Real estate photography in France

The commonest fault in property photography is a window that has gone pure white. It happens because the room is far darker than the daylight outside it, and the easy fix — exposing for the room — throws away the view, the garden and any sense of where the property sits. Every frame here is made so the window still reads.

Verticals are corrected as a matter of course. A wall that leans in a photograph makes a room look smaller and the listing look amateur, and it is one of the few things a viewer notices without being able to say why.

The session is booked for the hour light actually enters the main rooms, which depends on which way the property faces and is worth two minutes of conversation before we set a time. Twenty-five retouched photographs are delivered the next morning — listings are a race, and a gallery that arrives three days later has already cost you the first weekend.