Friday Freebie: Guide to Better Real Estate Photographs

Listing photos are arguably the most important component of marketing a home for sale. Not only are photos the first thing a potential buyer will see when searching listings online, they also take a starring role in listing flyers, postcards, and other marketing assets.

Are your photos showing your listings in their best light? If your real estate photography skills could use a polish, then check out this week's Friday Freebie! Today, we're highlighting a free guide that offers specific tips on everything from the best angles to shoot each room to critical composition and editing techniques. Read on to learn more!

Free Download: How to get 2D photos from a 3D camera

This week's Friday Freebie comes to us courtesy of Matterport, the leader in cutting-edge 3D property tours. While you likely know about the company's three-dimensional virtual tours, did you know that Matterport's Pro2 3D camera can also produce high-definition property photos, floor plans, virtual reality walkthroughs, and more--all from a single, low-cost session?

In this guide, Matterport shares best practices for obtaining eye-catching 2D listing photos from their 3D camera. Even if you don't own a Matterport camera, this guide offers solid advice for capturing photographs of every room in the house. Here are some of our favorite tips:

• Living room - Shoot from each corner of the room, and capture three walls to show depth of space.
• Kitchen - Shoot from the perspective of both the owner (the cook) and the guest (the diner). You can do this by pretending the camera is, for example, the guest and placing it where the guest would likely stand.
• Bathroom - Take two shots, each pointing at one corner of the bed--one shot with windows prominent, the other focused on the closet or other important room feature.
• Composition - Keep the "rule of thirds" in mind when composing shots. For indoor shots, this means the floor, wall, and ceiling should each take up about one third of the image.

These are just a few of the tips you'll learn when you download the guide. The guide also offers advice on shooting exteriors, selecting and editing photos, and (our favorite!) a shooting/editing checklist you can print out and take with you.

Ready to get started? Download Matterport's FREE guide today!