I would love to see a link to your pictures. The idea of adding a little red tint sounds interesting.

Here are a few of them. The first shot is the original photo, and the second shot is the enhanced photo after adjustment in iphoto.

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to my photos

I agree with the red tint. It's like the difference between a warmly glowing incandescent bulb and a flourescent one. I did this for my house when I sold.

Composition is so important. It's tough to shoot a small room - this is where you end up with a picture of a sofa as if it is for sale instead of the rest of the house! For small rooms, try standing in the hallway (you could also try taking off the door if it's in the way) and shoot from there, then crop off any pieces of the doorway that get into the shot, if possible. Also don't forget that you can stand on the bed or sit on a table to get the maximum view of a room - just remember to hold the camera at eye-level.

Clutter looks worse in photographs than 'in person'. Don't try to impress anyone with your good candle holders - they won't be seen in detail, anyway. When using Photoshop, the clone tool is super for getting rid of bits of clutter that distract from what you're trying to show.

Note though, that you don't want to deceive anyone by removing powerlines, stains and other flaws when doctoring your images.

lacohn: Use a lot of pix--we have 14 photos in our listing to try to highlight as much as possible.

Boy do I disagree with this. The last thing you want in a listing is a lot of photos. Why? The photos are to whet the appetite of a prospective buyer. They are meant to entice someone into coming out to see your house. If the entire house is available online, and not exactly what a prospective buyer is looking for via the pictures, there is no reason to view the house in person. There is a reason that there are traditionally six pictures available for view; enough to entice, not enough to dismiss without seeing. Even the best photos do not do justice to a great house. That is why there are in-person viewings.

As far as "enhancing" pictures - there are several schools of thought on this. A subtle clean-up or red tint is one thing, but as chris_ont pointed out, enhancing the lawn, taking out power lines, etc can be construed as deceptive and may hurt a seller in the long run.

And I'd like to agree with the lots of pics. There are a lot of buyers coming to see houses from out of area. They have a limited time frame and have to make decisions on which houses to see from the photos online. I had time to see 12 houses on my serious house hunting trip. I canceled out most houses that didn't have the full 10 photos we are allowed on the MLS here. I didn't want to find out that the reason that there were only 5 photos was that there was nothing else nice to take a photo of.

That said, one of my top two houses turned out to be one with 10 photos and great description and all - and they were moving the day I saw it which didn't deter me. The second one was brand new on the market with no photos but room sizes and satellite view were perfect and it's the one I chose. But there were an awful lot that got thrown off the list altogether and never got seen because of too few good photos.

Lots of pictures are better in my opinion. If the MLS and Realtor.com charges for more pix, then the agent should put up a web page and post the pictures there.

I'd like to add to your tips: don't take pictures that are furniture-oriented. I don't care about your furniture, I want to see the architecture of the room. Take all the clutter and extra furniture you can out of the room before you take the pictures. I saw a listing with lots of pictures on Realtor.com the other day - among the pictures were a couple of the childrens' doll collections and other nonsense. What the!?

I agree that multiple pictures are good - provided they show positive aspects of the home that encourage buyers to see it.

Hi,
I'm bumping this useful thread.

The Photography for Real Estate site is very informative. Here is their tutorial and video page. They also have videos and a downloadable PDF on what they consider the 10 Essentials:

#1 Use a wide-angle lens to shoot rooms
#2 Understand the purpose of each photo
#3 Simplify photos
#4 Front exterior photo is the most important
#5 Render verticals vertical
#6 Render straight lines straight
#7 Render interiors light and bright
#8 DonÂt let burned out windows distract
#9 DonÂt let color casts distract
#10 Think about how photos will be used

If you want to see what NOT to do then google 'Bad Real Estate Photos' (and brace yourself to recoil in horror).

hth, Lena

LOL Ok, Im not sure whats happening with these photos, but Im getting pictures of an adorable little girl named Gaby, someone flying and Rachel Exloring! :) WHERES THE HOUSE? LOL

Oops, missing links are always a danger in resurrecting old threads.

Here is one that works: Real estate photos worth more than a thousand words.

I tried to look at your photos, but the site said they weren't available.???