Bad Yachtworld Boat Pics?

Why do some brokers post bad photos for boats they would get a commission on when sold? Lots of boats are posted without photo descriptions, and obvious errors in their boat listings.

I think that the quality of images in a yachtworld listing reflect on the broker, the boat and its owner. A photo of an engine room without lights on does not make sense. I saw one where you can actually see a florescent light in the darkness, but it is off and the image is too dark to see much.

I think that a broker who has bad images of a vessel for a listing should talk to the owner about getting better photos or reject the listing.

Rant off.

Stu

Greetings,
Mr. 99. Agree. Some listings also feature that "lived in" look. For goodness sake, do the dishes and make the beds/bunks. ER pictures should be mandatory.

Some show the reflection of the broker taking the pic in a mirror. And then there are the toilet pics with the lid gaping open, why oh why?
In real estate some broker/agents take their own, others use photographers.
We took pics to post, of one boat I sold. We moved everything loose out of shot(to the area of the last shot actually, it looked like a rubbish dump)ensuring each pic was clean and uncluttered, in fact looking better than reality. The owners have a part to play in cleaning and tidying, I wouldn`t expect a broker to do what we did.

You're right! Lighting and staging make the world of difference.

My daughter is a professional photog. Here's a link to her page about improving real estate sales with professional photography. The before/after shots are compelling. She used the "before' shots from the original listing in Craiglist that she replied to and the "after" photos after she moved into the apartment. The same principles apply to boat sales.



Teresa Kroeger Photography Blog: How to Boost Real Estate Sales with One Simple Step

This one has been listed on eBay for ages. It doesn't have the "live-in" look. More like the "squatted-in" look. The description is as bad as the photo's.


10 M Cruising Live Aboard Yacht Solar Self Sufficient NO $10KYR Marina Costs in QLD | eBay

I could do without the super wide angled lens too.

I think if I were selling a boat today, I would check out other listings of the broker and see how well their other listings were presented.

Some look gorgeous, with photography done by FlyWright's daughter, and then there are the rest... One that was on TF earlier had two photos of the helm console, one with the lived in look, and one after it had been cleaned off. I am SURE they didn't mean to post the lived in one, but somehow, it got posted.

If you're looking for a dock queen, I suppose engine room photos are not necessary, but having to request engine room photos is the mark of a lazy broker or owner. I asked for more information on the running gear of one boat and the broker had no idea... It turned out what he thought was below the waterline was what I was looking for, but I put that one in the discard list because of the broker.

I wish YW had a "discard flag" so those boats won't show up in future searches, and brokers can see how many times potential customers have passed on their listings. A discard flag plus reasons would be even better.

oh well, in a perfect world...

True- and the confined nature of most boats don't allow for enough distance to take an effective shot. And yes- wash the dishes and declutter at least.


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

And brokers... A cell phone is NOT an acceptable camera to take listing pictures with!

(And as a side note... a VCR is NOT a feature to add to a listing!)

Tom.B said:

And brokers... A cell phone is NOT an acceptable camera to take listing pictures with!

(And as a side note... a VCR is NOT a feature to add to a listing!)

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I can assure you the new Apple 6S series cell phone is a perfectly acceptable camera for listing pictures. You might want to review the camera specs at:

iPhone 6s - Technical Specifications - Apple

My pet peeve is brokers who take snapshots of the old CRT type TVs in their listing. Small flat plane TVs are not that expensive and make a boat look updated.

While the camera has gotten much better on the new smart phones, the lighting still sucks. You can't do wide lights, bounce lights, and fill lights with a cell phone.
Not to mention that the camera doesn't make the photographer, there are some with talent and others with cameras

FlyWright said:

You're right! Lighting and staging make the world of difference.

My daughter is a professional photog. Here's a link to her page about improving real estate sales with professional photography. The before/after shots are compelling. She used the "before' shots from the original listing in Craiglist that she replied to and the "after" photos after she moved into the apartment. The same principles apply to boat sales.

Teresa Kroeger Photography Blog: How to Boost Real Estate Sales with One Simple Step

Click to expand...

What a nasty rug.

Compare w cars and it's pretty much same o same o.

However w the broker or salesman taking the pics you almost always get lots more pics .. and I agree the cell phone just dosn't cut it.

But the broker probably dosn't clean up the boat and needs to take pics as the owner leaves it.

My own pet peeve is that I see adds for boats w more than 20 pics ... but not a one of the hull out of the water. Those pics most of the time would probably need to come from the owner though.

I hire a professional photographer to take my pictures, but I do not normally list boats under $100,000. I hardly ever show a hull out of the water picture because I do not have those. Sometimes owners will have pictures to show where lifting straps go but not the running gear, not very informative.
The internet lets every one see all of these pictures, of all of these boats for sale, they have to be good to get a buyer to call.

When I bought ASD, along with goods pics the broker posted a video which was helpful. But then again you can only truly judge a boat by walking it in person and have someone run up the engine(s) and genny....

When we were shopping, we saw boats where the pics were great but the boat in person looked like crapola.

I always find it amazing when the pictures are out of focus, too dark to see or show an incredibly messy boat. Another thing that bugs me is the ads that only have closeups of details and no pictures of spaces as a whole.

As someone who is actively looking for boats, I agree that there are some truly terrible photographs being used. I don't mind a video, particularly if it is of a boat that I am not familiar with as it does help give a sense of perspective that even good photos don't. The photos need to be well lit, but even an amateur can take decent photos, edit them appropriately, and post them.

