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Real estate photos are so bad. When I sold my last house, I almost regretted it when I got the listing photos back. I never knew I lived in such a clean and eno
by function_seven 5y ago
Real estate photos are so bad. When I sold my last house, I almost regretted it when I got the listing photos back. I never knew I lived in such a clean and enormous house!
Three things:
1. I get that interior shots need a wide angle to capture the boundaries of a room in a single photo. But there's a limit. Most pictures I see dial it up to those crazy levels where obviously square or circular items become rectangles and ovals. Here are 2 images I just now randomly picked:
This kitchen is long! https://i.imgur.com/YxrRMSy.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YxrRMSy.jpg
Nope, just small: https://i.imgur.com/rPCSMUT.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rPCSMUT.jpg
(But, the rise of 3D walkthroughs is a good antidote for this, so credit where it's due on that front.)
2. Saturation! Please, stop maxing out that slider. Sometimes it's just vivid blue sky and greenest green grass, but other times they go so far that the highlights are all blown out and everything just looks weird.
3. Fake fireplace fires, sunny weather, etc. A lot of photos have a fake sunny sky inserted into window openings, or a "fire" in the fireplace that's obviously been pasted in. Different random listing shows 2 photos with incredible luck—the flames are identical.
https://i.imgur.com/jhnwvAv.jpg https://i.imgur.com/jhnwvAv.jpg and https://i.imgur.com/Ut1aTdl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Ut1aTdl.jpg
- nprateem 5y agoThe easiest trick is to blast a flash off white ceilings which then makes any other white walls look bright and clean
- AuryGlenz 5y agoThere’s actually a good reason for photoshopping in a fire in the fireplace. When doing real estate photography you generally want to do something to ensure that the windows aren’t overexposed and blown out. The two options are to light the interior with some flashes to balance the exposure (the better way), or use multiple exposures and do HDR. If you use flashes, the fire will be too dark and won’t really show in the exposure. Moving flames will also screw up HDR. I still think it’s stupid and only did it once at a realtor’s request.
- uncomputation 5y agoI can confirm real estate agents in the Bay Area are notorious for the first one you listed. They can make a shoebox look like a palace.
- grepfru_it 5y agoI have been house shopping for about a year now (with no real urgency) and ALL real estate agents will do this. We saw a house where a real estate agent only used their cellphone for photos and the house had the lowest number of views. We went to see the house and it was a m a z i n g. You may joke about these photos, but people want to imagine the room. When you have spent some time looking at houses, your brain is able to convert from the wide angle deception to what it should probably look like.
- neutronicus 5y agoMy in-laws put their house on the market, and the Real Estate agent produced a walk-through video. My wife and I couldn't stop laughing because the agent photoshopped a view into the kitchen window, but even in the context of the video it's clearly a plane with a texture on it just outside the window. It looks like a low-res poster of the Himalayas hung outside their kitchen window; it's not a convincing fake view in the slightest. Don't know what the agent was thinking, the actual view out the window is better than that.
- michaelt 5y ago> Different random listing shows 2 photos with incredible luck—the flames are identical. Ah yes, the old roaring fire directly below a window :)