Yesterday I received a call from a company that wanted me to photograph one of their client’s properties in Medellin. It turned out to be quite beautiful and the owners were very nice people.
Their spacious 3-bedroom apartment is available for rent and they’re also considering selling it – if the price is right.
Because they are considering selling the apartment, they made an appointment with one of the more reputable Colombian real estate companies in Medellin.
The owners told me that they liked the way that I worked and said that they would recommend me to the local agency to take their photos, if they decided to work with them.
I was flattered and grateful.
Later that day I received a personal message from the owner. Here it is:
Joel,
Just a follow up from yesterday. The other agency arrived, one with the realtor and another woman. When I queried what the other woman was there for she was to take the photographs. As we were meant to be deciding whether or not to list through them it was a little presumptuous on their part. The lady then pulled out a cheap compact camera and started taking photos. It was a point and shoot.
I pointed out that we wanted to work with an agency who took professional photographs and the agent responded that the other women had been on \’several\’ courses. At this point I asked her to stop taking photographs and that would only work with an agency that had a professional photographer. I was assured that I would get to see the photos before they were published. I assured them that if they were taken on a point and shoot, without any lighting or tripod I would reject them. I suggested that we would like to consider using you and would pay any difference. They had heard of you. Much shaking of heads.
That ended the photo part of the meeting. They didn\’t want to estimate a price until I pushed them into giving a number. I asked them what their expectation would be in the amount of time needed to sell at that price. They said \’up to a year\’.
At that point I asked them to leave.
Regards,
xyz
This experience may have shocked to the owners, but it is exactly what I expected.
Most colombian real estate agencies still don’t use professional real estate photography in their listings. One of the main reasons is that they don’t see the value in investing in pro photos. The ROI just isn’t there.
Why is that?
Well, the real estate market here isn’t like it is back in North America and Europe. Out here in Medellin it is the Wild Wild West – or should I say South.
If you see a property for rent or sale here, you won’t see just one agency’s sign in the windows. No – you’ll probably see anywhere from 2-6 agencies’ phone numbers stuck to the windows. There is generally no exclusive listing. The concept doesn’t exist.
I am not sure who is more to blame, the agencies or the property owners. The owners try to get their properties in front of as many potential renters/buyers as possible, so they list them with as many agencies as possible. This is a double-edged sword.
On one hand, they will have more agencies working for them, but on the other hand, less attention will be given to their property by each agency.
The agents show up, write down the property details, snap a few photos, list the property on their websites, and move on to the next one. Instead of being a real proactive real estate agency (a property marketing company per say), they serve more as a passive listing service.
To make things worse, they don’t invest in photos because they know that other agencies will find the photos and use them on their own listings. Hence they would be paying for photos that other companies would use to market the same properties they are selling.
This is the conundrum! Agencies are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
So what do I recommend? There are only two real solutions to this problem.
The obvious – Owners should stop listing with multiple agencies and offer exclusivity to one good agency.
Or the alternative – Agencies can use watermarks with their company logos, website addresses or phone numbers. This would deter other agencies from stealing photos.
Have you had a negative or positive experience with a Colombian real estate agency? Tell us about your experience in a comment below.
Being a real estate photographer in Colombia hasn’t been and still isn’t the easiest job.
Real Estate Photography in Medellin Colombia
Just four years ago I couldn’t even give away a free photo session to real estate agents and property managers here in Medellin.
I’m not kidding – I literally printed out and distributed over 200 flyers saying “Our professional real estate photos will help you sell and rent your properties faster. Don’t believe it, we’ll even photograph your first property for FREE”.
But guess how many people contacted me? A big fat ZERO! Not one person took advantage of the free, no commitment photo shoot offer. It just didn’t make any sense to me.
Taking a step back to 2012
I arrived in Medellin in 2011 and started my photography business in early 2012. Although back then I offered my photography services to just about anyone willing to pay a decent rate, I saw an obvious opportunity in real estate photography.
Searching online for furnished rental apartments, I found tons of written listings but virtually no listings that showed me what the properties actually looked like. Even the best listings were generally accompanied by a small sampling of blurry, low resolution camera-phone photos.
Whenever I asked about fashion, wedding or product photographers, everyone knew someone or had a friend who was a photographer. However, no one knew the name of a single photographer specializing in properties. Naturally, I thought – ‘there must be a shortage of photographers doing real estate photography in Medellin‘.
