A win down under
Over the years, we’ve advocated for better photography and standards in the real estate industry by outlining how to find quality professionals for photographing listings to taking multiple listing systems to task for poor standards. Each month, we highlight the Photography for Real Estate global photograph contest that features the “Best of the Best” in an effort to elevate expectations of real estate professionals on photographers. The contest is voted on by real estate photographers based on a theme and submissions sent to the PFRE Flickr pool.
We share these winners not only to introduce you to real estate photographers in your area that you should know, but to insist that the first impression all buyers get is now the lead MLS photo, so we endorse high quality photography for the industry as a means of raising the bar. Many agents take their own photos and they’re not all bad, but we want to see higher quality images like the one above which is ultimately why we share the “Best of the Best” with you, so you have an idea of what you’re looking for when you hire a photographer (plus, we encourage you to reach out to the winner if they are in your city).
This month’s winner is Mike Leyland in Cairns, Australia. This month’s theme was “master baths,” with the winning image featured above.
Regarding the winning image, Leyland said, “The house was a nominee for the HIA (Housing Industry Association) awards and had pretty awesome views. The bath was one of the numerous places from where you had clear views to Cairns CBD and out to sea. I tried a shot much closer to the bath to emphasize the view, but with such a big window, I struggled to deal with the amount of light and the glare from the bath. Coming back into the bathroom overcame the issue and, as it turned out, gave a much better composition without completely losing the view. The dark tiles were a real light-stealer and I ended up with the opposite problem and needed plenty of light to get the shot without blowing out the bath. On the plus side, at 1/80th at F8, I could get away with 2 exposures – one for inside and one for outside and the reflection in the far mirror – and still keep the frames sharp when the view was masked in during post. This was shot with a D90 and Sigma 10-20mm lens. For the inside exposure, I used a speedlight on-camera and a second flash around the corner to the right.”
To see more quality real estate photography, check out the submissions from the PFRE Flickr Pool.
