Prior to being a full-time architectural photographer, I spent some time learning landscape photography.  I was blessed enough to learn from one of the best – Jon Cornforth.  I went to some amazing places and shot some gorgeous images.  I even did art shows at the Mill City gallery and at Dunn Bros. Roseville.  Though I received a ton of acclaim for my work, it didn’t exactly jump off of the shelves.

It certainly wasn’t all for naught.. I learned that architectural photography has a ton in common with landscape photography.  In fact, the skills that I learned in landscape photography taught me so much that it gave me a huge leap ahead in my architectural photography business.

As an added bit of window-dressing and as a homage to my brief stint as a landscape photographer, I always ‘hang’ my pieces in homes that I photograph.  As a result, my art is now hanging in some of the finest homes in town.  Sure, it’s a virtual hanging – but many more eyes are going to see my images that way than if that art was actually hanging in their home.

Because of the process that I use, televisions must be turned off when I photograph them.  To dress that TV up a little, I will Photoshop in one of my fine art pieces on to the TV.  It’s only a minutes to do – but it adds a level of realism to the scene.  I’m very happy that flat panels are popular now – it’s so much easier to make it look realistic on a flat panel than it does an old-fashioned tube television!

Once you are aware of this little Easter egg – you’ll start to see them everywhere.  Here is one of my pieces in a master bedroom:

Here is another master bedroom.  This one is in a $2.25 million dollar house.  Recognize that image?

This next image made me chuckle as I was editing it.  On top of placing my landscape print on to the television, I added a screenshot of my computer screen while editing this image to the computer screen.  It’s sort of like standing between two mirrors and seeing infinite reflections!

The home above is on Lake Minnetonka and is for sale at $1.25mil.  Also for sale at $1.25mil is this gorgeous loft in Duluth.  It has excellent architecture.. and excellent artwork..

Finally, what better way to show off some of my work than on a huge home theater screen?  This spring I photographed a home that had a wall-sized screen in the basement.. and I decorated it..

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I’m going to assume that the property is already in sell-ready condition – the painting has been done, wall scuffs have been fixed, and the room has been de-cluttered.  Once those steps have been taken, we’re ready to prepare for the shoot.

• De-clutter.  Then, de-clutter again.  Less is more.  The collection of shot glasses may mean a world of memories, but they’ll detract from the picture.  At most, one or two things can be used as decoration on shelves or on tables.  Once the de-clutter is done, look into the room and see what attracts attention.  If the attention-grabber does so because it’s bright or busy, it’s probably too busy for the picture.  The focus of the room should be the room, not the ornate candlesticks on the mantle.
• Get rid of any evidence of pets, including cages, bowls, leashes, and the pets themselves.  Pets are a polarizing thing – people either love them, or they think that the pets make the house stink.  Why take the chance?
• Next, clean the room like it has never cleaned it before.  It’s amazing how much dust, lint, or footprints show up in the final image.
• Be sure that all light bulbs work.  I do all of my shots with the lights on – and it’s pretty obvious when one is burned out.  I also have a very strong preference for incandescent bulbs over compact fluorescent bulbs – the quality of light is a lot better.
• Make sure all linens are arranged – and the bed linens are smoothed out flat.
• Hide hand towels, dish soap, cleaning products, and so forth in the kitchen.  Make it look as if the kitchen has never been used.
• Arrange all curtains/blinds to be consistent.  I prefer them about 3/4 open so that there is a good view outside – but the blind can still be seen.
• Put the garbage cans in the garage.  This includes the outside cans and recycling bins.
• Finally, mow and rake the lawn.  Having the lawn freshly watered also gives it some extra sparkle and the colors from wet grass pop out even more.
• A couple of winter tips for those of us in northern climates: Make sure the walk is freshly shoveled and de-iced.  If you have big icicles or ice dams – have them removed.

To really make a home look the best it can possibly be, consider enlisting a stager.  There are basically two types of stagers – one that comes in to arrange your furniture and another that places their own furniture.  They are experts in placing decor and furniture in such a fashion to attract buyers.  A hundred or two dollars to have somebody arrange things can really make a difference.

It’s the little things that sell a house – and good photography along with good staging and good preparation will help you get maximum return on your house in the minimum time on the market.

