By Jane Berger

I spent several years living in the New Orleans area, my husband’s home town.  That is, until Katrina was kind enough to swoop in and provide us with the opportunity to clean house, so to speak, and move north.

Now more than six years later, we find ourselves in the market for a small condo as a second home back in the land of rod iron filigree, Mardi Gras, and gumbo.  L’aissez les bon temps roullez!    

Reviewing condos on-line has been an interesting experience.  All I can say is that their real estate photographers must have moved on with Katrina’s winds. 

I’ve been shooting residential properties for well over a year now, and I know pretty well how to enhance a room to make it more attractive to the buyer – both during the shoot and, fortunately for my clients, in post production.  I can also tell when an image has been taken with a point and shoot camera without any thought for lighting, exposure and composition.  Granted I am a professional photographer, and I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most people can tell the difference too.

So what we’re selling here is comfort, love, warmth, stability and security – a safe place to just be.  And that’s what we want the images to convey.  You all know that to prep a home to maximize its sellability, it’s best to turn on the lights, clear the clutter and perhaps bring in a professional stager.  What I know is that the need to adjust the exposure, the ISO, the aperture, and the metering for each shot is constant, and my clients will tell you that I take not one picture of each scenario, but several so that I get the cleanest, warmest, loveliest image to use in the virtual tour.  If by chance I didn’t get it right in the camera, which can happen with the contrast in lighting inevitable in every home, I have professional image editing software to help.  I can lighten the outside of the house where there’s shade, make grass greener, and skies bluer.  And I’m only naming a few enhancements here . . . after all, a photographer has to have some secrets.         

Should you hire a professional photographer to shoot your properties?  Only you can answer that.  But with our world now, on-line and attention spans shorter than they’ve ever been, and that first impression can mean the difference between making the sale and not making the sale.  Which is right for you? 

 Jane Berger is a professional photographer residing in Scarborough, Maine.  You may have seen her at several RE/MAX events with camera in hand.  To view Jane Berger’s photos, please go to http://www.janebergerphotography.com.