House Photography

Several months ago I began taking photographs of our house in anticipation of putting it up for sale this summer. On web listings it's easy to show many photos, but there's always one, main photo associated with each listing on search results, and of course only one photo can be used with any paper based listing.

I knew it might be tricky getting one good photo so I wanted to make sure I took pictures before everything grew out, and during the blooming season so we could choose the best ones when the time came. I was somewhat scientific about it. I marked off spots on the sidewalk across the street where I’d place the tripod so I could be consistent, thinking I might use Photoshop to merge a couple of shots together later. I bracketed the exposures, shot at different angles, distances and zoom settings. I shot on days with various lighting and weather conditions as well. Normally subjects like this look a lot better when the sky is blue and the sun is overhead or behind the camera. Given the orientation of the house that angle isn’t possible, and when the sun is out strong there are shadows on the front of the house, so I may have to end up in Photoshop bring those shadows out. Or I may have to end up using a shot from an overcast day and then placing a better looking sky into it, which will not be easy since I have to work around at least one tree with sky in the background. I find it strange how little attention seems to be paid to this sort of thing in some of the house listings I see. Sometimes an expensive house will be shown with a crummy little snapshot and an overcast sky in the background.

At any rate I now have lot of pics of the front of the house, nearly all of which don’t show it effectively. It’s a hard house to shoot because a tree obscures the area around the front door, one of the main points of interest in any house, unless the photo is taken at an angle that obscures other areas of interest. There’s just no way to get one, good shot of the whole front.

Shot in late April -- Unacceptable because of overcast sky and the tree has no growth on it. Part of it could be used.

Shot late May -- Unacceptable because blooms make it look like spring, and the left tree obscures the nicest looking part of the front of the house.

Shot late June -- Unacceptable because front is lost in shadows (can be fixed) and right tree obscures the doorway.

Of course as I set about reviewing some of the photos later, with an eye toward possibly using the best parts of shots from different times, Liane tells me that I don’t want to use any of the shots with blooms in them because that connotes that it’s spring, and if we put the house up for sale in the late summer (which is likely the soonest it will happen) photos with blooms in them will make it seem like it has been on the market a long time already. Sigh. I tried to resist asking why she let me take all those photos in the first place, but couldn’t. Needless to say a minor argument over who said what to whom when ensued.

Currently the plan is to trim the tress and try it again. Hopefully I'll be able to piece enough parts together to come up with something acceptable.