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Jack Cotton, a luxury real estate marketing expert, recently wrote a blog post called “How Far Would You Go For the Perfect Listing Picture?“.  The entire post centered on how critically important it is to not only hire a photographer – but hire the best photographer in town to photograph your properties.  Jack states:

When presenting a luxury listing, you want more than one picture. You also want the right photos, shot in the right way, by the right person: an experienced pro who knows how to photograph high-end properties. With more and more people starting their search on the internet, your photos must be flawless.

I couldn’t agree more!  I continue to be amazed how many self-shot pictures are on luxury listings.  Just because you own a scissors doesn’t mean you’d do your own haircuts, does it?

Jack goes on to say:

Don’t spare the expense; hire the best real estate professional photographer in your area. Here’s why:

Potential buyers will often eliminate your listing from consideration immediately, based on poor photography. If you have to skimp on marketing your listing, professional photography is not the place to do it.

Since 95% of target buyers will visit your property on the Internet before ever considering walking in the front door – a potential sale may never even reach the front door if the property isn’t appealing in the photographs.

Please check out the remainder of Jack’s article on his website located here:

How Far Will You Go For the Perfect Listing Picture

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One of the biggest challenges with photographing interiors is taming the light.  There is a massive difference in light levels around a home – especially near large picture windows.  Even with the windows wide open, the interior is so much darker than the exterior that it is very difficult to get an image that has the right exposure for the inside and the outside.  To make matters worse, on a very bright day hard shadows will be created by the window frame or anything that blocks the light streaming in.

Without techniques to control the light, the above picture would either be a bunch of zebra stripes from the curtains.. or the outside view would be a blown-out mass of white.

To remedy the problem, the inside light and the outside light has to be balanced with each other.  That means that there are essentially three choices:

1. Darken the outside
2. Lighten the inside
3. Make a blended image that takes the best of multiple images

Darkening the outside isn’t really practical unless all shots are taken at dawn or dusk.. or at night.  Lightening the inside is frequently done by adding flashes – but unless it is done with multiple off-camera flashes, the net result looks like something done by the DMV.  Shooting with multiple flashes takes time to do well.. walking around with a camera with a flash pointed at the ceiling (though better than nothing!) doesn’t deliver pro results.

The third option is the one I favor.  There are a lot of different ways to achieve the same thing.  I shoot six images of every shot at varying exposures, then I blend them in post-processing.  The process I use is in the HDR family, but it’s not Photomatix-style tonemapping.  Photomatix was the first thing that I tried, but quickly rejected it due to the images being too surreal.   A Photomatix-blended HDR sticks out like a sore thumb because it doesn’t look real.

Instead, I use exposure blending.  This technique delivers the most realistic images of an interior.  It gets the interiors right, and it gets the exteriors right.  Best yet, it doesn’t introduce halos, noise, or unrealistic shadows from flashes bounced in strange places.  The net results are just plain beautiful!  It also does a spectacular job with reflections.. sometimes a little too good.  I’ve had to Photoshop my own reflection away when I realize that I can see myself in a reflection on the microwave oven.

See all the delicious soft reflections on the wood floors?

Today’s featured home is a gorgeous mid-century modern located in the Northwestern corner of Minneapolis.  It’s in an upscale neighborhood with a large yard, lots of trees, and great views.

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Unknown to many – even many in the industry – there are two distinct styles of photographing a property.  The two styles (as you can guess by the title) are: Architectural photography and Real Estate photography.  Both have a purpose and a market – but it is important to understand the differences.

Here is how I define each style – though I concede there are differing opinions and there are certainly shades of gray between the two.  I’m also going to skip over any discussion of film vs. digital since I’m no expert on film.  I’m sure there are some still shooting film – especially medium format film.  For the most part, digital is the clear leader today.

Architectural Photography

Goal: Present the property in the most appealing possible fashion.  Make every property look extremely desirable by picking pleasing angles that draw a viewer’s eye into the image.  Worry about small details like glare, wall smudges, cords, and other unattractive details.  It’s all about sweating the small stuff!

