Using Thru-view, on a computer screen you can, for example, move your mouse over a “hot spot” and look through a wall to see what’s underneath, or you can click on “transparent view” to see behind the entire wall. “Our focus,” VanBree says, is “organizing the pictures we take, as well as those a contractor takes, so that the contractor can easily find what they need.” The interface for Thru-view can deliver on the Web, a PC, or a Mac. (Go to www.imagingperspective.com for more information and a series of tutorials on use.)
Digital images also provide a virtual on-site visit. All the lead carpenters at Jackson Remodeling in Seattle have a camera or a camera phone. “It saves time to snap a photo, transmit it to the office, then have a discussion with the production manager while he’s looking at what the lead sees on the jobsite,” owner Leif Jackson says. “If we still can’t figure it out, we e-mail it to the architect or engineer and have an answer in minutes. I can’t imagine how we did business before this technology.”
Marshall also uses images to stop potential problems with trade partners. “When the subs don’t clean up, we’ll show them the picture,” he says. “They don’t love that, but if you have to prove your point, you have to prove your point.” Jackson doesn’t let his own employees off the hook, either. “I’ll sometimes take a picture of the jobsite from a neighbor’s yard to show my people at a production meeting. I try to wrap it into a discussion about jobsite marketing. If it doesn’t look neat, no one gives you credit for being organized.”
STORAGE Digital images also beat film in the storage department. Even if you don’t have a server and you just work off an individual computer, you should have enough storage for your photo documentation needs. If there is a need, adding more storage is inexpensive. The biggest problem with storage is not the storage itself, per se, but organization. “The No. 1 issue in document management is usability,” says Erick Cofield, mid-U.S. regional manager for BuildTopia construction management software. “You have to be able to find things quickly.”
Cofield recommends saving all digital photos as well as e-mail correspondence in a file labeled with the customer’s name or address. Create sub-folders for before, during, and post-construction photography. Often, since it takes time to download photos, people won’t name them, so at least if they’re in a sub-folder they will be easier to find. If you don’t store them this way, you should name each image.
At McDowell Inc. of St. Charles, Ill., vice president Sue McDowell saves digital images on the design/build company’s server, labeled by category, client name, and year. After 10 years of taking photos, the firm has had no problems with storage space, but McDowell, who also does marketing for the company, puts them on DVDs and creates CDs that the salespeople take with them on their laptops.
Photo documents should be treated like any other documents. Most construction management software products, such as BuildTopia, ACT, Goldmine, SelectionWare, and others will manage this well. At Lee Kimball in Winchester, Mass., business manager Maureen White discovered software designed for photographers that she uses to “database all our photography.” Called Portfolio (made by Extensis), White uses it to search through images easily, “any way we tag them, by neighborhood, room, wood species … It will go as deep as we want.” To manage it, the company has a standard set of tags, and every photo gets tagged with text.
“All the people involved [in a project] need to be educated and know the naming convention, the location of the images, the process and the protocols for storage,” Cofield says, noting that this system facilitates retrieving photos — for a variety of purposes. “Once that level of organization is reached, it’s much easier to enter awards downstream,” Cofield says.
PARTING SHOTS Sales and marketing is the other big arena for digital images, making use of “after” shots. These should be taken by a professional photographer. It’s well worth the investment to get professional photos even if it’s just for a few projects a year. “Our designers and project managers take ‘before’ shots, which are stored on job folders on a server. Then they’re made into a photo album for the client,” says Diana Carpenter, sales manager at River Crest Design Build in Annapolis, Md. “The before shots allow the professional photographer to take photos from similar angles, which makes for a powerful before-and-after set used in everything from ads and newsletter articles, to portfolio books and posters for trade shows.”
Taking photos from the same angle is important not only for visualization from a layperson’s perspective but also if you plan to use the photos to enter a design-award competition or to put on your Web site. Yet sometimes a same-angle shot is not the best choice, says Yerko Pallominy, an architectural designer and photographer for Landis Construction. Pallominy takes the “after” shots for that company and says that although the same angle is ideal, “the photographer needs to decide, once he or she is on site, which angle is best.” You’re trying to document a process from beginning to end, so don’t get caught up in details. “Capture as much as you can from different angles and of the general space,” Pallominy says. “Go to every corner of the room and take one shot.”
Pallominy first meets with clients and walks through the project with them before setting up an appointment for a shoot. “This builds trust,” he says, since clients may know the field personnel and others, but may not know Pallominy. He looks for spots with the best natural light, and may shoot one area in the morning and another in the afternoon.
A professional will have a better camera and lighting equipment, so although a camera with at least 6 mega-pixels will give you a good shot, Pallominy says not “to replace a professional photographer’s work with a simple camera. You won’t take the same kind of quality pictures.” (See “Camera Ready,” page 101.)
During the shoot, an outside photographer won’t know a lot about the project. It’s up to the remodeler to keep him or her informed and request images.
One final note: Remember that if you’re on private property, says D.S. Berenson, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney specializing in construction law and a REMODELING columnist, you must get a release from the property owner if you’re going to use an image for “your own commercial gain,” such as marketing. “You must either get a release or alter the picture enough so it is no longer identifiable as that person’s property. Move a chimney, put on a walkway, move the driveway, make it spring instead of winter. Now you have a different picture, really, a new work of art.”