The Kansas City Real Estate Photography Blog

Know The Money Shot

“How many of you would say the photograph of the exterior front of a property is the money shot“?  When I ask that question in class there is usually some hesitation on the part of many of the participants.  Some feel the strongest shot – the one that elicits the most positive emotional response is the money shot, whether its the kitchen or the sun porch.  It’s hard to argue with that logic, but it is my opinion that because the exterior front photo is the only shot that shows up in an initial web search result (in almost all cases), it is, by default, the money shot.  Even if there is a photo just behind it that is absolutely stunning, if the web consumer doesn’t click through to view the entire listing they won’t see it.  (We could place the attractive interior shot first in the line-up, but then we run the risk that our prospective buyer will assume there is no exterior shot, and we all know what we think if there is no exterior shot!)

It has been said many times that when it comes to buying real estate today, photography is the new “curb appeal”, and this is especially true with regard to the one photo that will cause a buyer to decide whether to click through or click past your listing.  For this reason, I typically spend more time planning for – and shooting – the exterior of a home than any other shot I do.  In fact, if an agent hires me to shoot the interior only, I reduce my fee by 20%, because that’s about how much of my time I allocate to exterior shots.  So my first recommendation is that you spend the time and energy necessary to make the exterior front shot of a listing look as good as you possibly can.

One of the reasons the exterior of a property can be so difficult or time consuming to photograph is the number of factors we can’t control – but that influence our ability to get the shot.  There are three that effect every property we photograph: the weather, the orientation of the home (the direction it faces), and the terrain (the grade of the lot, placement of trees, etc.).  Throw in utility poles, stormwater drains, the neighbor’s chartreuse-colored house and… well, you get the point.

Here are some tips that I hope will help you get the best results possible.  If you have others you’d like to share, please do so in the comments so we can all benefit!

• Plan ahead.  Schedule with your client to photograph the home at least 48 hours prior to the day it goes into the MLS whenever possible.  (72 hours is better.)  This allows time to reschedule or re-shoot in the case of inclement weather.  If you have to put the home on the market immediately, get a shot – because any exterior front shot is better than no exterior front shot – but please, go back and re-shoot when conditions improve.
• Be prepared.  Under the resource menu at the top of this blog you’ll find links to a variety of mapping sites.  Between AIMS (for Johnson County homes), Google Maps Street View and Microsoft’s Live Maps Birds-Eye View, you can know the direction the home faces, as well as the placement of trees and other potential obstacles.  The orientation of the home is important because…
• Light is the name of the game.  Overcast skies or heavy shade make for a bland photo due to a lack of contrast, so try to arrange to shoot during the golden hours – early in the morning for east-facing homes and later in the afternoon/evening for south and west-facing homes.  I’ve written previously about the challenge of north-facing homes, which are almost never fully lit by the sun.  My best advice for these homes is to absolutely avoid the middle of the day because the sun will be shining right over the roof of the home into your lens, causing flare and making matters much worse.  Shoot early or shoot late when the sun is coming from a steep angle left or right respectively.  This is one of the few times when a slightly overcast sky can be a friend!
• Get level.  How often do we see photos in the MLS that make a home look like it’s falling over backward?  Pretty often, unfortunately.  This is caused when we tilt the camera up to get the whole house and some of the sky into the frame.  The phenomenon is called “converging verticals” and there are two ways to avoid them.  The first way is to get level with the home.  This might mean standing at the top of the neighbor’s driveway across the street, or keeping a step-ladder in your trunk.  (I keep a 22′ Little Giant ladder, but that’s another story.)  The goal is to make sure that when you look through the viewfinder (or at the display on the back of your camera), the sides of the house are parallel to the sides of the frame.  Another way to achieve this is to “shoot big”.  By this I mean to zoom out to the widest angle your camera will allow and get back away from the home as far as necessary to keep the camera level and still get some sky above the roof of the home.  This will typically mean you have very large foreground that might even include the street and a lot of room to the sides of the home.  That’s OK.  If you shoot at your camera’s highest resolution, you’ll be able to use free software like Google’s Picasa to crop the photo to just the part you want – and the house will be straight!  (This is much more easily done than described.  If you have questions, lease give me a call.)
• Focus on the entry.  The front entry is a point of pride for many homeowners and is typically the most appealing element of the front elevation.  Unless it is impossible, the entire front door should be visible in the photo.  It’s also good to stage the entry with bright (but not gaudy) color to draw the viewers eye toward it.  Now that we can attach up to 25 images to an MLS listing, I highly recommend doing a tighter shot of just the entry if it’s especially attractive.
• De-emphasize the garage.  By the same token, most garage doors are not attractive, and these days they are so big that they can truly dominate the front of a home.  The same goes for driveways.  When this is the case, try to shoot from an angle opposite the garage.  This will cause it to look smaller in the frame and eliminate some of the driveway at the same time.
• Try to avoid utility poles and power-lines.  In this case, there really is no substitute for a really wide angle lens that will allow you to step beyond these obstacles and avoid them altogether.
• Consider a twilight shot.  This is especially good for homes with a lot of windows up front.  Get yourself an inexpensive tripod (approximately $15) and set up to shoot during the time after the sun goes down and before the sky turns black.  Have all the lights in the home turned on and set your camera on “Night Portrait” mode for starters.  (This might require some experimentation.  All cameras are different, but if you have questions, call me and I’ll help you figure out how to do this with your specific model.)  The result can be stunning, especially if you’re fortunate enough to have a beautiful puple or deep red sky!
• Remember the clouds.  In general, bright cloudless skies have two drawbacks:  the light from the sun is unfiltered and can be harsher, and they’re just plain boring.  Take advantage of days with puffy white clouds to make photographs that are far more memorable.
• Re-shoot with the season.  If you listed a home in January and it’s still on the market in a couple of weeks when everything is green and blooming, go back for a new shot.  It’s the right thing to do!

That’s it for now.  I hope you’ll find one or more of these tips to be helpful as we enter the listing season.  Next time I’ll tell you how you can very easily make the rooms in your listing seem much more spacious and natural feeling by doing one small thing that costs nothing and takes no time.  In the meantime, here are a few examples of exterior photographs made using the tips above:

Shooting a north-facing home under slightly overcast skies...

Focusing on the entry...

Shooting from an angle opposite the garage...

Shooting at twilight...