The agency marketing expert Doctor Photo has launched what he calls a ‘digital surgery’ to provide agents and developers with images described as being better than CGIs.
The service is aimed at those selling renovations or new builds prior to completion.
“Digital surgery technology is so advanced now, we’re able to offer developers and agents the option of an edited photo rather than a completely computer-generated image when marketing property under construction or redevelopment” says John Durrant, founder of Doctor Photo.
“We’re not just talking about blue skies and blossom trees in bloom. So long as we have accurate plans, site photos and a detailed description, it’s possible to complete entire buildings, create new extensions from scratch and completely redesign exteriors” he says.
Durrant claims that while CGIs cost upwards of £500 each, digital surgery typically costs in the region of £80 per photo and, he claims, produces a far more realistic result.
He says agents in the UK are behind their counterparts in Australia and New Zealand, which are light years ahead in their approach to digital photography in marketing material. He says photography ‘facelifts’ can be achieved to improve images within five hours and more substantial digital surgery in the case of unfinished property taking up to 48 hours.
Durrant - who in 2005 sold selling his estate agency partnership following 37 years in the business - illustrates his new service by using photographs of properties on the Isle of Wight, currently being marketed by Creasy, Biles and King.
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Interesting but raises a few questions about potentially misleading a buyer. Would be reassuring to have a parent body comment on this
Hi, Michael - thanks for your question. It might help to know that I wrote the 12,000-word Guidance on Property Photography for the RICS. Facelift edits are about smartening up agents' photos; correcting exposure, colour and lens distortion and adding blue sky so that they are more representative of a property than the original. Whoever saw a red brick house that looks blue in a photo and leans to one side? Adding blue skies makes them look more cheerful - the sun does shine sometimes. Doctor Photo can help make those bad photos better and good photos amazing. Look through any of the portals and you'll see many photos that look nothing like the 'real thing' because they've been taken so badly. Surgery is for houses that are incomplete or properties where the agent is trying to show what they can look like once there have been modified in some way. Taking out power stations and the like would not be what the service is designed for. Not every surgery product is achievable but many are.
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