I don't think this is misleading at all, because the amateur photo does not look like reality either.
It's crappier than reality, lacking the dynamic range. For example, the human eye does not see blown out windows like that.
Photos are meant to get the shopper in the door.
if it takes rich color photos to do that, where's the harm?
Last edited by oh come on!; 01-20-2018 at 04:18 PM..
Who would decline to see the home based on the washed out photos?
I wouldn't necessarily decline to see the house based on the second photos. But I could envision a situation where the house was above my price range and feeling like the good photos really made it look so good that I'd say "ok, sure, no harm in at least looking" in a way that the other photos might not do.
So fits my parameters and in my price range, no difference. But yes, great photos could make me at least consider stretching the budget if I felt I might be getting something really special for that extra money.
ETA: then again, I'm one of those people who prefers to look at staged houses rather than empty ones, so I'm obviously subject to being influenced by the visuals. Someone who is a firm "empty houses only" person would presumably be much less likely to have the photos impact their thought process
How much more would any poster be willing to pay for the house if marketed with the better photos?
How many posters would decline to see the house if marketed with the 2nd set of photos?
I would say "perhaps some" and "no". The latter "no" is because the 2nd set of photos aren't that bad. I've certainly seen a LOT worse and I have to imagine that really bad photos do sometimes cause people to 'weed out' a home if they have plenty of other options.
The staging appears to be about the same in both sets, and I think that's where the perceived value of a home can really be elevated (in combination, of course, with good photography). Good staging literally transforms homes. I'm using the term broadly, and including de-cluttering & painting (existing homes), etc... along with adding/removing/re-arranging furniture & accessories.
Aside from the lighting, the professional photos are taken from an angle that make both rooms look larger.
The living room photo feels more inviting, as if the sofa is calling to me to come sit down.
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