Photography is one of the most useful skills an agent can cultivate; cliché as the description of a picture’s value is, a single photo will serve a listing about as well as 1,000 words will.
There are tricks of the photography trade to nail down, whether you’re snapping quick pics with a smartphone or shooting on a proper camera mounted on a tripod. But taking the picture is only half of the process. Digital photography means there’s no darkroom developing, but you’ve still got to upload the photos—and then, if they need it, shine them up with some editing. For advertising, careful editing is absolutely vital, lest you inaccurately represent what you’re selling.
Time of day and lighting thereof
Twilight is often called “the golden hour” for photography, partly because the sun literally makes the sky golden. Shooting exterior shots of the home at this hour results in naturally high contrast and high saturation photos, qualities that make a photo more eye-catching.
If you can’t budget your photography schedule into that narrow time of day, photoshop can be your friend. But be careful playing with color. You don’t want to distort the actual colors of the property, or go too far and create a mood that—though it looks great in the photo—can’t be matched by reality.
Cropping so much you can notice it
Framing is as vital to a photo as color, so feel free to play around with a photo’s borders to best highlight the subject. Maybe, for instance, there’s too much sky in the photo, so you want to bring the top border down and keep the focus on the house. But be warned—crop too much, especially interior photos, and anyone checking out the listing online will notice. If a photo appears to be cropped, like something is hiding out of frame, that has the potential to set up a red flag that might not actually be planted on the property.
To save yourself time on cropping, be mindful of how you’re framing the photo’s subject when you’re shooting. A simple dead-center shot of a house from the road is tempting, but always remember the rule of thirds: that an image is more appealing when the subject is off to one side of the frame. Scale is important too; when shooting interiors, consider how big you want the space to look when choosing how wide-angle your lens is.
Prettying up a property too much with photo editing
You want the photo to help sell the property, of course, but you don’t want to sell an illusion and end up with some unhappy open house visitors. For instance, don’t use photo editing to hide poor lawn or paint maintenance. Don’t think you can clean over a small crack in the home’s foundation, either.
The best solution is to scan for any issues, or ask your client, and have them fixed before you take the photo. The same could be said for interior shots; clear up any clutter or distracting stray objects before you shoot a space.
