From Real Estate Convergence technology and video expert Jeff Brooks…

If you’ve spent anytime on the MLS or looking through any of the glossy homes magazines, the one thing we all can agree on is that the photography could use some help.

Real estate agents have been slow to take up the call on digital photography. While I doubt there are many agents out there that don’t have digital cameras, I can tell you very few of them take advantage of the software available.

I’ll be the first to say photos are not going to be the driving force behind someone’s decision to buy a house, a good photo can entice someone to look a little closer.

There are basically three things you can do to improve your picture quality. The first is imaging software, second is camera adjustments and lastly is staging your photos. I’ll address all three areas in my next three posts—let’s start with imaging software.  

For me, imaging software comes in three groups: the kind you pay for, the kind that’s already on your computer and the kind you get for free.

Since everyone loves free, we’ll start there.

From the folks at Google comes, Picasa, which is one of the best freebies on the Internet. Picasa easily allows you to correct the three most common photo problems: fuzziness, poor framing and crooked.

One of the great features of imaging software in general is the ability to sharpen a photo, and Picasa makes it especially easy. With just the click of a button, it takes what and out-of-focus photo and practically turns it into fine art. Actually, even what seems to be a fairly crisp photo can usually benefit. Picasa also allows you to straighten a slanted photo, crop out what you don’t want showing, fill in shadows and easily adjust the color and contrast.

Many times unknown to its users, those with Microsoft Office 2003 or higher have access to Picture Manager, an amazingly easy-to-use software program that comes pretty close to what Picasa offers for free. And with the Vista edition you get Photo Gallery, it offers a basic photo editing program. Both of these programs can be found under your program list.

With the Microsoft programs you’re often given the option of an auto correct button and with one click you can correct most basic lighting and contrast issues. But there are no guarantees, so figure out where the undo button is in case it looks worse than what you started with.

For those of wanting to pay from some bells and whistles, there’s Adobe CS3 Photoshop software for $695, or its much more affordable alternative, Adobe Elements 5.0 for $85. Elements offers many of the same features of CS3 without the price tag or huge learning curve. It has much of what you can get for free with Picasa, but when you decide its time to green up the grass, remove objects and fine-tune the photos, Elements is your best choice. The controls are much more precise and allow for greater adjustments.

With Elements you also get Bridge, an Adobe program that allows you lay out all your photos on one side of the screen and, as you chose the better shots, move them individually to the other side. It’s incredibly helpful if you tend to take too many photos.

If you really want to take the time to learn more about Photoshop and what it can do, I suggest an online tutoring service called Lynda.com. For $25 a month, it offers unlimited access to software tutorials, which includes 13 hours of Element lessons or 44 hours of CS3. (That should be your first indication of the learning curve I mentioned.)

Stay tuned—next up in improving your photos is a lesson in adjusting your camera…

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