Our Inns

Once you know what photographs should go into the perfect set, you need to actually take those photos. But what is a “perfect” photo?

First, it needs to be in focus or rather the main subject of the photo needs to be in focus as cameras focus on just one thing as do your own eyes. For example, if you are taking a photograph of your house with the swimming pool, you will need to decide whether it’s the house or the swimming pool that should be in focus because the camera will focus on only one of them perfectly.

In practical terms, for compact digital cameras you’ll usually find that the camera will focus on whatever is central in the image so if you make the pool central, that’ll be in focus, if you make the house central then that will be. For SLR cameras and more upmarket compacts you can either focus manually as I did in this photo or lock the focus then reframe the photo (see your camera instructions as to how to do that; most lock the focus and exposure when you press the button half-way down).

Second, the lighting must be “just right”. This usually means sunlit and at an appropriate time of day which generally means mid-morning or mid-afternoon when you’ll usually find that shadows fall in nice ways. It’s best not to have any clouds in the photos at all as people just don’t like to think of there being clouds on their holidays; obviously that’s easier said than done and even in the south of France you need to wait surprisingly long to find that “perfect” day for the photos.

It needs to be sunlit even for inside photos. Inside photos taken on dull days look completely different from those taken with the sunlight streaming through the windows. If you can, it’s usually best to take the inside photos with the view visible through the window which may require a little playing around with the setting on your flash to get the inside and outside light balanced but it’s time well spent as it makes for a much more attractive photograph. Bounce flashguns make for much more homely photos.

Third, you need to have the photo properly staged. This means that any junk lying around needs moved elsewhere, the washing taken off the line, the car moved somewhere else and, of course, the rooms need to be made up. All that may sound obvious to you but you’d be surprised at how many photos of holiday properties contain what seems like a junkyard in the foreground or half-made beds.

Fourth, and also obvious, you need to hold the camera level. Skewed photos have their place but usually not on your advertising.

Fifth, you need to take the photo at the appropriate time of year which generally means during the summer. Outside shots of leafless trees taken in the depths of winter won’t be nearly as effective in selling your property as those taken when the flowers are blooming and the trees green. Obviously, you’ll probably not be able to manage that in your first season but keep in mind the photos you’re looking for throughout the year and take them when you can.

Finally, take time over every one of the photos. Check each one on the computer screen after you take it as it’s easy to miss things on the camera screen and if everything else is perfect you can retake it. Take “too many” photos: remember that a professional photographer often takes as many as 20 photos just to get one suitable for publication.

Don’t forget that the photos that you take must go together to give a complete view of your place. It’s no good having dozens of perfect outside shots and no inside ones. Similarly each one must be appropriate: the out of focus, skewed photo of the mirror above is appropriate for this post but it’s unlikely to be appropriate in terms of advertising a holiday property yet I’ve seen equally inappropriate photos used to advertise properties.

Popularity: 18% [?]

To some extent that depends on the number of photos which the various websites you’ll be advertising on allow you to have. For example, many older sites limit you to just one photo whilst the latest ones allow ten or more.

That being the case, you need to take the perfect set and then get them into the perfect order so that you can take the first three if you’re only allowed three on a given site or the first seven if they’ll let you have seven.

In addition to the number permitted, you also need to have them in various sizes. Typically on a website they’ll be displayed around 50-100 pixels wide as a thumbnail, perhaps 200-300 pixels on the main page and sometimes you get click-throughs up to 800 pixels wide. In comparison, a modern digital camera will produce images around 2500 pixels wide. One key thing to note about all these sizes is that an image 2500 pixels wide will take around one hundred times as long to load as one 250 pixels wide so for your own webpage make sure that you’re displaying images at an appropriate size on the main page (about 300 pixels wide is a reasonable upper limit).

But what should you be taking photos of? Basically of things that will illustrate key aspects of your property and its surroundings eg:

1. The outside: at least one photo of the front and others of different outside as required (eg of the pool).
2. Your rooms: one or two bedrooms and perhaps the living area;
3. Special rooms eg the dining room, reading room, library, etc.
4. Local attractions

In practical terms you’ll find that most places use an outside view as their main photo and it appears everywhere they’re advertised. However, you don’t have to do that and you could, for example, use a photo of your jacuzzi or perhaps the scenery around your place.

