Picture-Perfect. Or is it?

The camera comes out, yes, the lighting is perfect, and you are ready to take your "after" photos. You peer into the lens, zoom in, zoom out, wait; something is wrong, "move the clock a little to the left" you say to your helper, "no, no good, move it all the way to the right - on an angle, facing the bed", "no, that's not good either".

Unless you are a professional photographer, or can afford to hire one - when using a conventional camera (even one with a wide-angle lens), accessories will make the room look messy and un-model like in photos. The beautiful branches in the vase with the willows look like a bad hairdo on a stick and casts a scary shadow on the wall, the clock and the photo frame make the nightstand look way over crowded. But it all looks so perfect and so well put together when you were not behind the camera.

The lesson learned here (which took us hours of moving things around), is that there are two phases or stages to staging; one phase for the photo shoot where less works best and the second phase - for the client and potential buyers where the accessories should go back to the places originally chosen for them. Art on the walls look great from in front of and behind the camera. Make sure they are placed at the appropriate height, in proper proportion to each other and are not giving off a reflective glare. And about hanging pictures...