Your caravan’s advertisement photos make all the difference to that all important first impression. Professional looking photos can make your caravan stand out from the crowd. A high quality photo shoot screams quality and attention to detail which in the customer’s eyes can only suggest you are as professional in the service you provide. This can lead to more customers or the potential for you to increase your rental price, meaning more money in your pocket!
Below we’ve listed our top tips to help you improve the quality of your photos:
Tip 1: Lighting
Turn off all the lights in your caravan where there’s enough natural light available. This is usually easy in static caravans as there are so many large windows in each room. Draw back the curtains and open any blinds. Wait for a sunny clear day and then wait till the suns high enough in the sky not to be glaring through your windows.
Natural light makes such a difference when taking photos it makes the room look light, airy and larger. It also helps create a much crisper, higher quality picture.
If natural light isn’t enough try turning some of the lights behind the shot on or you could even try bringing in a lamp. Point the lamp at a wall that will reflect back into the shot. White light such as that created by SMED Led light bulbs provide a really natural looking light when compared to fluorescent or standard bulbs.
Tip 2: Viewing angle
We all know that most caravans aren’t the biggest of buildings, they tend to make the very most of a smaller space.
The optimal angle in any photography of a room is not from 6ft up whilst holding a camera to your eye. Instead, it’s much better to get down lower, maybe at kneeling height. Photos from this height make the room look much more spacious and shows the room to its full potential. You can also try taking photos from corners of your room. Take these photos from as high as you can reach while pointing down. This is especially effective in wide angle shots where you want to include as much of the room in one shot as possible.
Tip 3: Picking the best Shot
Always take a number of photos from each room at different angles. Also try taking photos from multiple points within each room. Always consider whether the best photo would be landscape or portrait. When finished you can choose which photo best describes the room.
Tip 4: More is More
Submit at least one photo from each room in the caravan. If your caravan has any features that could be great selling points such as large fridge freezer, a range cooker or large deck with lighting and table for example, make sure you capture them in all their glory. This is not to say include multiple shots of exactly the same content. We don’t want the customer to ever feel like they are wasting their time.
Tip 5: Bring the Caravan to life
Pictures of empty rooms can get a little bit boring to look at, we tend to leave it all to the customer’s imagination. Unfortunately, this has become the industry standard.
Why not try taking photos of your caravan in action with people in it having fun, having family meals enjoying the space and facilities available to them. If you do this and do it properly, remembering the steps above, you will blow the competition away. Your caravan will seem so much friendlier and appealing to the customer, again this can only lead to increased customer interest.
Tip 6: Include the surroundings
Include pictures of the activities your customer can look forward too when they arrive. This could include pictures of the local restaurants and bars, theme parks and attractions the on-site facilities and so much more. You don’t even have to take these pictures yourself. If you can find professional quality pictures online, take advantage of them and use them. Don’t try and include pictures of absolutely everything you can do. Try and pick the premium activities available to your customer. If your caravan is on a family orientated park, chances are the customer will be looking for activities that are family friendly. This same rule applies to all holiday types, stay consistent with your sales pitch and target audience.
Tip 7: Descriptions
Websites such as Simplycaravan.com allow you to add descriptions to your images as you upload them. This may seem a pain or even a waste of time as the images are pretty self-explanatory but you should always add descriptions to your pictures.
Why image descriptions are important: Search engines such as Google now put a lot of importance on images when ranking web pages. It is now also common practice for customers to search Google specifically on images. In order for your pictures to be shown Google must understand their content. To understand the images content Google is completely reliant upon descriptions.
What to include in image descriptions: Make sure your descriptions are not generic. If you describe your picture as “lounge” or “bathroom” search engines will not show your picture and you will immediately limit your advertisements reach. Instead, use unique descriptions specific to your caravan. For example if your caravan is in Butlin’s Skegness, your caravan is family orientated and your picture is the lounge of your caravan. Try “Butlin’s Skegness family caravan lounge” as the photo description.
Tip 8: Use the Best Camera you Can
This may seem obvious but I’ve seen some pretty horrendous low quality pixilated images in the past. It’s really important to use a really good camera. The high range modern smart phones usually have really good cameras which are more than adequate for this purpose. Make sure when you use these you set the resolution to the highest setting possible as sometimes they are in economy mode to save memory.
Camera Flashes should be turned off as you should only take the pictures at midday on a sunny day with as much natural light as possible.
Comments