Do you need to take on a professional interiors photographer to help market your property?
We have all noticed the trend towards do-it-yourself digital marketing as we are constantly bombarded by tech companies who can sell your widgets to the highest bidder. Here the question is, do you need professional interiors photography help you to market your property?
More people are realising that they can market their property for themselves without using the traditional estate agent. They wish to avoid those marketing fees.
Of course, there are disadvantages to this if you own a well-appointed property as phone images would not really show your property at its best.
This is where hiring a professional interiors photographer can really save the day.
I was recently commissioned by a property developer who wanted to sell her own home. She was very particular about how the house was to be presented. A large investment of time and effort went into making it look exactly right.
She could see the advantage that professional interiors photography would bring the best sale price. It was considered that this was a worthwhile investment.
Things to focus on
Of course, you need to think about dressing the property. The minimum requirement would be to have a good tidy up. There are certain areas where this is a necessity such as the kitchen and bathroom.
If you wish to show that the property is really loved, then you should bring in some fresh flowers and set out some fresh ingredients in the kitchen. Also consider whether there is a need to freshen things up with a little decorating.
Some people go even further by enlisting the help of a professional dresser. They know the way to make the best of any property and will be able to hire in furniture or artwork to make the property look amazing.
It is up to you to decide what would be best for your property, if there is value invested you may wish to take things further. It could make all the difference to the final sale price.
Are you in a position where you would like to do-it-yourself? If you wish to enlist professional help, please contact me to see how I can help.
The world of work has changed forever. Companies are no longer expecting their work force to attend the office every day. The move to working from home is now well established. This means that businesses will need to rethink how they use their office space.
The solution for a mental health charity
Directors of a mental health charity were commissioning a review of their office use when the pandemic struck. This gave them a great opportunity to rethink how their office space was used. It could be designed to be ready for future work patterns.
As less staff would be in every day. There can be more emphasis on break out spaces including more private areas for meetings. They also wanted to include soundproofed booths for private conversations with their clients.
With consultation with their preferred supplier they set out plans to make this a reality.
The developers perspective for the rethought office space
Once the work was completed Pi Sq, the developer decided that this prestigious project should feature in their marketing and wished to commission a professional photographer.
Based in the Midlands, Pi Sq found that their normal photographer was unavailable to work in London.
A recommendation was requested for someone they trusted to carry out the work. This is where a network of fellow creatives comes to the fore. Kevin reached out amongst his peer group and as this was my specialist area I responded to the request.
The client was delighted that someone could help and enlisted my services.
Breakdown of the shoot
Acting on the brief I needed to feature every area of the office as the whole area had been refurbished. Special interest was to be placed on the soft furnishings and the two directors offices. Breakout areas were also of importance.
Looking at previous shoots for the company made me realise that my bright and airy style was perfect for their requirements.
As usual my method of working is to use the available light in the office but to make multiple exposures of the scene and blend the images together later. This negates the use of bulky lighting equipment which would lengthen time on site and could produce hotspots in any of the glass present.
I prefer this way of working as I believe it produces a more natural look to the images.
Post production methods
My usual way of working is to import the raw files into Adobe Lightroom for initial blending and exposure tweaks. Particular attention is placed on making everything look natural, ensuring that there is detail in all shadow areas and that highlights are not overexposed.
Contrast is also adjusted and colour balance checked. With interior photography colour is very important as colours are often specified and the client requires them to be correct.
Final adjustments are made in Photoshop which may include removing some objects that should not be there or duplicating and added those that should be. I have in the past added missing heating elements from patio heaters.
Results
For me this was a dream job as it is what I do best. The client was delighted and that is very important to me as I would not wish to let down a fellow photographer who recommended me for the job.
Final thoughts
The finished offices look stunning and the charity now has a fantastic space that fits in with modern office life post pandemic. They are so pleased that they had a rethink on their office usage and now have some future proofing built in to the design.
I just love working with new interior design clients. Perhaps it is down to how much I can help them with their marketing images. My latest project is for Alessandra Garcia of Orsetto Interiors. She hails from El Salvador and now has established a practice in SW London.
Background to the interiors shoot
I met Alessandra through the power of business networking. This was a chance meeting. All because a networking colleague persuaded me to visit another group. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and she just happened to be searching for a specialist interiors photographer.
Alessandra has been developing her website for a while. Her problem was that not having completed a project meant that she had nothing to show the world.
Now that she has a finished project, it was full steam ahead for the photography. The day was set and Alessandra arrived early to dress the property. This is so important for the designer as they wish to show the interior as it was intended. You do not want so much everyday clutter on display.
Of course, the property needs to look lived in too.
The brief
Fortunately, Alessandra loved my style of interior design photography and the brief reflected this. Alessandra wanted the look of the property to be bright and airy. This was easy to achieve here because there were skylights installed, bringing an abundance of natural light into the space.
The interiors shoot
Arriving at the location, the first thing to do is to gain an overview of the property. It is important to be clear about what is required and which rooms to shoot.
This forms the basis of the shot list and gives the order of shooting. Alessandra also wanted some shots of herself in the property too.
As the light levels were so good in the property the photography was easier for this shoot. I still went through my usual routine of taking a number of exposures with the aim of blending in post-production.
This gives the opportunity to fine-tune the ambience for the property, just as the designer intended. As usual, I bring some emphasis to the details so that the client has plenty of choice of images.
It is really important to provide a whole set of images for the client. Some wider shots to be used as hero images, some closeup for detail and others with space for the copy too.
am always aware of the multifunctional nature of the images as they may be used for social media as well as the website. Some even wish to produce brochures as well.
Thoughts about post-production
While on-site you need to think about post-production later. You need a good range of images with varying exposures so that everything is captured. The skill is then to form a perfect blend to give the effect required. This has to look natural too as there are many images around that look completely false, often with garish colours.
