I’d like to offer some advice to hopefully help with your photographic skills.
Look at the exterior from different angles and use your imagination. These scans (below) are both from agents’ actual sales details promoting the same house; ask yourself which would likely attract the greater buyer interest?
Most people find it hard to believe that these are photos of the same house, but they are. The first was taken at the wrong time of day – the Sun was behind it, making the house dark; it was taken from the wrong place, (you can just see the start of the green in the corner of the first photo); the car was in the driveway; the garage door was open and finally, the photo was stretched to fit the agent’s template, hence the Ford Fiesta looks like a limo.
Tips for taking better photographs.
- When photographing interiors, lower the angle of your camera to around waist height. If you’re using an SLR you’ll have to kneel because you won’t have a flip-up viewfinder. It’s worth kneeling though, because you’ll notice an instant improvement in the way your interiors look!
- Use the best equipment you can afford. Never use the camera’s own flash because the light from it will make your picture appear harsh and flat. Also, if your camera has a wide-angle lens attachment, you’ll get a dome-shape shadow to the bottom half of your picture. Instead use a dedicated flashgun with a swivel bounce head. Point the flash head towards the ceiling. This way you are using the ceiling to “bounce” light around the room and this will create subtle shadows giving your picture shape and depth. Most ceilings are white, but some are coloured so understand that if you bounce light off a coloured ceiling, there may be a colour-cast that will need to be removed in Photoshop. Some people advocate not using flash at all. This is often a mistake because if you are photographing towards a window there will be too much shadow to the back of large objects, unless there is some form of room lighting to light those areas that are not directly facing the window.
- Really look through your viewfinder at the picture you’re taking. Look at the edges, not just the middle. Look to see if there is anything out of place. You’ll be amazed . . .
- When you’re photographing exteriors look for the best angle. If you can, frame the picture with a tree branch or foliage from a bush. You may have to go across the road to do this and stand in a neighbour’s drive. Make sure you ask permission, or that they’re not bigger than you if you don’t.
- When photographing modern houses with a low pitch to the roof, stand as far away from the house as you can. Many modern houses have a low pitch to their roofs, so standing close with a wide-angle lens can make the roof look flat. Standing well back will enable more of the roof to be shown.
- Keep the lens as close to 90 degrees to the floor/ceiling as possible. If you slightly tilt the camera forward or backward you’ll exaggerate the distortion you get with most wide-angle lenses. That said it is almost inevitable that you will have to tilt the camera slightly, in order to avoid taking too much ceiling. A little distortion can be corrected in Photoshop, but the more correction that is needed, the more of your photo will be lost at the edges.
