How2 Take Better Photos

The most important marketing we do as real estate agents is take good photos of the property. Whether you do it yourself or hire a professional, you need good photos that show the property in its best light – lots of pictures, in good lighting, of clean interiors and exteriors. Here are some tips:

1. Go Ahead, Take Too Many Photos
When you go to take pictures of your listings, take as many as possible. You’re not paying for the film, why do you care? Take different angles of the same picture, take the same picture three times, who cares? Take photos of every single room. Take photos of the views from every room. Take photos of every outside angle on the house. You can figure out what photos to use later, but have more than you need or can possibly use.

2. Upload as Many Photos as the System Allows
Even though the MLS allows agents to import between 15 and 18 photos per listing, a lot of agents take only four or five. That’s unbelievable! Use every slot you can use, and put a photo in it. I don’t care if you’re selling a one-bedroom condo, upload as many photos as possible. And don’t tell me the house is in such terrible condition that you don’t want to take too many photos. Then fix the condition, or don’t list the house. But if you’re going to load it up online, then you should use the maximum photos, even if they are multiple pictures of the same view. If you don’t take enough photos, the buyers think you are hiding something. And they’re right, aren’t they?

3. Take High-Resolution Photos
You should always take photos at the highest resolution setting, which doesn’t mean the biggest setting – there’s a difference between the size of the photo and the quality of the photo, so check your camera’s settings. You’re not going to be printing posters, so you don’t necessarily need a 6 megabyte photo, but you do want the highest possible quality. And even though the MLS is not going to show the photos in the highest resolution, you want those hi-res photos for your flyers and other marketing.

4. Re-Take Your Photos During the Listing Term
Re-take your photos whenever you have the opportunity. Does the house look better because your sellers have recently moved a lot of stuff out of it? Take new photos. Have the seasons changed? Take new photos. Is it a beautiful clear day and the exterior shots you have are dark? Take new photos. Even if the new photos are just a way to seem busy to your seller, take new photos. Remember that a lot of email alerts get sent if the listing posts new photos, so post new photos regularly.

5. Learn Your Camera
Guess what – you’re a professional real estate agent, whose most important job is presenting properties online, so you’re now a professional photographer. Congratulations! So learn how to use your camera. Read the manual. Learn about settings. Learn a little about photography. Learn how to take good photos with your camera. Learn how to set the camera to take high-resolution photos, and then take them.

6. Clean Up!
It’s amazing how many agents put up photos of dirty rooms. I don’t care if you have to move the mess from one room to another, but move it out of the room. Move the kids toys. Move the crap from the countertop. Move all the kitchen appliances to the back porch. Move the cars out of the driveway.

7. Basic Staging
Try to make each room look nice as you take photos, even it’s artificial. If you have one plant in the house, move that plant from room so it’s in all the photos. And empty rooms look terrible in pictures, so try to fill up the empty rooms with something.

8. Use a Wide-Angle Lens
Photographers say that the best way to take a photo is to use a wide-angle lens on each photo. It makes all the rooms look bigger, and you can fit the whole house in a picture.

9. Get Good Lighting
Lighting is the single most important factor in taking good pictures. Take outside photos during the middle of the day, on a bright day, when the sun is at its height. Why? Because you get fewer shadows on the outside photos, and you’ll get good light on the interior shots. However, be careful of dark interior rooms with light coming from outside – you get washed out dark interiors.

Some other tips on lighting:
• Take outside photos with the sun behind you, not behind the house or high in the sky.
• Try taking outside photos at dusk, when the colors come out beautifully.
• Take interior photos with all the lights on, even during the day.
• Don’t use a flash if you don’t have to.
• Take interior photos on a cloudy day to get natural lighting.
• Never shoot interiors at night unless you’re looking for a mood.

10. Basic Tips
Here are some other basic tips for photos:

• Don’t take photos of the house with a car parked in front of it.
• Don’t take photos of people or animals.
• If the listing is a condo or coop, don’t be afraid to make an interior shot the lead shot. Look at how they do their photos in the city.
• Post new photos, at least one, every few weeks to take advantage of email alerts.
• Get interior shots of rentals, even if you have to buy tenants an ice cream cone.
• Make sure you have storage space on your photo card.
• Make sure your battery is charged.
• Ideally, have a tripod to stabilize your camera (and look more professional)
• Make sure the property is prepared for photographs.
• Download the photos to your computer, and number them in order you want to display them.
• Take the time to upload the high-resolution ones to Randcenter.