Believe it or not, in this time and age, a lot of agents and sellers still do not know about virtual staging. The option of keeping the room empty in order for it to be “edit-ready” might not be an option for those who grew up in traditional real estate marketing.

Although virtual staging might be new to some, for those who have been in the business too long and have kept up with the technology, virtual staging is as easy as pie. Some even say that professional skills are no longer required in order to shoot photos for virtual staging.

But that is just the shooting part though, the editing is another story and may require a knowledge or two when it comes to image manipulation, or what they call ‘photoshopping’. And perhaps a good eye for what would look real or not while adding in digital fixtures and furniture.

All that said, let us tackle the elephant in the room or on the page. So then a question pops up in your mind, “Do you need to hire a professional photographer to shoot empty rooms that are ready to be filled with scenes from your favorite lifestyle?”

Well, here are a few tips for you to judge if you can do it on your own.

TAKE EVERY PHOTO WITH THE HIGHEST RESOLUTION AS POSSIBLE

As you know, the higher the resolution of your photos, the easier it will be to edit in post-production. It would be difficult with blurred images as you have to adjust everything to lower resolution in your photos, and also, you wouldn’t want that in your final results, would you?

In the editing process, the editor, who in today’s context is also the photographer, plays with brightness and tones in an image. With high resolution images, they will have more room to bring out the room’s potential, bringing it to its best light.

USE WIDE ANGLE LENS

The ideal lens to use here would be a 12mm lens. This ensures that there will be no warped dimensions in your images. If you opt for a larger lens, it may result in photos where the space will look bigger than it is in real life. And that is a big no-no in real estate photography as your property will be prone to misrepresentation.

And so, logically, anything tighter than 12mm will make the room look smaller.

Here’s some good advice to keep in mind: keep your photos within 12mm, not wider, or approximately 16-18mm on full frame cameras. Think of it this way, although the goal is to make your photos as appealing as possible, it is also important to keep things realistic.

KEEP EVERYTHING AT EYE LEVEL

There are unspoken rules when it comes to shooting photos for virtual staging. Number one, do not shoot from below or you’ll have too much ceiling. As you know, the priority is the floor because it is where you will put most of the furniture or the fixture.

Also, do not shoot from above as this will make the room look smaller and distorted, which will make it difficult for the editor or the photographer to edit the furniture in. Potential buyers will want to see the room as is, not bigger, not smaller, and more importantly, at eye-level.

When putting in elements on a photograph in terms of real estate photography, the priority should be more open spaces to put them in, less on staircases, doors, ceiling, and other parts of the room where not much stuff will be added in. But do not exclude them as they are still part of the room. Just imagine always how the furniture, decorations, fixtures, will be added in post-production while you’re taking the photos.

SHOOT FROM THE CORNER

Taking the photo from the corner of the room will do wonders for you. Corners will give you the best orientation for virtual staging. Truth be told, corners provide wonderful vanishing points. They are also great depth indicators that will provide the best framework when it comes to decorating the space virtually.

But what about the bathroom? It’s a small space and most might be rectangles. Well, the best angle to shoot from would be from the door. But as you have already reached this part of the article, I’m sure you’ll have an idea on what to do.

KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL

This is a no-brainer, every photo should be at the best quality for virtual staging. Keep it clean and keep it at-par with photos you see in listings that are shot by professional photographers. Remember, the goal is to get final results that are amazing looking but at the same time realistic.

This wraps up the brainstorming process for you in order to answer the questions posted above. Virtual Staging is also an option on our website when you book a shoot, you can provide photos of your own if you are on a tight budget.

But when it comes to real estate marketing, it is always wise to maximize your resources and not shoot your campaign short. If that is the case, you can get rid of the struggle and let us do everything for you, from the shoot to post-production.