Looking to sell property? Let your customers visit it in 360 degrees from the comfort of your own smart device

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Top tips for capturing 360 photography that you need to know to sell property

MODERN customers expect to see what they’re buying -whether it’s a car, bookshelf or new home. In the case of the latter, customers also have to find time to make the time to physically go to the property. Then there is the task of doing a mental checklist whilst imagining if their latest coffee machine will fit with their kitchen colour scheme or if their new couch will match the living room colour scheme.

It can be a stressful and time consuming process.

Before buying a home, customers need to immerse themselves in the property to truly imagine the possibility of living and making a home.

With these pain points in mind, there must be a way to immerse potential property buyers that is convenient and allows them to, at the very least, show enough interest in the property to view it in person.

Well, 360 degree video and photography is completely focused on immersion, and customers can do this from the comfort of their home on their tablets and smartphones.

WHY TAKE 360 DEGREE PHOTOS?

Not only do 360 degree photos provide stunning visuals to brighten web pages, they also create an immersive experience that allows potential customers to see every area of a room or an area without having to leave the comfort of their own home.

360 degree photos and videos are becoming more and more prominent online, with clips appearing prominently on 360 degree supported platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

It might seem like a gimmick as you swing your smartphone left to right or view through a pair of VR goggles, but it’s only a gimmick until you’ve used it to watch something you would have otherwise had to physically visit to see.

From what the team at our Edinburgh PR agency have observed, as soon as you see giant social media magnates like Google and Facebook investing millions into supporting 360 degree video and pictures, it’s safe to say that it’s here to stay.

 

 

BIELD – THE WALLED GARDENS 

That’s why it’s vital that businesses stay at the forefront of cutting technology and why our client Bield have been so impressed with the 360 degree content we recently captured for them at The Walled Gardens in St. Andrews, Fife.

As an award-winning PR agency, we’re well aware of how important pictures and video are when it comes to promoting a product or service.

Our in-house videographer, Craig, travelled to the stunning new site to take the incredible return with some versatile, high quality images to edit in 360 degrees.

Here are some of our Videographer’s best tips when capturing 360 content.

  • Make sure you take your 360 pictures and video on a bright day. Unlike conventional video and photography, if your images are too dark you can set up a light, knowing that your lighting equipment is safely out view and out of frame. But in 360 degrees, everything is on show. So utilise all available light – daylight, lamps, and fixtures – or disguise any additional lights within the ceiling or a lampshade.
  • As a last resort play with the settings on your 360 camera to brighten your image before the image breaks and becomes noisy, grainy or unusable.
  • Take ten minutes to be a housemaid. At Holyrood PR we have a 360 camera that captures 5k still images. Images that size are incredible but will like pick up rubbish hiding under the sofa, stains, broken light bulbs, etc. So to avoid unnecessary editing time, do a quick spring clean of each room before you set up your camera.
  • Invest in a lightstand to mount your camera. Why a lightstand than a tripod? Tripods are heavy and sturdy, but take a lot of real estate which will show in your 360 content. The legs of a lightstand can collapse to the point where they are just visible in 360 photos to conceal in post.
  • Make yourself vanish. Unless you are taking a 360 selfie or a team picture, to take a 360 picture of an empty room, you will have to make yourself vanish. So start utilising those hide and seek skills and step out the room, hide behind the wall or find a cupboard. Nowhere to hide? Download the very useful Vanish360 app for iOS and Android. The app will connect with a 360 camera named a Ricoh Theta S (as used by Holyrood PR) and will take three pictures one after the other. When you hear a beep from the app, move to a different space in the room. After three pictures have been captured the app will composite them into a single image and cleverly remove you from each, as if you were never there.

 

 

 

FIND OUT HOW OUR EDINBURGH PR AGENCY CAN CREATE 360 DEGREE CONTENT FOR YOU BUSINESS

So there you have it. It sounds like we’ll be viewing the world in 360 degrees from behind our smartphones and tablets for a long time to come.

If you want to find out more about how we can develop 360 degree videos and pictures for your business, call 0131 561 2244 now or email our expert videographer at craig@holyroodpr.co.uk.

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