Look closely at Bill's monitor and you can figure out what blog he's reading….

Is this not absolutely the worst "Photoshop job" you've ever seen? Proof positive that we don't touch up our listing photos!

We can and do however crop photos, correct tilt, contrast and other such stuff. Thanks in part to some sage advice provided by Athol Kay and his Six Seven Rules of Good Real Estate Photos (and more importantly, our desire to never be featured in his Bad MLS Photo series!), I've become much more skilled at minor photo enhancement. We're talking very easy stuff here folks, for I am graphically challenged. I use an Open Source program called Paint.Net — it's not Photoshop, but it's remarkably powerful and WAY cheaper than Photoshop.

Look at what simple cropping can do. With Paint.net, you drag a box across where you want to crop, click "Image" in the menu and select "Crop to Selection". Wha-la! You've just become the Michelangelo of digital photography:

Raw image of subdivision sign – taken from driver's side of Jeep, stopped at red light.

Note the lovely "framing" of the window and door with a hint of rear view mirror. A bus stop in the background. Not to mention you can hardly see the name on the sign.

Same image – cropped.

Not bad 'eh? Not only is the photo significantly better in all aspects, I didn't have to park, get out of the Jeep and step into the 108 degree sun.

I've really only learned two secrets of digital photography: 1) use the highest resolution your camera supports — it allows you to enlarge/shrink and crop at will; and 2) take a LOT of photos. You're not paying for film and development folks. Memory cards are cheap. Even a lousy photographer will get lucky sooner or later if they click the shutter frequently.

Thanks Athol.

[tags]Real Estate Photography[/tags]