Preparing For The Shoot
Preparing your home for a photography session with Bright House Photography is a crucial step in showcasing your property’s best features. High-quality photographs are essential in creating a compelling first impression for potential buyers who are browsing online listings. A well-prepared home appears more inviting and spacious, highlighting its strengths and appealing qualities. By decluttering, cleaning, and staging your space, you help ensure that each photograph captures the warmth and potential of your home, making it stand out in the competitive real estate market. Bright House Photography specializes in bringing out the best in your property, but the preparation you do beforehand can significantly enhance the appeal of your home in the photographs, attracting more interest and, ultimately, the right buyer.
The camera can’t overlook clutter:
The photographer can use their creativity in many cases to avoid what they don’t want to include in the image, but generally, if there’s something that can be stored away, please do.
Kitchen:
Empty the sink, remove trash, put away everything that can be stored. Clear the counter tops. Toaster, mixer, chopOmatic, whatever, …store them away. Take a phone photo of the frig magnets and sticky notes so that they can be stored away then replaced properly after the photographer leaves. Cords, calendars and memo pads…store away.
Dining Room:
a table setting properly set is fine. A cleared table is good, too. Remove the leaf to make the table small unless the room is large enough that the table fits better with the leaf in. Remove anything from the room that doesn’t belong in the photos, such as a jacket hanging on a chair, unevenly burned candles, out of season decorations, etc.
Family Room:
Remove game controllers, TV remotes, reading materials, anything that can be stored away. No magazines or any loose items should be visible.
Bedrooms:
Put away …Stuff: …shoes, kleenex box, socks, shirts hanging on doors, medicine bottles, everything…anything loose that isn’t a decoration, take them off the tops of furniture and put away.
Baths:
Put away everything… soap, toothbrushes, TP, deodorant spray. If you have show towels that nobody is allowed to use, those are OK. Everything else needs to be stored.
IN GENERAL
Replace all burned out light bulbs because the photographer is going to turn all the lights on in the house. Turn off the ceiling fans. Open the blinds and drapes. Make them look neat and uniform from room to room. Blinds with bent panels or hanging at odd angles should be corrected, repaired or at least raised or adjusted to eliminate the visible condition.
Any small, loose rugs. Put them away. Hide all pet indicators;.. beds, food bowls, etc.
Outside:
No cars should be in the driveway, in the yard, or in front of the house along the street. Hoses should be off the spigots and stored out of sight. Trash cans should be out of sight. Make the landscaping look as good as possible and please cut the grass a day or so before the photographer arrives.
On the day of the shoot, before the photographer arrives:
- Activate all indoor lighting, including lights inside cabinet furniture.
- Switch off all ceiling fans.
- Tilt blinds upwards at an angle.
- Remove all vehicles from the driveway and the street directly in front of the property.
- Ensure any animals that might be aggressive are safely confined away from areas being photographed.