Staging… 7 Camera Tips to Capture a Room’s Size

Prospective buyers want a spacious home.  The easiest way for buyers to browse is by viewing online property photos. Squeezing square footage into a camera shot isn’t easy, in fact it can be a painful process.  Even certain furniture arrangements or floor coverings can actually do a disservice to the way your listing is presented online or in marketing photos. 

 1. Remove rugs – Area rugs break up the streamlined look of a floor which makes the room look smaller than it actually is. 

2. Wide-angle camera –  A wide angle lens camera is ideal for interior photographs since it expands the distance between objects and displays the room’s depth.  However, beware of fisheye lenses or ultra wide-angle lenses, which are more likely to make rooms look wider but can mislead buyers into believing there’s more room than there is.

3. Get creative –  Make certain furniture isn’t blocking views or walkways so you expose as much of the floor as possible. If there’s too much furniture crowding a room or the furniture is too bulky, it will decrease the look of space available within the room.   In a heavily congested room, try eliminating a few pieces of furniture or substituting in smaller pieces.  Dining rooms (or kitchenettes) may be perceived as larger if extra leafs are removed from the table.  Use furnishings to create innovative spaces in larger rooms that actually show off the square footage. For example, you could add a reading corner in a master bedroom to demonstrate that more than just a bed could fit.

4. Use mirrors to your advantage –  The reflection in a mirror can expose more of a room when you aren’t able to fit everything into your photo.   This is a great technique especially when photographing bathrooms, just remember to shoot the photos at an angle so you don’t capture your own reflection.

5. Lighten up –  In photos, brighter rooms characteristically come across as more ‘open and welcoming’, whereas dark rooms can look ‘small and dingy’. Be aware of the source of light in the room to get a brighter shot. Turn on all of the lights and open the curtains to let in natural light. Remember not to shoot directly into a light source as it will darken a room.

6. Shoot at an angle –  A diagonal line is the longest visual line in a room.  Shoot from the corner, backing up as far as you can before you take the photograph.  Don’t limit yourself-  take shots from a few different angles to allow yourself plenty of options.

7. Remove clutter –  Clutter makes a room look overcrowded and robs attention from a room’s intended focal points.

Do your best to ensure changes you make to a room’s layout for the purpose of photos remain in place for showings.  You will generate a detachment if the house looks great only in the online photos.  If a buyer feels let down, it may persuade them to not purchase the house.