It is not the camera, it is the light
A photo taken at night under a ceiling light gives you yellow walls and hard shadows. The same room shot late morning with curtains open and every light off looks larger and cleaner.
The best camera used badly produces a worse result than a phone used at the right moment.
A quirk of the Montréal housing stock
Many Québec apartments are railroad-style, with windows front and back and a dim central room. That is the classic trap: shooting the central room first makes the whole place look dark when it is not.
Always lead with the room facing the street or the yard. Keep the central room later in the sequence, shot from the doorway so it catches light from both ends.
Order matters as much as quality
A tenant gives the first image about one second. If it shows the hallway, the bathroom or too tight a crop, they move on without reading your price.
Always lead with the brightest, largest room. Then: kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, outdoor space.
What not to show
One photo per room is enough. Close-ups of appliances, open closets and empty corners add nothing and dilute the overall impression.
Clear the counters, remove personal items, close the toilet lid. Two-minute actions that change perception.
When a photographer is worth it
- A high-end unit where the rent justifies the spend
- A unit that is hard to shoot: dark, narrow, below grade
- A full building whose units you will re-rent every year
In those three cases the photos are reused or support a higher rent. Elsewhere, the difference in outcome rarely justifies the cost.
The most common mistake: too many photos
- One photo per room, not three angles of the same one
- No close-ups of appliances or taps
- No open closets or empty corners
- Six to eight photos total, not twenty
Twenty average photos leave a worse impression than eight well-chosen ones. Tenants are not looking for completeness, they are trying to picture themselves there. Every weak image dilutes the strong ones.
Finish on the exterior or the view: it is the last thing they remember before deciding whether to write.
The five-minute method
- Shoot between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on a clear day
- Curtains open, every light off
- Stand in a corner, camera at chest height
- One photo per room, six minimum
- Lead with the best room
This costs nothing and fixes most of what makes tenants scroll past. A professional then improves the last few percent.
