Last time we went through the first two basic mistakes a homeowner might make when trying to prepare for photography for their home’s listing. Not making a plan and not setting aside enough time were the two stumbling blocks that might trip you up, but this time we’re going to get into some points that might create more easily missed, but just as critical to ensuring your success.

Not lighting well- Lighting is key to a good photograph, but for most homes it can be difficult to get the best lighting for pictures. Rooms in our home are lit to give us the best experience for living in them, not for taking pictures. This means light isn’t usually directed in a way for a camera to find the optimal point to get a full view of the room with equal lighting. Natural sunlight is great for when you’re taking an afternoon nap sitting next to the window in your favorite chair, but it can be difficult to correctly capture for a camera set on a tripod in a corner of the room. A good photographer will be able to set up the room to balance out the lighting and get the best possible picture, but this may take more time with some rooms than others. Also, in the daily life of living in your home, you likely replace light bulbs as they go out rather than all at once, but if you have different kinds of lights in your home, especially if there’s multiple types of lights in the same room, you may want to replace some bulbs to ensure consistency since, for instance, having one LED light bulb and one fluorescent bulb in the same room may create some odd lighting effects that could make taking a good picture more difficult.

Shooting from the wrong height or angle- It’s natural when taking photos to take your pictures from eye level, but in a result that might seem counterintuitive, this doesn’t give the best impression of a room. When we see a room in person with our eyes, we’re better able to perceive the depth of the room and to look around to more fully take in our surroundings. With a static photo though, you’re locked into the view at the time the picture was taken. This leaves you with photos where a significant amount of the room view may be taken up by the ceiling or floor, and doesn’t incorporate the room’s features. A good starting point is usually to go with chest height, which gives you a more moderated view of the room, but this may change from room to room depending on the decor. You’ll want to check the viewfinder on your camera and critically consider what is taking up the majority of the picture, where your eyes are being drawn in the photograph, and what objects might prevent you from getting a clearer view. This is where one of the biggest advantages of our virtual tours comes in, because you aren’t trapped to an isolated view of one angle of the room, rather you can more fully explore. This allows for a more natural height for the camera to be at, and a more lifelike appearance to the room in photos. This sets your listing apart and lets a prospective buyer really put themselves into the mindset of what the home would be like if it were theirs.

Doing it yourself -  Finally, hopefully these previous points have shown that there’s more to real estate photography than meets the eye, but we’d just like to reiterate that it is absolutely crucial that it is crucial this part of your home selling process is done well. It can certainly be tempting to set aside a few hours to take pictures with the camera on your phone and call it a day, but it’s important to remember that there is a world of difference between a professional photograph and the pictures most people can take at home on their own. Our virtual tours in particular represent a real change in the game when it comes to preparing your listing, but we also offer high definition photos that capture far more detail and vision of your home than a smaller personal camera might take. Add in services like our drone photography, and we hope you can see how there is a true and measurable benefit to bringing us in to help with this crucial step in your real estate journey!

Again, we hope these tips are helpful to you as you navigate this process. If you have any questions, call us for a no hassle quote today!