Realty

[Doug Nelson]

Has anyone done any work for, or at least sought work from, realtors and real estate agents? Any potential there?

I'm thinking that there might be some work removing powerlines, treebranches, closing open windows, digital lawn work, etc.

[thomasgeorge]

One of the local Real Estate businesses posts to the web, but they do their own work. I have an uneasy feeling about doing anything other than tone/color correction to photos intended to show someone properties or objects for sale..
I just wonder if by removing powerlines, limbs and so on, a false impression is being created which a buyer might accept as fact. Sort of gets back to the ethics of this line of work....by "beautifying" something, is it being misrepresented and shown as it never existed..Correcting for color/tone or sharpening, etc seems just fine...but when actual manipulation takes place, I get a bit uneasy...My somewhat narrow minded thought is, I would want to see something exactly as it is , warts and all...not as someone else wants me to see it....could be wrong though....Tom

[Doug Nelson]

"As it is"? How is it? Or, more to the point, how was it? There are so many variables, it's dangerous to assume we're more ethical than others.

What season was it taken in? Have the trees grown or been trimmed since then? What focal length was the lens used? A telephoto will include a lot of foreground material that won't be visible to someone simply standing on the sidewalk. Is there perspective distortion?

The edited version might actually be "truer" than the original, but we can't know or control these variables, and it seems a shame to turn down work simply because we can't.

[G. Couch]

I think I lean towards Tom's point of view on this. It's one thing to correct exposure, clean dust, etc... but what happens if a less than honest realtor (and they do exist!) wants you to remove key features or alter the image in such a way that it gives a false impression. I would not do it. It's false advertising.

So, I think finding work with a realtor is a good idea...I would just be very wary about the type of work they wanted.

[thomasgeorge]

Lets say that you are asked to remove powerlines from a scenic view from the back yard of a property because they really "spoil the view" or do the same for a tree or to do a bit of " landscaping"....the person seeing the manipulated photo will assume that what they see is what they get..so they take half a day going out to look at this "Dream Property" only to discover that during the period when they looked at the photo and when they arrived to view it in person, large trees have grown up, powerlines hang like black strands of spagetti across the view from the back, some Vandal has snuck in and redone the landscaping...in short the property is not as represented, is unsuitable and incompatable with their idea of what they want and they have wasted a lot of time and effort pursuing something which never existed....
Ethics boils down to honesty. To me it is dishonest to manipulate something in order to "put the best light on it" and in doing so intentionally misrepresent and mislead....
I simply cant fit that into my business or personal style. Now I may be narrow minded, and I can live with that. But creating "Frankenpictures" ment to send a false impression seems dangerously close to "Orwellian" to me...but, thats just my opinion. Everyone has their own comfort levels and in the end, they have to live with what they do. I would rather loose a job(s) and maintain my integrity than compromise myself by " pushing the line"....Tom

[Doug Nelson]

The ethical considerations have been discussed at length in another thread.

That still leaves the topic here: "Has anyone done any work for, or at least sought work from, realtors and real estate agents? Any potential there?"

[Ed_L]

I have to agree with both Tom and Greg on this one. It would be unethical to manipulate the photo to show the property in a better light. I think you might also find that most real estate brokers would not want to do that because of moral or even legal reasons. I took a course in real estate around 1994. At that time we were told that if we go into a bad neighborhood, we should not lock our car unless we also lock our car in an excellent neighborhood because of possible legal problems from doing so. This sounds pretty far fetched, but that's what we were told. So I don't think most realtors would even consider something like this even if we obliged him, which I would strongly recommend against.
Ed

[Ed_L]

I didn't see your last post before I posted Doug. But the short answer is no, I don't think there is potential there.

Ed

[chris h]

I've done odd jobs for estate agents in the past mainly industrial work. The only manipulation being removing cars obscuring road side sites. There's nothing doing on this side usually the office junior is sent out with a polaroid or a digital camera.

[G. Couch]

I responded to an ad in the paper once for a job shooting pics for a real estate company. Let's just say that what they were willing to pay was not worth the effort...and I was a college student at the time! I made more money working at an ice cream parlor that year...so from my experience there is very little potential for it.

[Doug Nelson]

I can imagine there would be mostly low-pay opportunity, since they frequently deal in volume and never get paid unless they sell.