We often talk about how important quality images are in your property listings. We’ve even given advice on how to transform your photos with professional photography tips. But here we’d like to talk a bit about the technical side of things. How can you make sure that the images you’ve taken look sharp, and not blurry and slightly unprofessional?
Why worry about having high quality photos?
In our recent blog What do the top selling agents have in common? we discussed how agents with a higher number of pictures perform better. This is due to the eye-catching nature of imagery helping to draw website visitors into property listings. The better quality your photos are, the more likely they are to catch people’s attention.
Poor quality photos might even give a bad impression of your agency. If you were browsing an online shop, you would want to see decent images of the products you were looking to buy. If images were a little wonky or blurry this would probably make you think twice about the retailer, questioning if they were less than polished in other areas of their business too.
How to produce professional-looking photos
Obviously, the ideal solution is to use a professional photographer. Someone who has been trained to take great pictures and who has an eye for well-balanced, attractive shots. Not to mention someone who knows what they’re doing technically. There’s no doubt this is an investment but if you really don’t feel you have the skills in-house, it may very well be one that pays off.
However, there are other options. Here are some top tips to help you avoid the pitfalls of DIY photography:
- If you can’t pay for the real thing, invest in a decent camera that will at least improve the quality of your images. Even on automatic mode most reasonable cameras should outperform a phone camera and just by learning a few basics you will be able to produce images that put you well ahead of the competition. A good camera will even help you deal better with the issues of light and shade you so often find on a sunny day.
- If you do opt for a phone camera, make sure it is set up correctly to save all images in high resolution. All digital images are made up from pixels, or coloured dots. The more pixels used, the higher the resolution and the more detail you’ll be able to see. So a higher resolution image will appear less blurry, more appealing and more professional. Images should always be shot in high resolution, especially if you want to print them.
- When it comes to transferring photos from your phone to your computer, there are a few things you should know. Rather than emailing the files so that they become compressed and lose quality, use a free transfer site like Dropbox or WeTransfer. Accounts are easy to set up and simple to use. Alternatively, if your phone and laptop / computer are compatible use AirDrop (for iPhone) or Bluetooth.
Conclusion
Ultimately it’s about more than just taking a good photo. You need to make sure you preserve the quality of that image too. That way it will help to catch attention and create a professional reputation for your agency.