I have sold a number of cars and I find that a little bit of time spent to get good photos of the cars, in the right locations, at good angles, makes them sell fast. My son has bought and sold motorcycles and is always asking me to take the listing shots for his bikes, as a good photo makes a good sale. I'm not talented, I just bother to take the time to do it right.

As others have said, I would think a broker would want to take the time to create good photos of their listings for the same reasons.

stubones99 said:

Why do some brokers post bad photos for boats they would get a commission on when sold?

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Because they're morons? I don't know. I can't think of any other reason.

But you are absolutely right. Some of the pictures you see almost seem to be deliberately trying to show the boat in the worst possible light. And really, is it THAT hard to rotate your pictures right-side-up!?!

Donsan said:

I can assure you the new Apple 6S series cell phone is a perfectly acceptable camera for listing pictures. You might want to review the camera specs at:

Click to expand...

Specs like the megapixel number, by no means, indicate the quality of the pictures. Photography is ALL about the accumulation of light. There is no way the minuscule lens on a phone can collect enough. Even a medium priced point-and-shoot can gather light better. Using a phone is just lazy. You could improve them by adding lots of light to the room (not the phone's flash), but most of the time, people use the natural light and the pictures are horribly grainy. A good DSLR and flash setup is just a few hundred dollars. And to the OP's point, even taking a few minutes to stage the picture properly can mean people stop and look at the listing, or move on to the next listing.

Sometimes you are lucky if all the pics are of the actual boat you are reading about in the add. Many adds have dozens of pics of things like 'bedding' and 'throw pillows' buy maybe 3 or none of the machinery that will determine your future costs.
Seems like many folks shopping find this acceptable nowadays so it is getting more like selling a condo than a functional boat.

And seriously. Is 12 mega pixels really necessary anyway? Seems like a great way to eat up lots of memory. I bought a nice little Nikon digital about 6 months ~ $400. I had forgotten how nice it is to shoot a camera.


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

What is a "Longtime" member? As a Wespac sailor I know what I think longtime means. "Hey Joe?"

Tom.B said:

Photography is ALL about the accumulation of light. There is no way the minuscule lens on a phone can collect enough.

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I don't claim to be a photographer so I won't argue with you, but if your theory is right, the human eye can't do a good job either. And the camera has the ability to collect light over time, compensating for lens size. I must be missing something.

MYTraveler said:

I don't claim to be a photographer so I won't argue with you, but if your theory is right, the human eye can't do a good job either. And the camera has the ability to collect light over time, compensating for lens size. I must be missing something.

Click to expand...

You are correct. Longer exposure times do collect more light, BUT it is at the cost of an open aperture. The longer it's open, the more steady you are required to hold the camera. Any movement, even the slightest, loses clarity in the form of burr. But to be honest, the camera system on an iPhone really isn't sophisticated enough to adjust the f-stop correctly. I think it just accounts for low light with added brightness (washes out the whites) and the aforementioned longer exposure times.

Either way, a real camera is the overwhelming victor in low-light and indoor photography... Well, in ALL conditions really.

Of course the flipside worked out for us - broker took only a very few crappy pictures and posted very little information about the boat, which helped us to get the boat at a great price (probably would have sold before we had a chance to see it had the pictures and info been better).

Tom.B said:

Specs like the megapixel number, by no means, indicate the quality of the pictures. Photography is ALL about the accumulation of light. There is no way the minuscule lens on a phone can collect enough. Even a medium priced point-and-shoot can gather light better. Using a phone is just lazy. You could improve them by adding lots of light to the room (not the phone's flash), but most of the time, people use the natural light and the pictures are horribly grainy. A good DSLR and flash setup is just a few hundred dollars. And to the OP's point, even taking a few minutes to stage the picture properly can mean people stop and look at the listing, or move on to the next listing.

Click to expand...

The Admiral is the photographer here and she has a top of the line Nikkon DSLR body with 50-300mm lens. She also has an iPhone 6. Without a doubt, the Nikkon takes the better picture. Other than envying over the specs, we have no experience with the iPhone 6S but her pictures with the 6 are very good. With either the Nikkon or the iPhone, she uploads the pics to her iMac and then doctors them with iPhoto or Adobe and when she is through, they are stunning. My fascination with the 6S isn't the megapixels but rather the stabilization. It may be lazy to use a phone for listing pics but I don't think I would enjoy carrying the relatively heavy and bulky Nikkon around on a boat (with multiple ladders) to take listing pictures. A pro photographer might be more up to the task. At any rate, I am still convinced the iPhone 6S is acceptable for taking listing pics. Unfortunately, our contract isn't up until next year and by then the iPhone 7 or even 7S will be the rage.

With that said, we have a boat on the market and the brokers pics are absolutely awful. He used previous owners poor listing pics instead of taking new ones. He didn't tell us we were responsible for the pics so I assume they are. If we weren't 1500 miles from the boat, the Admiral would be taking the pics for the listing. We will know better next time and now I know how YW can get such poor pics.

Donsan said:

With that said, we have a boat on the market and the brokers pics are absolutely awful. He used previous owners poor listing pics instead of taking new ones. He didn't tell us we were responsible for the pics so I assume they are. If we weren't 1500 miles from the boat, the Admiral would be taking the pics for the listing. We will know better next time and now I know how YW can get such poor pics.

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And you are paying him how much for this?

Tom.B said:

And you are paying him how much for this?

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They get paid IF they sell it. With the quality of the pics, we might be paying him nothing but might not get the boat sold.