If I show up with a cell phone to take pictures of your house, just fire me.
Cell phones do not take great listing pictures!
Many people overlook one of the major aspects of selling a home, great listing pictures. Sure the Internet helps to sell a lot of homes, but like everything else with a computer, garbage in, garbage out.
What does it take to present a house on the Internet in a fashion it deserves? Which may in fact effect the actual selling price.
Cameras come in all shapes, sizes, and qualities. Some are in fact better than others. Reviews are still written on cameras by professionals who make a living in the world of photography. You don’t need a $1000 camera to take great listing pictures of a home, nor do you need an 18 MP camera. As a matter of fact, you don’t want to make your picture files too large. You never know how the Internet site they are displayed on will compress them. Compression causes a lot of distortion on pictures, and can ruin a really good shot. I shoot for picture files of about 100,000 bytes, which is rather small, and often difficult to find on a quality, modern camera. I often use files on the 150,000 to 200,000 byte range. Compression is minimal, they load much quicker, and if you check the websites, the standard seems to be about 100,000 bytes on the pictures displayed on most websites. Avoiding too drastic of a compression ratio is rule number one. Smaller files also upload much quicker.
Is flash or natural light better? Well I make enough money from selling a house to go through all the rooms two or three times. I take pictures with and without a flash, then look at them on my computer screen to decide which to upload to the Internet. I may take as many as 100 pictures, then choose 25 to add to the websites.
The camera lens is another major factor. I use cameras with 25 and 24mm lenses. Don’t ask me what the other standard is, I’m and old 35mm guy. The new digital zoom cameras are great. I choose to use a bridge camera. Not as high of quality as the big money models, but great optics, and a lot of features. I can tell the difference between my 24 and 25mm camera. The 24mm is what to shoot for, and gives about the best wide angle picture you need inside a house. Especially small rooms. Getting a wider angle, like a 20-22mm would be a plus, but try and find one.
The 25mm camera does a great job, is simple to use, and has great optics. I prefer Fuji cameras based on their optics, that is lenses, and the fact they use standard AA batteries. Getting quality, name brand rechargeable batteries is another plus. Good batteries last ears, and take over 300 pictures in a single charge.
Looking for the right angle to take a picture of each room is no problem. I take pictures from all 4 corners. There is a little trade secret I use to make rooms appear much larger than they really are. The 24mm wide angle lens in only the beginning.
I also take a series of pictures I don’t put on the Internet. The basement, walls, the electrical box, water heater, furnace, and if appliances are included, I take pictures of those. I use those as back ups, just to avoid any possible issues. It’s called, working smarter.
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