The importance of professional photography when selling your home in St Albans



·         We experience the world primarily through vision – think of how powerful blindness is as a metaphor, and that shows you the potential power of visual representation. Also think of how fundamental it is, in having an idea of people, to have an idea of what they look like.

·         It’s the same with property, and that old cliché about the importance of first impressions is a tangible reality in presenting property for sale. 

·         In property marketing, the first impression is a photograph.

 

·         Getting photography right for property is a subtle process:

o   As people get further into their idea of any particular property, the story must always be getting better –

o   this builds confidence and makes it easier for your purchaser to make a commitment.

 

·         The typical pitfalls are in over and under promising.

o   You need only look at the main property portals to see the pitfalls of under-promising – a selection of messy rooms drowning in muddy puddles. There’s no appeal. 

o   Most agents that pay any attention to photography go the other way – Wide lens shot of the whole room, flash bounced off the ceiling – it looks like a good photograph in that you can see all the colours. However in practice the net result is a room that feels smaller and murkier than the photograph, and a lot of your time wasted with visits that are unwittingly set up to disappoint your buyers.

 

What does good photography look like?

·         In a nutshell – it looks like what you actually see, when you look at a space and see its potential.

·         However what you see and what you think you see are a bit different.

o   Good photography takes account of these adjustments

o   Your eye sees further into shadows and highlights, having a range of about ten amounts of light, or “stops” as they are called

            o   A digital camera sees around five stops, so shadows look blacker and highlights (like windows) lack detail. Therefore the photos don’t feel real.

o   Effective lighting accounts for this, and is better at conveying the feeling of the space.

·         Your mind chrystalises around various key phenomena – the light mass of the room, fittings, decorative objects

o   Other things disappear

o   The camera sees everything

o   Good styling accounts for this, so images don’t feel cluttered or busy.

 

·         There’s plenty more – using longer lens lenses, avoiding converging vertical lines, shadows of doom all present potential pitfalls. Call us if you’d like to discuss photography in detail.

 

At the marketing stage our aim is to find you the best possible buyer at the best possible price, and effectively managing expectation is one way to ensure a successful sale. 

 

For your buyer, a successful purchase means having moved in with a certain romance carefully nurtured and maintained. For your buyer, the photograph is a window into their future.