How to Take Great Photos of Your Property
Taking great photos
EXTERIOR - make sure the sun is behind you - the photographer. Taking photos with the sun behind the property will most likely wash-out the color. Cloudy days are great for exterior photos...the colors can be especially vibrant. Also, please take a look at what potential buyers will see. Close windows, garage doors, remove items from the yard and remove cars from the driveway.
What to photograph: the front of the house (try different angles...directly in front may not be the best angle), if you have a nice backyard or view - consider showing it.
INTERIOR - Take a look at what you will be photographing. If it's cluttered, pick up and neaten up. You may need a flash or lots of natural light to get nice interior exposures. Also, most cameras have what is known as a 'white balance' function. Basically, find that button or function on your camera, take a picture of a white sheet of paper inside the house...and your camera will be white balanced for the interior shots.
What to photograph: Kitchens are a focal point of the home so most have a kitchen photo. If you have a nice living room show it. Nice den...show it. Bathrooms generally confined are difficult to photograph while bedrooms can be too personal, so use your judgement. Also, try to capture the features of the room that the buyer is considering to purchase (for example the fireplace), not the furniture blocking the view of the fireplace. IMPORTANT - the objective of an ad is to show enough to intrigue a buyer to personally visit. Showing a photo of every room, from multiple angles may lead a buyer to conclude they've 'seen it' and visit some other property. No one buys a property without first visiting it. So, after 25 years of experience, 6-8 photos seems to be a happy medium. If don't have 6-8 good images don't include an unflattering photo just to fill up the spots. One 'bad' photo is all it takes to turn-off an interested buyer. Have doubts about whether to include a particular photo? That's what we're here for...ask us!
Delivering your photos to Picket Fence (upload online or mail/deliver in person)
Upload your photos directly into your ad (you'll need to be able to locate your photos on your computer or camera disk)
A. Directly into your online ad account. Make sure your images are not too large. Many cameras take images that are too large for use on the web. If you encounter an issue uploading your images they are most likely too large. If you still have trouble please email the images to ryan@picketfencepreview.com. We're happy to re-size the images and upload them for you.
TO EDIT THE IMAGE SIZE YOURSELF: Most current computers come equipped with image-edit programs. Find your images. Double-click and open one of your images. Go to 'Tools" or 'Edit' or similar option in the menu bar. Under 'Image Size' verify the size. It must be 1MB or smaller. To re-size the image have it be no more than 10 inches wide and 72 dpi resolution. Also the best quality images have the suffix .jpg. Make sure your images are labeled something like (eg. IMG123.jpg or CMG123.jpg) basically whatever designation your camera defaults to...before you upload them.
B. Email them to ryan@picketfencepreview.com. Again, you can send them to us and we will process them for you.
COLOR PRINTS: If you have color prints and want to use those, no problem. Drop them off or mail them to us at One Kennedy Drive, South Burlington, VT 05403. We'll digitally process the images and send the prints back to you.
Ready? Start ad online now 
