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Five things to consider when photographing a Bed and Breakfast
Written by Tom Patch - March 1, 2023
The importance of photographing a property or an interior space when building a website or listing a bed and breakfast online is often underestimated.
It's a bit like selling a property on the market but doing so each week! - so getting it right is imperative. An unfortunate portion of the B&B photography I've seen is poorly executed and therefore, as a prospective customer, makes the property in question unappealing to stay in.
It's true that people searching for a suitable bed and breakfast place will scroll right past an underwhelming listing in favour of one that looks far more captivating. Happily, I know some of the tricks to attract more viewers to a B&B listing and to increase the chances of regular bookings.
Here are my top five things to consider when photographing a bed and breakfast:
Light
In my experience as a photographer and as an avid getaway-goer, the mis-use of light in regards to interior photography is the highest offending aspect! So many listed properties feature dark and hard to see photos that do well to put me off shortlisting that place!
To remedy this, always flood the space you're photographing with covering light. A balance of natural light and artificial light works best, especially if the light temperature in question is balanced between warm and cold. This depends on application too, if your bed and breakfast features cosy and traditional decor, then a slighter warmer light works best for that inviting feel. Conversely, if your B&B features more contemporary furnishings, then a slighter cooler light will be suitable to show-off the more cutting-edge interior design. Even if it means waiting a little, try photographing the space on a bright day to maximise the natural light. If needed, illuminate darker areas of the rooms with good artificial light to make the space come alive. It's also worth remembering that a lighter room looks bigger than a darker room so that's a bonus for larger families and prospective longer-staying guests too.
When capturing the images, make use of white balance on your camera. This feature enables you to adjust how white the light looks in your photos. Adjusting the white balance will help you to fine-tune the colour of light to make it suitable for the space you're photographing in. Also, it's a smart idea to make use of the camera's exposure compensation feature. In adjusting this setting on-the-fly, you can brighten or darken the exposure of your photo, helping to either introduce or reduce light in a photograph. Be careful to balance exposure compensation with the other light-related factors as to not excessively underexpose or overexpose a photo.
Variety
It's useful to show prospective guests a selection of photos to immerse them in the feel of the property, creating that 'must stay' factor! To do this, ensure to photograph different rooms and also the outside of the property. Let the bed and breakfast's charm get under their skin and make them feel at home - but even better! Pay attention to details too, capturing homely touches like cosy nooks or glistening kitchenware. It's good to have a few smaller objects prominent in the frame to break-up the wider room shots. If you can, photograph these with an open aperture, letting more light into the image and creating a beautiful soft, shallow depth of field for the background. Photographs like these look professional and they will make your images stand out further, all pandering to being seen on the listings page!
Composition
It's all well and good to have nailed perfect lighting and to boast a variety of photos in your B&B photoset but it's also critical to get image composition correct too.
You've done a great job of tastefully furnishing and decorating the property but it'll be let down without a focus on precise image composition. Spend quality time getting this right and your photos will be attractive and timeless.
For the wider interior shots, ensure to use a wide-angle lens and medium aperture to include as much of the space as possible and to apply focus to all points in the frame. Watch out for fisheye-like lenses that distort the picture, those are just too wide for professional-looking interior photography.
Try to have straight lines running true-to-life in all areas of the frame, giving a realistic, eye-level perspective. Use of a sturdy tripod works well here, provided you can can get far enough back into a corner to properly extend the three legs. For the objects used as subjects, mentioned in my last tip, remember the rule of thirds by using an in-camera graph guideline. This technique ensures that the subject is not in the middle of the frame, but one third into it, from either the top, bottom or either side.
Going one step further looks like compartmentalising the frame's subjects into nine equal parts, however with pre-curated interior design already in place, this isn't a necessity. By adhering to the more basic rule I mentioned, the photographic end result has a better structure, appearing more interesting and purposeful.
Breakfast
You'd be surprised how often the breakfast element of the B&B package gets neglected in photos! Quite simply, remember to photograph an attractive, delicious breakfast to add to your photoset, providing some mouthwatering visuals and drawing-in prospective guests!
Make sure to carefully arrange a colourful breakfast in a photogenic way and use a subtly warm light to illuminate it tastefully. Explore what looks good through the lens in the environment you have, be it a kitchen Aga top, breakfast in bed or the food delicately placed on the table.
Have fun creating a warm, inviting narrative for the food photography and make doubly sure to get the focus and quality just right to give a polished but homely aesthetic!
Image format and arrangement
To get your photos uniform with each other and compatible with the website listing page, there are a few things to check off the list. Firstly, make sure that all your images are the same orientation, ideally landscape, for slick photo viewing online and maximum visual effect! Secondly, have all of your pictures the same size and to a decent quality for website use, especially considering the likelihood of image enlargement on the B&B listings site. Adobe Photoshop makes it easy to change these parameters, along with the third tip: colour mode.
Your photos for online use should be set to RGB colour image mode. This calibrates the colours embedded in the image files to a webpage/screen setting to ensure that the photograph's colours and tones are displayed correctly.
There we have it, five things to consider when photographing a Bed & Breakfast. Following these guidelines for B&B photography will give your listed property the best foot forward in standing out from the crowd! Be sure to take your time in getting these fundamentals right and enjoy promoting your great business to many enthralled prospective guests! Go capture it!
Get snapping!
There we have it, five things to consider when photographing a Bed & Breakfast. Following these guidelines for B&B photography will give your listed property the best foot forward in standing out from the crowd! Be sure to take your time in getting these fundamentals right and enjoy promoting your great business to many enthralled prospective guests!
Go capture it!