Mistakes to avoid while using Real Estate Photographs: Real Estate photographs are what make the business run smoothly. If you are looking to impress potential buyers then taking professional pictures of the property is the first step in engaging the clients and attracting their interest in the particular property that you are trying to sell. The photographs of any property that is up for sale are supposed to portray the best features of the property and to light upon why it is the ideal choice. Photographs have the power to impact a person’s perspective about a place. A photograph taken right helps enlighten the positive qualities of a particular space and if taken wrong it can make any great space look minuscule on a scale of quality and aesthetics.
You might know that the best marketing strategy for real estate is through pictures. What you may not realize are the mistakes that are most commonly made when taking pictures of your property. Bad angles are one of your opponent’s weapons. Start by making your photo at least above waist level. You want to feature the best of your building, not what it’s next to. Most people snap the buildings they live in, but using the zoom feature on your camera helps you take the audience on a tour. You may not know this, but all digital cameras have a wide-angle feature. So, if you’re taking pictures of your building on the ground level, you’ll need to zoom in.
When using real estate photographs you are giving the buyer important information that will influence their decision in whether or not the property is what they are looking for. Here are some mistakes that should be avoided at all costs while using Real Estate Photographs:
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6 Major Mistakes to avoid while using Real Estate Photographs
Using irrelevant photographs
Show the client photographs of the property that are relevant to their interests and what they are looking for. For example, if a buyer is interested in having large rooms and an open common area then do not go around showing pictures of tight corridors or the attic, show them a room lit up with natural light and ideally, pictures of the living room.
Using irrelevant photographs will make your audience lose interest. Creating an interesting photograph come with practice, but there are certain guidelines you should follow. Keep your photograph relevant to the subject. Try to use photographs that show the house or building’s architectural details. Photographs taken close up are also preferable to those taken from a distance.
Using photographs that are too bright or too dull can make your home seem less interesting, but photographing the home at the wrong time of day can make it seem cold and dark. When you feature photographs that are featureless, you won’t showcase all of the home’s best features.
Lighting errors
Lighting is perhaps the most essential trick of photography. So when showing real estate photographs make sure that they are well-lit photographs preferably taken in daylight. A well-lit photograph really brings on the charm. Lighting is essential when trying to focus on the best features of a space. Moreover, bright white light or daylight helps in showing how to open space can be and yellowish light can help lay emphasis on the coziness of a space. So keep these tricks in mind and try to avoid all errors regarding lighting.
Lighting is one of the most important factors when it comes to real estate photography. If your house looks like a dark tomb, it’s not going to sell. Make sure to use natural light as much as possible and to avoid harsh shadows. If you do need to use indoor lighting, make sure to use a good light that doesn’t cast shadows and instead diffuses light and softens the shadows that may already be there.
Harsh Sunlight
Harsh sunlight is a real issue. One of the key things to avoid is overexposing the light so that the light becomes white and nondescript.
Framing errors
Frames can be a great way of combining a frame with a natural frame of a building. In the right frame of mind, you can frame a newspaper article or a personal object.
Subject matter editing errors
Photos that have been edited should be of the same quality as the original photo.
Also, Read: What is Home Staging? How is it Important?
Crooked lines
One of the most common ones is when the property lines are crooked. This is a very easily avoidable mistake and can make a lot of difference when it comes to selling a property.
Crooked lines should be avoided at all costs when using real estate photographs. When you choose which photo should be shown to a real estate client or a potential buyer you should make sure that you choose photographs that are accurate according to alignment because crooked lines distort the image and hence the perspective of the space.
Closed blinds and curtains
Closed blinds and curtains are a big no-no on a photo. It means you didn’t bother to do a little extra, and it shows a lack of creativity and effort on your behalf. Your photo needs to show the living area of the property, and it should be bright and attractive.
Make sure that the pictures of a space that you are using have been taken with open blinds and curtains. Opening up the blinds and curtains gives a bit of the context from inside and also shows the views that you will get from inside the room. Other than that this will allow you to get great photographs with natural light and will make the particular room look more fresh and spacious.
The photos should feature the best of your home, which means showcasing the space in its full potential. Open the curtains and blinds to let as much light into the room as possible. That will help the prospective buyers see how beautiful your home is.
Not Informing the Client on How to Prepare the space for photography
Preparing the space for photographs is one of the most important steps to getting the right photos. It’s easy to take really simple shots of the space and upload them to the listing, but the photos don’t look as complete or professional. There are so many easy things you can do to make sure the space is presentable. The first mistake people make is not educating their clients on how to prep the space. People can think they don’t need to clean the space but you want the room to show the way it would be if the space was fully furnished. It’s good to remind clients that they can’t hang anything up or do anything that might affect the atmosphere of the room.
Do not used the cluttered photographs
Clutter is a common mistake made when photographing a property. Not only does it detract from the beauty of a home, but it can also make a house feel smaller, disorganized, and cramped. To avoid this, clear the area before taking photos and don’t incorporate large pieces of furniture that might have a distracting feel.
Also, Read: 3D Rendering Interior Design Made Easy
Removing clutter and making a space look neutral can be a real challenge. Especially, when you have more things in your home than you know what to do with. But, remember to keep all your clutter out of the photos. For example, it’s not a good idea to take a picture of a couch or a table right in front of a wall of books. In the past, it was very fashionable to show a stack of magazines on a coffee table or a room full of furniture, but these days, it won’t work. Another mistake is to take a picture of a home that looks too staged. To avoid looking like a store display, make your space more of a natural setting.
Clutter is the worst. Avoid the clutter, and you’ll avoid a lot of mistakes. If a room is cluttered, the biggest mistake that could happen is to accidentally over-expose shots. This can happen if clutter is spread throughout a room or if there’s a direct glare from a window. Another common mistake is to inadvertently cut off a person’s head. This can happen if a person’s head is positioned lower than the camera. The solution to this problem is to shoot your photos from the knee up. The final mistake we’ll mention is forgetting to light or light poorly. The solution? Natural or artificial light.
Improvement Before and After Photos
If your purpose is not to sale
After making significant improvements to a property, some homeowners might worry they will regret not having documented the home at its original state. Whether you want old photos as a reminder of how far a place has come or as a way of staging a property before a showing, a photographer should always have a drone or strong stands that let them shoot from a bird’s eye view. This way, they have a record of what a home looked like before any major renovations.
If you want to sale the house
You probably know that it’s a good idea to avoid photos before and after improvements in your marketing because this suggests an inflated offer price. The way you might not have considered is that you should never have a photo of a property before improvements. If a property is a fixer-upper, a photo of a property before improvements can scare a potential buyer away. If you must sell a property with some repairs, it’s best to remove any photos of the property before alterations.
Also, Read: Best Home Design Ideas
Nobody wants to buy a property without knowing the layout of the interior, and a floor plan is a lot more useful than a photo. However, sometimes people forget to include a floor plan because they’re not sure what size it should be, don’t have the necessary software, or just haven’t taken the time to create one.
These are the mistakes that most people make when using real estate photographs and these mistakes can cost you many good buyers and bidders. So, be sure to avoid these rooky photography mistakes at all costs when selling or renting a real estate property.