Imobiliária

Selling Spaces

One thing that hasn’t really slowed down too much during the Covid-19 pandemic is the real estate market. Certainly here in Portugal, buying, selling, building and renting properties has continued. Some things have had to change of course, such as restrictions on viewings during the most severe phases of lockdown, but agents and brokers have adapted by making better use of media to provide a showcase of their listings to potential buyers and investors.

This of course brings me to the subject of real estate photography… 

Photography has been the mainstay for real estate marketing and with good reason. We are drawn to images of beautiful things. BUT, in a world where we are saturated with images everywhere, it is vital that the images you use to promote your property listings (and your brand) really stand out from the crowd. Lets look at some stats:

• 99% of Millennials are searching for their future property online where a listing with pictures is 10x more consulted.*

• Buyers spend 60% of their time looking at listing photos, and only 20% on the listing description.**

• Homes with high-quality photos receive a 47% higher asking price.*** Listings with professional photos get 118% more online visits.****

Simply put: Professional photography gets you and your listings noticed!

[* Digital Age Study ** Wall Street Journal *** Redfin **** National Association of Realtors]

Real Estate (RE) photography is quite a different genre compared to Architecture and interior design photography. Fundamentally, its pictures of buildings, but in reality, their purpose sets them apart. A set of RE images aim to communicate a summary of a property to a potential buyer, to provoke their interest in wanting to find out more, reach out to the vendor/agents and ultimately take the step of requesting a viewing. From the agents perspective, good images also help to qualify their prospects saving everyone time.

Photographically, there are some similarities in approach to creating images for RE vs architecture clients: Carefully considered compositions that tell the story and illustrate the layout and flow of the property is key. Using tripods and the right lenses to ensure good quality interior images, upright verticals and consistency across the image set. Some degree of post processing is also required. Typically for RE photography, a wider focal length is used to convey the size of each room and in order to comply with online listings websites, a horizontal/landscape orientation is favoured. Post processing RE images is a more light handed affair as the images must accurately reflect the property. However, dealing with mirrored bathrooms and high dynamic range challenges still requires a problem solving approach and pre-visualisation as well as a helping hand from Photoshop.

At Clear Space, we use our knowledge, experience and tools to help agents and vendors who understand the importance of quality imagery to promote their luxury listings through well crafted photographs. 

If you are a real estate agency looking to raise the bar of your listings, drop Clear Space a line to request a brochure and see how we can help you.

Memories

Documenting a historical residence in Cascais

As you’d expect, I love looking at pictures. I think most of us do, especially when they have a personal meaning such as old family photos or that painting grandma used to have above her fire place. Such pictures or photographs can instantly take us back to a different time in our lives which is pretty amazing. Most photographers would probably agree that for their images to evoke such personal memories and feelings for others is very gratifying. In my commercial photography work, there is typically a clear brief as to what we (myself and the client) want to create and how it will be used (for example, documenting a unique design element in a residential new-build for an architectural award submission).

Occasionally, the brief goes deeper as was the case in a recent residential shoot I was commissioned for. The owner of a large historic property was making plans to downsize but wanted to have a detailed record of the house they love as they remembered it. Besides it being a fantastic example of bold 70’s portuguese architecture in its own right, it was also packed with antiques, furniture and decorative pieces collected over many years, and a wonderful fireplace at the heart of the home.

On the day of the shoot I was given freedom to navigate the house to my schedule which meant I could select the best time of day for the interiors and sneak in a few twilight images featuring that wonderful fireplace. I was fortunate to have an overcast day (rare in Lisbon!) with a beautiful soft light filling the property and I opted to stick to this natural light only to document the details with as much realism as possible. Also, no staging or moving things about - This was all about capturing the space as it is/was. Pretty much all the images in the set were taken with either a 24mm Tilt-shift or 50mm. A simple set up and a joy to shoot. Most importantly, a very happy client who now has a set of images that can transport them back to a different time and place.

Please get in touch if you would like to record memories of a place that is special to you or someone you know.