QC Training, Part 2
One staged image per room, bathroom, kitchen, and backyard. one or two for living and dining. Delete the rest of the Virtual staging.
162 images delivered
about 120 after QC
1 or 2 staged for living and dining
Why a 162 image delivery got a second pass
- Too many images is a real problem, not a bonus. A client downloads 160 files, cannot tell what is going on, and comes back to us confused. Quality control is about making sure the delivery is what the client actually needs without confusion.
- The result: from around 162 images down to about 120. Still a lot, but almost fifty images gone, and every deleted image was either a bad version, or staging that made the house look worse.
Too many images is a real problem for the client (video starts at 4:14) · open on Loom
Same room, same angle: keep the better one
- When two staged versions of the same angle sit next to each other, look at them side by side, version one and version two, and keep the one that looks better.
- Check that it really is the same room before you delete.
Same bedroom, two stagings, side by side (video starts at 3:03) · open on Loom
How many staged images a room gets
- Bedrooms, bathrooms, and backyards get one staged image at most. Once a room already has a good virtually staged image, every other staged version of that room goes, even if the angle is different. One good one is perfect any more can confuse people.
- Living rooms and dining rooms can have two variations, because they are the rooms people care most about and different angles show different things. Two maximum. Three or more is too much.
Two variations for a dining room, never three (video starts at 10:17) · open on Loom
Vacant every angle, and never lose an original
- Vacant images are different from staged ones. If we can vacate every angle of every room, that is great, so the vacant versions stay even when the staged version of that angle gets deleted. Delete the bad staged image and keep the vacant one underneath it.
- The original photos always stay in the delivery. (Just make sure to remove any and all people that might be present in the images)
Keep the vacant, delete the bad staged image (video starts at 5:25) · open on Loom
When staging makes the house look worse
- Staging exists to make a house look better. On a smaller, older, or rougher house, virtual staging and virtual twilights can do the opposite and make it look worse than it actually is. use your judgement to filter out ugly photos
- A tiny kitchen is the clearest case. The staging on the Shell Street kitchen was nice, but the room is so small that the vacant image looked better, so most of the staged kitchen images were deleted and the vacant ones stayed.
- Same for a tiny bathroom. The staging almost worked, but for a small bathroom in a modest house, leaving it plain was the better delivery.
A kitchen too small for staging (video starts at 12:38) · open on Loom
Things that do not belong in a photo
- Look for objects nobody would ever put there. A candle sitting on the edge of a bathroom counter, a plant standing in the middle of a hallway, a bed pushed into an unnatural spot. Each of those is a delete, because a buyer notices and it makes the whole image look fake.
- Kitchens get a special check. A plant sitting inside a pot on the stove, or a kitchen so full of plants that nobody could ever cook in it, is staging gone wrong.
Are we cooking the plant? (video starts at 13:19) · open on Loom
Virtual twilights: keep only the ones that help
- Review every virtual twilight… On this house a few looked good and a few looked ugly, so Jose kept the good ones and deleted the rest.
- Zoom in and check whether the lights are real. The twilight tool can add glowing windows and lights the house does not have. If they are not real, that image is a problem, because the client sees a house that does not exist.
- When you spot a twilight that is almost right but has fake details, mark it and take it to edit instead of deleting it. That is the next section.
Which twilights stay (video starts at 15:35) · open on Loom
The fix in Lightroom
- Clients have complained about invented details before, so the last thing I do is fix the two messy twilights by hand. Import them into Lightroom Classic, open Develop, and use the Remove tool with generative AI on the fake lights and the random extra object. It takes a few seconds per image.
- The goal of the fix is to make the picture match the real house. The lights actually looked better in the image, and I still removed them, because the house does not have them and a client could come back asking what is going on.
- Double check the fixed images, then go back into the listing in Aryeo and add them. That is quality control for a project like this. If you have questions or it feels like too much, tell Jose.
The Lightroom fix, start to finish (video starts at 16:47) · open on Loom
Before you close the project, check off
- Bedrooms, bathrooms, and backyards have one staged image at most. Living and dining have two at most.
- Every angle still has its vacant version and its original.
- No staged image that makes a house look worse.
- No candles on counters, plants in hallways, plants in pots on the stove, or beds in unnatural spots.
- Every virtual twilight checked for fake lights, (If fake lights or objects are found then they were fixed with photoshop or deleted.)
Back into the listing with the fixed images (video starts at 18:06) · open on Loom