Everyone knows a proverb claiming that a picture is worth a thousand words. The reason is clear – photos reveal everything you need to know almost instantly about any given situation, product, or property.
After all, humans are visual learners who process images 60 thousand times faster than plain text. This is also why every real estate client will check out property photos before deciding to visit your place. It is where the fun really starts because you need to photo your real estate in a way that guarantees to sell it.
But how can you do that? What are the key tricks of successful real estate photography? We can give you 11 practical tips on how to shoot a perfect real estate photo and impress the audience. Let’s take a look!
Clean and declutter your home
We start with the basics because the first thing you have to do is to clean and declutter your home. Jake Gardner, a real estate blogger at Essay Geeks, claims the first step is extremely important because a simple and well-organized property fulfills two purposes:
– It makes the home look more comfortable and spacious
– It allows viewers to imagine what they would do with the place and how to decorate it
Stage the home properly
The next tip is to stage the home properly in order to make it visually appealing. We do not recommend over-staging, but a few simple tricks will certainly make the whole place look much more attractive. For example, you can put a bottle of wine and two glasses on the outdoor table, but it’s up to you to get creative and come up with little staging improvements.
Make it as bright as possible
One thing you should remember is that real estate photography must be very bright. You do not shoot photos on a rainy day unless you have a very specific reason to do it. In such circumstances, it’s not a surprise to see that most property photos are made during summer, while window curtains are open wide.
Remove all spoilers and obstructions
When users watch real estate photos, they don’t want to see any spoilers and obstructions. This goes both for curb appeal and interior because you have to let people enjoy your place as it is without unnecessary interruptions or attention-grabbers. We are talking mostly about details such as electrical wires, family photos, and similar elements that can distract clients and ruin their experience.
Make it look professional
This one goes without saying, but our duty is to warn you not to play with image quality. You might as well be an assignment writer or an engineer, but you still need to understand the main principles of professional real estate photography:
– Use a powerful camera with 5 megapixels minimum
– Don’t shoot photos with your smartphone
– Use a tripod for stability
– Take advantage of a wide-angle lens
Keep the camera at chest height
A typical real estate presentation contains up to 30 photos and you should take most of them at chest height. That makes people feel like actually entering the room and enables them to see everything from a natural viewpoint.
Mind your shooting angles
This tip is closely related to the previous one. Namely, it is crucial to catch angles that perfectly reveal the attractiveness of your home and emphasize all the available space. It would be perfect to make photos displaying three walls because it gives a notion of depth to your images. Such photos are made from the doorway.
Take lots of photos
Another no-brainer on our list is also very significant because you do need a variety of images to choose from. You never know when something may go wrong and whether there are details that can deteriorate a photo. It should not be an issue with proper staging, but shooting hundreds of photos is still much better than not having enough high-quality options at your disposal.
Tell a photo story
The next tip is to interpret real estate photos as a series of interrelated images rather than individual pieces of content. That way, you can tell a photo story and fully immerse viewers into the property. That basically means putting images into the right order, from curb appeal all the way to bedrooms. It’s like writing a custom dissertation with a natural flow from introduction to conclusion.
Edit images if needed
No matter how hard you try, sometimes you don’t be satisfied with your real estate photos. This is where you can use photo editing tools to improve the content in a way that emphasizes the qualities of your place. Of course, it is never a good idea to edit images too much because it will backfire sooner or later. The golden rule is to avoid overpromising as it will only annoy customers who end up visiting your property.
Hire a professional photographer
If all these suggestions and techniques sound way too complicated, you should hire a professional photographer to help you get the job done faster and better. Although it requires a minor investment, it always pays off eventually.
The Bottom Line
The quality of real estate photos often makes all the difference between top-performers and low-selling agencies. If you think you can do better, perhaps it is time to invest in professional photography and create property listings that guarantee to impress the target audience and drive more leads. We showed you 11 ways to do it quickly, but now it’s your turn to take action and put our ideas into practice!
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