Are you looking to sell your home on the market and want to get faster leads and results? Well, words are indeed powerful, but so are pictures. Excellent-quality home images in your listing will visually transport your buyer-to-be into your home wherever, whenever. And the good news is, you don’t have to be a seasoned real estate photographer to snap highly persuasive photos that tell the story of your home.
“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.”
-Don McCullin
Real Estate Images Can Boost Your Listing’s Appeal
Property pictures can validate your listing’s description. That’s why 87% of homebuyers in 2019 considered pictures very useful, which still stands true even today. Additionally, according to Vero, campaigns with images garnered a click-through rate (CTR) that’s 42% higher than campaigns that didn’t have a single photo. While this is fairly expected, not all photo-enhanced listings have a high conversion rate. And it can be due to the quality of the images. So here are some of the go-to secrets of real estate photographers, which you can also do, even on a mobile phone!
Tips on How to Take Professional Real Estate Photos of Your Home
When you see pictures of homes for sale, what do you typically notice first? Chances are, that’s also what other buyers see. As you click your shutter button, you have to note what you see through the lens and how it makes you feel. It’s like putting yourself in your viewers’ shoes and anticipating their reactions. And to support you through that:
1. Take Photos During the “Money Hour”
You’ve probably heard it a gazillion times — lighting is key. And when your home gets hit by the west-setting sun, congratulations, you’ve got natural lighting at its best. Shooting 45 minutes after sunset is a must-do for every outdoor photographer. It can make your exterior seem more warm and comforting — a feeling that we all would want to go home to. Don’t forget to open all your exterior and interior lights.
2. Experiment With Angles
Variety in angles can be great. They can enlarge your space and make your viewers feel part of the space (first-person POV). But you want to make sure that your pictures are not always “distorted.” When your viewer sees your picture, you’d like to make them feel that they are standing in your home, upright. You can achieve this by shooting at chest height, ensuring that the horizon line at eye level is straight, and all vertical lines are absolutely at 90o.
3. Remember the Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds is basically visualizing two evenly-spaced vertical and two evenly-spaced horizontal lines in your frame. You then position your shot in such a way that your subject (e.g., a coffee table book, a lampshade, a couch, a bed, etc.) hovers along or near any of the lines. This is one of the most basic rules in composition, and it creates a spatial balance within your frame — ensures that the space is not too crowded and not too empty.
4. Shoot Interior In Wide Angle and Include Three Walls in Your Frame
When capturing interiors or one side of a room, it would be best to include three walls in your frame. This adds depth to the room and creates a sense of size and space for the viewer.
5. Attain Even Exposure
Have you ever heard of the “Magpie Effect?”. It’s a concept that involves our spontaneous pull towards bright and noticeable objects. This is mainly observed in products, but the same behavioral concept also applies to looking at homes. To trigger this response, make sure that your room/shot is well-lit and you achieve an even exposure. Well, brightening up your room equally may not be easy to achieve, but you can always post-process your raw shot and adjust exposure.
You can also illuminate the house perfectly with “direct sunlight,” and you can achieve this through the Flambient Method — the use of both natural light and camera flash.
6. Achieve the Right Temperature Balance (White Balance)
The right image temperature will give your photo a more realistic feel. For interior home photography, the most recommended setting is to have that perfect temperature balance — not too blue, not too orange.
7. Avoid Cutting Objects Partially in Your Shot
When you think you’ve got the perfect shot and everything in your frame seems to be in the right position, angle, and lighting, take one last look at the periphery of your frame. Do you see any objects that have been partly snipped? If you do, you have to either take that object off entirely from the frame or bring it in more. Doing this will make your picture feel “complete.”
8. Don’t Be Afraid to Get Real
You may have heard about home staging and turning your home into this “dream-like” space where viewers can have a sense of newness and freshness, but this shouldn’t be the case 100% of the time. You’d still want to retain that candor and tell your viewers that, “Hey, my home isn’t perfect today, but it does have the potential to be.” Avoid surprising your potential buyer with your home’s flaws because that will not be a great first impression.
If you need more help in marketing your home, contact us at HomeSold GA, and let’s help you create the right connection with your potential buyers. Call us at 770-668-4888 or provide us with your contact information by filling up the form below.