The final touch on your photographs will come from software. Almost any professionally produced photograph will go through some software enhancement. If you have a Mac, then you already have a program on your computer called iPhoto. For a PC, I’d suggest having a look at the free program Picasa (which can also be used on a Mac). These aren’t the equivalent of Photoshop, but do allow you to make quite dramatic improvements to your pictures.
There are too many intricacies and possibilities in photo editing to go into detail on them in an article like this, but here are 3 controls which can make a significant difference to your shots:
1) If the photo looks too yellow or too blue, adjust the White Balance:
In iPhoto: Edit - Adjust - Temperature (left to make bluer and right to make more yellow).
In Picasa: Color Temperature, in the second tab (left to make bluer and right to make more yellow).
The following two adjustments are helpful when there’s a lot of contrast (very bright and dark areas) in a picture:
2) Lighten shadows and dark areas:
In iPhoto: Edit - Adjust - Shadows (move the slider to the right to lighten dark areas).
In Picasa: Fill Light, in the second tab (move the slider to the right to lighten dark areas).
3) Darken areas that are too bright - windows and skies:
In iPhoto: Edit - Adjust - Highlights (move the slider to the right to darken bright areas).
In Picasa: This feature isn't well developed in Picasa unfortunately. Something that works well on a sky you want to darken - but not on windows - is to use the "Graduated Tint" effect in the third tab. Adjust the "Feather" and "Shade" controls, then drag the cursor to adjust which part of the image it affects.
Worth trying are some of the automatic adjustments, like “I’m feeling lucky”, “Auto Contrast”, and “Auto Color” as well as the “One-click fixes” in Picasa, they often do a good job.
And there you are! I hope you find these tips and tricks useful. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, there are situations which will call for a professional’s equipment and know-how to get the best results, but by applying the techniques in these articles you should already be able to make a difference in your marketing and improve your sales.
Good luck!
Hunter Robertson is a photographer specializing in real estate, interiors and architectural photography, based in Geneva, Switzerland
©2014 Hunter Robertson