Small spaces
Titchy properties can be difficult spaces to convey effectively – shooting too wide (like most Doofus’s with a camera and UFWA lens), makes the space look stupid, & shooting really tight means that you lose all perspective of the space as a whole. I covered the topic in one of my earliest blog posts, and where residential sales are concerned the same principles apply (if it’s small and ridiculously difficult to shoot, then leave it for viewings). An understairs WC is a prime example – nobody wants to see a photo of a bog and sink shot from above mate.
This was a very bijou holiday let in rural Northumberland however. The owner wanted to market it on the usual holiday letting websites, so it needed to look warming and welcoming to attract enquiries. It was a corner of an old family house that had been converted into a one bed apartment cottage where every available space had been utilised effectively and stylishly.
The best way to shoot open-plan spaces is to separate them into zones and shoot each zone by itself. If you try and get everything in, it reeks of desperation in an attempt to dupe the viewer into thinking it’s way bigger than it is. I was recently ordered by a vendor to go back and reshoot a small apartment in the City Centre to make it look massive using a stupidly wide angle, and it really rankled. The original body of shots were classy, and representative of the space, but the eventual output was something I would never aim to produce in a million years.
I used the normal technique to cover all bases in the apartment – ambient light, some bounced flash, and the odd flash highlight to accentuate furniture or shaded/hidden spots. The living space was covered from all angles, and used one point perspectives to give a bit of variety when shooting the same space. the bedroom and bathroom benefitted hugely from this viewpoint, with the lines of the roof being accentuated.
Outdoors, there was no issue with space however. The front of the property is situated on the A697 which is the main road to the central borders, but the rear sports an enclosed patio garden which in turn backs onto open countryside. Rose Cottage is available to rent from Sykes Cottages as we speak
