Sunday, April 5, 2009

New header - again!

I decided I need to stop being so lazy with my photos and start making some extra effort. So tonight I dragged out the tripod, played with the camera settings and employed a trick I learned from someone who photographs houses for real estate advertising. The result? See for yourself.

If you want to know how to make your house exterior look warm and inviting (and probably as attractive as it's ever going to get), listen up:

Before the sun is due to set, you need to get yourself organised. Turn off the auto flash on your camera and mount it on a tripod - you're going to need quite long exposures, so hand-holding won't work. Unless you want blurry pics, resulting from camera shake.

Turn on all the exterior lights and also all interior lights in rooms with windows that overlook the front yard.

Wander out the front and find the best vantage point. You might need to stand on the road, or the opposite footpath - that will largely depend on the focal length of your camera lens, and how wide your house is. Watch out for nature strip trees, power poles and the like, which might block your view - you may need to position yourself off to one side to avoid them.

Now be prepared to take lots of photos. Every few minutes, get some shots, perhaps from different angles. Keep taking photos until it's getting quite dark. Amongst that lot, you should end up with a few that have the wow factor....

These are mine, taken over about a 45-minute period, starting around 5:20pm. I used the same camera settings, and all the same lights were on throughout. The only thing that changed was the amount of daylight:





I was more than happy with the last set, and chose my blog header from amongst them.

Obviously, you also need to make sure the garden is tidy, move cars out of the driveway and away from the front of your house and so on. And if you can see in the windows, then you'll need to tidy up indoors too.

There you go - it's easy, when you know how.

5 comments:

Mrs B said...

Hi kek
You are so right...that is one beautiful looking photo you have taken! Very professional looking, I will try out your tips of taking great exterior shots when we move in. I have enjoyed very much reading your posts about your garden as you sound like a very motivated and keen gardener (unlike myself) Your front garden looks fantastic so far but it takes time for plants to grow, this is where I become very impatient. I love the way you have used the river rocks in certain areas as features for the garden.
Mrs B

Kek said...

Thanks Mrs B. :o) I do love gardening - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy planning a new garden and seeing my ideas come to life. I'm feeling really excited about the back yard now....

Probably should finish the front first. ;o)

The tales of J&A said...

Pics look awesome. Your house is just so lovely and the front garden ... something to be so proud of. You have done an excellent job. I'm looking forward to seeing how your backyard comes together.

Unknown said...

House and garden look great, this is my first time visiting your blog and I actually thought the picture in the header was the display home until I scrolled down.

Kek said...

Thanks guys...

I pinched the design idea from the display home, changed it a bit and used different plants. I was worried it would look a bit copy-cat, but it actually looks nothing like the display.