I decided to be the saviour of the struggling agents and property owners.
I would be the first photographer to offer professional real estate photography in Medellin. I was about to change the game…
Or so I thought.
Targeting Luxury Real Estate Agents
Although I am a photographer, my formal education and employment background is in strategic marketing. I knew that before offering my photography services I had to be very clear about who my target market was.
Based on the average property rental and sales prices in Medellin, I determined that I would target people who were offering luxury properties. Why? Well, because this market was big enough and could clearly afford and benefit from my professional photos in their listings.
I did a search for luxury properties in Medellin and found several agencies and independent agents who only offered high priced properties in their portfolios. I contacted a handful of them by email and got a response from one who agreed to a meeting with me later that day.
I was happier than a butcher’s dog. I was actually about to get my first Colombian client.
I showed up early with my portfolio loaded on my laptop and my printed FREE photo session flyer as an unexpected bonus for the agent. I was ready to rock… except… she never showed up. After 4o minutes waiting in the coffee shop I decided to call her. She answered and the first words that came out of her mouth were “Que pena con usted”, a response that is usually followed by an excuse you don’t want to hear. She said that she had an ‘inconvenience’, so she couldn’t make it anymore. To add salt to my wounds she ended off by saying “My son has a nice camera and he can take my photos anyways, but thank you.”
In short, she flaked on our meeting and then less than gently declined my services. I don’t think that she actually ever planned on showing up to our meeting. It was my first experience with what I later realised is very common in Medellin culture – they have a hard time just saying no.
The Real Estate Photographer In Medellin Colombia – Switching to the foreign owned real estate companies
I decided to take a different approach – Target foreigners with properties in Medellin.
My Google search in english for ‘Rent furnished apartments in Medellin‘ returned two main companies – The Apartment Medellin and First American Realty Medellin – both of whom are my clients today.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
I sent emails to both companies offering my photography services and the owner of The Apartment Medellin responded to me in less than 15 minutes. We set up a lunch meeting for the following day, and unlike the Colombian real estate agent, he showed up – before I did.
We discussed the terms and prices and a few days later I shot my first furnished apartment in the city. As the months went by, I continued photographing for The Apartment Medellin and managed to pick up a few smaller agencies as my portfolio flourished.
I cannot say that all of the foreign agents readily accepted my services. As a matter of fact, I wrote some of them about 5 times each and many either never responded or said they weren’t interested. One in particular, who’s company name I won’t reveal said “Sorry but I am more interested in money coming in not going out“.
With that being said, my client list of colombian companies also remained quite unimpressive.
So why were no colombian companies taking my services?
Probably for the same reason why there were no other interior photographers in Medellin – they didn’t see the value in paying for photos.
Although Medellin has changed dramatically over the past two decades, and was even given the title ‘Most Innovative City in the World’, it still has a very small town, stuck in its own ways thing about it.
The marketing of properties is virtually non-existent. Colombian companies continue to operate like they did some 10-30 years ago. Most business is done out of a physical office where customers go in to speak with an agent who verbally describes the properties that they have for rent.
Jumping forward a few years to 2016
So here I am today (4 years later) photographing for every top foreign-owned real estate company in the city – AirBnB, The Apartment Medellin, First American Realty, Casa Col, Suite Medellin, and a some others. I have also started getting some interest from Colombian companies, but mainly interior designers and architects trying to build their portfolios.
So what’s changed? Why am I getting real estate photography jobs now.
Competition – that’s what’s changed. The competition in the real estate sales and rental market has really heated up in Colombia. With the appreciation of the US Dollar relative to the Colombian peso, more foreigners are visiting the country and spending on real estate. What that implies is that there are more companies fighting for this profitable market.
As in most markets with increasing competition, companies have to increase their spending on marketing to cut through the clutter and attract customers from their competitors. Well…luckily I am still here helping to cut clutter.
I am certain that more competition is also coming my way in the form of other photographers trying to get into real estate photography market. It’s only natural and I welcome it with open arms. My plan isn’t to sit back, but rather to push the limits of my creativity and continue improving the quality of my work.
My goal is to be the best real estate photographer in Colombia, and one of the best in the world.
Those are BIG words – I know. I am happy to make this big declaration here because now there is no looking back. It’s in writing!
Looking for professional real estate photography tips that you can put to use today? Read On!
