Photography and Video Tricks for your listings

Several of us with the Marketing Results team attended free seminars offered by Realtor.com here in Atlanta, Georgia last week. Along with the sales pitch of the realtor.com services offered, the presenter Max Pigman, also offered a good variety of tips to help agents represent their clients and market their listings. Today, we are going to specifically focus on the tips for taking photos, digital camera features and video recording.

Tips for Good Photos:

1. When taking exterior photos of your home listings, make sure the Morris and Raper signs are laying down or removed from the yard before taking the photo. FMLS will not allow our signs with our logo and branding to be in the photo.

1. When taking interior photos of your home listings, consider buying a magnetic wide angle lens for your existing digital point and shoot camera. The use of a wide angle lens shows more of the room both vertically and horizontally. You can purchase a wide angle lens (for an existing digital camera) at: www.magneticlens.com.

1. For interior shots, make sure there is enough lighting in the room. Take the photo with windows and light behind you. If you need more light, go buy 500 watt floodlight with a clamp from hardware store to have on behind you as you take the photo.

Tips for Buying a Digital Point and Shoot Camera:

1.      Look for the camera resolution to be 6 – 10 mega pixels (6MP, 8MP or 10 MP).

2.      Make sure the camera has either EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) or OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). These options help you take clearer photos and videos.

3.      Look for scene modes such as “stitch assist” or “panoramic assist”. These modes help you stitch photos together to make eye catching panoramic style views.

4.      Look for the scene mode “black light”. This mode will help you in difficult lighting situations.

5.      Consider a camera with a built-in wide angle lens so you don’t have to worry about the magnetic wide angle lens.

6.      For video options, look for at least 30fps VGA (640- x 480 resolution). Check to see if the camera allows its features to work while the camera is recording.

Tips for recording a video with your camera:

1.      Get a tripod to attach to the camera while video recording. Holding the tripod while you move around will help keep the camera steady for a smoother video recording.

2.      Use a simple video editing program such as window video maker to merge the clips together, add text, add music, etc.

3.      You can post your videos in many places including: youtube, realtor.com, homeumentary.com, etc.

4.      Carry extra charged batteries. Taking video will drain your camera batteries faster than taking still photos.

Most of these tips were provided by Max Pigman of Realtor.com. For more of his tips and ideas, visit his blog at: www.maxpigman.com.