Kay Carlson

Yesterday was the 21st Annual Neiman Marcus/Adolphus Children's Parade, held in the streets of downtown Dallas. For the second year, my assistant Joseph was up very early in the morning to serve as a "Giant Inflatable Handler" Ebby Halliday has sponsored a balloon for several years now, and Joseph first volunteered last year when he was working on the office side of Ebby, as an Advertising Coordinator for the Plano and Allen offices.

The parade, presented by Capital One, benefits Children’s Medical Center, and is Dallas’ largest outdoor event. Yesterday the crowd was estimated at 350,000.

Can you imagine 30 or so Realtors working together as a team?

Joseph sent me some pics....

Hi again everyone!

This is Kay's assistant, Joseph, with the #1 of my top 5 Tips to Better Photographs. But before I get to that, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about my background:

I am not a professional photographer, and have taken no formal photography courses (actually when I first started college I was going to major in Painting and Drawing with a minor in Philosophy...eventually got my B.A. in Psychology with Philosophy minor. I did grow up with photography, as my mother's father, Wyman Parr, opened a chain of camera stores in Dallas starting in the 1950's (Parr's Cameras). By the time he died, both my father (Martin Bros. Cameras) and mother (The Camera Store, Inc.) owned one of his stores. Times change and now the stores are all gone. But what I learned lives on in my photography......and a lot of what I have learned has been trial and error, and reading.

So don't think that what I know is the result of some specialized education. If I can improve my photography, so can you.

Ok, so without further adieu, here's my #1 Tip, and just like in retail they say success is all about "Location, Location, Location", my Number One Tip is....

Composition, Composition, Composition

Nothing makes your photos come alive more than a good composition. Composition directs our eyes and tells them what to look at. Bad composition leaves your pictures uninteresting to the eye. When I was taking art coursework many years ago, we were taught The Principles of Design. I won't explain every one of them, but they are:

Balance

Unity

Gradation

Repetition

Contrast

Harmony

Dominance

When I go to photograph a house, I first think of the lighting conditions and camera settings I'm likely to use. After that everything is about mentally noting how do I want to compose the shots., before I even look through the viewfinder. I look for angles and views that will create interest. I think too manny realtors I have known confuse staging with composition, but the truth is that a well staged house with poorly composed shots will look worse than a badly staged house well-composed.

I pride myself on the ability to work around almost anything people have in a house without having to move things around.....kid's toys, dog cages, cluttered desks. In this picture:

Just to the right of the picture were two huge dog cages. I'd always much rather move myself than objects, if at all possible. Call me lazy.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind in Composing Shots

1. Whether horizontally or vertically, do not divide the picture in exactly two equal halves...leave just a little more above or below the midpoint line. It may seem counter-intuitive, but putting the horizon above or below the midpoint will "feel" visually more solid and stable:

2. Look for unusual angles or views to create interest and make people look longer. We look longer at images that look less familiar:

3. Use perspective to create sense of space and height. I often shoot pictures with the camera about 2-3 feet off the ground, looking upward. Often for Master Baths, I shoot them at the level of the vanity:

4. Interest is often created in compositions by putting the main subject just slightly off-center, rather than perfectly centered, as long as you keep balance in the composition:

I could have shot this from directly in front of the mirror above the mantle, with the mantle in the center, and the chairs symmetrical on either side of the mantle; or with the huge window dead centered

I thought it would be more interesting to shoot with the small table just right of center, with the left side of the window acting as a counter-balance. The open space and low bar to the far left balances the high mirror to the right. Also notice the line of the floor is below the midline, and the horizon line is slightly above the midpoint.

Hopefully these Top 5 Tips have been helpful. I'll leave you with a couple of my personal photos from around McKinney, Texas:

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University has just released its 2008 Market reports for the 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA's) that make up Texas. The report covers the year 2007 and compares the market historically to previous years.

Among the statistics and charts is this one:

Notice:

1. Although apprciation fluctuates in Texas, it has much greater stability overall and remains more constant than in Texas overall, and is far far more stable than the rest of the United States.

2. None of the three lines drops into negative appreciation, so the question is....if you don't own your own home, and you are sitting worried about the values of your stocks and retirement accounts, why aren't you thinking of buying a house?

3. Real estate has overall been a relatively safe investment in DFW, in terms of increased home values (This should not be taken as advice for any person to immediately go buy investment houses....if you are thinking of buying multiple houses for investments, consult a REALTOR and individuals familiar with the ins and outs of residential real estate investing. The market isn't a "flip it and let's get rich" market anymore. There is money to be made, but there are still shirts to be lost.)

The full report can be found at:

http://recenter.tamu.edu/mreports/DallasFWArl.pdf

Joseph:

Hello again everyone. This is Kay's assistant, Joseph. In today's tip we will look at the third (and last) technical area of your camera equipment that a little knowledge about will serve you well:

!!!!!Lens Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Depth of Field!!!!!!

Lens Aperture

The aperture of a camera lens is the size of the opening that allows light through the lens to strike the film (or digital sensors) when the shutter opens. It is also called the f-stop, abbreviated f/. Every lens has a single, or multiple aperture settings. Almost all good compact digital cameras and SLR lenses have multiple aperture settings. In the days before digital, you turned a ring on the lens to change the aperture setting. Now most cameras have a button or thumbwheel you can use to change aperture settings (usually the camera has to be in Manual, or "A"-Aperture Priority Mode to make these changes).

Here is a picture showing the size of some common lens apertures:

!!!!!Yes, you are correct if you noticed SMALLER f/ NUMBERS MEAN LARGER APERTURE OPENINGS!!!!