Of course, post-production is completely necessary as you need to compensate for the limitations of the camera to capture everything. Our brains are remarkable in how they process information. This is something that even in these technological times still remains elusive for the camera manufacturers.
The results
Alessandra was so excited about this shoot as this was to key to unlocking her interior design business. She was delighted with the results. So much so, She has already recommended me to another designer who will require a similar shoot too.
There is an adage when it comes to the retail environment. “Retail is detail”, which was attributed to James Gulliver, the head of Fine Fare/ Safeway in the ’70s. This was very important when I was recently asked to help with some marketing photography for an upgraded farm shop within a local garden centre.
Background
This is very true when my client took advantage of the recent lockdowns. Their circumstances changed when Edinburgh Woollen Mill closed their outlet within the building. The extra space allowed them to relocate their successful farm shop into the main premises.
This gave me the chance to help them with their marketing photography. They needed to inform their clients of this change.
Kat, the marketing lady, wanted to emphasise that the farm shop had nearly doubled in size. She was excited to announce that their popular ‘cook’ range of frozen dinners had been expanded to eight freezers from the original four.
The brief
The brief was therefore aimed at showing the overview of the space. They wanted to show the context of its position within the rest of the shop.
There was a definite need to show the details such as the vegetable displays, the refillable cereal containers and the expanded range of wines. They particularly wanted to emphasise the range of locally sourced produce, as clients are more aware of reducing food miles.
Kat was also very keen to show that they were operating in a more sustainable manner. Kat wanted to show that they were serious about a reduction in the use of packaging and that this packaging was environmentally friendly.
Of course, when it comes to this kind of marketing photography you need to allow time to capture everything. The shop was open and the staff were still stocking up. Patience was the order of the day.
The premises were well lit so it was possible to get a lot of the shots in one take. However, some shots with differing exposures were merged later to create the appropriate ambience.
Kat was delighted with the results, and this allowed her to take out a full-page advertisement in a local magazine.
If you have updated your offering I would love to be able to help you to publicise this for your valued clients.
Please contact me to arrange a consultation regarding marketing photography or to book a shoot.
Many of you are aware that I specialise in residential interior photography however, you may not know that I also cover commercial interiors too.
Introduction
Recently I have undertaken a commercial interiors shoot for a construction company tasked with re-furbishing serviced offices for Regus. The purpose of this shoot was to complete a case study and other marketing material.
Follow the brief
It is of the utmost importance to work to the clients brief when undertaking this sort of work. You need to know what is important to them and how they want the finished set of shots to look.
Of course, the brief for this shoot was particularly exacting with annotated building plans supplied. Care needed to be taken as some of the rooms had been refurbished previously.
The challenges
One challenging area was to capture the foyer as it was a large space that occupied the full height of the building.
A specialist tilt shift lens came to the fore here. I could utilise the movement available to take a number of images covering each area of the space. The images were then stitched and blended later in post-production.
Of course you need to think outside the box on occasion as you are not in complete control of the situation.
On this shoot I had to rely on the office manager to gain access to certain areas. He was of course very busy, so a degree of patience was required.
You are also reliant on the British weather while working outside. In this particular case it was pouring with rain all morning and there was a requirement to capture the front of the building as well as the HVAC on the roof.
Of course, I had some appropriate clothing, and the camera is well waterproofed. The problem is ensuring rain does not get on the lens as this can cause problems.
I would love to hear from you
If your company has a need for some commercial interiors’ photography, I would love to hear from you.
I love those more interesting shoots – something that is completely different. Recently I received a commission for some interiors photography for a company that was diversifying into the Smart Home sector.
Background
ACC Haus is an offshoot of ACC (Application Centric Computing) Ltd. The company is headed up by Jeff Jones.
Jeff is an IT pioneer specialising in technical product development and has over 100 press awards under his belt.
In 2015 Jeff decided to completely refurbish his 1920’s built home. He particularly wanted to take advantage of the latest in Smart Home technology.
He decided to make the property as energy efficient as possible. Also important were effective control and monitoring solutions.
Before deciding to start work Jeff initially conducted a full review of the smart building market. He decided to work with some industry-leading partners. Smart control systems were designed which could be accessed from multiple devices. This ranged from a PC down to a mobile device.
The technology
At the heart of the project are the latest innovations in space heating , control systems and security. The concept is more appealing as everything had minimalism in mind.
Initially, the existing gas fired boiler and radiators were removed. They were replaced with an internal air source heat pump to boost hot water. Secondly, far-infrared (FIR) heat panels were introduced.
These are designed to be heated to around 100 degrees C and produce long wavelength infrared. This energy is only absorbed by matter. This means that heat is not wasted by warming the air in the building.
Allergy sufferers find that dust is less of a problem as no convection air currents are set up.
The panels are fitted to the ceilings where they take up less space and one was also incorporated into the bathroom mirror.
As a back up, there is an efficient wood burning facility built into the property. This is in case of extreme temperatures or power cuts.
Solar panels generate most of the power used by the system even in winter. The unusual thing about the panels were that they were inset into the roof, rather than attached to it, saving on roof tiles
Monitoring the property
ACC devised the control systems present in every room where monitoring devices are built into what seem to be simple light switches.
These are high tech control and sensing devices monitoring temperature. They can detect whether someone is present in the room. This can be advantageous as devices can be set to switch off automatically.
Each room can have the temperature controlled separately. Lighting presets can also be set. Music can be piped to each room according to individual tastes.
Security is built into the system as CCTV cameras are installed which can be viewed remotely.
It turned out to be a very interesting to conduct an interiors photography shoot for a smart home. Definitely a view on the future.
