If you spend only five minutes researching properties, you’ll see both excellent and not-so-excellent examples of property photography.
As the first thing a potential buyer sees, photos have the power to change their decision between finding out more or moving on. Fortunately, technology makes it incredibly easy to take your own professional real estate photos.
Taking your own professional real estate photos
Choosing a camera
Unless you’re already a professional photographer, you’re better off borrowing a camera, whether it be a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex), compact or mirrorless. Don’t worry too much about which camera you get, these days it’s hard to make a mistake with your choice. Besides, you still have your smartphone!
Smartphone cameras can produce striking photography – especially if you adopt some simple post-production techniques.
Tip: have you considered using a drone? It can be a fantastic tool to feature the benefits of your property and the neighborhood. Get creative and make your property stand out.
Light up the room
Use lighting to showcase a room, rather than just brighten it– if you have art you want to focus on, use a single light to emphasize the piece. You could adjust an LED to shine down on the painting or find a floor lamp to direct towards a feature.
Use the flash to your advantage- don’t just point it into the room. It will get lost and create ugly shadows in your image. Instead, bounce it off reflective surfaces, such as a wall or the ceiling.
Dusk is the favored time of day for photoshoots. It provides a great contrast between the sky and the building and lets you to show off the lighting of the home, an essential aspect of ‘staging’.
Shooting techniques
Balance: create attention-grabbing photos and avoid flat images. Do this by making sure there’s a foreground, a middle-ground and a background.
Point the way: aim the viewer at the feature you wish to highlight. If you want to feature the bed, but it’s in the background, no one will notice it.
Think outside the box! Avoid the typical real estate formula and accentuate areas of the home you loved and enjoyed while living there.
Show people what it’s like to live in the property with your images, showcasing some of the best aspects, such as the architecture or a beautiful part of the garden.
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