“Wow, great photo. You must have a nice camera” – How many times have you heard someone say this? Perhaps you’re guilty of it yourself.
Many people think that the secret to professional real estate photography is owning a ‘nice camera’. As a matter of fact, many assume that having a nice camera guarantees capturing nice photos in general.
We all know that a ‘nice camera’ also comes at a pretty nice penny. However, the reality is that you’ll need more than a bank-breaking piece of equipment to take professional looking interior photos.
A good starting point for any photographer pursuing real estate photography would be to follow the fundamental interior photography tips – or at least be aware of them.
Over the years I have had several ah-ha moments while photographing properties. Every time I had one of these profound moments I would see a significant improvement in the quality and professionalism of my photos the very next day.
Most of the corrections that I’ve made now seem so obvious in hindsight, but as they say, ‘hindsight is always 20/20’. Hopefully by following these 5 fundamental real estate photography tips you can fast track your way to taking more professional interior photos.
1) Gearing Up For Success – Using the right tools
Ok, so I just started off by saying that it will take more than just a pricey camera to take great interior real estate photos, yet my very first tip has to do with choosing a camera.
But don’t judge just yet….keep reading!
Although you don’t need the latest and greatest camera on the market, you do need a reliable camera with some basic features.
The Camera: For starters, I highly recommend using a DSLR camera (digital single-lens reflex) in Manual mode. Using a DSLR in Manual Mode will allow you to control the exposure, depth of field, and ISO of your photos.
In simple non-photography terms, you will be able to control the amount of light you give to your photos and determine which things stays in and out of focus.
My Current Camera – Nikon’s D7100
Another feature that I find really useful to have is the auto/exposure bracketing function. Not all cameras offer this feature, so if you are considering purchasing a camera with the purpose of pursuing interior photography, be sure to check if it offers ‘auto-bracketing’.
Exposure Bracketing allows you to take 3 or more photos of the scene at different exposures. Originally the function was used as a fail-safe of sorts. You could take several photos and choose the one with the best exposure.
Where real estate photography is concerned, taking a bracket of photos is very beneficial when it comes time to edit. For example, taking a photo of a kitchen at 3 different exposures will give you one photo with relatively balanced light, another overexposed (a lot of light), and a third underexposed (too little light).
When you’re editing the photo of the kitchen in Photoshop or Lightroom, you can use the balanced photo as a base and the other two photos as layers to correct under and over exposed areas.
The Lens: I use a 10-20mm Sigma wide angle lens and a 35mm Nikon prime lens. The wide angle lens is necessary for taking shots of very small spaces and for showing an entire room in a single photo.
The Nikon 35mm price lens is my go-to lens for close ups and when I am photographing wider spaces that don’t require a wide angle. As a matter of fact, I prefer using this lens over the 10-20mm when space permits. The reason is that it produces less barreling and lens distortion than the wide angle lens.
The Tripod: The use of a stable tripod is absolutely necessary for taking crisp professional-looking interior photographs.
MORE STABILITY = LESS SHAKE = SHARPER PICTURES
In general, the more stable your camera is, the sharper your photos will look. Lighting can be very limited when photographing a property. Some rooms have very limited natural light entering from the windows, so shooting with a tripod is essential.
Mounting your camera on a tripod will allow you to use long shutter speeds that would be otherwise impossible if you were shooting handheld.
A Remote Shutter Release: These little gadgets are extremely affordable and will help you to take sharper images with less camera shake. The more expensive versions are wireless and allow you to fire your camera from far distances. However, I have been using a wired $26.00 Nikon MC-DC2 Remote Release Cord for years now with zero complaints. Additional Lighting: Although I am a fan of natural lighting, using supplementary artificial lighting is sometimes necessary. I recommend having at least one flash unit that you can use off-camera to bounce light off of adjacent walls. Did I lose you there? If you want to learn more about this technique, I will be doing a follow up post shortly to delve deeper into lighting a room with off camera flashes.
2) Straighten Up – Keep Those Vertical Lines Vertical
Looking back at my early interior photos, I literally feel nauseous and outright embarrassed to claim them as my work.
Most of the photos have what I call ‘drunken walls’. That’s when the vertical lines in the room look like they chugged down a litre of vodka and are fighting for dear life not to topple over.
The first and biggest change in my photos came about when I realized that I could position my body and the camera to make sure that the vertical lines in a room all stayed straight.
