Entering a new photography market is equal parts exciting and stressful. While you have many new opportunities to explore, you also have to begin learning the basics of how to succeed in that industry’s parameters.
Today, check out this 101 guide on rental property photography. Whether you’re experienced in photography or real estate, these tips will ensure that rental properties appear in an appealing light in all marketing.
#1: Light Your Photos Properly
The most important thing to consider when working on rental property photography, like all photography fields, is the lighting. When a room is adequately lit, it will appear larger, homier, and more put together. These factors are all important to the marketability of a rental property.
Taking photographs inside of a house can be a challenge because of lighting restrictions. If you take photos in rooms that are not properly lit, the images can be grainy and appear unprofessional. In most cases, however, home interiors are not lit like a photography studio.
To take the best photos, follow these tips:
- Use natural light whenever possible: always do rental photography during the daytime!
- Avoid direct sunlight, but keep blinds and windows open.
- Photographing on an overcast day may provide the best lighting.
- Turn on all the lights inside for maximum brightness.
- Try not to use flash; it leads to washed-out photos.
If any rooms cannot be photographed without flash, it might be time for the property owner to improve the lighting. This will not only improve the photos, but better lighting will also enhance the overall appeal of the unit to potential renters.
#2: Check Your Angles
Your goal should be to capture a realistic view of the rental space, which can take some angle manipulation. Even if a room looks great in person, getting the rooms to look the same in photos can be difficult due to lens limitations.
Rental property photography can benefit from a wide-angle lens for this reason, but you don’t want to go as wide as a fisheye lens. Capturing a room with too wide of a lens will give potential tenants unrealistic expectations, and they are likely going to be disappointed when they come to tour the property.
On the other hand, 10-18mm lenses are great for capturing tight spaces like 3-piece bathrooms without being too wide in bedrooms and outside views. Mixing this with a more standard lens size can make for a great toolkit to capture each room successfully.
Finally, consider which angle you capture the room from. Most rooms are best photographed if you take the picture from the doorway where you enter the room. This helps potential tenants picture themselves in the room. Rooms with multiple entry points offer options, so you might consider taking more than one angle.
#3: Prepare The Space
If a property owner hires you to photograph a space, they will likely have prepped how it looks ahead of time. If you are the property owner or it has not been cleaned up, it will be essential to ensure things are properly cleaned and decluttered before photographing the space.
Prospective tenants don’t want to see a bunch of stuff crammed into the rental space. Instead, they want to be able to imagine themselves in the space. The spaces that you shoot should be clean and tidy. As you move through the unit to take photos, make sure curtains and bedsheets are straightened, and toilet seats are closed. These little details can make a big difference!
#4 Edit Properly
All photographers know that even if you take great photos in person, there will always be some editing to make the images look even better.
The best way to do this is to load the pictures onto a laptop and open your favorite photo editing software. Lightroom is very popular with photographers because of the wide range of presets and easy-to-learn options it has. Whether you’re a beginner or experienced in editing, getting rental property photos to look great is very doable.
Here are the primary things to check as you edit:
- Is everything in focus? If not, eliminate the photo.
- Are the vertical lines straight? Use the crop and straighten tools to ensure things are straight.
- How is the white balance? Adjust this so the rooms don’t look too orange or yellow from the lighting.
- How is the contrast? Be sure every photo has clear brights and darks.
- What size should the finals be? Double-check this before compressing and exporting.
Listing With Style
The goal in taking rental property photography is to showcase the best of the property so that prospective tenants are excited to come and check it out. There is a learning curve in doing this well, but these four tips will help you get your pictures on the right track from the beginning of this business.
