However, getting the most out of small spaces isn’t simple, even for professional photographers. Every room poses its challenges. So, you’ll need to pay special attention to details and create professional photos to achieve your desired results. That’s why we’ve presented a few practical tips for anyone who wants to use real estate photography while selling a property.

Secure Reliable Help to Streamline Your Photoshoot Preparation

You’ll need plenty of time to prepare your space to get the most out of a photoshoot, so don’t underestimate how big of a job this is. In the process, you’ll have to remove clutter and non-essential items from the area you plan to shoot.

That will probably take too long if you decide to do it yourself. Therefore, consider working with a professional moving and storage company to simplify the process. However, make sure you hire trustworthy assistance for this job. When you choose a moving and storage company, consider how you’ll gauge their reliability. Check that they have things like:

• Proven experience and expertise,
• A wide range of moving and storage services,
• Positive customer reviews.

If you’re selling your own home and transporting personal furniture and items, hiring people you can trust becomes even more important. They need to safely and efficiently remove or temporarily store anything you need.

After the area is cleared, a photographer can easily capture the best features of every room and present the whole property at its best. And if you hire professional movers to help you, removing furniture and other items won’t cause you a headache.

Maximize Space with Strategic Composition

To make a small room look bigger, you’ll need to learn about composition techniques in photography. Don’t worry; you won’t need a 3-month-long course — a few key elements will do the trick for real estate photography.

For example, you need to learn to use wide-angle lenses adequately. You can capture a broad view even in a small room with them. However, if you’re not a professional, you must take care of things from various angles. When the lens angle is too wide, the photo of a room can easily get too distorted.

You want the room to appear somewhat bigger, not double its size. Potential buyers may feel misled if your angle is too wide. To avoid damaging your reputation, carefully choose the photos you’ll use to present the property.

Other Ways To Maximize Space

Besides wide angles, there are other ways to make your room appear more spacious. For example, you can change the position of your camera.

When you place the camera in the room’s corners, you can maximize depth perception. As a result, anyone looking with the naked eye will think the room is slightly larger than it is in real life. Like the wide angles, you don’t want to overdo this either — always ensure the photo looks natural.

Also, effective real estate photography isn’t only about taking great natural shots. It’s also about how you’ll arrange the photos on your listing.

If you create a slideshow with photos in the right order, you can create a visual pathway each potential buyer will follow. As a result, they’ll be able to visualize the flow of the space by looking at the pictures.

Use Natural and Supplemental Lighting

Lighting can significantly impact your room’s appearance in photos, especially in small spaces. And since photos on listings are your home’s digital curb appeal, this is important.

When considering lighting, remember this: regardless of what artificial lighting you install, there’s no getting around one fact: every room looks best in natural daylight.

Nothing opens up a space like natural light, so try to capture this in your real estate photography. Schedule your photoshoot during the daytime, specifically when sunlight hits the room.

Ideally, your small space will have large windows that allow plenty of natural light to enter the room. Since this isn’t always an option, you may also need to make the most of artificial lighting.

Most professional photographers have portable lighting kits as essential gear. Placing them strategically in the right corner can brighten up your space for the photo. However, this is another technique you should use carefully. You don’t want to create direct, harsh light that can shrink a room — or change its appearance so much that it doesn’t look like the real thing in the photos.

Clever Staging Techniques in Real Estate Photography

You need to stage a small space properly to make it more attractive. Sure, removing excess clutter is important, as we’ve discussed. But you must stage the area by placing some furniture and decor. After all, it must look like a realistic, lived-in property — especially if you’re marketing a rental.

That also allows you to create more space with strategic furniture placement. If you place smaller furniture properly, you can create the illusion of more space. Choose your staging furniture carefully — it must be proportional to the room’s dimensions. That way, it won’t overwhelm the space.

Don’t Skimp on Post-Processing

Don’t kid yourself — most professional photos you see anywhere today are heavily edited.  Post-processing is essential to real estate photography because it lets you refine images. While editing, you can put the finishing touches on these photos to make the property stand out in a competitive market. That is essential since homes with professional photos are sold up to 60% faster than those listed with amateur images.

Of course, you must also be careful not to mislead buyers here. Don’t overdo it and completely alter the appearance of the property. Instead, slightly change the color balance, brightness, and contrast to make the small space appealing.

Conclusion

Effective real estate photography can help you sell any home, especially a smaller one. However, don’t expect this to take only a few minutes if you’re not a professional photographer. Creating professional photos of your property takes careful preparation, and it’s best handled by experts who know what they’re doing.

