Taking Better MLS Photos from a Morris County Stager/Photographer
The following are tips and editing tricks on getting great MLS photos. What your eyes see and what shows up in a photo aren’t always the same – trust me!
Indoor photos:
1. Yellow lampshades create an orange glow that isn’t attractive. Always take photos with and without the lights on. White lampshades usually work, but dark lampshades usually cast an unattractive and distracting color. This is the BEFORE PHOTO of a home I staged…
2. Always direct your photos at a focal point in the room: fireplace, bed, dining room, kitchen table, couch by windows - you want to combine showing off the size of the space and home's architectural features with something appealing by drawing your eye to an object of interest.
This is the “After” photo of the room above – 2 things to learn from this – the lamps are off (no orange glow) and the photo shows an object of interest while highlighting the windows and space of the room...
(I know many of you are thinking – of course this looks better, it was staged, taken during the day and the curtains are open). The “before” is used as a reference for what I wanted to do with the room, hence the curtains are shut and the consult was at night)
3. Hide wires with tape – you may not notice them with the naked eye, but you will in a photo.
4. You may think the best time to take MLS photos is on a bright, sunny day. Not always – if bright sunlight is coming through the windows it overwhelms the photo with white. Overcast days are better – you won’t get direct sunlight and you’ll see the windows, not just a big blob of white.
5. Take photos of different angles of the room because you never know which will look best in a photo until you download it to your computer.
6. Whenever possible get inside a closet (yes, your read that right) to get the widest angle of the room. Closets lend themselves to getting a few more feet for a larger view – trust me, it works!
Outdoor Photos:
1. If there are a lot of trees on the property, you might consider taking the photos on a partly cloudy day because you’ll get too much shadow. Also – it’s hard to edit, because if you bring up the contrast to brighten up colors or exposure, you highlight the shadows even more…
Without shadows….
2. You always want the sun behind you when taking outdoor MLS photos. If you shot into the sun, you’ll end up with a poor quality, bleached out photo.
3. Whenever there are pavers, wet them down and it will bring out the color – I discovered this when I had to get a backyard photo and it had just rained. I went back the next day when the sun was out and the pavers didn’t look as good .
Both photos were cropped to illustrate the color...
4. If you do get a good photo and but want to make it a great photo use PicniK (a free photo editing program to edit. For detailed instructions visit my post: Taking a So-So Photo and Making it a Great Photo.
The next 2 photos are a “before” and “after” and you will see I straightened, cropped added contrast, and brightened the color all in Picnik….
Before
After
Which photo do you think will look better on MLS?
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