Top tips for photographing your holiday home

Last Updated on February 25, 2015 by admin

If a picture really is worth a thousand words, what is your holiday home photography saying about your holiday letting property? In a marketplace in which decisions are increasingly made quickly and online can you afford for those words to be the wrong ones?

We take a look at things to consider when photographing your holiday home, and provide a few top tips along the way.

When was the last time you updated the photography on your holiday home website?

When we’ve got a favorite photo it can sometimes be hard to say goodbye. However, like all of us and as much as we try to resist, photography does age so it’s important to make sure your photos are always up to date, just like the rest of your content. What impression does it give to the person visiting your website if it’s not kept fresh and updated from time to time?

Prepare the room

Preparation is key. Allocate time for preparing your holiday home before you take photos. Plump the cushions, clear the clutter, dust the drawers; whatever it may be your cottage should be looking its best before you start shooting.

Look at the lighting

Lighting; a cameraman’s best friend and the biggest challenge you’ll come up against when photographing inside your holiday home. Get it right and a room remains bright and breezy, get it wrong and that lovely room can quickly descend to dark and dingy.

If you’re taking photos during daylight hours the light inside a room can be anything up to eight times darker than the natural light outside of your holiday home.

There are different views as to whether the best photos are taken with the lights on or the lights off; if you are in a darker room ensure all of the lights in the property are on. This will make the room look inviting and warmer, along with filling in any areas that may be particularly dark, such as corners of your room.

If the room is blessed with natural sunlight try photographing without artificial light; take a look at the results and only then revert to internal lighting if you feel the room looks too dark.

The best time of the day to take your photos

Whilst you’ll want as much light as possible to take your photos, as far as photography is concerned, not all light was created equal. Too much and you’ll risk making the bright areas of your room too bright and the dark areas even darker; this is called over-exposure.

To avoid this issue it is best to steer clear of times of the day when sunlight is shining directly into the room.

Adding photos to your website

The bigger the file size of your photos, the longer it will take for your website pages to load. This can be annoying for visitors, who’ll be left waiting, and is also a ranking factor for Google, meaning it could have a direct impact on where your website appears on the search engine.

When you add photos to your website make sure they’re not too large. If a professional photographer has taken them for you ensure you ask for web ready versions to use on your site.

If you’re unsure of the size your photos need to be, speak with your website developers, who’ll be able to guide you not only on the best size to fit that particular page.

We look forward to seeing your new photos and hope they do your property the justice it deserves!

If you have any thoughts or experience of photographing your holiday home for best effect please feel free to leave a comment below.

Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting owners across the UK. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444.