A picture is worth a thousand words, so when it comes to marketing your work, take the time and money to hire a professional photographer to create a picture that really helps potential clients understand your company’s strengths.

Photographer Ray Strawbridge of Strawbridge Photo, in Raleigh, N.C., tries to capture the craftsmanship of his clients’ work in the images he creates, he says, “to relate how they have taken the limitations of a home and made it something totally dramatic and different.”

As photographer Carolyn Bates was returning from taking an assigned dusk shot of this barn renovation, she saw this view.  Having just a few minutes before the sun set, she snapped a quick photograph.  The original photo (above right) was crooked and the windows were not well lit, so she enhanced the image above by adding land, straightening the appearance of the structure, and inserting a crescent moon from another image that was taken by a photographer friend.  Such extensive alterations are not usual -- Bates did so because of the lack of time for a proper setup.
Carolyn Bates; moon image by Doug Keister As photographer Carolyn Bates was returning from taking an assigned dusk shot of this barn renovation, she saw this view. Having just a few minutes before the sun set, she snapped a quick photograph. The original photo (above right) was crooked and the windows were not well lit, so she enhanced the image above by adding land, straightening the appearance of the structure, and inserting a crescent moon from another image that was taken by a photographer friend. Such extensive alterations are not usual -- Bates did so because of the lack of time for a proper setup.
Carolyn Bates

Conveying quality and professionalism is especially important for upscale marketing. “The higher the quality of a business’ marketing, the higher the degree of perceived professional ability, and hence, the higher quality the client,” Strawbridge says.

Of course, the best marketing is for clients to actually walk through your projects. However, it’s not always possible, and one tour won’t relay the full variety of your work. This is where photographs can play an important role. The key to effective residential photos, says public relations consultant Diane Purcell of Through the Lens Management, in Wimberley, Texas, is creating a realistic feel so viewers can imagine they are standing in the space.

Carolyn Bates of Carolyn L. Bates Photography, in Burlington, Vt., says that a photographer brought in before the renovation begins is better equipped to fully capture the project details. “They can help you put together the storyline. They know which ‘before’ camera angles to shoot to match the ‘after’ photos.”