The post Making Small Spaces Shine in Real Estate Photography appeared first on COLDEA Productions, LLC.

Why Are Lifestyle Real Estate Videos So Popular?

With the right approach, every home can shine. All you need is the proper spotlight to sand out any rough edges of the property and show buyers the value they’re getting for their money.

From a tiny cozy cottage to a luxurious mansion, you can quickly sell anything with a lifestyle video. All it takes is a little creativity; a buyer will be ready with the down payment before they’ve even seen the place.

So, how do these creative videos work?

For starters, you should know these are high-end productions. While this approach can work for the average home as well, lifestyle videos work best when showcasing luxurious properties.

When you watch an average lifestyle video, it’s usually quite function-oriented. It helps potential buyers visualize the space and showcases any regular features of the home. With the lifestyle video format, you’re doing something different. Instead, you’re trying to immerse the buyer in the experience of living in the home.

How Do I Create A Lifestyle Video?

While this may sound simple, it’s actually quite difficult. Or, rather, it’s hard to stand out in a sea of high-quality lifestyle videos. Most sellers of luxurious properties have caught onto the trend, or they’ve hired cutting-edge real estate agencies that know what they’re doing.

With this in mind, the question is — how do you create a video that stands out?

Create a Story

Like all online ads, lifestyle videos sell homes faster if they go viral. To achieve this, you need to hook viewers early and stop them from moving on to the next thing recommended by their algorithm.

For this, you need to have a story. Something needs to be happening around the property you’re selling. Remember, this shouldn’t be a straight ad right away. For instance, try to think of creative ideas for home remodeling and make the video as a vlog for the project.

It doesn’t have to be anything too big. The important thing is that it allows you to go through the property seamlessly. In the process, you can showcase the home as a whole and specific amenities.

Without this approach, your video will amount to little more than a few disconnected shots. People don’t have the patience for content that isn’t informative or creative, and they quickly move on.

Before you produce the video, take the time to create a storyboard. It should map out the key shots you want and the story you’re trying to tell, beat by beat.

Fortunately, most high-end properties have unique features you can use for the story. For instance, a barn or a small lake is perfect for a narrative. Just make sure your story is cohesive and interesting enough on its own.

Use Real People

While you may want to create the vibe of a Hallmark holiday movie, remember — you’re not making a professional movie, but a lifestyle video. So, while having a story is important, you must also keep the video relatable and natural.

Considering this, you don’t want to hire professional actors, even if you have the budget for them. To keep the human element as relatable as possible, get your friends and family to play something. Also, feel free to keep a couple of funny bloopers in the video to keep it engaging and positive.

Once you start filming, keep things simple when it comes to direction. Give straightforward cues in terms of behavior — most of the lines will likely be covered in the voiceover anyway. All your “actors” have to do is perform actions while laughing and enjoying themselves.

Work on Sound Design

Don’t underestimate the additional quality brought to your videos by sound design — all professional video production teams use it. Sure, you can capture some natural sounds while filming — but it won’t be enough. In most cases, professional lifestyle videos sell homes faster with decent sound design.

In practice, this entails adding quality sounds that match your scenes. If you’re filming a pool on your property, add water-splashing sounds to the shot. Also, you can make night scenes more atmospheric by adding cricket chirping.

Before you release the final edit of the video, consider ambient effects that you can add to each individual shot. Most professional videos have this level of quality, and yours needs to reach that standard to stand apart.

Combine Real Estate & Lifestyle Shots

Lifestyle shots are the main aspect of real estate lifestyle videos. However, you still need to sprinkle in a few classic real estate shots. After all, the main point is showcasing the property.

So, let’s say you showcase a specific function of your kitchen, like a bar area or a particularly gorgeous island. After preparing for a video shoot with actors having fun in that section of the home, transition to a wide shot that shows the entire kitchen.

Besides engaging viewers, this approach ensures you’re showcasing the property in its entirety.

Wrapping Up

Lifestyle videos sell homes quicker than most other formats — including traditional video formats for real estate. If you manage to create a short-form cinematic view of your luxury home, you’ll have no trouble attracting buyers.

While creating a proper lifestyle video can be expensive, it’s well worth it. If you follow the tips above and do your best to film something engaging, you’ll have prospective buyers lined up soon enough!

The post How Lifestyle Videos Sell Homes Faster Than Traditional Listings appeared first on COLDEA Productions, LLC.