Home photography for sale: professional photos by phone

You don't need an expensive camera to take professional-looking phone photos before putting your home up for sale: use natural daylight, hold the phone flat at chest height, tidy up the rooms beforehand, and arrange the photos in the order the buyer will walk through the house. Good photos bring more views to the ad and correctly form the expectation of the buyer who comes to view.

The most important factor: natural light and the right time

Light determines the quality of the photo more than the model of the phone. A dark room looks small and boring even on the best phone.

Shoot during the day. The best time for rooms is when the sun is not shining directly into the room, but it is still light outside. If the window of each room faces a different direction, the shooting can be divided into several hours.
Open the curtains, turn on the lights. Adding lamps in the room to the natural light will soften the shadows. Try not to mix yellow and white light bulbs, otherwise the colors will look strange in the picture.
Don't shoot against the window. A room with a bright window behind it will darken in the picture. Have a window next to or behind you.
Turn off the flash. Flash creates a bright spot and hard shadow on the walls.

Angle and height: make the room look like it is

The buyer should feel like they are inside the room when looking at the photo. A few simple rules are enough for this.

Draw from the corner of the room, the door or the point where two walls meet. This angle shows both the length and width of the room.
Hold the phone at about chest height. A picture taken from above or too low distorts the space.
Hold the phone straight so that walls and door frames don't look crooked. Enabling grid lines in the camera app makes this easier.
If your phone has a wide-angle mode, use it with caution. A small room can be made to appear a little wider, but too much width creates a bend at the edges and misleads the buyer.
Wipe the lens before shooting. Fingerprint makes the picture foggy.

Take pictures of rooms holding the phone horizontally, i.e. horizontally, because the width of the room looks better in this format. Take a few shots of each room, reshoot with a slight change in angle, and then choose the clearest, straightest-looking photo on the computer or big screen. The picture that looks good on the phone sometimes turns out blurry on the big screen.

Tidy before shooting

Things that are not visible in everyday life immediately stand out in the photo. Therefore, prepare the house for the "announcement" the day before the shoot.

Declutter surfaces: keep only one or two decorative items on the kitchen table, above the refrigerator and on the bathroom shelves.
Put away personal belongings, family photos, clothes and shoes. The buyer should imagine himself in the house, not your life.
Make the beds neatly, place the pillows evenly.
Remove the garbage can, cleaning supplies, cables and pet bowls from the frame.
Change the light bulbs that are not burning, wipe the windows and mirrors.

Order of the rooms: walk the buyer through the house

The order of the pictures in the ad is also important. The buyer tries to plan the house in his head while flipping through the photos, so a jumbled row confuses him.

Let the first image be the strongest image: a bright living room, the facade of a courtyard house or a beautiful view.
Then, starting from the entrance, follow the natural route through the house: hallway, living room, kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom.
Choose one or two best images for each room. Five very similar photos of the same room load the ad.
At the end, show additional features such as a balcony, yard, garden, parking.

Yard and facade

If you are selling a house with a courtyard, exterior views are at least as important as the rooms inside. Open the gate, sweep the yard, put away hoses, tools and excess items. Draw the facade when the sun is shining on it, from a little distance and from an angle where the house is fully visible. In Nakhchivan, the sun is very harsh in the summer afternoons and the shadows are sharp, so morning or evening is more suitable for outdoor shooting. If you are selling an apartment, you can also show the entrance of the building, the courtyard and the view from the window.

What not to photograph

Your reflection in the mirror. Take the mirror from a slight side angle so that you do not fall into the frame.
Personal information. Faces of family members, documents and receipts, car number, personal notes on the wall. should not be visible.
Valuable items. It is not safe to display expensive appliances and jewelry in your ad.
Over-filtering. Color-changing filters and heavy editing make the house look different than it is. The buyer loses confidence when they come to view and see the difference.
Angles shot to hide flaws. If there is a problem, it is better to explain it clearly in the view rather than embellish it in a photo.

Look at active ads to see how the existing ads are presented and pay attention to the order in which the photos are arranged.

Frequently given questions

How many photos are enough for a sales ad?

There is no exact number, but it is enough to show each room with one or two quality photos and not to forget additional advantages such as the yard, facade, balcony. A small but clear image is better than many similar images.

Can the images be edited?

Light and flatness can be adjusted a bit. Editing that changes colors, erases imperfections, or makes the room look bigger than it is, misleads the buyer.

Can you shoot on a cloudy day?

A cloudy day can even be beneficial for interior rooms, because the light falls softly and evenly. It is better to wait for a clear day for the facade and yard.

If you are preparing to put your house up for sale, the Evim Imlak team can help you prepare the ad and present the house properly. For more information contact us.