Our original backgrounds are in IT and publishing / editing. A few years after coming to Spain, we started doing work locally for a villa rental agency which led on to working directly with the owners of properties and carrying out property photography as well as detailed villa distribution and descriptions for them.

Our combination of IT, photography and literary skills has put us in an ideal position to do what we do now – helping owners make the best of, and maximising the returns from, their property rentals or sales.

We have been trading as Spanish Villa Photography since early 2018, but we have generally worked in this area since 2012. We have (and continue) to work with a local villa rental business, providing them with IT, photography and villa distribution/description services.

But as we wanted to expand our market and to concentrate more on the promotional requirements for villa rental, as well as sales, we decided that it would make sense to operate this business alongside the existing work we currently do.

That depends a bit on the requirements. Normally you do not have to be at the property, although there will need to be a caretaker (or a friend) there to let us in and to show us around. Assuming that we have full and clear instructions, we will be able to go ahead and do the shoot without your assistance.

We do bring along props (glasses, bread, wine, olives etc) but where possible, it does help to have everything set out in the way that you would like it for the photographs (See Getting “Photo” Ready). We always do everything that we can to ensure that the final images look their best, so if we know where to find things (such as crockery etc) then we are happy to use these and get everything looking attractive.

We try to keep the equipment needed down to a minimum and shoot smart, making things more efficient for us and cheaper for you. We use Nikon cameras, with the D810 being our usual body for shooting properties and landscapes. We do use the D500 as well, but this tends to be for locations (towns, markets etc) and for flowers and wildlife. This combination of bodies and a variety of interchangeable lenses works well together.

All of our villa work is done on tripod and we normally shoot using an HDR technique. This means that we take a bracket of three or five shots for each final photograph exposing correctly for all light situations. The final result is a balanced image with great looking exteriors (through windows) and bright interiors. We rarely use lighting systems or flash for the interior photography as this does not give a natural feel to the final pictures.

Yes. All of the photographs that we take will be edited before they are delivered to you. We do not batch edit photos and each of the photos that you get will have been hand edited and corrected. This is essential, especially for the interior shots that are normally made up of three or five individual shots merged to give the final result. For the initial processing work, we use a combination of Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and for further enhancements we use additional tools such as Topaz Studio for the final touches.

The final set of images that you receive will have been hand selected to ensure that they best fit your needs, whether that be rental or sale of the property.

As all modern photography is digital, there really isn’t a negative as such, but we do work from the unprocessed file which is normally called a RAW file ‒ a negative of sorts. What you will end up with is a full set of high resolution images which you can crop, amend and use however you wish ‒ or you can instruct us to provide you with the final images in any format/size to suit your needs. These originals will, in effect, be your set of negatives and you will be able to keep a copy of them for later use if needed. You are free to use these images as and where you wish and as many times as you wish. We place no restrictions on the use of the images.

Unfortunately, we cannot give you the RAW files from the shoot. Most of the time they would be of little use to you as they need to be processed in sets of three, five or even seven to get correct exposures etc. They also need to be corrected for lens distortion and other anomalies, all of which mean that they would not likely give you the results that you would be hoping to get from them.

We do not discard the RAW files though (other than bad and unusable images) so if you would like to see additional images, we can do a rapid process of the images (so that they can be reviewed) and if you would like additional images, we can then process them fully and give you the final results.

We try to work our calendar so that we allocate enough time each week for both photoshoots and for processing of the images. We aim to have your images ready within a week, but it is best to allow two weeks if you are trying to schedule in other work involving the use of the photographs (other web development, start of advertising campaign etc).

Please try to give us as much notice as possible and we will try to accommodate you – calling us on Friday and hoping to have photos for Monday is going to be problematic!

The quick answer is – yes, they are copyrighted, and we do retain the copyright to the photographs that we produce. We do this only so that we maintain the right to use the photographs on our own website for promotional purposes only*. You have full right to use the full set of final images that we send you for whatever purposes you wish – we do not limit your use of the photographs in any way and we never pass or sell images to a third party.

The only request that we have in return is that if you do alter the images to suit your needs, that you do not then associate the amended images with our services as an original work.

* If you do not wish us to use the photographs that we have taken for you as promotional material on our website, then please let us know and we will respect your wishes.

Many people we have spoken to who have their own websites tell us that they do not get a very high hit (and hence booking) rate from their website. BUT, they also feel that it is worth having their own website, especially if they have a good one, because it provides a valuable link to your business cards or via the other websites that you are advertising on.

It also acts as a reassurance to prospective guests/buyers that you are serious about the property that you are renting or selling, and that there is a greater level of trust in a property that has its own website.

We are pleased to say that this is not a situation that we have found ourselves in, but it does need answering.

We will do all we can to ensure that ultimately you are happy with the results, including additional work on the images if that is what is needed. But, in the event that we cannot provide you with a satisfactory product (with the fault being on our part), then we will of course offer you a full refund*.

However, we never negotiate a lower price once the photographs (or other materials) are done – if they are not to the customer’s satisfaction, then we agree a resolution* in relation to the costs and we then delete all materials in relation to the quoted work.

We aim to provide a service that balances quality with value for money. To do this we use a combination of good equipment, and more importantly, our knowledge and skill both at the property and during the post processing, to produce a quality product. We have showcased some of the properties that we have shot here on our website, and we are happy to show you further photoshoots if you would like to see more. Hopefully, once you have had time to review everything and have chatted extensively with us, you will know for sure whether you would like us to do your photography or not.

* See our T&C’s for Customer Satisfaction resolution.

On a non-professional basis, we enjoy a wide range of photography. One area that is of particular interest is macro photography ‒ highly magnified subjects such as insects and miniature plant details. Landscapes are another favourite, and being in Las Alpujarras region of Spain, we are spoilt with the fantastic panoramic views, the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains and their rustic white villages. On the About Us page you will see a list of other websites that have used some of our landscape, wildlife and other more generic images.

Living in such a superb part of Spain, we feel very lucky and we enjoy sharing these images with others using a creative commons licence, giving them free use of the images for their websites, books and brochures. There’s no better way to advertise and invite visitors to our lovely area of the world.

All of our IT and web development is done in-house and furthermore, as a hosting reseller, we can offer hosting services, email services, website development and can cover any of the other IT requirements that you might have. This combined with some creative flair helps us deliver high quality content and present it impeccably.

And don’t forget, SVP produce some pretty good photography as well – with all of the photography on our website being 100% Spanish Villa Photography produced.