Internal photographs
The best time to take photos of the inside of a house is in the middle of the day. It will eliminate any odd tints or colours produced by direct sunlight, dawn and sunsets. Additional lighting may be unnecessary, but turning off all of the existing lights while relying on natural light can assist in revealing as to whether you may need to use it.
Composition
Incorporating compositional elements into your photographs can go a long way. Photos taken to sell a home do not have to be National Geographic-worthy, but the most interesting, eye-catching and memorable photographs usually contain an element of composition or two.
- Try different angles and perspectives from within the room for something different.
- Utilize leading lines: stairways, railings, floor tiles, any lines running throughout or into the photo to draw the viewer’s eyes in.
- Crop thoughtfully. Zoom into the photo to avoid showing the cracked sidewalk, garbage bins, or power lines.
- Patterns (like floor tiles) and colour (like a bouquet of fresh flowers) can attract attention and make the viewer want to keep his or her eyes on it just a bit longer.
- If taking outside photos at dusk, turn on all of the lights so that the windows are illuminated and take a new photo every few minutes as the sun sets to capture the changes in the sky for a unique look each time.
Fill flash
The camera’s flash is not only for use in low-light situations or as the main light source in a photograph, it can also be a flexible lighting tool. Not using flash in the day time or in seemingly well-lit rooms can result in shadows, darker corners and unflattering light. However, using too much flash can also overexpose the part of the picture that is closer to the camera, leaving bright white areas around the edges.
Instead, use fill flash – a short burst of light that will subtly illuminate hidden details in the photo while only just adequately lighting other areas.
Fill flash is perfect for using when windows only brighten up some of a room and leave furniture in the dark, make the room look more spacious or provide a better representation of what the view through a window actually looks like while taking a photo from within the room.
Using fill flash might be one of the best options for taking well-lit indoor and outdoor photographs if additional lighting is impossible. Try taking photos with and without it, and you’ll be able to see the difference easily. Most cameras can be easily set to fill flash mode, but because every camera is different, you should consult the manual.
Otherwise, you can fiddle with the flash power output levels until your photos look nicer.
