The Art of Night/Twilight Photography

The Art of Night/Twilight Photography

The subject of nighttime/twilight photographs and real estate photography is an interesting one. Twilight photographs have the ability to capture a viewer's eye in special ways. If done right, an effective twilight photograph should have rich color, a strong sense of texture, and the ability to convey mood. Like most topics photography related...you can only get away with it if the final product results in an impressive high-quality image. That being said, it is my nature to encourage anyone with a camera to explore it's capabilities and to discover your own talents in the process.

Here are some tips and techniques for capturing a good twilight photograph:

You do not have to be a pro, but you do need to know how to work your camera.

Twilight photographs are not intended to be taken in the automatic mode. If you are not capable of exploring the manual settings of your camera...these types of photos are not for you.

A steady shot is essential

A good tripod is a must have piece of equipment for quality nighttime photography. A good tripod does not necessarily have to be an expensive tripod. It is important that your tripod is steady and that you can lock your camera in position on the tripod.
A steady shot is essential.

Pick the proper location

Make sure that you pick a location that is not going to be hindered by bright lights aiming into your camera. A strong security light pointing into your lens or obstructing the view of your subject will surely be a distraction in your photograph. Do not forget to practice the rules of composition. Specifically, make sure to have an even horizon and to fill your frame. There are going to be an overwhelming amount of shadows in a nighttime photograph and making your subject fill the frame will keep your photograph from being boring.

Best methods for proper exposure

First make sure to use an ISO of 200 or below. A high ISO setting will result in a grainy image and a lower quality contrast throughout your photograph. For the best exposure use a high f-stop/aperture setting. F-12 to F-16 will make your brighter lights less aggressive and will also help give your photograph a sharp focus throughout. Finally, your shutter speed is the best tool for adjusting the exposure in this format. A longer exposure will let the light bleed into your photo for a more dramatic lighting. Generally an exposure of 15-30 seconds will create this effect really well. Do not forget that anything moving in your photograph will likely be blurred with a long exposure, and you should set a timer or use a remote to avoid blurring the photograph while taking the picture. Also remember to experiment with your exposures to get the photograph just right.

The proper white balance

In most cases a long exposure of this nature will cause your photograph to take on a very yellow look/white balance. It is important to correct the color of your photograph because thr color of a nighttime photograph's lighting will have a very dramatic effect. Almost every digital camera has a different set of menu options. The daylight white balance setting or tungsten setting will add blue to your image which will make the yellow lights appear clear or white.

Additional lighting

In this form of photography never use a flash. If your subject requires additional lighting, a strong directional light will be your best option to assist with the exposure.
It is not likely that you will get a perfect photograph the first time, but practice and experimentation will lead to incredible results!

Photographs are the property of Haseltine Photo INC. Photo#1 and #2 Were taken by Lester Escoto of Miami, FL. Photo#3 and #4 Were taken by Ian Haseltine.

SEO - Does Your Site Have Validity?

SEO - Does Your Site Have Validity?

Whether you have designed your own website or contracted that task out, you should check to see if your code has validity.

Validity or Validation for your site refers to the language in which it is written and if it is written correctly. Your site's code can be written in a variety of formats. Each of these formats is like a different language. When a portion of your site is written incorrectly, it is labeled as invalid.

How does this effect you and your website?

It will surely have a negative impact on your site in search engine rankings. Each piece of code that is not valid will be skipped over by the search engine bots that rank, judge, and sort websites. If the bots are skipping over your content every optimization statistic and effort will be less accurate and effective. A simple quotation mark in the wrong place or a property name being mislabeled can destroy lines of code and undo a lot of hard work.

Additionally, your site may not appear correctly in all browsers if not valid. By validating your site's code you are complying with the uniform rules of the language that your site has been written in.

How can you check to see if your site's code has validity?

This is the easy part! Go to the W3C Markup Validation Service Website: http://validator.w3.org/

Once here, type in your URL address. Your site's code will be analyzed by W3C's Validation Service, which will process a report for you. The report will point out each error in your code and give helpful suggestions to fix these issues.

Do not stop at your home page. Do each page of your website. Make sure to check your CSS as well. It is a mistake to submit your site to the search engines without taking this very important step.

I would also suggest using the "Clean up Markup with HTML Tidy" tool provided by the service while analyzing your site. This tool will clean up your code, which will make your site load faster and help the search engines crawl your site more efficiently.

Everything about this service is free! You will not even have to give an email address or subscribe to any special offers.

Once your site has been validated W3C's service will supply you with a graphic and link to their site, which if you choose to display it, shows everyone that your site has been validated.

I have one at the bottom of my site http://www.haseltine-photo.com/!

It is time to dive into Social Networking and Blogging!

I do not have any quality excuses for staying out of the world of social networking for so long. It is not entirely true that I haven’t dabbled, but for the most part I have been a cautious spectator. However, I have recently made the decision to dive in headfirst. My intentions are very clear to me now, but it took be quite some time to find out what they might be. I reached the conclusion that I must get involved in the world of social networking and blogging by asking myself one valuable question over and over again, which was, "Why would I blog?"


A few years ago I would have simply answered that question, "I don’t know, who wants to hear what I have to say?"


My recent epiphany has been the realization that anyone who has an interest in the topics that I have a wealth of knowledge in or may share a similar or differing opinion on will find my musings to be of interest.


The intentions of my blog are simple. I would like to share my knowledge of the real estate industry in regards to:


-Effective Marketing
-Search Engine Optimization
-Web-design
-Professional Photography Techniques
-Photoshop Tricks, Tips, and Skills
-Multimedia Tools for Real Estate Professionals
-The Value of Good Customer Service


Alternatively, I would like to use my blog as a tool to learn. If there is one thing I have grasped over the time that I have been a "cautious spectator," it is that there are plenty of fellow bloggers and comment droppers out there with quality opinions. I am hoping that the topics that I choose to bring to this forum spark discussion and constructive debate that will help us all to improve our professional lives.


I will be publishing my blog bi-weekly and I hope that most people will find that it is a very helpful tool and that the information I have to share is both relevant and important to those who read it.


One of the greatest challenges for me has been trying to find a way to blog without being a pesky commercial. With that in mind, I won’t plug my product/service in anyway while I am trying to introduce myself to this community. Instead, I will sneak a link in here and encourage any curious readers to please review my profile if they are interested in finding out about me before I put my thoughts, opinions, and industry knowledge all over the web in my many blogs to come.




I do not want to leave anyone who has read through this without at least a little of the valuable information that I have been promising, so I will give a short suggestion related to "The Value of Good Customer Service."


It costs a great amount to seek out and win over new customers in comparison to what it will cost to retain a current client. Some places will claim that it costs over five times as much to gain new clients versus the cost of client retention. Remember to address your client’s concerns. Following up is the most important step a business can take in order to retain a client. As a business owner, I can attest to the fact that you will never hear from over 95% of satisfied clients. However, you will correspond with almost every single unhappy client you have. A quick and proper resolution to a client’s displeasure will likely build a stronger relationship between your organization and the once dissatisfied consumer. Moreover, the development of such relationships can result in referrals, which will in-turn save any business from having to spend more to seek out that new client. Remember, that every displeased customer your organization allows to remain unhappy will have a negative impact on your business.