4 Easy Tips to Ensure Your
Property Photos Are Perfect

March 27, 2025

Although TK Homes’ listing photography is top-notch, there’s some things that a seller can do to ensure that the home’s photos are as good as possible. In this informative article, we provide 4 tips that will ensure your listing photos are award-winning!

Tip #1

• Light Bulbs  »

TK Homes—Lighting the way to the best listing photos possible with 4 simple tips?

Light bulbs seem like a pretty obvious no-brainer, but honestly, I would say this is one of the most common issues we see across the hundreds of photo shoots we’ve done in the last few years. Very often, we find light bulbs that are burnt out in a myriad of homes, ranging from the beat-up investor special to the swankiest of modern new builds.

Photography is all about light. The bigger and more common issue, beyond just a random light bulb being out, is mismatched bulb temperatures. We’re not talking about the temperature a light bulb puts out when on. What we are talking about is the color shade a bulb puts out. For example, a warm light is more yellow, like in a “soft white” bulb. Cooler light is bluer like in a “bright white” bulb or a “daylight” bulb. The main issues arise when one room or particular area has a mixture of cool lights and warm lights, like a dining room chandelier that has three soft whites and two daylight bulbs in it. The daylight bulb will look bright and very harsh compared to the warm color of the soft whites. To the naked eye or for day-to-day use of this space it might not matter, but to our high-end camera lens that is specifically designed to pick up light differences, it can be very problematic. Different temperature bulbs can contribute to the room not looking very finished or sloppy, and it also does strange things to the shadows and colors in the room. Photos can definitely be edited to correct the overall temperature of the lighting in the room. However, when part of the room is very warm, and the other part is cool (some of it too yellow, and some of it too blue) the final edit can end up distorting custom paint colors on the walls and colors of the finishes on things like wood floors and cabinets. This can distract from the look and perceived value of the home’s interior.

So, remember to check your home to make sure bulbs are not only working, but that they are matching throughout, especially within a single given room or common area.

Generally, homes with warm-colored walls—such as yellow, cream, or off-white—tend to appear even more yellow when lit with a warm-colored bulb. Homes with gray, very neutral colors or white walls will look cold and somewhat sterile with very bright lighting like daylight bulbs.

Soft warm lighting is wonderful for cozy spaces like family rooms, reading nooks, and spaces for social interactions.

Cool bright lighting is great for areas of high functionality, vanities and powder rooms, kitchens, and workspaces.

**Remember, checking the bulbs and lighting in bathrooms and vanities is very important, as often these rooms have limited light, and the fixtures usually have multiple bulbs. When well-lit, they look much cleaner, more modern, and more inviting—just by using the right light bulbs.

Tip #2

• Less Is More  »

Preparing the home for listing photos can be quite a project and laborious. Often times what owners and even stagers perceive as a home that shows beautifully for buyers and open houses is not always the best solution for photos. What I mean by this is sometimes the things that make a home look appealing to a person in real life are not the most beneficial for photos. Our goal for listing photos is to show the overall look and feel of the home, how big the rooms are, how it’s laid out, the features, fixtures, and finishes. We’re showing the overall state of the home in hopes that it’s appealing for people to come take a look in person. Things like plants, beautiful decorations, accent blankets, matching bathroom rugs and towels don’t really contribute to the photos; however, these things can make the house welcoming and inviting, and they are good for showings and open houses. They don’t really contribute to the effectiveness of the listing photos. Most of the time we will remove these from the photos. Even though it is very important for the house to be clean, it is even more important for it to be clutter free. Dust on a windowsill will not show up in the photo, but a throw rug covering up custom tile work will definitely detract from the home’s features.

This stunning home is tasteful and beautifully decorated, but with all the colors, patterns and textures, it appears
quite cramped, and some of the best features are easily overlooked, like the rare bamboo flooring.

Tip #3

• Anonymity  »

Finding the right buyer for a home can be difficult. Our goal with listing photos is to reach the largest audience possible. One of the ways to help ensure this is to eliminate potentially off-putting elements in the photos—as anyone could be or know a potential buyer. One of the ways we can do this is by making our property look as objective or neutral as possible. We want everything the photo viewers see to be about the property. Some people love animals and pets, and some people don't. So, a good plan is to have all pet items removed from view for photos. Some people don’t really care about sports, and for some people, it is a huge part of their life. It is best to remove sports memorabilia when possible. Anything that really tells the story of who you are should be minimized as much as possible, so potential buyers don’t formulate any preconceived ideas about the people selling the home, thus affecting their opinions about the home. This includes trying to minimize the following: anything related to sports, religion, politics, family, firearms, and any other paraphernalia displayed around the home/property.

When people view your listing photos, all we want them to see is the home and its features, not anything about the people selling it.

Tip #4

• Let Your Home Be the Star—Take a Break During Photos! »

People often like to be home when the photos are being taken, sometimes to ensure everything looks good or as they would like, or sometimes just to watch what’s going on. The reality of it is: what looks good in the eye of the homeowner is not always the best for listing photos. Homeowners can sometime be somewhat distracting. A bigger factor is also that most real estate photography is taken with a very wide-angle lens, and often like at TK Homes, we also do a virtual tour that involves a 360° camera. This means photographer and homeowner end up in a game of cat and mouse trying to stage the room for still photos and tour photos without capturing any other people in the shot. This can get a bit tedious and nerve-racking.

Bonus Tip

• Full Disclosure  »