Property photography in Germany

The property does not need to be empty — furniture gives a room scale and makes it look larger in a photograph, not smaller. It does need to stop being personal. What has to go: photographs, post, toiletries in the bathroom, cables, fridge magnets, towels and everything sitting on a worktop. That is thirty minutes of work, and it changes the result more than any amount of editing, because a camera emphasises clutter rather than overlooking it the way an eye does.

Technically it comes down to two things amateur photographs nearly always miss: the verticals have to be vertical or the room tips, and the windows have to hold detail rather than blowing out to white rectangles. Both are made in the exposure and not afterwards. Twenty-five edited photographs, the main rooms plus the exterior and the surroundings, cropped for a brochure and for the listing portals, files within 48 hours.

Besides tidying, the time of day decides a lot. A north-facing façade hardly ever gets direct light, and a south-facing one sits in harsh light at midday, so we ask which way the building faces when you enquire and set the time accordingly. Before we arrive, switch on every lamp, open the blinds and curtains, move cars off the drive and put the bins out of sight. If the flat is let, agree the date with the tenants in good time and settle which rooms may be photographed. The tenants’ personal belongings have no place in a listing anyway.

For agents, owners and landlords this is a commercial commission, and the written confirmation names the purpose: the brochure, the listing portals, your own website, social media. If the photographs are to be used after the sale or letting — as a reference on an agent’s site, for instance — that belongs in it too. The fixed price follows your enquiry by phone or email. A large house with a garden needs more than ninety minutes, and the extra time is priced beforehand, as is delivery within twenty-four hours when a listing has to go live quickly.