The act of using Photoshop for “touching up” photos of your listings is nothing new to most people that have been around for a while. Ethical? Unethical? Maybe both, depending on the person. Personally, I don’t have a problem with adjusting the lighting, but anything beyond that I believe is questionable. If there’s something you don’t want to be in the picture, move it. If you can’t, and it’s pertinent to the condition of the house (think holes in sheetrock) then it probably needs to stay in the picture to show a fair representation of the property.
So, with that being said, check out this new feature of Photoshop CS5 called “Content Aware Fill”:
I was an intern at a photo restoration company back in 1995, when Photoshop came on like 20 floppy disks, and the computers could barely run it with their 12mb of RAM. I would have KILLED for a tool like this. The hours upon hours it would have saved me…
Fast forward 15 years to today. It’s now easier than ever to alter photos. In fact, it’s so easy a REALTOR can do it! 
If they have access to Photoshop CS5. That doesn’t mean that they SHOULD do it, but I have a feeling there may be some people that abuse this feature.
Your thoughts?
As a photographer (not connected to the real estate industry), the issue of whether or not such edits are legit or “cheating” comes up all of the time. My take on it is that if one’s goal is to create a piece of art, then go for it and do whatever you need to do to make the image better. On the other hand if you’re trying to document a scene, making substantial material edits borders on deception.
If I were buying a home, I’m not sure I’d want my realtor adding/removing objects from the photos that (in theory) represent a house, office, or property.
Already in real estate clients walk into a home and ask what possible angle did they shoot from to make this room/house look livable? Wide shot angles distort the house.
Looking at the adjustments I think it is entirely possible to take out the random cat running through the room and maybe even take out some dirty dishes left on the counter. I don’t think that is faking anything.
In the end no one should buy a house without seeing it. I don’t think they go back to the listing photo often to make a comparison. The old rules apply, agents can make their pictures look better. I see lots of clouds going away with this function at the very least