So we call f/1.4 a LARGE APERTURE, and f/8 is a SMALL APERTURE! There are also f/11 and f/16 (very very small) apertures. It is cusomary to label a lens with the largest aperture opening the lens is capable of (remember that means the smallest f/ number). For example if your camera or lens says 55mm f/2.8, then it is a 55mm focal length lens (we talked about focal length in Tip 4) with a maximum aperture of f/2.8.

If you have a zoom lens, it will probably have two aperture numbers listed. This is because as the lens becomes longer, it restricts the maximum aperture the lens can have. For example, my Nikon 18-55mm lens has the following written around the front of the lens:

AF-S DX NIKKOR ED 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6

This means the lens is a 18-55mm focal length zoom lens with a maximum aperture of f/3.5 when the lens is at 18mm and a maximum aperture of f/5.6 when at 55mm. As a rule of thumb, if you want your lens to have a wider maximum aperture opening, be prepared to pay a lot more!!

Ok Joseph, But What Does This Mean to Me?

1. Shutter Speed:

Large apertures require less exposure time to get your picture. If you are shooting moving objects, then you need faster shutter speed to capture the image without blurring. Smaller apertures, because the let less light through, require longer exposures and slower shutter speeds. Now, for real estate photography, houses and furniture are not known for moving very fast, so you rarely have to worry about motion blur. BUT REMEMBER THAT AT SHUTTER SPEEDS UNDER ABOUT 1/60TH OF A SECOND YOU MAY ENCOUNTER CAMERA SHAKE IAND BLUR IF YOU ARE NOT USING A TRIPOD.

The exact shutter speed where camera shake depends on how steady your hands are and what focal length the lens is at. Telephoto lenses require faster shutter speeds to avoid camera shake and wider angle lenses can handle slower shutter speeds.

2. Depth of Field:

Depth of field is the name for the distance range area of your picture that will be in focus. This is directly related to the aperture setting. Large apertures, although they are great for letting a lot of light into the camera so you can use a faster shutter speed (good for low light shots) HAVE NARROW DEPTH OF FIELD.

This means that only a small range in front or behind the object you are focused on will be in focus. Any objects outside the depth of field will be blurry.

Smaller aperture settings, though they require longer exposures and thus slower shutter speeds, HAVE A WIDE DEPTH OF FIELD. This means much more of the picture will be in focus, even if you didn't exactly focus on the object you wanted.

It is easier to show all of this with a few pictures. I have called in a few members of my home office team to assist....

Here is the Home Office Team shot at 18mm f/11. The camera was focused on Tigger. No flash was used and the exposure time was...30 seconds! Yes, I used a tripod. Notice at f/11 how pretty much everything from Mickey to the chair is pretty much in focus. That is the depth of field.

Again I left the lens at 18mm but used a flash, which sets the shutter speed at 1/60th of a second. The aperture was set at f/3.5. I focused again on Mickey's face. Notice at f/3.5 how now Tigger is no longer in focus, even though he is only 18 inches behind Mickey. This is a narrow depth of field.

Now I zoom to 55mm, set the lens aperture to f11, which results in a 9 second exposure (tripod in use). The camera was focused on Ninja Sock Monkey. Notice how the depth of field changes as you change the focal length. Mickey is out of focus, Tigger is 3/4 in focus, and Sock Monkey is completely in focus. The area behind Sock Monkey gradually loses focus as you move back.

So hopefully you now have a better grasp of what is meant by lens aperture and depth of field. In the next Tip we will leave the technical areas of your camera and talk about:

UNDERSTANDING LIGHT: WHAT YOU THINK YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GET

I will leave you with a few pictures to show how depth of field can be used in your photography:

You can also check out my personal Photoblog of McKinney-

McKinney, Texas: Sunrise, Sunset, Dusk, and Dawn

Kay:

For today's Blog and several that will follow I am turning over the reigns at ActiveRain to my assistant, and son, Joseph, who is responsible for, among many things, most of the photography used in our flyers and on our website...We often receive compliments from clients and potential clients-who-become-clients on the quality of our pictures. So I thought he could tell a little about what he does to make our pictures a little different...

Joseph:

Thanks mom! Without adeiu, here is Number 5 in my Top 5 Tips...

5) You don't need fancy equipment-you need the right equipment!

When I first started shooting pictures for my mom we used a Sony 3.1 Megapixel camera. It served it's purpose more than admirably, and I got many great shots. I wouldn't recommend anything less than 3.1 Megapixels for getting good shots in a high enough resolution for web and print.

About six weeks ago we splurged and invested in a 6.1 Megapixel Nikon D40 SLR (Single Lens Reflex--means it has detachable lenses) with a 18-55 mm Lens, a vivitar flash, and a polarizing filter. Between the increase in Megapixels and the increased quality of the optics and real zoom (many point and shoot digital cameras use a digital zoom) of the separate lens, the quality of pictures we get is outstanding.

Of course, why buy an expensive SLR if all you want to do is point and shoot? Don't!

Use the camera with the most features you can or are willing to learn how to use. If you like learning about photography and how to use different settings on both your camera and your lens to create just the shot you have in your mind, then there is no substitute for a digital SLR and the $500-$1200 you will spend.

If cameras generally scare the beejeebers out of you, and you only want to learn enough about the camera to take pictures you and your clients will like, stick with an auto-focus camera with a good optical zoom, wide enough angle lens (the lower the mm of the lens the wider angle and the more area your picture will capture- most auto-focus point and shoot cameras are in the range of 28-35mm at their widest), and a few programmable settings to let you expand your abilities if you choose.

For most real estate photos, regardless of camera, I have always kept my lens at its widest angle.

Avoid any camera that is a fixed-focus or fixed focal length camera. In digital terms you will be trying to take your listing's pictures using the equivelent of a 110 instamatic (for those old enough to remember...)

Next Tip: A Little Camera Knowledge Will Go a Long Way