This blog is dedicated to all the common people who want to take good professional looking real estate pictures. These are simple tips and tricks that anyone can use to take professional looking real estate pictures. These tips are very helpful for taking real estate pictures of confined spaces in apartments and flats.
Whenever I have asked for pictures from other real estate agents or property owners, they are usually not up to par. Pictures are the first thing that any buyer asks for. They want to pre-qualify if the apartment proposed is as per their taste and liking. I am not a professional photographer but over the years I have made many mistakes and also observed others make many mistakes. This blog is the culmination of all those mistakes. I am hoping that once I share these tips with you, you will be able to take better pictures. This will help you in getting more walk-ins and more eyes to your property which ultimately, will help you to sell your property quickly.
→ Clean up the Apartment
I have always stressed on the point of cleaning apartments in a lot of my other blogs. A clean apartment presents much better. It shows to the buyer that you care for your property. A clean apartment looks spacious even if it is smaller than usual. It looks aesthetically appealing to the eye. The camera catches those things quite eloquently. The some eloquence is forwarded to the buyer in the form of WhatsApp messages and emails. Besides cleaning up the apartment, you can also sort your house. For example, lining up the dining table, clearing up the old newspapers, etc. The camera loves straight lines which will will boost the impact of your real estate pictures.
→ Landscape Not Portrait
It is very important to take real estate pictures in landscape mode. Avoid taking real estate pictures in portrait mode. Portrait pictures might work for instagram or your TikTok story but for real estate pictures it fails miserably. You cannot catch the essence of an apartment in portrait mode. In landscape you simply get more. When you are holding the camera, don’t hold it at eye level. It is better to hold it at your waist. You have to squat down and take the picture. This enables you to get the ceiling as well as the flooring in the picture. Bedrooms and living rooms look grander when you can see both aspect of the floor and ceiling.
→ Avoid These At All Costs
Make sure that you take pictures of only inanimate objects. By this I mean that there should be no human being in the picture. Often times, real estate agents feel shy to ask a family member to move. They come in the frame. It is very awkward for others to see someone else in the frame. There are house helps/maids in the apartment who come in the picture. Property owners themselves make these same mistakes. It takes away the focus of the picture away from the home to that individual. The eyes automatically gravitate to that one person.
For example. You are sitting and watching a good movie in the theater. It’s an important scene and someone in front of you just stands and starts walking, hiding the entire frame. You won’t like that, would you? That is exactly the same thing that happens when a buyer sees a picture with a person in it. Please try avoiding it in your real estate pictures.
Bathrooms are an annoying place to take pictures. You are really confined in these places in Mumbai apartments. It is still important to take pictures in landscape mode. You can take multiple pictures and choose the best one to send to the buyer later. One VERY important point in bathrooms is to make sure that the toilet seat is DOWN! It is IMPERATIVE. You can try one picture with the toilet seat up and another one with the toilet seat down. The difference is phenomenal.
→ Lights
Natural light is by far the most important aspect of any real estate pictures. The moment you enter into the apartment, instinctively you should switch on all the lights and open all the curtains. If the apartment is bright then you can switch on just a few accent lights. The fans in the room should be off. Ensure that the light source is not in front of the camera i.e. the windows should be facing your back. If you are shooting towards the window then you might have to play with your phone’s light settings.
→ Wide Angle is a Boon for Real Estate Pictures
Nowadays a lot of the cell phones come with a wide angle option. Use that wide angle option to take your real estate pictures. Your camera catches more of a confined space. If you have a phone with a wide angle option then take a picture right now of whatever is in front of you without a wide angle option and then with a wide angle option. You will see SO MUCH MORE in your camera, it will amaze you. If you have an older phone then you can buy a wide angle lens from Amazon. I have been using Aukey lens since the last 4-5 years. It has helped me out tremendously in taking pictures. There are some other newer brands like Sirui and SKYVIK Signi Pro 2 also which are very good. Investing in a good quality wide angle lens should be a MUST for real estate agents. It is a gift that keeps on giving.
I hope all these tips will help you taking much better real estate pictures, resulting in better walk-ins and a quicker sale or renting of your apartment.