Over the years, you've made improvements to your home that improves the looks and value of the property. This improvement in looks can also improve the curve appealing value. What are you doing to actively record these improvements?

Use your digital camera to record these changes and improvements. In the current economic recession, these photos may be of tremendous value, not only as proof of value but also as marketing strategy to prove added value to your home for insurance, aesthetic and potential sale value.

Just as the proverbial "skin-deep" saying, the beauty of your home may be more than just skin deep. Do you have any particularly valuable plantations, attachments, gardens, or other scenic views that add to the value of your home? Turn around and take photos from the windows, patio, garden, deck or other vantage point.

These images have an additional use! They are the foundation for building a photo portfolio, scrapbook or similar record of your primary possession. Photos taken during the various seasons, sprint, summer, fall, winter, rain or shine, can add to the value of the photos in your album.

If your home is the homestead, the photos become a 'slice of life' than can be added to the collection of photos taken during the life of the home. These can also serve as a record of the changes over time and be a valuable asset in the continued maintenance and, in the case of historical buildings, a record of the changes over time.

Now is also a time that you may want to add improvements or make changes in the appearance or arrangement of flower beds, accent trees, shrubs etc for home security, aesthetics or other personal reasons. Your home photo album can save a lot of time and money on behalf of exterior design or similar professionals who can look at the photo selection and make design recommendations without making a personal visit to your property.

This is of particular value if you have specific problems or features that may require the assistance of a specialist from another community or state. When you take photos of these special features, take multiple photos from different views. These can be overall views, close-up, front, back, side and even shots of specific details that catch your attention.

While .jpg is the normal photo file extension, these types of photos may require the use of a different type of file extension. Depending upon the ultimate use, various software and photo enhancement processes demand different file extensions to be comparable. Some of these include Photoshop, Google Sketch up and related software programs.

The digital photo RAW format permits certain cameras and digital image enhancement software packages to make basic image changes or enhancements easier and provide a much wider range of photo editing options. This type of enhancement is beyond the scope of this article but provides some 'food for thought' as you develop your photo album, portfolio or scrapbook.

Article originally published at Source by Dennis Bries