You don’t have to spend big to take photos of your property. Using anything from a mobile phone to a professional grade camera, you can capture each room and amenity and appeal to guests. Here are some basics to get you started.
Photography tricks:
- Rule of thirds: Turn on your camera’s grid feature or visually divide your image into thirds (imagine a 3x3 square grid over your screen). Use these lines as guides to place your most important objects along the intersections for optimal composition, allowing you to snap a more eye-catching photo.
- Leading lines: Our eyes are naturally drawn to vertical, parallel, diagonal, and even strong horizontal lines. Photos with these kind of lines as the main subject will make viewers feel like they are in the place that is pictured.
- Wide shots: Hold steady and take a wide shot view at eye-level to help travelers visualize the whole space. Make sure that the horizontal and vertical lines in the photos are straight. If you have one available, use a tripod to help you with this.
- Lighting: Natural light is your best friend. Take photos during the day and open the curtains to let in natural light. Avoid taking photos on a gloomy or cloudy day as the photos will turn out dull. If there isn’t enough natural light in the room, brighten up the space by simply turning on the lights.
- No filters or special lenses: Don’t take black-and-white or fish-eye photos. Show travelers what the room really looks like without distorting the images. This will make the images appear more credible and guests will be more willing to book.
- Mood and tone: Adjusting the white balance can change the lighting tone of your image. You want to keep the tone clean, bright, and as natural as possible. The best photo temperature is pure white with consistent white balance. This can be adjusted under your camera’s settings.
- Editing: Avoid using HDR, sharpening, shadows, highlights, and clarity filters as much as possible. These will give an inaccurate and unnatural interpretation of the space.
