#1 Real Estate Photo Distraction – Converging Verticals

With marketing images you want to do everything you can to focus the viewers attention on your marketing message. Everything that distracts the viewers attention needs to be eliminated. The “message” in the photo above is the backyard and patio of this home. There are a number of things that distract your attention from the message in this image. One serious problem is the way the walls (verticals) seem to converge. We all know that the home really isn’t slanted like this but much of viewing images is not conscious and when we look at an image like this it’s hard to get your brain to ignore this contradiction. Your unconscious reaction to this image gets so wrapped up in the converging vertical problem the real message of the photo is lost. For many people the image just makes you uncomfortable and you don’t know why. The example above is exaggerated to make my point. It is amazing how sensitive your eye/brain is at noticing and being distracted by this problem. The smallest amount of convergence can be a problem. This is why professional photographers are very careful to not have converging verticals in real estate marketing photos.

What causes this problem is pointing the camera up (as in this photo) or down from front-to-back level. The wider-angle the lens you are using the more exaggerated the problem will look. Even when you are trying to prevent this problem while shooting it takes being very careful to eliminate the problem when shooting. There are a number of ways to prevent or fix the converging verticals problem:

1. Use a tripod and before you take a shot and swing the camera left or right so there is a vertical at the edge of the view finder and line up the vertical in the image with the edge of the view finder then lock the camera position.
2. Use a tripod and a bubble level in the hot-shoe of the camera to level each frame. This is not always possible since you may have a external flash or flash trigger in the hot-shoe.
3. When shooting interiors squat down when shooting instead of standing up straight so there will be less of a tendency to point the camera down.
4. Use photo-editing software like Photoshop Elements or Photoshop to fix the problem in post processing (after the photo-shoot). This is the technique I use since I find no mater how hard I try there are always some minor converging vertical problems left in post processing. For those that want some more details on how to correct these problems look here.

Here’s what the image looks like when the converging verticals problem is fixed with Photoshop. The image is still has some problems but now the walls are straight.

I believe that Realtors need to at least understand issues like converging verticals. They may not choose to deal with the details themselves but they at least need to understand the what a good marketing photo looks like and why it is effective.