Camera: High resolution, full-frame DSLRs or Medium-Format cameras are the norm here.  These cameras deliver a maximum amount of resolution and dynamic range.  This is important if the images are ever to be used for larger than web page sized reproduction.  The improved dynamic range helps to tame the extreme differences between light and dark that occur when doing interior photography.  It makes the difference between being able to see detail in the shadows vs. having them be a black blob.  Typical cameras: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 1D Mark III, Nikon D3x, and many medium format by Phase One, Hasselblad, etc.

Lenses: Wide angle, perspective control lenses in the 17-24mm (35mm equivalent) range are the norm.  These lenses are also called ’tilt-shift’ lenses due to their ability to tilt and shift the lens in relation to the sensor.  These lenses do some unique tricks that standard lenses simply cannot.  By shifting the lens vertically, converging perspectives can be straightened out.  With an ordinary wide angle lens, vertical lines can tip as much as 45 degrees from vertical near the edge of the frame giving a very strange perspective.

Notice the fireplace?  It really doesn’t lean 20 degrees to the left!

Tilt-shift lenses also are some of the very sharpest (and most expensive!) lenses available for a camera platform.  Some examples include: Canon 17mm TS-E f/4L, Canon 24mm TS-E f/3.5L II, Nikkor PC-E 24mm f/3.5D ED

Lighting: Controlling the light and presenting the existing natural and artificial in the most flattering fashion is a key differentiator between the styles.  The goal is to make a picture look exactly as the eye sees it.  It’s like the old adage:

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn’t exist.

Flashes, used improperly, can absolutely be the Devil – and the architectural photographer’s job is to make the lighting perfect while making it appear that no lighting was used whatsoever.  Any ability to see the existence of a flash is a fail.

Architectural photographers have two tools in their arsenal to help in this regard – off-camera strobes and multiple exposures.  I’m going to stop short of including HDR (high dynamic resolution)- because there is a technical difference between HDR and blending multiple exposures that isn’t always flattering to interior photography.  By photographing 3 to 9 images of each scene then blending the multiple exposures, an idealized version of the extreme brights and darks can be created.

NOTE: Sharp eyes will correctly realize that the ‘what not to do’ image above was created using HDR!

Post-processing: Here too, it’s all about the details.  Unflattering or distracting things in the image (cords, smudges, etc.) are cropped or edited out with Photoshop.  Multiple exposures are blended into a single final image, colors are corrected, tone curves are applied to give the image more punch or to open up some dark spaces.  Sharpening is carefully applied at this step.

Output: A small number of breathtaking images ready for publication are delivered at very high resolution

Now, the other side of the fence:

Real Estate Photography

Goal: Where Architectural photography is focused on quality, Real Estate photography is single-mindedly focused on value.   In this case, value is defined in terms of cost per image.  It’s about throughput – how many images can be captured in as little time as possible to keep costs low.  There’s nothing wrong with this approach – but it’s a distinctly different product!

Cameras: Tough to be specific here, so I’ll have to generalize.  The real answer is that everything under the sun is used.. including cell phones.

Lenses: Again, tough to pigeonhole this – but the better ones use standard wide-angle lenses.  Some use tilt-shift lenses, but tilt-shifts are more methodical and it’s tough to get the results needed in a high-volume business.  I even saw a million-dollar property photographed with a fish-eye lens!  Hard to believe..

Lighting: On camera bounce flash is typical here and the flash is generally pretty obvious.   Some will do some simple auto-processed HDR, and the best ones will combine two exposures in Photoshop to get better views out the windows.

Post-processing: The bare minimum needed to get to a 640×480 MLS image

Output: Dozens or hundreds of images capturing every nook and cranny of a property

Again – no knock on pure Real Estate photographers.  The ones I know work very hard and most deliver a good product for the price.  However, the market today demands curb appeal on the internet that sets a property apart from its competition – and an architectural photographer can better deliver that.

Most of the images from the post today were from a gorgeous farm house in Minnetrista that was heavily remodeled and expanded  It is smack in the middle of a new housing development – and it’s easily the most striking property in the neighborhood.   Somebody needs to buy this property – because it’s a gem!

Next time, I’ll talk a little bit about my approach to balancing Architectural photography and Real Estate photography to deliver top quality images at a reasonable value.

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