As if by Magic!

Dealing with messy rooms is one of the most frustrating parts of my job, and walking into a space that is piled high with junk causes your heart to sink - knowing that your choice is to shoot it as seen, or to move everything out, shoot it empty, then move everything back in. Rooms such as that shown above are a total nightmare, and the latest iteration of AI virtual staging software has revolutionised the process of capturing them.

The one above isn’t the greatest example because if you look closely, you can see that it’s a space with a boxed-in platform covered by junk that the AI hasn’t picked up properly. If the space had been a straighforward box, it would have been a perfect job. The software is utilised on a pay-up-front basis, so I have to cop for a significant amount before seeing the final result. The stagings cost me between £8 and £20 per frame depending on the level of alteration required, so for a 15 frame project it’s quite expensive. I only charge £20 per finished image, so it’s ridiculously unprofitable at the moment. God forbid I eat into an estate agents’ ten grand commission. Pricing these is something I’ll need to look at very shortly. One job I did a while back was rejected by the owner for “not being luxurious enough”. I had to write off the £200 I’d forked out, and step back from the job with an apology that I’m just not good enough. The subsequent “experts” who took it on charged 300% more than me, used the exact same American company to produce the virtual staging, but just used a different furniture range. I’m not an adversarial person in any way, so some estate agents know they can take the piss out of me without any recourse whatsoever. My main weakness definitely.