The average person sees 4,000 – 10,000 adverts a day, even when they’re not actively searching for a specific product. Now think about the average house-hunter: They see that many adverts a day without trying. They also see the adverts they’re actively researching.

Your prospective buyer wants an easy way to filter out the undesirable and identify the desirable – quality photos enable them to do this at a glance. They subconsciously also get the messages that:

• A seller who has taken the time to present their product to its best advantage is more likely to pay attention to detail in the sale.
• They care enough about their listing to use professional photography, so the vendor likely takes great pride in their home and has maintained it well.
• This seller is therefore trustworthy.

Whether it’s a property portal listing or an intensive professional document, the research is detailed: Better-quality images improve clarity, enhance engagement, and increase retention of the information you provide:

• The human brain processes visual information faster and more effectively than text, and images help the brain comprehend text.
• Studies suggest that people are more likely to remember 65% of information three days later when it’s paired with a relevant image, compared with only 10% when reading text alone.

Images trigger strong emotions and enhance memory. For property sales, this means buyers are likely to spend more time on listings with better photographs and feel pleasure when viewing your home’s pictures. This information is retained. When your prospective buyer then recalls your property, they experience the same pleasant feeling, making your home more desirable.

The inverse also holds true – poor photography can lead to a negative perception of your property and elicit unfavourable emotions. These are associations you do not want your buyer to feel.

When we market your property for sale, we need photography that can be used across multiple platforms and media types.

Take a look at an example Property Landing Page – because the property photos are high quality, we’re able to translate these across multiple listing services (”MLS” – we want to list your property in as many places as possible. This includes the Rightmove and Zoopla portals), and mediums such as property specific landing pages, social media posts, and into print media for traditional marketing in leaflets and office windows.

Digital marketing provides cost-effective ways to promote properties to target audiences – we use tactics such as timing social media campaigns to run during periods where the target audience is likely to be active on social media in the area by the property, such as large, nearby events – to generate interest in viewings, and to promote the wider area around the property, highlighting amenities such as local transport options.

Traditional marketing, such as window displays or leafleting, also enables us to catch potential buyers in places where they’re expecting to find property listings – our office window display, for example.

To produce these materials, we need high-quality images – they need enough pixels (the individual dots that create digital images) to accommodate different screen types, printing and high-resolution needs, and a range of angles to utilise across landscape and portrait image modes.

But the pixels alone are not enough – these days, your standard smartphone is more than capable of producing a high-resolution image that contains the pixels we need to market your property. However, a professional approach means the photographer deliberately controls the three key elements: light, colour, and composition. Together, these turn a simple snapshot into a powerful marketing tool that invites buyers inside.

Let’s compare some photos found on Rightmove, that were not listed through Jennings & Barrett, with photos from a Jennings & Barrett listing: Both are two bedroom properties in South East London, located close to transport links.

Although the images show different renovation standards, the poor photography does not do the first property any favours – sunlight makes the windows appear bright white squares that steal focus from the features and room dimensions.

In the second selection of images – from our Bromley Road listing – a professional photographer has balanced the sunlight through the windows with the lighting in the room so that the views are clearly seen, whilst the focus isn’t taken from the overall space that a potential buyer would be living in.

We’ve all tried it: you take a picture of a room with a beautiful view, but on your phone, the window becomes a giant, blown-out white square. Or, if you tap the screen to focus on the view, the rest of the room plunges into darkness. Your camera simply can’t capture both the bright outdoors and the dimmer indoor lighting at the same time, forcing a compromise that never looks quite right.

The secret to solving this isn’t just a fancier camera; it’s a clever technique. Multiple shots and professional skills take separate images, using different exposure levels and compositions, and are combined in the editing suite into one carefully blended, stunning photo that shows the world your home, as you see it: From the cosy details of your interior to the beautiful views. Professional photography has made your home feel rich, immersive, and welcoming.

While perfectly balanced interior shots are essential, some properties benefit from an extra “wow” factor to truly stop buyers in their tracks. These speciality photos aren’t just different; they create a specific emotional response that can make a listing unforgettable.

For properties with a story to tell beyond their four walls, drone photography provides the ultimate perspective. Drones are small, remote-controlled flying devices equipped with cameras. Aerial shots from these drones can showcase beautiful gardens, cityscapes or countryside scenery. This birds-eye view gives buyers invaluable context for the entire property and its surroundings in a way that ground-level shots cannot easily achieve. It also enables properties that are have longer driveways or slightly awkward geographic positioning to be photographed in a way that showcases their build and exterior style – without cropping parts of the property off, or risk skewing the perspective of neighbouring property’s proximity to the home. 

For listed and luxury properties, it’s often the home’s special features that attract buyers. Elevated photography highlights these aspects. Period features such as original sash windows or a particularly special fireplace can be lost in wide-angle room photos. Elevated photography lets you showcase the special features of your property that might catch the right buyer’s eye.

Videography is also a must for many homes – it enables your potential buyer to “walk through” your property, gaining a better idea of the space and layout as a whole – plus, they can be used across multiple platforms.

In short, speciality shots are a strategic investment that allows for more creative marketing to be performed. Take a look at example speciality shots below.

But what if the home’s key feature is its potential, and the rooms are completely empty? 

Whilst many buyers are attracted to a blank canvas and are creative enough to see its potential, not everyone has a keen eye for style or layouts, and at times, even professional photography can undersell the full dimensions of a room.

That’s when we can use technology to help buyers see what isn’t there yet.

AI has produced two examples of potential staging ideas for a J&B listing – the beautiful space now provides a rough idea of potential layouts and decor for a home.

Virtual staging can help buyers understand a spaces’ potential – however, there’s an art to virtual staging:

In the age of AI, overuse and a lack of transparency can actually have the opposite effect, causing your potential buyer to lose trust and feel inauthentic.

Therefore:

• Jennings & Barrett would never virtually stage your property without your permission as the vendor.
• We will never include virtual staging in Property Portal listings.
• We would ensure any image using virtual staging was clearly labelled to show the use of AI.