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December 2009
Index of all
past
Affiliate Corner columns
Pictures make perfect! Photos can help you sell
By Sharri Amaro
Front Range Virtual Tours/Express Flyers
Real estate photography can be challenging at best. Every listing is a new experience and all have their own unique requirements.
You can succeed in projecting the best presentation for your clients when you have in mind the purpose of the listing photos. You will be sending these photos out across the Internet for the entire world to see! You will also use them for your printed marketing pieces. What do your listing photos say about you as a REALTOR®?
Use professional polish
Your clients are hiring you, as a professional, to MARKET their home. Shoddy photos taken with your point-and-click camera or your cell phone do not do justice to your clients. Put yourself in their shoes. How would you feel about a business provider who offered you poor quality products or services?
Here are a few steps to ensure that the photos you take will make you shine and have your clients referring you to their friends and family.
Take your time. Your clients will appreciate your wanting to do a great job. Tell them that you will need some time (20 to 30 minutes minimum) to take photos. Snapping a few photos right after the listing agreement is signed is not ideal for quality photos. Set up a time to come back when the house is presentable or let your clients know you will be taking photos when you come to complete the paperwork.
Give them a to-do list. A simple prep list (see the information to the right)) is imperative to get the home ready for photos. Your no-nonsense approach will help them get their house sold and make you look like a true professional.
Be camera-smart. You don’t have to be a professional photographer, but at least know how to use your camera. It usually comes with a simple “get-started” instruction manual. Here are some helpful suggestions:
Turn off the date stamp. You probably don’t want the potential buyers to see that your photo was taken March 15. . .and it is now August.
Quantity IS quality. Take a lot of photos, at least six of each room from all four corners so you have several angles from which to choose.
Get the widest angle. A professional photographer uses very expensive wide-angle lenses to capture an entire room. If you’re not ready to spend that much on camera gear, you have two choices: hire the professional or do your best. Stand as far back as you can to get the widest angle. Stand on a chair so you can get more of the room. Try to shoot corner to corner, not straight on. Don’t take photos of only the furniture – try to get the whole room.
Get the right light. Lighting is tricky. If you are shooting a room with a lot of sunlight streaming in, close the curtains or blinds or focus your camera on a darker part of the room and press the shutter half way down to get it to adjust to the darker area and then turn back to the spot you want to shoot and depress the button all the way to take the photo. Do this two or three times to make sure you don’t get a lot of movement. For most shots, turn on all of the lights possible. For exterior shots, try to keep the sun behind you.
Choose wisely. After you download your photos, choose the best ones of each room. Remember, you need 10 photos for PrimeAccess®. Save all the photos into a folder and then create a new folder for the ones you are going to edit and use.
Edit well. Save the raw photos until you are completely finished editing the best ones so you can access them again if you “over-edit” them. Simple photo editing software can quickly and easily improve or correct your photos. Familiarize yourself with the basic tools: lightning, contrast, crop and tint. You should be able to do everything you need to with these few tools. When you are finished editing you can delete the extra photos.
Re-size. If you’ve taken the high-quality photos that you should, you will need to re-size them for upload to PrimeAccess® and for use in e-mail and on the Internet. Create a separate file called “re-sized” and copy the edited photos into this folder. Open the photos in your photo editing software and find the re-size tool. Simply select each photo and choose the size that is 640 x 480 or somewhere in that general area. Save the photos in the resized folder. These will be the right size to e-mail or upload.
Remember, your photos tell your clients that you care about the presentation of their home. It builds respect for you and your business. Happy shooting!
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