For real estate photographers, the need for creating a 3D virtual tour has become very common, and all that for a good reason. If you are selling your home, it's important to showcase it properly with 360 panoramic tours. It will give the audience an intuitive experience, showing every nook of the home.
The visuals on a 360 home are attention-grabbing and impressive, but one wrong tour can give the impression of virtual tours as gimmicky and flashy. Nevertheless, they are the most powerful sales tool.
So, if you are a real estate photographer, keep in mind the goal of shooting and then create images. Also, be specific in communicating the details of space so that the buyers can make a productive decision about the space.
But, how do you know that your virtual tour effectively communicates with clients and you are providing the right information about the property? Here are a few tips to consider:
Capture Areas That You Want Your Clients to See:
Creating virtual tours according to your clients, boils down to knowing your real audience and the things that are important to them. For instance, if your clients are realtors, your audience should be home buyers. The subject of your virtual tour should be the main room. It should feature an accent wall, the entrance, cabinets, washroom and other major selling features.
Also, set your camera to the location from where it clearly captures the things that interest your clients. Just make sure that you don't take a panorama from corners and move the camera close to the interesting things.
Be Specific What Your Clients Should Not See:
While you want to focus on the areas that are important to your clients, you should also avoid things that are inappropriate and can distract your audience. Why? Because sometimes a virtual tour can show too much and can also become embarrassing.
Also, having such things can negatively influence your brand to the point where your clients no longer wish to buy. So be extra cautious when shooting home tour; be vigilant about the personal things, messy closets, unorganized furniture and more.
Edit Images After the Shoot:
Once you are done with your 3D virtual tour, do some editing. Virtual tours can be challenging, but you can get better results with good editing. Pick a software or go online to get the benefits of virtual tour in real estate. Do some balance adjustments, crop unwanted objects, fix differences in the exposure, do saturation check and more to ensure you get the perfect image.
The most common edit you are required to do is to hide the camera or photographer's reflection; you will get this situation when shooting bathrooms, TV screens, mirrors and more.
Open All Curtains and Switch On All Lights:
Make sure that your room has enough light. Sometimes virtual cameras don't have a built-in flash, so make your room as bright as possible. Switch on all lights like bedside lights, ceiling lights, to give the place a more welcoming effect. If you have terrace doors, make sure they are open.
Create A Tour That Is Easy to Navigate:
The right hierarchy of a virtual tour is what that interest most people. So, if your clients struggle in locating the panoramic image, they give up early, and you risk losing their attention. Let your clients find what they want in their home and what you are offering through the panoramic image. You can try floor plan navigation or can go for visual navigation.
While the floor plan navigation uses a floor to let clients click on the points of interests, visual navigation is all about clicking the images to virtually move through a home. Visual navigation is famous in the Google Street view; it is impressive and is slower than other navigation.
Also, you cannot go to the room of interest as it requires the audience to click more times to go from one room to another. On the other hand, the floor plan is fast and accessible for the complete floor at once.
Be Prepared with A Demo:
Everyone is not a techie, and some clients do need assistance to understand how the navigation works. So, prepare a demo of your virtual tour to explain how the clients should navigate.
Creating a 360 virtual tour is a great way to share information about the property and get more sales. So, create high-quality panoramic images and consider things that people want to see.
