Because more and more people are searching for properties online before they even step into an estate agents office, great photographs are increasingly becoming essential in marketing a house. A good photograph of a property will catch the eye of house-hunters instantly, whereas poorly lit, wonky pictures are off-putting and relegate a property to the ‘to look at later’ list. This is a bit of an expansion on an article I wrote a few weeks back for the Right Move blog.

Photograph of an expertly crafted Mowlem and Co kitchen

Attach your camera to a tripod. Hand held cameras are great for taking spur of the moment pictures, but a tripod will give you the stability to take clearer, sharper photographs. Work the scene until you have the composition you want, then get out your tripod. Even in the brightest of rooms, I'm quite often surprised about how low a shutter speed I'm working with. Being clamped to a tripod guarantees a sharp picture even at the slowest shutter speeds.
Switch on all the house lights Even during the day. Having all the lights on in your home will instantly make it look warmer and more appealing. Hotels do it, estate agents do it, and they do it for a reason.
Use lighting equipment. Dark corners don’t do your home any favours online, but simple lighting equipment will help you illuminate them. A flash will help, as will a reflector and even a light stand.
Room preparation. Sometimes called staging, preparing a room is a way of showing how best it can be used. This is very often done by temporarily repositioning furniture in a room and putting lamps on tables and flowers in vases, or setting a table for dinner.
Hot shoe bubble spirit level. To prevent your pictures looking wonky, use a bubble spirit level to ensure your camera is perfectly angled for each room. You can get these from ebay or your local camera store for a few pounds. They pop right into your hot shoe, and they make all the difference. If your picture looks lopsided, it's an instant turn off.
Take your exterior shots in the morning. Getting up a dawn isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but it’s the ideal time of day to get the best photographs of the outside of a property: dawn light is better and there are fewer people around. In fact civil twilight is the best time. That's around 30-40 minutes before dawn, or the same after sunset (it varies depending on the time of year). Agreed mid-summer, not too many people are going to want to get up at 3am to shoot, but if you want that winning shot.....
Watch how the light hits your house. At different times of the day, and at different times of year, the light will change how your house looks. Take some time to stand outside and see how it looks on different days. So plan ahead, if you think that your house looks at its best in mid-December then why not try and get some great photographs of it. There's nothing stopping you using these when you want to sell it mid-summer three years later.
Processing the image. Today, processing is a term for how the image is put through photography software before it is ready to be used. This helps to soften, sharpen and generally tidy up any imperfections. Sometimes a little vignette helps draw the viewers eye to a particular area of the photograph, or you may want to bring out the colour a little more. Adobe Lightroom is a must have for any serious photographer, and the tools available inside this application in it's latest iteration are really quite incredible.
Take a photography course. There are photography courses run at adult education centres all over the country, and are the best place to start learning about taking better pictures. Alternatively many professional photographers now run their own workshops. Look at the work of photographers you admire, and contact them to see if they offer any instruction.
Get a professional photographer. Hiring a professional is very cost effective. They are not expensive and can make the difference between the house selling/renting quickly or not. If you’re thinking of renting your property, then with a one-time investment in professional photographs, you can re-use them each time you come to let the property.

If you'd like to know more about the services I offer to home sellers, estate agents or lettings agents, then pop on over to my dedicated site - www.interior-photo.net

Ten top tips for better property photographs