10 top tips for photographing your property

There's no doubt that a photograph or two makes your property ad more attractive to buyers. But photographing interiors can be difficult: all too often we come away with a shadowy mess that doesn't show anything, or an over-exposed shot of the window. Here are our top tips for making the best of your rental property's photographs:

1. Show the inside! Prospective tenants can't judge your property from a shot of the outside (even though the outside is much easier to shoot). You'd be amazed how many landlords only include an exterior shot.

2. Make sure you include the living room: tenants tell us it's the most important one when they're deciding whether to view. Including decent quality photographs of all the rooms will attract more interest to your advert.

3. Take time to compose your picture, don't just snap. Focus on the most interesting aspect of the room. An "aspirational" shot of one corner can be much better than a wide-angle shot of an unremarkable room.

4. Remove clutter. Someone once said that photographing interiors is "10% creativity and 90% moving furniture". You don't have to show both sofas in a living room if it'll make the photograph look better with only one. And those pictures and vases that look great in real life will look messy in a small photograph, so put them away.

5. Avoid bright windows: they upset the camera and cast too many shadows. Dusk can be a great time to take pictures, but be prepared to photograph different rooms in the same property at different times of day as the sun moves around the building. Drawing the curtains can work, especially in bedrooms.

6. If you can't keep the daylight soft, put the lights on. Often interior lighting causes a yellow or other colour cast on your pictures, so adjust the white balance on your camera for the type of lighting in the room.

7. Turn the flash off. On-camera flashes cause uneven lighting in pictures. Use a tripod or balance your camera on a table instead: that way your camera can use a longer exposure and shouldn't need the flash.

8. Keep the camera straight. Pointing up or down can distort vertical lines in the room and make proportions look all wrong.

9. Take a lot of shots. If you have a digital camera, it costs no more to take a dozen or more shots: the more pictures you have, the better your chance of a great shot!

10. Finally, don't forget to edit. Most cameras come with basic image-editing software that will let you easily brighten shadowy pictures or crop out the coffee mug you forgot to move.

For more tips and advice for landlords, check out our blog and follow @AvoidTheVoids on Twitter.