Property photography: It’s better with the lights on

Camera? Power cord? Spare memory card? Tripod? Lighting equipment? Some of those fancy silver reflectors? Do you really need all of that for a bit of simple property photography?!

Taking good photos can feel daunting. You might think you need to invest in expensive, high-tech gear to take good photos, but you don’t.

The best lighting for property photography unfortunately isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Sometimes you just need a few clever techniques, and a little practice.

Read on for tips to make your property photography nice and bright, but be sure to take a look at our guide to setting up your camera correctly, and download our Ultimate Guide to Property Photography to give your photos the edge.

Should I use flash for property photography?

Flash photography in an enclosed setting can be very harsh. It doesn’t give an accurate representation of the space and you can lose a lot of detail—not ideal when you’re selling a house! Here’s more on how to photograph a dark room without using flash.

The flash will bounce off light-coloured walls and make the room feel washed out. And if your property has just undergone the traditional pre-sale magnolia makeover, this could be a lighting disaster.

Photographing spaces with windows, mirrors, chrome appliances and other reflective surfaces will lead to the flash being reflected in the final shot. This makes it hard to see the detail of the room—and it doesn’t look very professional!

How to brighten interior photography

Okay, so you’ve been convinced not to use flash, but how should you make the interior of your property brighter for photos?

Our one top tip: Turn the lights on.

Even on a bright day, switching on the lights in every room can make a world of difference and means that you can avoid using the flash completely. Electric lighting is softer and often better diffused than flash, giving an even light source rather than, well, a flash of light.

How to photograph a dark room

If you’re trying to photograph a particularly dingy room, don’t be tempted to run for the flash. Instead, turn on ALL the lights, open the curtains, open the doors, and let in as much extra light as you can.

To improve the lighting in a room, try switching out existing bulbs for brighter ones, or invest in a few lamps that you can place round the room, adding more light and making the room feel homely.

Even if your shots are still a little too dark, you can use post-processing to brighten them up. Steering clear of the flash will help these edits to look their best.

How to make photos brighter

Whether you’ve turned on all the lights or not, your photos still may not feel bright enough, but that’s nothing a little photo editing can’t fix!

Correcting the white balance, colour temperature, minimising shadows, adjusting the exposure and a whole host of other post-processing trickery can turn mediocre snaps into professional-looking shots.

If you’ve followed our advice to this point, you should have some decent pictures that will be easy to correct.

Not sure how to do that? Don’t have the time?

That’s where we come in.

Image Enhancement from Elements Property

Even if you’re a camera genius AND you’ve switched all the lights on, you may still end up with photos that don’t do your properties justice due to not enough light bouncing around in the room.

Take advantage of our Image Enhancement service! We’ll give your shots a polish so there’s nothing to distract buyers from what you’re trying to sell.

Sign up for a free trial now by using promocode BLOG34 and you’ll see just how much of a difference we can make!