As a former Assistant Innkeeper, avid photography junkie, and web site designer, I have taken and seen my fair share of pictures of B&B guest rooms. I've also seen too many bad pictures on B&B websites. I know that it isn't always a walk in the park for some innkeepers who put their own images on their B&B websites, but I cringe when I see an underexposed room picture, or one that is poor quality. Bottom line: potential guests visiting your website who don’t like what they see in the first 2 or 3 seconds on your website click away and go to another site!!
We want everyone to have the same opportunity to have great guest room images on their websites. Maintaining your own website for your inn or B&B doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice great image quality, even if you have a simple point and shoot digital camera. So, here are my tips for taking great images of your guest rooms and common areas:
Tip #1: Turn on all the lights in the room, even in daytime. Soft glow from bedside lamps, adjoining bathrooms and even the hallway light can evoke a warm and cozy feeling in an indoor picture. Unless you have a spotlight in the room, there are few types of indoor light that make a bad picture.
Tip #2: USE A TRIPOD. Maybe this should have been tip one, but I assumed you’d read at least the first 3 or 4 tips before running upstairs with your camera. Indoor pictures, even with a point and shoot camera, are best taken WITHOUT A FLASH. The last thing you want to upload to your site is a washed out image of your room. Better still, if you have an adjustable tripod (Don’t have a tripod? Either run out and buy one now, or if you can’t wait, grab a stack of hardcover books and mount them on a table or shelf in a corner of the room to set your camera on), raise it to the best height that allows you to recreate as much as possible the guest’s Point of View (POV) as though they were just walking into the room.
Tip #3: Assess the time of day when the best and brightest light comes thru the windows. Even with Tip #1 in use, having natural light in the room is key. So if you have a room that is brightest at sunrise, get in there early to get the best shot. If you have great light during the sun’s rise or set, but get bright sunbeams or long shadows, pull the curtains or blinds to diffuse the light. You don’t want to create too much contrast by allowing direct sunlight into the room.
Tip #4: Little things are noticed! Hide lamp cords, wastebaskets, or unsightly objects from viewfinder. I have seen one too many room pictures that have hard to ignore objects such as A/C units, floor fans or exit signs. If you’re serious about getting a great shot, do yourself a favor and remove anything that detracts from the shot. Make sure lampshades and wall hangings are straight, curtains are in place, and move telephones or TVs if you don’t want them to be the focus of the shot.
Tip #5: Add personal touches! Making a room look welcoming is easy. Fresh flowers, bathrobes and books are easy things to add to a room to make it look as though it is being enjoyed by a guest. Add flowers to a bureau, place a book and a pair of glasses on the bedside table, or artfully drape a bathrobe over the corner of the bed. Little touches like these make a room look less sterile.
Tip #6: Make use of the self timer. This is a great way to ensure you don’t shake the camera when taking the shot. Don’t know how to use your self timer? Better go get your manual and do some quick reading, because this is an easy way to get great shots. Line up your camera for the shot you want, focus if necessary (some self-timer setting will focus before the shot is taken), press the shutter button and move back from the camera. Wa-La! Nice, sharp picture without a flash!
Tip #7: Shoot in high quality format but optimize for best web viewing. OK, if you just said, “Huh??”, I apologize. In Layman’s Terms: set your camera for the highest quality image size. Doing this will mean the image file itself is very large. When you resize your images, I recommend making them a minimum of 300 pixels wide, and a maximum of 600 pixels wide. This way, you are reducing the size of the entire image file, making it easier for you to upload them to your site, as well as allowing them to load quickly when visitors view them on your website. This also means you should do any editing to the picture before you resize them (save the original file as a separate image so you always have it for future website changes). Need help with this? Feel free to email me for pointers!!
This should be enough to get you started! If you haven’t updated your room images in a long time, now might be the time to do it, especially when the outdoors are green and lush (sometimes you can manage a picture with a glimpse to what lies outside the windows!). This goes for your common areas, too! Sitting rooms, breakfast areas, front porches, libraries, and entertainment room images should be kept fresh on your site. Offering a variety of room angles is always a good idea, too!
So good luck, have fun, and, if these tips helped you at all, please share this with someone you know!!
Happy snapping!