Although I regrettably don’t own a tilt-shift lens which does most of the straightening for the photographer, I have developed my own technique for keeping things straight when I photograph. This is when that stable tripod that I recommended will come in handy.
Remember to Act Like A Child: A key to keeping lines straight is the perspective from which you take the photo. If you flip through an interior design magazine you will notice that the majority of photos are taken from a lower position – as if the photographer was in a crouched position.
I am 6’0 ft tall and my camera is normally mounted at about my lower chest level – approximately 4 feet off the ground. By lowering your camera to this level (and sometimes even lower) you will notice that the vertical lines in the room begin to straighten out a bit. Take your interior shots from a child’s perspective!
The second step is to look at the vertical lines at the extreme left and right of your frame. If your tripod allows rotation in all angles (vertically, horizontally and diagonally) you will be able to manually straighten out the vertical lines in your frame by tilting the camera until the lines at the extremities are vertical.
Note: Depending on the lens you are using, it may be impossible to take a photo where all of the lines are perfectly vertical. For example, using a wide angle lens will most likely cause what is called ‘barrelling’ or ‘lens distortion’. This is when the vertical lines begin to curve inwards like the shape of a barrel. The smaller the room, the more visible the bending of the vertical lines will be. Here is a little video I made to show you how to edit bent and curved lines inPhotoshop.
3) Keep It Clean – Declutter Because More is Less
Have you ever heard someone say that a good photo is more about what’s excluded from it and not what’s included in it?
The first time I heard this I thought that the photographer was trying to sound deep and philosophical, but now I completely agree with him – especially where interior photography is concerned.
A good interior photo should tell an interesting story. The objects in a room all add to that story and help to create a desired ambience. However, those very objects can distract from the story and interrupt the viewer’s flow – sort of like when a writer throws in those big unpronounceable words that we’ve never seen before.
The key is to not crowd your photo with distracting objects that don’t add to your story.
Remember if something in your photo is distracting to you, it will most likely be distracting to viewers. So don’t be afraid to move things around or take them completely out of the room if they don’t add benefit.
Sometimes you will find heavy pieces of furniture or fragile decorations that you just can’t take out of the room. In that case, you will have to move yourself. By changing your perspective and angle, you can virtually eliminate or minimize how much attention a particular object gets in your photo.
4) Timing is Everything – Play nice with the Sun
Assuming that you aren’t a master of artificial lighting just yet, you will need to make the best use of natural sunlight.
As with most types of photography, shooting at or around sunrise and sunset will produce the best results for interior photography. If you are going to schedule a photo session make sure you use these timeframes to your advantage.
So why is it easier to photograph during these hours?
At first, I used to photograph properties at all odd hours of day – sometimes even at high noon. The problem is that my photos would always suffer from big disturbing shadows or completely white, blown out windows. I was in a constant battle with the sun.
When you take a photograph you set your exposure for your subject. If you were taking a portrait photo, you would set your exposure for the person’s face. In interior photography you set the expose for the room. However, you also have to take the sun’s light into consideration.
I had one of those Ah-Ha moments when I decided that I would stop fighting with the sun and make nice by following its schedule.
If you photograph when the sun is really bright, too much light enters the windows and they appear white and blown out. If you photograph when there is no sunlight the windows begin to reflect the interior lights and everything else in the room.
When you take a photo during the magic hours as they are called, you can achieve more balance between the light provided by the sun and the internal lighting of the property.
5) Shoot towards the corners & watch your depth of field
When photographing a room, try aiming towards the corners where two walls meet. This helps to add more depth and perspective to your photos. It will look more three dimensional and less flat and boring.
Speaking of depth….
You now have your camera mounted on a tripod, shooting from a child’s perspective during the magic hour, and aiming towards the corners of the room. Now what is a good aperture to set your camera to?
I set my camera’s aperture (depth of field) to F11 for most residential interior photos. At this depth of field, most of the furniture and decoration in room stays sharp and in focus. I will sometimes set my aperture to F4 when I want to focus on a specific feature/fixture in a room and have everything else slightly out of focus.
A BONUS TO THE OTHER 5 REAL ESTATE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS – Be Creative
Even as you follow these interior photography tips, it’s important to let your creativity roam. Photography is an art and such calls for your own creativity in each situation. No two spaces are the same. Approach each from a unique angle. Play around with different light settings, different apertures, and different object arrangements until you achieve the best shot.