In second place, you should have a photo of one of the bedrooms. Whilst people like to know that your property isn’t falling down (hence the outside photo), they also like to see where they’ll be sleeping.

Third place goes either to special purpose rooms or local attractions. If you’re lucky you may be able to combine these eg I’ve a lovely photo of a cycle race passing our place which combines a second outside photo with an activity.

Beyond those three key photos you’re basically filling in details for your guests. So, add a photo of a second bedroom if it’s different from the first one you used, add a photo of the dining room, add photos of local scenery and attractions, etc. Although some websites let you run to “unlimited” photos, in reality it’s probably best limiting yourself to around a dozen within the main text and, if you wish, put additional ones in a gallery.

It should go without saying that each of the photographs in your perfect set must be perfect too and I’ll be looking at what that means next.

When you do get that “perfect set” don’t forget that you’ll need to revise it each year. It’s very easy to forget that, for example, you changed the blinds or added some plants or whatever.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Incoming search terms:

• slr camera with girl
• photo of camera taking picture
• chick with slr camera
• cool girl using dslr camera
• taking photos with a camera
• taking photo with camera
• taking camera photo
• taking a camera
• a girl with a slr camera
• camera with taking picture

Getting the perfect set of photos for your holiday property comes second only to getting the text on the website perfect.

The first thoughts for most people are either that they will get a professional photographer or that they can take them on their digital compact camera. Neither of these are true. The professional photographer will be at your place for, at best, a few hours and even if that happens to be on a day with clear skies, they’ll not be around long enough to get the light just right for all aspects of your property. Even for outside shots you’ll find that there’s a world of difference in the quality of image produced by a “proper” camera compared to a compact and you need that better quality to sell your place.

Where you really notice the difference is in photos taken inside. These two photos were taken on similar days yet the one taken with the compact camera looks pretty dull whilst the one taken with the digital SLR is much brighter and homely. Bearing in mind that these are quite small images and that you’ll probably use larger ones on your site you can see that it’s going to make a significant difference in the overall presentation of your property.

So how much is this going to cost? Well, a decent compact digital runs to around £300 these days and a decent digital SLR is from £400 to £700 although you should add a “bounce flash” if the budget allows for another £100 or so.  If you buy at the cheaper end of the range the additional cost is around £200 which will be more than made up in additional bookings from the better quality images. This is, of course, a one-off cost and no matter how many photos you take you won’t be out any more money whereas with a professional photographer you’d be spending a similar amount and would only ever have the one set of photos for your money.

What about the resolution of the camera? Frankly, it doesn’t matter much these days as even the cheapest cameras are coming in at around 5mp and the images that you’re going to use online are going to use only a small fraction of that resolution. What’s more important is the size of the lens and that’s where the SLRs win as the lens is around 4cm (2 inches) across compared to something like 1cm (1/2 inch) on a compact. That equates to a quality improvement of around 15 times so, for example, that little spec of dust on the SLR will appear much smaller than the equivalent spec on the compact.

So what am I using? At the moment I’ve a Nikon D40x (now sold as a D60) and have the SB-600 flash; total cost around £800. Although I don’t use the flash that much it’s very noticeable when I use it to take photos of the rooms and I’m sure that it’s paid for itself already. Having said that, if you don’t want to buy the flash (and at £200 it does seem a touch over the top to take four or five photos) you can usually rent them or buy a cheaper model. The important thing is that it must be a “bounce flash” which means that you need to be able to point the flash at the ceiling rather than taking the photos with the flash pointed in the same direction as the camera: it’s that bouncing of the light off the ceiling that makes the photos more homely.

Why bother? Won’t a professional photographer take better photos anyway? Well, no, they won’t for the simple reason that you can wait around until the sunlight lights the pool perfectly whereas they’ll not be there long enough to do that. Similarly on inside shots you want the room lit by the sun which obviously happens at different times for each of your rooms. Essentially the difference is that you have the time to wait for perfection whereas they have to take the photos in the hour or two that they’re with you. Also, you just couldn’t afford to pay a professional to take photos of all the local attractions for you but if you’ve got the camera it’s not costing you anything to do that.

I’ll be covering just what you should be aiming for in that perfect set of photos next time.

Popularity: 30% [?]