Tips for Taking High Quality Photographs of Commercial Properties for Sale or Lease

It has been said many times that a ‘picture is worth a thousand words’.  In commercial real estate sales and leasing that is certainly the case.  I would go on to say that ‘professionally taken photographs are worth many thousand words’.

If you are going to take photographs for a listing or a website listing, make sure that the photos are of the best quality for the property and the location.  Top quality photos will create much more interest and inquiry.  In this property market that is a good thing.

Here are some other tips regards taking property photos as part of a commercial property marketing campaign:

1. As a general rule get vendor paid marketing funds for any exclusive listing.  That marketing should allow for professional photography of the inside and outside of the building.  Most professional photographers will give you a package price to quote to your clients.
2. Determine the direction that the frontage of the property faces.  If the property faces east or west, the rising or setting sun should be utilized to get the sun onto the front of the building.  When the sun is low in the sky it shines directly on the front of the building and removes shadows; that is a good perspective.
3. Look at the best angle to capture the front of the property.  Angles create interest and give depth to the image.
4. Whilst the image of the property of building facia will be most important, you can have some item in the foreground of the photo that gives perspective and creates interest.  Perhaps you can have a tree or car park entry point as the foreground feature.
5. Be careful not to have your shadow in the taken image.  An SLR (Single lens reflex) camera is good for this purpose.  Through the lens you can see exactly what you are taking a photo of.
6. Use a camera with plenty of mega pixels.  At a minimum today you should be using a camera with over 10 mega pixels.  This will give you a quality image of the property that is rich in colour and detail.  Whilst the image will initially be a large file, you can reduce file size later using a photo editor to bring it down to something that is suitable for your marketing campaign.  When it comes to property photos, it is better to have a large high quality image to start with than a small file that is of reduced detail and quality.
7. Take plenty of shots around and inside the property.  When you are working with a commercial or retail property, you can use all the images in a slide show on your computer or iPad when you meet with the clients or prospects.

As a final note, get some reliable and simple software solutions that will allow you to edit and prepare all the images of the property for your marketing material.  Take good images of the properties that you have for sale or lease.  Even after the campaign has completed or the property has been sold or leased, good images reflect in your marketing prowess; they will help you attract other listings.