7 Tips to Taking Better Rental Property Photographs

You never get a second chance at a first impression. As technology grows, potential tenants are checking out your property online before considering even stepping foot onto your property. By amping up your rental property photographs, you can powerfully increase the chances of potential tenants visiting your property. Stand out from thousands of others Boston rentals by incorporating professional photography and staging into your real estate marketing approach. Before hiring a professional photographer, consider adopting these 7 photography practices.

1. Upgrade Your Camera

It is vital to take the best quality property photographs possible, in order to attract serious and high quality tenants. Consider purchasing a DSLR camera to capture professional, crisp images. The Nikon D800 and D7000 are excellent for full-frame real estate photographs, and are affordable options for property managers on a budget. These models are easy to use, and do not require any professional photography training to successfully operate. Also consider purchasing a tripod to capture level and full-frame photographs. 

2. Staging is Key

Assemble furniture and props to provide tenants with a realistic view of how their rental property could look. Clear clutter and unattractive furnishings to provide a clean and clear view of your property. Only include the basic furniture essentials, and keep decorations minimal and timeless.

3. Create Good Lighting 

Before taking photographs, ensure the space is properly lit. When shooting interior photographs, open nearby blinds and windows to take advantage of natural light. Even if it is an extremely bright and sunny day outside, the sun can create harsh shadows on your furniture. Switch on the flash even during the day, the extra lighting will fill in unsightly shadows and create a more balanced exposure. 

4.  Properly Adjust ISO Settings

Properly measuring ISO is essential when taking professional photographs. ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the ISO number is, the more sensitive your camera will be to light and the photographs produced will possess more grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to attain fast shutter speeds. If you are taking your exterior real estate photographs outdoors during the day, you will need to utilize a lower ISO such as 100 or 200. If you are shooting indoors in the afternoon or evening, you will have to increase the ISO to a higher number to record the light on the camera's sensor. If the natural lighting is very dark indoors, you will need to use much higher ISO such as 800 or 1600. Keep in mind, increasing your ISO also increases the grain or pixel size of your photographs, so try to incorporate natural lighting as much as possible in order to keep your ISO balanced.

5. Use Landscape Orientation for Optimal Viewing

Always shoot your real estate photographs in the horizontal or landscape orientation whenever possible. Humans find the horizontal and landscape viewing more aesthetically pleasing, and horizontal images capture the full essence of a space. This allows a wider shot which produces a true sense of depth and detail.

6. Utilize a Wide Angle Camera Lens

Avoid using poor quality fisheye lenses, and instead invest in a wide angle camera lens. The trend in real estate of using a fisheye lens dramatically distorts property images and is deceiving to the potential property tenant. Making a space look larger than it is by distorting the area is not going to increase a renter's interest. Invest in a wide angle camera lens to realistically advertise your property and capture the whole space.

7. Edit Photographs Carefully

Ensure when editing your property photographs to not seriously distort the true image. Keep editing very minimal and avoid unnatural filters. If the lighting needs to be adjusted in the editing stages, slightly adjust the brightness balance until the image looks crisp, clear, and realistic.